Missouri's Rather Unfortunate Notoriety Lately

This is what it's come down to. This was the headline this week, 5 days ago, at Alternet:

After Vicious Smear Campaign by Ted Cruz Adviser, SecondMissouri GOP 

Official Commits Suicide

It will be interesting, at least, if not fascinating, to see if our own Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch commit reporters to this story.

Someone needs to see what's at the bottom of and in this story.

Hopefully they still have the reporters and capability to cover this likely important story.

Only on PBS

It occurred to me the other evening, while watching yet another PBS' News Hour, that only on PBS have I ever seen and would we ever see not just one but four different black men--specialists, all--discuss the current black experience and situation here in America:

After Trayvon, Renewed Conversation on Stigma Facing Black Men in America

Naturally, it was a terrific, insightful, intelligent, enlightening conversation unlike you get anywhere else on TV.

Kudos and thank you, PBS NewsHour and PBS.

Now, if only more people would watch.

And listen.

And learn.

TKC reports: $1m "Emergency" IT Contract at City Hall

As Tony reports today on his blog (http://www.tonyskansascity.com/), the city of Kansas City, Missouri apparently just let a contract for one million dollars for an "emergency" IT contract. Three things come to me, right away: First, I hope it was competed, competed fairly and wisely and they can prove it. Second, seriously, as said in the comments section at Tony's blog---why couldn't/didn't they find someone local who would supply these services? I find it difficult to believe there aren't companies here in the area--in the city itself?--that can't and don't supply them. Third and finally, was this contract rushed through? And if it was, why and by whom? Let's hope it wasn't. Now we need a Russ Ptacek-type reporter SOMEWHERE in this town--the Star? KMBC? KSHB? KCTV? somehere--to go do some digging on this and find out at least that much about this contract. It's not so much to ask. Link: http://cityclerk.kcmo.org/liveweb/Documents/Document.aspx?q=FJdztn5pZS50Yvhu0FN92nVbLLjL49qzHW30zeQ6AjxFZ84X8ymz7wOiRYRgkDFa

Yet more proof of why we need newspapers

The Star on Sunday printed a front page article about a doctor locally who had been reprimanded many times about possible bad health care practices and may even have been responsible for patients dying but the hospitals he worked for and other health care givers around him didn't warn antyone. It's a great article, serves terrific purposes and is, as I said here in the past and above, why we need good reporters, journalists and newspapers. Yet, with newspapers dying, no good online source, at least locally, has yet stepped in to fill these huge and important shoes. I'm comfortable with newspapers dying if for no other reasons than that they are on paper and fell far too many trees and then must be distributed by truck and so, burning oil which keeps us addicted to the Middle East but some online site needs to, one day very soon, fill in this important role and that of reporting on local government and public agencies and institutions, etc. Until that happens, we are all weakened, mightily as a community. We know less so we're far less likely to have control of our lives. Here's hoping it happens soon and we get a local online media site with good reporters and journalists. Maybe that's the Star's online site but it doesn't seem that that's filling the need yet. Link to original post: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/09/03/3119465/bad-medicine-doctors-with-histories.html

Think Fukushima doesn't effect the US?

Think again, bucko. From Al Jazeera today because American media is focusing on the Anthony Weiner story (no pun intended): Fukushima: It's much worse than you think Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public. A little from the article: 1)"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera. 2)"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively." TEPCO has been spraying water on several of the reactors and fuel cores, but this has led to even greater problems, such as radiation being emitted into the air in steam and evaporated sea water - as well as generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea water that has to be disposed of. 3)"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen. "The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl." Here's where it gets interesting for the US: In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant. The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster. But wait! There's more! According to Gundersen, the exposed reactors and fuel cores are continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium isotopes. These are referred to as "hot particles". "We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," he said. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters." Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well. The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer. So don't think that blow-up over in Japan doesn't effect the United States, ladies and gentlemen, not by a long shot. And we'll end today with a terrific question: Why have alarms not been sounded about radiation exposure in the US? And the even more important answer: Nuclear operator Exelon Corporation has been among Barack Obama's biggest campaign donors, and is one of the largest employers in Illinois where Obama was senator. Exelon has donated more than $269,000 to his political campaigns, thus far. Obama also appointed Exelon CEO John Rowe to his Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. Dr Shoji Sawada is a theoretical particle physicist and Professor Emeritus at Nagoya University in Japan. He is concerned about the types of nuclear plants in his country, and the fact that most of them are of US design. "Most of the reactors in Japan were designed by US companies who did not care for the effects of earthquakes," Dr Sawada told Al Jazeera. "I think this problem applies to all nuclear power stations across Japan." Everyone on the West Coast, at minimum, should read that article, if not all of America. Link to original post: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html

