In the comments section to yesterday’s post, Mike Rice, a friend and former co-worker at The Star posed three important and timely questions:
“Has The Star made any endorsements in state legislature races? What about the Jackson County contests? And why did it wait until the 11th hour to make endorsements in the key races?”
He went on to say, “If the answers to my first two questions are no, then The Star has done a terrible disservice to its readers.”
His questions, particularly the first two, prompted me to do some quick searches of The Star’s website. What I found — or what I didn’t find — was troubling.
Not only could I not find any endorsements in state or county races, I couldn’t even find specific pre-election news stories about any of several contested state representative and county legislative races.
The biggest and most unforgivable void was in the race for the Democratic nomination for Jackson County executive, featuring incumbent Frank White and challenger Matthew Merryman.
No pre-election story; no endorsement.
It goes without saying that this is an important race. (A third candidate, Jeremy Raines, is on the ballot, but he has not campaigned.) I don’t know if Merryman has had enough money to send out mailers, but he does have a significant number of yard signs, which, to me, is a baseline indicator of a “live” campaign.
Where White has dithered on the all-important jail issue, Merryman, a lawyer and former assistant public defender, has been agitating for a two-building solution to the crisis.
In a guest column in The Star last week, he proposed building a relatively small facility in downtown Kansas City and another in Independence to serve the two separate Jackson County courthouses, effectively halving the number of inmates currently held at the disintegrating Jackson County Detention Center downtown.
If The Star cared enough to publish an “As I See It” guest column by Merryman, it should have gone to the trouble to interview White and Merryman and endorse one of the two candidates.
Now, I understand that White, with his near-universal name identity, is going to win the race. But nevertheless, today’s election is the race. With no one seeking the Republican nomination, today is the only time voters will have a choice in deciding whether Frank White should be replaced.
**
Until several years ago, The Star acquitted itself very well in the lead-up to primary and general elections. For many years, it published a tabloid insert into the paper that was billed a “Voter’s Guide.” It contained brief bios of the candidates and overviews of key issues. And it covered city, county, state and national races.
On the editorial side, the editorial staff would mail questionnaires to candidates, then summon them to 18th and Grand for interviews, and then endorse.
It was a great system and a tremendous service to readers.
Things are, of course, a lot different now. And I understand that with the number of news and editorial staff members severely reduced, the former level of coverage is no longer realistic.
But, Godfrey Daniel! Can’t we at least expect to see a pre-election story and endorsement in the Jackson County executive’s race? Can’t we, huh?
Sadly, we must conclude that Mike Rice was right, and we must close with his stark assessment: “The Star has done a terrible disservice to its readers.”
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Jim, coincidentally as I was reflecting on your post, I was engaged on another social media platform with a handful of KC up-and-coming civic leaders who I got to know in 2011-12 when I was consulting in KC. They were debating the merits of subscribing to the Star. One commented that because of the Star’s endorsement of Blunt that was a disqualifier for subscribing. My comment back was that any KC civic leader who wanted to be taken seriously needed to subscribe. (That seemed to be a winning argument.) Another pointed out the need to support the Star as an institution which I thought was an insightful argument coming from someone barely 40. Other complaints centered around the editorials in general.
A third longed for the not-for-profit model of new web-based journalism, I presume to be along the lines of St. Louis Public Media that is housed with KWMU, the sister station of KCUR. Apparently this advocate doesn’t realize that St. Louis public media as a 501 (c) 3 does not endorse candidates, but rather does a good job of providing time for opposing viewpoints; good, but not as satisfying as a hard hitting editorial that provokes water cooler debate. There is a hot primary for St. Louis County Executive today and St. Louis Public Media has no position.
The print endorsements are crucial. As I get settled into my new home in LA, I rely on the LA Times for guidance, especially for down ballot items. I also look to the SF Chronicle and the Sac Bee for guidance on statewide issues.
I’m cooling on the idea of needing to support The Star as a civic institution — because it really amounts, at this point, to a handful of executives in Sacramento trying to hold their fingers in McClatchy’s ever-weakening dike.
If we could somehow get the paper into the hands of a non-profit entity, like billionaire H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest managed to do in Philadelphia a few years ago, I would immediately change my opinion. (By the way, Lenfest died Sunday.)
It’s 8:45 p.m. on Election Day with several primary races in Kansas and Missouri that are garnering national attention and the Star hasn’t even bothered to phone it in. One story on its website that was updated after polls closed with throwaway (garbage) quotes. That’s it. No polls-closing story, no great photo montage of the day, no separate breakdown sidebars on what was at stake on the national, state, county and city level. And, most importantly, no tally board updated as precincts reported. Nada. Why none of that? Aren’t they focusing on digital? Why wasn’t there a “live from the newsroom” election night webcast with its editorial board, Kraske, Helling and assorted local pundits? And it would have helped brand the new digs to lessen the sting of getting a corporate eviction.
Meanwhile, on the New York Times webpage the lead story is about all the primaries.. well, duh. But right below the two teaser leads you could click on separate pages that showed maps of Kansas and Missouri that tracked results county-by-county in realtime. In the time it took to write this post, the Times has reported 18% of the vote in Kansas. In the same period, the Star updated its one and only story on its webpage with news of candidates showing up at watch parties. Really? That’s the ‘best’ you could do?
Today was the day the Star’s political coverage died. Long gone are the days of being a poor Sports desk guy picking up extra money by working for the State desk on election nights; and being a combustible part of a newsroom on fire.
Love it, Joe…You made me smile with that last line — “a newsroom on fire” on Election Night. That’s the way I choose to remember it. Remember Yael bringing in an abundant supply of Tootsie Roll pops every election? We were all sucking away…And now, as you said in so many words, the election-results reporting itself sucks. Where the hell is the coverage of the local races, including the “Healthy Homes” question?
(For some reason, the Kansas City Election Board doesn’t have the results of that issue or Prop A — they’re just showing candidate returns — but if The Star had someone at the election board, they could track that election. I checked returns from Clay and Platte counties, however, and it appears Question 1, the Healthy Homes measure, is passing handily, and Prop A is losing badly.)
“Today was the day The Star’s political coverage died…”
Wicked line. I hope it’s not true. But maybe we better call a preacher to the bedside just in case. (I’d say a priest, but the Catholic Church has lost all credibility and moral authority.)
Geez, what a couple of depressing posts …
But don’t forget those three outstanding Sunday stories!
Actually I was referring to Keenan’s post and your reply.