Steve Kraske s effort (1/14, Local, On Politics ) to improve the content of our local newscasts is admirable, if futile. He is up against an establishment that believes, If it bleeds, it leads!
He quoted KCTV-5 s news director, Regent Ducas, as saying, Safety and security concerns are important.
He is not helping by escalating the anxiety of the people he professes to help.
Here is a suggestion for a marketing theme: Succinct, Concise and To The Point. Now that would get me to come back from watching The Daily Show.
And the weather wonks and their endless drivel what, are they paid by the word?
Nor am I impressed with a 10 p.m.
live report by some reporter telling of a jury decision. This so-called Live, Late-Breaking, Investigative report from outside a courthouse that closed six hours previously is a joke. Are we to think they peep in the locked windows to get us the latest news?
Maybe the police should arrest them for loitering.
Maybe someone should arrest the show s producers for wasting our time and insulting our intelligence.
Steve Kraske s column about readers fed up with crime-time TV news prompted this response.
News organizations rarely fabricate news. They print or broadcast what happens in surrounding communities.
Your fair city is being smeared each night at 5, 6 and 10, all right, but by whom?
Not TV.
To blast TV news for broadcasting bad news (crime) is akin to the ancient tradition of killing the messenger who brings bad news from a battlefront.
It was not the messenger s fault, nor is it TV s fault that many people kill, rape, assault, rob, abuse or otherwise do bad things to other people.
When these bad things happen, it is legitimate news and the public needs to be aware of it.
Only when the good citizens of a city rise as one and take back their city from gangs, thugs, murderers, drug dealers and other not-so-nice people will reporting of these not-so-nice happenings end.
One should examine the root cause of why there are bad people and why they do what they do.
then attack the root cause. The root cause is not the TV coverage of what happened that day.
Well, that was timely.
A few days ago I received an unsolicited TV Viewing Diary and five whole dollars from Nielsen Media Research inviting me to participate in the television program ratings process. The diary (but not the money) was destined for the recycling bin, until I saw Steve Kraske s column in Sunday s Star about the wretched state of local TV news reportage. I m going to send back the diary after all, and it will contain only a copy of Mr.
Kraske s spot-on column, and this note: What he said! The five bucks I ll apply toward my newspaper subscription.
John K.
Weilert
In its recent editorial on Kansas schools and the state department of education (1/14, Kansas curriculum is heading back on track ), The Star recommends that the new administrator be, first, dedicated to public schools, and second, experienced in education administration.
Solid experience as an administrator is valuable to anyone overseeing a budget of several billion dollars. But nontraditional administrators have served school systems well in cities ranging from Seattle to New York.
While being open to new forms of leadership is important, being innovative in how we think about public education is even more so. Public schools are part of public education. But so are home schools and privately run schools and new models such as charter schools and virtual schools.
Education is the goal; diverse schools are the means. Lawmakers and citizens alike should be open to alternative sources for administrators and alternative ways of delivering education.
John R.
LaPlante
I am writing in response to the Jan. 11 Star editorial Sprinkler systems should be required in Greek housing.
Students are considered high-risk occupants by the U.
S. Fire Administration (USFA) for good reason. They are known to disable or impair the mechanical fire protection systems that are set up for their own safety.
Some frightening statistics about student housing from the USFA: There are 1,700 fires a year; 33 percent of the student fires are the result of arson; smoke alarms did not work 21 percent of the time.
Local building codes should incorporate a balanced approach with fire protection to include four types of fire safety systems: smoke alarms, sprinklers, education and fire containment. Too much reliance on any one system leaves the occupants vulnerable.
Fire containment is probably the least known, yet it can provide an economical way to prevent the spread of fire and smoke. A group of Boston-area college fire safety officers successfully tested a new method to contain fire using a second-generation fire-resistant paint. The results of their collaboration can be viewed at .
I could not agree more with The Star s editorial (1/14) in support of the Kansas City Symphony s lawsuit against the state of Missouri asking that the state enforce its own law regarding the disbursement of income taxes collected from visiting athletes and entertainers.
I wonder how much of that obligation goes uncollected. I find it despicable that this suit is even necessary.