On opening the paper today

The Star today, this morning, continues to impress. Just seeing the front page of the paper today cofnirms this. If you only saw the 3 front page articles today, you'd know it was good writing, research and reporting, with great local color. One was about on the new minority look and shape of Garden City, Kansas and what it means for the people there and that town and so, of course, for America at large. Terrific. The second good and important one was on the Kansas City University of Biosciences and Medicine and their problems with former University President Karen Pletz. Finally, even the weakest article, the one on DNA testing of track dogs and associated, illegal dogfights, was still good reading and writing. You can see that this continual empasis on local stories, area residents and towns and cities makes for a great paper and is, as I've said before, the thing that will save local newspapers (for as long as they will exist in the transition to the internet and wireless news). So good on you, Kansas City Star and thanks very much for revitalizing the paper.

KCMO Homicide No. 50

From Plog just now: A man driving a red SUV was shot and killed while driving along East 40th Street and Vineyard Road at around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday. The homicide is Kansas City, Missouri's fiftieth of 2010. The victim is described as a black male in his early twenties. KCMO-TV5 News, KMBC News and The Kansas City Star all reported that Mayor Mark Funkhouser still could not possibly care less. Link to original post: http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2010/06/man_shot_to_death_while_driving_at_east_40th_street_and_vineyard_road_kcmo_homicide_50.php

Things newspapers--and online news blogs--need to learn from The Huffington Post

First, change up the site virtually constantly. Change the headlines, change the titles, change the stories, rotate them through. Give readers a reason to keep checking in. Keep it vital. Keep it informative. Heck, even keep it entertaining. Make it clear that each morning, afternoon, evening--virtually any free moment a person has--is reason to check in to the site and keep them coming back.

Newspapers were frozen in time. Staid. Static. But then, that's the way the world and world news was.

Newspapers and all the media should have learned from CNN, before The Huffington Post, that news is 24 hour, 7 days a week.

Now, any news website needs to be the same way and that, of course, is the way Huff Post is, of course, and all the good news sites.

It can end up more expensive, having 24 hour employees but isn't that the way a newspaper was, anyway?

There were people at the paper to write and edit it, mostly 9 to 5'ers, but then the rest of the crew had to print it--mostly at night--and then distribute it, in the middle of the night.

Now, the change is to virtually all computer people, all the time, writing the articles and managing the site so it's not that big a change, to begin with and secondly, it's a lot cleaner and, hopefully, more educated staff that's doing it, Third, finally, it's a lot greener a process. No more paper to print and then have thrown in the garbage, trash and dumps and no more cars and trucks running around the city to "throw the paper" and burn gas and pollute. Really, it's an improvement over the way things used to be on a few different levels.

But media people have to switch to this new system.

The ones that do will "win" and continue to exist.

The ones that don't will fail and fail fairly quickly.

Hear that Kansas City Star??

Saturday evening's melee': A possible fantastic opportunity for The Kansas City Star

Once again, this difficulty last night on the Plaza points out the weaknesses of the old newspaper-style of reporting since we couldn't open our papers and read anything on this.

Conversely, where the Star could really shine right now and make some big gains in readership, likely, I think, is if they sicked a reporter or some reporters on this immediately and did some good, in-depth research and writing/reporting on it.

Virtually anyone and everyone in the city who is interested in this situation--and there are a lot of us--would, by necessity, turn to the paper for that information.

You can bet the TV news stations aren't going to be able to commit the air time to cover this.

If the Star knows what is good for its survival, they will already have reporters hitting this story hard, today, interviewing everyone they can get their notepads in front of.

As it is, with this last Saturday evening's events, I didn't think the paper could, would and did cover it in Sunday's paper but they did.

The sad/stupid thing?

They buried it on page B2 of the Local section.

Without doubt THE big story of the city in the previous 24 hours--what they're supposed to be covering--and they don't put it on the front page.

Heck, they didn't even put it on the front page of the 2nd section.

They buried it.

Highwoods Poperties must be tickled pink.

