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Over the past week, I’ve heard a lot of opinion from readers about The Kansas City Star’s coverage of Chiefs running back Larry Johnson telling reporters to “Get your faggot ass out of here,” and writing on Twitter that another user had a “fag pic” in a profile.
The separation between news and opinion should be clear. And I know full well from my interaction with hundreds of smart, well-informed readers that newspapers don’t always do a good enough job explaining the difference.
“Quit talking about politics all the time,” said the caller. “Both sides are always going to say this or that isn’t fair, because they’re just looking to be offended. What about the non-political stuff?” I hear plenty of that, too.
Every president encounters vehement criticism — but some readers think The Kansas City Star has let politicking trump news judgment in recent weeks. A story on Wednesday’s Page A1, under the headline “24/7 Obama fills airwaves and beyond,” looked at some critics’ charge that the president’s appearances in many different media outlets has rendered his message “diluted,” in the words of one person.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to be ahead of the curve, instead of behind it?” asked the voice at the other end of my phone line. “The talk shows were already over Van Jones before The Kansas City Star finally said he was gone.” That was the dominant theme last week among readers contacting me. President Barack Obama’s “green jobs czar” resigned last weekend after a barrage of criticism over some of his past actions and statements. His departure got the No. 1 spot in the Sept. 6 “Today’s Top 5” list, and a longer story ran the next day — but the pressure leading up to it didn’t appear in The Star.
When Massachusetts’ long-serving Sen. Ted Kennedy died late last Tuesday night, the news could scarcely have hit at a worse time for morning newspapers. “Shame on you for belittling the historical importance of the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy (one of the greatest statesmen this country has ever known) by burying that story on the third page,” wrote one of many who contacted The Kansas City Star Wednesday. “Do you truly believe “Leash Laws” (a story about dog parks in the Kansas City area) is that news worthy to make a front page story, particularly superseding the passing of a great historical figure?”
Readers tell me consistently that they want The Kansas City Star to pay special attention to its role as government watchdog. Today, both sides of the aisle are demanding close coverage of the debate over proposed health care legislation currently in Congress. And it’s obviously no secret that some passions are running awfully high. The news has been full of stories of anger bubbling over at town hall meetings convened by members of Congress. An example ran on Page A-1 in The Star on Aug. 8, but it gave the impression that six arrested at a St. Louis meeting were all opponents of reforming the system — but that wasn’t the case. One arrestee was a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and at least some of the other five were attending in support of reform. A correction on the 11th made that distinction.
“WHY IS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA AFRAID TO REPORT THIS?” asked a breathless e-mail I received recently. It warned that the health care bill currently in Congress would require counseling on assisted suicide for all senior citizens. Shocking stuff, to be certain — and also completely wrong.
Throughout Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s administration, I’ve heard a slow but steady drumbeat of criticism from readers who think The Kansas City Star has treated the mayor unfairly from his first day in office. “I remember (The Star’s editorial board) endorsed Funkhouser in 2007, but why have you been on his back the entire time since he got elected?” asked a reader last Thursday. “I really don’t understand why you’re making such a huge deal out of his wife’s diaries. Get off it!”
It’s time for a little roundup of items that lie outside my normal purview in the newsroom.
I confess: I’m a coward when it comes to writing about the lineup of comic strips that run in The Kansas City Star. It’s really not that I’m afraid to wade into topics that get readers worked up (and trust me, the funnies do). I simply know there’s no chance I can represent the unfathomably wide variety of opinions fairly.
It’s a basic tenet of journalism to present all sides in any argument as fairly and objectively as possible. It’s an imperative pursuit, but it has obvious practical limitations. Writing a news story is vastly different from listing bullet points in chart form. The overwhelming consensus I heard about The Kansas City Star’s news coverage of the killing of late-term abortion provider George Tiller was that readers found the news stories even-handed and equitable. I find it especially notable that the compliments came most often from abortion opponents, who have been generally critical of how The Star has covered Tiller over the years.
About a week ago, a caller made a comment about The Kansas City Star’s organization that I’ve heard many times: “I just don’t get this ‘Today’s Top 5’ list.”
Readers’ No. 1 debate about The Kansas City Star’s news judgment is consistent: Which stories deserve a place on Page A-1, and which should have run inside — or not at all.
Readers’ reactions to the new format of The Kansas City Star have been all over the map in the past two weeks. I’ve received enough suggestions to fill dozens of columns with the best critiques alone.
Readers have been all over the map with their critiques of how The Kansas City Star covers the news in recent days. That’s good, because some of the most insightful comments can come from a single voice, and some of the less persuasive are commonplace.
On last Thursday’s “Tonight Show,” President Barack Obama sat down with Jay Leno for the first visit to the program by a sitting president. The next morning, some readers asked why The Kansas City Star didn’t mention the most noteworthy part of the appearance.
I've had a rolling discussion for weeks now with several readers who criticize how The Kansas City Star has been covering the ups and mostly downs of the world economy. The common complaint: The blame game isn’t consistent — or even possible to assess accurately.
“Why don’t you ever write about all the bad grammar in the newspaper?” asked a caller last week. “The Kansas City Star is a perfect example of how not to write English.”
“Sports is not news!” read the subject line of an e-mail I received from a reader in mid-January, reacting to The Kansas City Star’s Page A-1 coverage of new Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli. That got my attention.
A reader, counting himself among the “old ink-stained wretches” who have worked in journalism, noted that a story a few weeks ago about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich didn’t mention up high that he is a Democrat.
Politics fans, I have some bad news: A lot of very nasty people claim they speak for you when they scream and curse about how The Kansas City Star covers the news.
One of my most important jobs at The Kansas City Star is tracking the corrections that run on Page A-2, and I was recently reminded how vital a role readers play in that process.
For years, readers have been vexed by the commenting system on The Kansas City Star’s Web site, KansasCity.com. A reader put it succinctly last summer: “What is wrong with people?”
Readers look to newspapers for the big stories: politics, technology and all the other forces that move the world in big ways. But journalists also need to catalog the minutiae that often have the most immediate impact on how we live.
Throughout the 2008 campaign season, I kept careful tally of readers’ impressions of bias in The Kansas City Star’s election news. The response was almost universal: The paper was pro-Barack Obama, anti-John McCain.
The Kansas City Star first reported that Kansas City park board member Frances Semler is a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps on June 12. Since then I’ve heard a consistent stream of reader comment about the controversy.
