10-15-2010 KMBC PROVES IT IS NEWS LEADER; KC STAR LAGS In journalism circles it is said one way to accurately determine how news is handled is to take a news event that you are knowledgeable about and see how your local news outlets handle it. If that is the case then people should be looking to KMBC-TV, KC's ABC affiliate, for their news. And not necessarily the Kansas City Star. The news event involved the death of a Leawood couple, Ed and Joann Walden, in a tragic auto/truck accident Thursday morning around 11 a.m. in Louisiana. WGNO-TV, the ABC affiliate in New Orleans, broke the story around noon on Thursday. In this 24/7 news cycle one might expect that Kansas City media outlets would have the news within minutes. That was not the case. In the past one would also expect that the Kansas City Star would break the news locally. However, after round after round of journalism cutbacks that no longer seems to be the case. As it turns out, KMBC, KC's ratings leader, was the first to post the story at 10:40 p.m. Thursday evening. Although the Star was given the story at 9:41 p.m. on Thursday, it did nothing with it until it posted a four paragraph story (bylined?) story Friday morning on its Web site. The news never made the Star's Friday print edition. KSHB-TV posted the story on its site at 4:23 a.m. Friday morning and interviewed neighbors for a story Friday night, while WDAF-FOX 4 and CBS affiliate KCTV did not have the story. NewsRadio 980 KMBZ still does not have anything on its site, however, rival news reporter Ray Read at KCMO reported the news early Friday morning. It should be noted that the news was sent to the "TIPS" email link at both WDAF and KMBZ and rejected by their servers.
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