Summary: Congratulations to Kansas City Star columnist Steve Penn for an enlightening column on former FOX4 reporter Steve Shaw and Shaw's battles with alcoholism. 11-29-2007 Ex-area newsman tells of his battle with alcoholism By STEVE PENN This is, as they say in the news business, the rest of the story. Without an explanation, Steve Shaw fled town last March. Shaw, a former reporter with WDAF-TV, moved on to a TV station in Minneapolis. Back in Kansas City for a visit last weekend, Shaw�s memories took him back to the time and place when he hit rock bottom. As he sat at Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q last Saturday, tears began to roll slowly down his cheeks. �It�s tough understanding how flawed I am,� Shaw said. �I�ve got a lot of shame. I�ve always been so stubborn. All I can do is keep my head down and remember how bad it was. I needed the fall to be big.� As he wiped the tears away, Shaw explained that he�s now a recovering alcoholic. Shaw was once a big deal on the local news scene, working as a reporter with WDAF for almost 10 years. He was fired in December 2006. Citing legal reasons, Shaw declined to talk about the specifics of his firing. Fortunately, he has now rebounded as a popular reporter with the ABC affiliate KSTP-TV in Minneapolis. But in local news circles here, Shaw was known as a heavy drinker. A police mug shot showing a bloody Shaw after a car accident in December 2006 was displayed on a local Web site (see photo). Shaw was arrested by Kansas City police for DUI and other charges after he was involved in an accident on the Country Club Plaza, according to police at the time. Shaw has only a year of sobriety under his belt, so he�s no expert on recovery. But in an effort to support others in similar straits, Shaw decided to share his story with the public. His drinking stemmed from simply being lonely. He never drank during the workweek, preferring to get hammered on the weekends instead. His beverage of choice was beer. And he drank it to excess. When his life came crashing down upon his firing, he received help from some unlikely sources. Shaw had never been much of a church-going kind of person and still isn�t. But when Shaw saw the light, he started attending the Rev. Jerry Johnston�s First Family Church in Overland Park. �They even came and picked me up for the month-and-a-half I was still in town,� Shaw said. �I know the problems that church has been through. But they meant a lot to me.� For his drinking, Shaw sought help at a treatment center in Independence. During his ordeal he hid much of it from his family. He grew up in Columbia, where his father had been superintendent of schools. Shaw, a proud Tiger, graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia with a bachelor�s degree in journalism. And he was on the dean�s list. Looking back on it now, he wishes he would have gotten help 10 years ago. �Getting fired was a gift,� Shaw said. �I had it coming. I�m a typical alcoholic. I just wasn�t facing up to stuff. I didn�t care about things I should have cared about. I wasn�t fulfilling my potential, not even close.� These days, Shaw realizes that he can�t even be a social drinker. �I don�t want to be a social drinker, because I don�t want to have just one drink,� Shaw said. �I want to drink 20. I�m an alcoholic. And I don�t mind people knowing that. There�s an army of people just like me.� Despite the fact that Shaw is on the road to recovery, he�s not out of the woods. He�s at a 7:30 a.m. Alcoholics Anonymous meeting every Saturday morning. �I still have dark thoughts,� Shaw said. �The dogs only bark on Saturdays and Sundays. One thing I�ve learned about drunks is, we�re all different. We all have our quirks. And for me that quirk is weekends.� At the TV station in Minneapolis, Shaw has reported on stories ranging from wildfires in Minnesota to the tragic bridge collapse this summer. In other words, he�s making the best of his second chance. He�s already starting to weave that Steve Shaw attitude back into his stories. And after a couple of more years of sobriety, he�s not ruling out a step up to the networks. �I�m back in a place where I feel comfortable again,� Shaw said. �I�m able to do things again on a high level. Right now I couldn�t ask for more.�
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