Anyway, here you go, Kansas City Star--this is your opportunity to shine, for the city, sure, but for your own profit and existence, too. If you take up the challenge and cover this story well and in-depth, you'll be doing yourself and the city a great deal of service. Heck, who knows? There might even be a Pulitzer in it for you.

If you don't, you will have earned the failure of your medium.

It will be interesting to see the outcome and we will, shortly.

"Infotainment" killing important reporting we need

I just ran across this quote from Chris Hedges on ‘The Death and Life of American Journalism’ at Truthdig.org:

"Newspapers, which engage rather than entertain, can no longer compete with the emotional battles that hyperventilating hosts on trash talk shows mount daily. The public, which has walked away from newspapers, has embraced the emotional carnival that has turned news into another form of mindless entertainment."

The same, unfortunately, is also true of too many blogs. That is, they think they must "entertain", rather than give news solely. This explains some blogs self-perceived "need" to post sexist pictures of scantily-clad women or other waste (in this case, hurtful waste) along with reports of local, regional or city news. These same kinds of blogs are also good at either "preaching" what is right, and true and good or they're particularly good at proclaiming the end of the world or the end of the city or some such tremendously horrible thing.

More:

"We are shedding, with the decline and death of many newspapers, thousands of reporters and editors, based in the culture of researched and verifiable fact, who monitored city councils, police departments, mayor’s offices, courts and state legislators to prevent egregious abuse and corruption. And we are also, even more ominously, losing the meticulous skills of reporting, editing, fact-checking and investigating that make daily information trustworthy. The decline of print has severed a connection with a reality-based culture, one in which we attempt to make fact the foundation for opinion and debate, and replaced it with a culture in which facts, opinions, lies and fantasy are interchangeable. As news has been overtaken by gossip, the hollowness of celebrity culture and carefully staged pseudo-events, along with the hysteria and drama that dominate much of the airwaves, our civil and political discourse has been contaminated by propaganda and entertainment masquerading as news. And the ratings of high-octane propaganda outlets such as Fox News, as well as the collapse of the newspaper industry, prove it."

Now, here's the part that indicts the "man on the street", the average citizen:

"Corporations, which have hijacked the state, are delighted with the demise of journalism. And the mass communications systems they control pump out endless streams of gossip, trivia and filth in lieu of news. But news, which costs money and takes talent to produce, is dying not only because citizens are migrating to the Internet and corporations are no longer using newsprint to advertise, but because in an age of profound culture decline the masses prefer to be entertained rather than informed...Money flows to advertising rather than to art or journalism because manipulation is more highly valued than truth or beauty."

Here, then, is the core of the problem:

"American society, once we lose a system of information based on verifiable fact, will become disconnected from reality."

It is really sad. And maddening.

Worse, it weakens the citizenry.

But what're ya' gonna do, you know?

If you want me, I'll be over here, banging my head against this wall.

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout...

 

The above picture is one of the best and most glaring examples of what I've written about here a few times. And that is, The Kansas City Star's inability--or lack of desire or something--to write anything penetrating--and yes, potentially negative--about the state of the area's real estate, with some few, rare exceptions.

I assume the realtors have them by the throat or something.

I thought one of the most important jobs the local newspaper would be to keep the area readers and inhabitants informed on the state of one of our most important facets of our economy--that is, both the commercial and residential real estate markets.

Silly me.

The above condominium building was created in the last year or two but to this day has remained vacant. It's in a very desirable area, too, overlooking Mill Creek Park, just off the Country Club Plaza, and is a beautiful facility.

And if it were the only one--or just one of few in the area--I could understand overlooking it.

But the fact is, there is a great number of these condominiums available in the area.

And you wouldn't know it by reading the local paper.

Commercial real estate? Especially retail?

Same thing.

I would think there are more stories there.

They did have one article, a couple days ago on foreclosure notice rates in the city compared to others, nationwide and another on discounts home buyers were getting on properties--the "pretty" news, for buyers--but that's nearly it.

And sure, they'll report the opening of a new store now and again, but give the overall, big picture on real estate, especially now, when we're in a downturn?

Not really.

Not if you read The Kansas City Star.

Reporting from The Kansas City Star

I wrote about this some time ago and here I have to go again.

On the way to work today, I was listening--as I always do--to KCUR, the local NPR station through UMKC and heard their coverage of a Kansas City Business Journal article on real estate in Kansas City .

