KMBC’s veteran reporter Micheal Mahoney, who has 36 years of experience in the TV news business, is being called “rude” by Kansas City, MO Police Chief Darryl Forte for daring to ask Forte questions about a public statement he had just made referring to “top tier” criminals he was going to target.
Forte, who seemed to have skipped Media Training 101, attempted to slink away as KMBC’s 32-year stalwart reporter Mahoney tried to ask him a very routine question based on his public pronouncement about how the police force were going to go after “top tier” criminals in the city.
Mahoney attempted to ask Forte how many “top tier” criminals there are in Kansas City. If Forte’s office is going to target these criminals it stands to reason he should know how many there are roaming the city.
But Forte refused to answer Mahoney’s question. In fact, Forte looked silly trying to slip away and then standing in an elevator trying to ignore Mahoney and praying for the elevator door to close. Keep in mind, violent crime is running rampant in Kansas City.
Later Forte referred to Mahoney as “rude” in a Tweet.
Fellow KMBC reporter/anchor jokingly Kris Ketz Tweeted that “Mahoney has been called worse than rude. Trust me. LOL.” Ketz later noted in another Tweet that the police chief “made this a bigger deal when he didn’t have to.” Very true.
Update (6/15): Tonyskansascity.com, the area’s most-read blog site, reports that the Forte-Mahoney confrontation has generated more than 100 comments on his site.
Update (6/16): Kansas City Star editorial columnist Yael Abouhalkah, who sometimes acts more like the current administration’s PR advisor than a journalist, weighed in on the controversy and seemed to feel the police chief did not need to give any specifics of a plan he had just announced in a news conference. Abouhalkah’s response seemed to make viewers of KMBC grateful a veteran news journalist such as Mahoney was willing to ask real questions of officials.
“My take: The chief could have taken a question or two from Mahoney, saying the same thing he did last week in public when I was there for an interview: He doesn’t want to get into specifics about fighting crime,” wrote Abouhalkah.