Russ Ptacek was relentless as an investigative reporter at KSHB-TV in Kansas City. One of his favorite topics was the health of workers at the GSA’s Bannister Road complex.
In fact, at one point the GSA quickly retained a PR firm and paid it $234,000 to handle him.
Earlier this year Ptacek moved to WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C. And now one of the first stories he has covered at WUSA involved the resignation of the head of the GSA almost from a KC angle. He noted his KC reports throughout his WUSA story.
“‘We did not do anything wrong’ is what General Services Administrator Martha Johnson said about year ago at a congressional hearing into the GSA’s spending of $234,000 for a PR firm to manage the agency’s mishandling of sick and dead employee reports at a regional headquarters,” said Ptacek in his story about Johnson’s resignation.
He referred to his Kansas City investigation, but did not mention KSHB or that it he was the one who uncovered much of the information.
“The last time Johnson was asked about misuse of funds was in 2011 before a Senate subcommittee hearing on a publicity campaign about illnesses and deaths at a GSA office uncovered by a TV investigation,” he noted.