Monday, June 29, 2009

Kansas City Star slights one of its own columnists

John Landsberg is reporting the KC Star slighted columnist Mike Hendricks by barely mentioning an honor he was given by a the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

Hendricks was given a second place award in the humor category for large newspapers. Here is the Star's announcement:

Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks was honored Saturday night by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists at an awards presentation in Ventura, Calif.

Hendricks won second prize in the humor category for large newspapers. Finishing first was Katy St. Clair of the San Francisco Weekly. Hendricks, who joined The Star as a reporter in 1985, has been a columnist since 1997.

Two little paragraphs, no link. (John Landsberg found this link which the Star should have included in its web article, but didn't.)
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16 comments:

Anonymous said...

KC is lucky to have the best blogs around. The KC Scar is useless, even worse than useless, and the blogs put them to shame.

Anonymous said...

They have great blogs out of necessity. They have the second or third worst newspaper in the entire United States.

That said, The Star may be dishonest, they're not stupid. They know damn well that Mike Hendricks never said anything humorous on purpose.

Anonymous said...

The only humorous journalists are the ones that say without newspapers, people will not know what happens at the local elected officials’ meetings. Like they would tell the truth for a change? Like two people are even reading that boring junk? Like the reporter will stay awake? Now, that is funny! Perhaps accidentally, but humorous none the less.

Anonymous said...

What the KC Red Star really needs is the return of Rhonda Lokeman. The loss of their best crude voice has left them just too vanilla/bland. A classically trained professional journalist with the highest ethical standards is a terrible thing to lose. I wonder what Zee’s little woman is doing these days? Stunt driving didn’t seem to be her thing, but professional wine tasting might be a possibility.

Anonymous said...

will not be televised ran a McClatchy recap this morning and also mentioned the award. -

http://willnotbetelevised.com/tv/2009/06/29/reckoning/

Anonymous said...

Most of these awards are so phony, like awarding a pig the mud rooter award for rolling in muck.

Anonymous said...

The worst, and flopping news networks win awards, how ridiculous are these awards? CBS Evening News is down the toilet. Hell yes, they deserve a phony award for that!
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National Edward R. Murrow Award winners named
Radio-Television News Directors Association

NBC News wins five Murrow awards, including the Overall Excellence honor. "CBS Evening News" receives the award for network newscast. "60Minutes" is cited in three categories: Hard News Feature, Feature Reporting and Investigative Reporting. In network radio, CBS News Radio wins five awards, including Overall Excellence. The award for newscast goes to ABC News Radio.
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John Altevogt said...

I absolutely agree that these "awards" are a joke, e.g. the I.F.Stone "Award". I took note of this again recently when Barb Shelly won some local awards for her columns. As far as I'm concerned, Shelly is the single most corrupt columnist The Star has.

However, what we think of these idiotic shams is irrelevant. These are awards given by their peers and colleagues and as such are relevant to their careers and the prestige of the newspaper. From that standpoint, Landsberg is absolutely correct in pointing out that Hendricks received faint praise for his accomplishments (which, as a commenter on Landsberg's sire does not bode well for Hendricks.)

Anonymous said...

***As far as I'm concerned, Shelly is the single most corrupt columnist The Star has.***

How about some examples, John, besides your previous rants about the things she's written that you don't like. What's "corrupt" about saying something you happen to disagree with?

Anonymous said...

2:08 PM, Will you please gather your own information. John has every right to state his opinion without your approval. Opinions are usually formed over time, and I agree with John, Shelly has the credibility of a gnat, and I don’t have to explain to you why I think that, nor to I have to write a thousand word post of examples. I’ll tell you what, when the Red Star bites the dust, let’s see how many newspapers clamor for Shelly’s sick opinions. That will tell us how many people are even reading her biased crap. You are such a broken record. All the unsubstantiated articles about Gov. Palin must have driven you crazy.

Anonymous said...

***Shelly’s sick opinions.***

Any specific examples you can link to (or cite a date and page) so we can form our own opinions?

Anonymous said...

They can't cite examples. They can only echo each other's opinions and then insult anyone who doesn't agree with them.

Anonymous said...

Alright you assholes, here is the deal. We don't hate Mike Hendicks, we like him. He writes whatever he is told, without question, for pennies and he doesn't require a parking spot.

Mike submitted his article under the Humanitarian category but those dunderheads thought he must be kidding. (Something about a compassion award for Dr Tiller from Obama)

Anyway, we were so mad at those guys we didn't want to draw attention to their award. We'll be seeking to start our own award, the Hugo Chavez Thoughtful Journalist Award.

Mike is going to be the first winner next year. This will be bigger than the IF Stone award!

Anonymous said...

In the early 50s Alvin McCoy, The Star's Kansas correspondent, broke a story concerning corruption of a one of thr state's top Republican officials. Needless to say, Roy Roberts, then the honcho, was not pleased since the paper was then (hard to believe) a bastion of northeast GOP orthodoxy. But give the paper credit _ the stories made it into the paper. When prize time came, McCoy was informed that that The Star didn't think the stories merited being entered. McCoy, a quiet, cerebral gentlemen who was a science major in college, bought a Big Chief tablet, pasted the clips in, wrote a entry letter and submitted it to the Pulitzer judges. He won. The announcement in the paper was at the most six paragraphs. Short paragraphs, too. Things never really change, do they?

Anonymous said...

Things never really change, do they?


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Apparently history does because the Star has never, ever been a Republican leaning publication. During the 30's, 40's and 50's when my family started working there, it was owned by it's employees and totally dedicated to being an objective third party, equally critical of both democrats and republicans.

What the Star has become, and what they print daily would be cause for terminations en mass on a daily basis today.

I can't imagine where you got the idea that the Star had been a Republican leaning publication, but since it is the major point you're trying to make, I suspect that disinformation is your goal. You fail. Miserably.

William Rockhill Nelson the founder said it best.

It was his intention to be “absolutely independent in politics, aiming to deal by all men and all parties with impartiality and fearlessness.”

So yes, things do change. Today at the KC Star it is for the worse.

John Altevogt said...

Thanks for the history lesson. It would seem that when conservatives are even given a fair shot, it's considered to be bias towards them, given what else is out there. And I agree with your assessment of The Star today. It's not even the far left tilt of the editorial department. That I could live with. It's the complete dishonesty and shilling for the sleaziest elements of the metro area establishment that gets me.

Guys like Diuguid and hendricks may be clowns, but they're relatively harmless clowns anyhow. It's the blatant attacks on reform candidates in both parties and pimping for these establishment scams that are just beyond the pale. The struggle in our area is to get the corruption out of our parties (Democrat and Republican) not just to have one side triumph over the other on the editorial page.