JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

In ways big and small, The Star is not serving its readers well.

Let’s start with the big…

Health reporter Andy Marso must be one of the most frustrated reporters in America these days. He’s been onto a potentially big story for months, but he hasn’t had a shred of support from management to break the story open.

Now, in the wake of his editors (and possibly McClatchy management) sitting on their hands, he’s in the unfortunate position of watching another paper, USA Today, break details of the story, even though it got to it long after Marso.

The gist of the story is that a 66-year-old Kingston, MO, man named Dale Farhner died as a result of an altercation last May with a VA Medical Center police officer.

Based on limited information, Marso has had two stories about this strange case, but neither story has run on the front page. They haven’t made the front page primarily because the VA has stonewalled The Star on records pertaining to the case, essentially tying Marso’s hands.

Marso got a tip about Farhner’s death the same month it happened, in May, and he has been hounding the VA to release records, including submitting a Freedom of Information Act request shortly after the incident occurred. The VA informed him it has 18 pages of written records, a video and an audio recording, but it has refused to turn over any information, citing the “open/pending status” of the case.

After several more denials during the intervening months, Marso had a story last Tuesday saying U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt were seeking answers about Farhner’s death from VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.

Recently, USA Today got in on the story, and on Saturday Marso was reduced to reporting that paper’s account of what happened last May 10.

According to USA Today, the altercation started after an unnamed VA officer spotted Farhner driving the wrong way on the medical center grounds on East Linwood Boulevard. An internal report that USA Today got ahold of said Farhner “began making inappropriate gestures and physically threatening motions with his arm.” After Farhner struggled, the officer took him to the ground and handcuffed him. In the struggle or when he went to the ground, Farhner apparently suffered bleeding around the brain. He was treated at the VA and then transferred to KU Hospital, presumably where he was declared dead.

A significant part of Marso’s Saturday story was dedicated to his concerted effort to get the VA to turn over some or all of its records pertaining to the case. You can feel his frustration just reading the story.

So, what should The Star — and McClatchy, by extension — have done to help him?

It’s simple….simple but costly, and that’s why it hasn’t happened. As soon as the VA refused to hand over the records, The Star should have sued. Its chances of getting those records would have jumped appreciably if they’d hired an attorney.

Filing a suit is what the paper would have done back when The Star was under more aggressive and determined ownership — back when ownership took seriously its mission to uncover the truth about troubling situations like the one that occurred May 10 on East Linwood.

But now The Star has a broken-down, corporate owner that is limping along and that would probably hire a lawyer only to get itself a property tax break — like it did in 2015 when it sought a tax-abatement extension on its $200 million printing plant. But hire an attorney to force a government agency to hand over documents that are clearly in the public interest? No way!

…I tell you, it makes me sick. And I’d bet anything Marso lies awake at night thinking about his paper doing nothing while USA Today belatedly scratches and claws to get to the bottom of what should have been his story.

**

Now let’s turn to a couple of smaller examples, although just as telling in some ways.

Example No. 1

On Saturday, The Star ran a story on page 2A about a 30-year-old man named Antoine W. Anderson being charged with several felonies after he and another man broke into the home of a woman they had bought a car from the day before. It was a terrifying incident in which the woman was robbed and sexually assaulted at rifle point and her purse was taken. Like a lot of other readers, I’m sure, I wanted to know where this occurred. But from reporters Tony Rizzo and Glenn E. Rice, each of whom has about 30 years experience with The Star, all we learned was this occurred in Kansas City.

At 319 square miles, Kansas City is one of the largest cities in the country, geographically, and just saying Antoine Anderson “is accused of forcing his way into a Kansas City home” isn’t good enough. Rizzo and Rice are excellent reporters, but that’s just laziness.

Granted, a Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office press release does not say where in Kansas City the crime took place, nor does a “probable cause” statement filed by the Prosecutor’s Office. It would have been easy enough, however, to call the Kansas City Police Media Office, like I did, and ask for the location of the crime.

For the record...it took place in the 5500 block of East Smart Avenue, which is in far northeastern Kansas City, east of I-435 and just south of Winner Road.

(Fox4 TV has reported that Antoine Anderson’s brother, Antonio Anderson, has also been charged.)

Example No. 2

On Sunday and Monday, The Star ran on its front pages a two-part investigative story about widespread sex abuse in fundamentalist Baptist churches across the country. It’s a big story and well worth the space dedicated to it.

But, but, but…get this: The name of the main reporter on each story is Sarah Smith, and under her byline is her email address — ssmith@star-telegram.com.

I wonder, how many KC Star readers know where the Star-Telegram is?

And, I wonder, how many readers thought that with the word “star” in the email address The Kansas City Star was somehow involved?

Not a word in either story indicates the paper is in Fort Worth, TX. Like The Star, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is a McClatchy paper. That, too, is not indicated at the beginning or end of either story.

I would bet that if 100 Star subscribers were called at random and asked where a paper called “the Star-Telegram” is located, fewer than 15 would be able to give the correct answer.

…It would have been so simple — and so helpful to readers — to include a sentence at the top or bottom of each story, saying something like: “This report was prepared by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which, like The Star, is owned by the McClatchy Co.”

But when a newspaper is in decline, this is the kind of stuff you see. Big and small tell the same story.