They told of how it's soft, at least, but that we are nowhere near as bad as other places in the country like Florida and California and Las Vegas, of course.

And that's all fine and good.

But what galls me, what really kills me is that this is just the kind of article The Kansas City Star should write, first of all, and should have written months ago.

Both the commercial residential real estate markets in town are so soft it's just neither pretty nor funny.

If you drive the most-prized Plaza area, and you know what you're looking for and at, you can see condominiums left and right that are empty and waiting for buyers.

And the same goes--all over town--for commercial real estate in general and retail in specific.

But do you think you'd see an article about this in the local newspaper in the last year?

Nope.

Absolutely not.

It's an important story. It could get them terrific readership. It needs to be covered.

But who's covering it?

The Kansas City Business Journal, first, and KCUR, second, by covering their, first article.

It's pathetic.

If the Star wants readership--and of course they have to--you'd think they would know to cover important local stories like these that no one else is better positioned to cover.

But they don't. Or won't.

And I have to come to one of two conclusions.

They either don't have enough imagination to know they should be covering stories like these--which I view as highly, highly unlikely and improbable--or they want to go soft on articles like these, dealing with business and real estate so they don't offend anyone's sensibilities in the business community. They don't want to come off as negative so as to put a further damper on business, at least in the minds of their potential advertisers.

And if the answer is the 2nd one--and I think it may well be--that's a great way to further kill a newspaper.

They'd rather send a reporter, instead of around the city, to South America, to report on the sex-trafficking trade.

Strange priorities, indeed.

The Kansas City Star and good work

You can say what you will about the Kansas City Star and I'll admit, the coverage and newspaper isn't what it used to be, for sure, but this weekend, with the story yesterday--Saturday, Oct. 17--on "concierge medicine" and today, Sunday, 18th on money going through Jefferson City and also about Rod Jetton, they really made up for themselves.

Two fantastic, important, well-written stories that told us where we are and what's going on in our society, locally, regionally and even nationally.

They were important stories and articles. It was good coverage.

To those who didn't read them, you need to, in an effort to know what's going on in our society--to know what's right and what's wrong.

That, and the small article today about the Kansas City, Missouri School District Superintendent John Covington and what he plans.

I can come to no other conclusion but that it was good, intelligent and, again, important coverage that shouldn't be missed.

You can't expect anything more from a local newspaper.

Links:
http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1513951.html
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/1514294.html
http://www.kansascity.com/healthyquestions/story/1513257.html

An important read on newspapers

I recommend you go to the following link to a New York Times article on why we need newspapers and why it's important they not all disappear, especially, city to city.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/books/review/Evans-t.html

They really are, in their best incarnation, the "fourth estate". In that best situation, they are a check on government--local, city, state, federal, everything.

If newspapers aren't there to do the "bigger picture" information-gathering and reporting, who is?

Also, there is that "local identity" that comes from bringing us all together, with that same information and events.

For cities like Kansas City and St. Paul/Minneapolis, for instance, we are even more dependent on them for a sense of the entire area.

And then there are the larger metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and, yes, New York, etc., that need both that information and cohesion that, I think, only a newspaper can bring.

After the 8 years of Constitution and law-breaking we got from George W. Bush, it seems all the more obvious that we need a vigilant and independent newspaper system, in specific, but media, in general.

That on top of the fact that the corporations and big business have gotten into skewing the news to their own benefits.

It's a scary world out there, folks.

Without good, searching and reporting media, it's going to get a lot scarier.

Ironically, sadly, frustratingly, the one thing I think that can save a newspaper is supporting the reporters, researchers and writers so they can and do get the good, hard-hitting stories readers can expect and look forward to. That is the opposite of what has happened here, in Kansas City, with our own newspaper. It's been weakened and shrunken mightily.

If newspapers don't do good reporting and writing, particularly now, with the advent of the computer and blogs and what not, what purpose do they serve?

Kansas City Star?

Reporting, anyone?

The Kansas City Star won't do an article on the current commercial real estate situation, bad as it is, but they write one on people buying cars without side airbags.

There are residential condominium complexes all over town, largely empty. Complexes standing built but almost completely empty.

There there's the 1/2 finished "West Edge Project" on the Plaza complete with 2 cranes standing above it but otherwise empty.

There are, as I said, projects and facilties all over town half or more empty.

You think the Star would cover it?

Not a chance.

Unbelievable.

Link to story:
http://www.kansascity.com/842/story/1385463.html