Rather than behaving in an immature, retaliatory manner, our governor should instead be spearheading the effort to resolve this problem.
In fact, it would seem that our state attorney general, Jay Nixon, should be leading the charge rather than the symphony having to engage private counsel to handle the proceedings for them.
Are not attorneys general charged with the responsibility to ensure that all statutes are enforced to the letter?
You can be sure if you or I are violating the law, the state will show up to force us to comply.
I know of no statute that exempts the state from abiding by its own statutes.
So bravo to the symphony, and shame on our other arts organizations for not joining this worthwhile, and seemingly necessary, endeavor.
To rich folks up in Briarcliff.
And say it s rude to call it a steal.
There s no blight to fix in Kansas City.
What else can rich folks get to plunder.
I am concerned about tax-increment financing and the way our City Council acts as a money vending machine to developers. The article about an expansion of the Briarcliff development (1/11, Business, Big plans just got even bigger ), to include an office building (already 50 percent leased) and other entities that should be self-supporting, prompts me to write.
This developer got a super TIF. What is next, a mega TIF ?
As a Kansas City taxpayer, I feel insulted in the way our City Council so glibly hands out the TIF tax money to developers who want to build in prime locations.
I thought TIF was to encourage development in blighted areas.
I can only hope that the city elections will provide a turnover with new faces who will be more responsible with our tax money.
John L.
Coakley Jr.
I just read your recent Star Magazine article on Wilbur Niewald, and a better article I have not found. The cover photo is a perfect example of how to show a true artist at his best.
It could be said my opinion is biased because Niewald taught me in a drawing class at the Kansas City Art Institute or because I own one of his watercolor paintings. As Abraham Lincoln once said, The taste is in my mouth a little; and this, no doubt, disqualifies me, to some extent, to form correct opinions.
I bought the watercolor a few years ago.
Niewald told me that he did it during the winter and his palette froze on him while he was painting. I believe he said it took about 30 hours 30 hours of fighting through a frozen palette and doing a watercolor in the winter.
That alone is devotion.
He is blessed that he found something, painting, that he can learn about himself, through exploration.
If you enter into any creative occupation, whether it be a stand-up comic, actor, musician or artist, it s most important to bring a work ethic, schedule and truth to your conviction. Persistence beats potential.
Niewald models this for us all.
Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me, the president said in his speech on Iraq. This is a nice sentiment, but, based on his track record, I have to conclude that these are just words.
He lied to convince or bully senators of his own party and the opposition party to authorize him to go to war; he lied when he said that war was the last option; he lied repeatedly when he assured us all that we had turned a corner, that we would be greeted as liberators, that our mission was accomplished.
I m afraid he is lying to us again.
Oh, the responsibility is his, wholly his, but he doesn t believe it, and he won t act in a way consistent with true repentance.
If he is truly sorry, let him change his ways.
For those paying attention, reading the editorial pages of The Star is a daily enlightening experience. While the light at the end of the tunnel remains quite dim, we have no reason to believe our direction is out of Iraq rather than deeper into the quagmire.
Here is why:
The big news is not the development of a plan for victory such plans come and go on a daily basis. The big news is a change in focus of the Bush administration. No longer do we hear fanciful dreams of Iraqis lust for freedom and a democratic process governing Iraq.
Enough already.
Rather we are hearing dire predictions of bloodshed and utter disarray should we leave. Shiites will kill Sunnis, and Sunnis will kill Shiites.
In other words, it is bad now, but it will get even worse if we don t have a mighty surge in our presence. But, isn t that what is happening now, only with our troops caught in the middle?
When the Iraqis tire of killing each other, they will stand up to the task, and the Middle East nightmare will wind down.
Shouldn t we stop interfering and providing interference and give them a chance?
Now is the time.
Robert W.
Johnson
Sen. Mitch McConnell commented on CNN s Late Edition this weekend that that if we pulled out of Iraq any time soon, the insurgents or terrorists would follow us here. Proponents of this war have said that over and over without any challenge.
Do they think that no one really knows how to get here without following us? Past experience has shown that they don t need directions or to follow anybody if they decide to head this way.
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