Author: Terry Ganey

Missouri capitol reporters still trying to police their own

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By TERRY GANEY / The reporters who make up the Missouri Capitol News Association recently came together to consider problems with one of the press corps’ members, the Missouri Times, a newly formed organ published by former Poplar Bluff Mayor Scott Faughn. The press group had put the Missouri Times on notice in late January. While one member of the press corps wanted to suspend the Missouri Times from the group, the vast majority agreed to give him more time to come up with a stronger written policy that separates the financial side of the Missouri Times from the reporters who cover the news.

Progress of the Beacon/KWMU merger

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On one wall of the St. Louis Public Radio newsroom hangs an electronic sign resembling a large flat-screen television with colored graphs, charts and numbers telling the story of the station’s website. One recent summer afternoon, a visitor saw that 89 people were checking out the site to see what the news operation had to offer. Tim Eby, director and general manager of St. Louis Public Radio, said more people have visited the station’s website since it merged with the online startup the St. Louis Beacon six months ago. The number of listeners to KWMU, 90.7 FM, has remained about the same. While the news staff was roughly doubled to 21 and the Beacon as a brand disappeared, the combined operation remains a boutique for news consumers. Eby said the station has averaged about 120,000 unique visitors a month.

Post-Dispatch wins Scripps Howard award for Ferguson coverage

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The Scripps Howard Foundation has awarded its first place national breaking news award for 2014 to the staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for coverage of the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson and the chaotic events that followed. “A news organization is never tested more thoroughly than when a major story breaks in its backyard,” the contest judges said. “The Post-Dispatch was tested by a story that was fluid, emotional, important and not easily told with clarity and balance. It passed this test with textbook execution.”

Parties and the press

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By TERRY GANEY / The Jefferson City press corps has voted to give the Missouri Times until the end of March to clean up the news organization’s ethics mess or face the possibility of losing credentials to cover events in Missouri’s state capital. Ten representatives of wire service, print and broadcast news organizations met Monday to discuss the lobbyist-sponsored parties that Times’ publisher Scott Faughn had held for lawmakers at the newspaper’s office in Jefferson City. While some press corps members appeared ready to vote to take away the Times’ allocation of capital office and parking spaces, the group approved a motion giving it the chance to draft a newsroom policy of editorial independence as well as time to demonstrate that the lobbyist-sponsored parties were no longer taking place. Collin Reischman, the Times’ managing editor, told the group Faughn was not a journalist and was unschooled in ethics policies. And Reischman said Faughn was trying to hire a consultant to give advice on the development of a mission statement, an employee handbook and “best practices” that would prevent problems in the future.

Ferguson Coverage: News or “The Narrative”

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BY TERRY GANEY// In the hours leading up to the announcement of whether or not a Ferguson police officer would face charges for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, NPR’s Cheryl Corley listed all of the possibilities facing officer Darren Wilson.

Among them, Corley said, was the possibility he could be charged with first-degree murder or murder in the second degree. She listed other potential charges, too, and then went on to list what kind of sentence Wilson might have to serve if he were convicted.

Corley’s report ran parallel to the many narratives being repeated by national reporters that began soon after that August day when Brown was killed: Wilson was at fault, and if a St. Louis County grand jury would pursue justice, he would be brought to trial for what had happened.