Kevin Kietzman, 810
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly who was the first person to break the news that the Kansas City Chiefs’ player who killed himself in the parking lot Saturday morning was Jovan Belcher.
However, according to Greg Hall, who examined media coverage of the entire incident, it seems as if Kevin Kietzman at WHB-810 Tweeted out Belcher’s name “Sources: Jovan Belcher has shot his girlfriend and shot himself.” Kevin Kietzman, @kkwhb, Twitter.
While Kietzman has not responded to a request to discuss whether he broke the major story, many anonymous commenters have been very critical that he did not wait for the official word from the Chiefs or KCMO police before releasing the name.
Absolute silliness.
While sports talkers like Danny Parkins at 610 were proud to announce they were first on the scene at Arrowhead, journalistically that means nothing. In fact, WHB’s Soren Petro and others admitted that they were uncomfortable covering the story and were not really a journalists, but a sports talkers.
The difference between Kietzman, who is often a lightning rod for criticism, is that he was a journalist for years at Fox 4 before getting into talk radio. He has developed sources over the years.
And when those sources gave him the name of the person who got out of his Bentley, talked to coaches, and killed himself he went with the story. And he was right.
While Kansas City TV stations were showing children’s programming, ESPN was scooping them on the biggest story this year in KC. KMBC’s Johnny Kane did the best job of at least catching up on the story.
Journalists report news. Talking heads simply wait for officials to tell them what happened.
LOCAL STATIONS IN AWKWARD POSITION
Do you break in to a children’s program to report a murder-suicide? The local stations were in an awkward position. Until there are at least 15-30 minutes of facts to report, I think a crawl on the bottom of the screen is the most appropriate way for a local station to handle a story like that given the circumstances.
IMPORTANT NEWS
That last line is the most important part and that’s why I like this blog John. This was important news and you’re right to make the distinction between reporting and announcing.
WHAT DID WE LEARN?
In the end two people are still dead and a baby girl now has no parents to raise her. So the real question becomes this: what do we as a society ultimately learn from this tragedy and how do we respond to it as individuals in terms of our comments and actions, not to mention our willingness to make changes, if necessary, in our own attitudes and behaviors?
TWEETING DOESN’T COUNT
Seriously? Who broke the story? Who cares? No one BROKE this story. It was all over the police scanners and there was no investigative work necessary.What’s interesting is you think tweeting is breaking a story. It’s about coverage. I tuned in KMBZ and they were live on the scene. I tuned in WHB and they were in Saturday Morning synducation….all automated. KMBZ was suplying the name of Belcher while ESPN said it was unidentified.
A MEDAL FOR KIETZMAN?
Is Kietzman wanting some sort of medal for community service or something like that? Who do these radio talk show clowns think they are anyway - serious journalists?
PRETTY SHALLOW ANGLE
Pretty shallow angle - who broke the story. So 1950′s journalism. No one cares.