AndrewTaylor, veteran reporter of three decades on Capitol Hill for the Associated Press, opted to retire this summer following the explosive far-right riots at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Taylor left behind a congressional beat that covered the steady decline of the institution, rising polarization in the nation, and a tattered legislative process—all covered by a news media ill-equipped to handle the forces of malevolence and misinformation. A self-described pessimist, Taylor will talk about his time on the Hill, the dysfunction he has observed, and his criticisms of journalism’s tendency to unintentionally distort reality by describing current events in a neutral tone. Taylor will discuss the importance of telling the full story—no matter how disturbing.
Per his contemporaries at the Washington Post, Taylor is one of only “two reporters over the last 25 years [who] knew the appropriations process as well as Hill staff.” Taylor began his journalism career in the late 1980s at Congressional Quarterly. Taylor lives in Silver Spring with his wife, Rebecca Adams, and their three children.
