Category Archives: Hearne_Christopher
Hearne on the Street: Portrait of Dorian Jasper, Weiner Dog Floats & Shrunken St. Patrick’s
About that recent, long overdue Star story about the many successes of Jasper J.J. Mirabile…
You know, the one that featured a photo of Mirabile holding his life-sized “Flat Jasper” Continue reading
Hearne: Dam Torpedos KC Radio Market
As party crashers go, new FM signal 103.7 The Dam ranks with the best…
From out of nowhere, the local active (as in hard) rock station crashed onto local airwaves last week – burning hard, loose and clean. With a leprechaun Continue reading
Star Search: Saturday, a Good Day to Watch the Snow
News you can use? There’s some… Like that the Kansas City Missouri School District will now have 41 empty schools for sale with the recently proposed closing of 26 more schools. That blows away even the repurposing of the Sprint … Continue reading
Hearne: KC Star Rewrites KU History & “Lezak Crushed My Balls!”
As dramatic as Northern Iowa’s upset of KU in the NCAA tourney was, an email blast from the local newspaper of record was even more startling!
Check it:
Seven minutes later the Star clued in:
******* Continue reading
Star Search: KCMO School Ditch Day, No Texting Bill, Palin Money Grab & FYI Snoozer
Some days – by newspaper standards anyway – there just isn’t much compelling news…
Which isn’t to say there’s not going to be a Kansas City Star in your driveway. At first blush today’s newspaper doesn’t look like an impulse buy. There’s a syndicated Continue reading
Star Search: Week-Old Web News Tops Front Page, Hendricks Face Plants Again
Who said news need be new?
The uppermost headline on today’s front page: “March Puts Car Market In Drive; In the month’s first eight days, U.S. sales hit an annualized rate of 12.5 million, a Web site finds.”
Breaking news about the auto industry unearthed by the hometown paper?
Nah, this news isn’t Continue reading
Star Search: Closing TV Barn Door, Wizards Wanton & West Edge Wooer
There’s a gale force storm heading the Wednesday Star’s way…
Food for near future thought.
Now a brief missive for readers of a certain journalistic stripe who would paint Star Search into a corner of their own design: this isn’t your father’s Olds; the mission here is not to read TV Barn or seek excuses for perceived shortcomings. It’s merely to read the daily print edition of the Kansas City Star and sort it out as any paying customer might. That I worked there – heavily edited – for 16 years, writing FYI columns, news stories for Continue reading
Star Search: Shotgun Reporting, Cleaver’s Ride & Dead Men Must Cough Up
A friend of mine at the Star argues that whatever its flaws, locals should embrace and support the newspaper as the single authoritative source of local news….
I agree.
But just as the Star supports arts, entertainment, business and government, it also ushers forth to critique and comment upon them – for better and for worse. The idea being that criticism can be constructive.
Isn’t what’s good for the news goose also good for local ganders?
On that note, let’s take a look at Tuesday’s Front Page.
“Reading, Writing and 27 Shotguns,” reads a headline, leading to a story about Federal Education Department agents wielding sawed-off shotguns. An interesting spin, but the headline and treatment make it sound like teachers and scholarly types are packing.
That’s not the case, as a full reading of the story reveals. So why spin it like that with all the too-cute wordplay? Continue reading
Star Search: Meat Goat Crisis Exaggerated, Unexplained & Outhouse Stabbings
There’s a more interesting front page mix of stories today…
Who knew, for example, that meat goats were in short supply? Owing to an influx of people from other countries where goat meat is widely consumed.
The timeliness of this story is another matter…
The headline reads: “No kidding, goats are in short supply.” So like, there’s a dramatic new shortage or goat crisis or something here?
In a word, no. This is a story that could have been written ago. And guess what, it was. Continue reading
Star Search: Legends Catches Outlet Mall Flu & St. Pat’s Parade – Whose is Bigger?
Freaky Friday…
Ever go two, three days where you were too busy to curl up with the newspaper – life goes on, right? Did with me.
That said, let’s take a belated look at Friday’s Star where a single heavy duty news story about the Legend’s in KCK going outlet mall leads the charge on the front page. It starts with word of a name change Continue reading
Star Search: Jack the Ripper Goes Waldo, Danni Boatwright Returns!
Still playing catchup, still breathing, life goes on…
Did I miss anything vital Saturday by not reading the Star until the wee hours Sunday? Let’s find out.
Let’s see, Continue reading
Star Search: Charles Gusewelle on Collecting Shells & Viewing Manatees
It’s Sunday, comics are colorized, an ad’s on the front page and finally news we can use…
A-1 Section: Looks like the KCMO school closings may lead to larger classes, less learning.
And hoo boy, a front pager that goes however many paragraphs in detailing a family’s wake up routine, right down to dialogue like: “Hi, sweetie,” “Hi, baby” and “How did you sleep?”
Now there’s a grabber lead-in to a story about gadgets. Not. Continue reading
Hearne: Is Our Misery Lezak’s Joy?
Ah, the fine line between love and hate Continue reading
Hearne: Wyandotte Co. Crackheads & the Waldo Rapist
Local headliner comic Mike Smith has a keen sense of humor.
For example, he thinks politically correct types shouldn Continue reading
Hearne: Can Man With Plan Save Westport?
The competition is mighty and the mighty have fallen…
Without a doubt tough, times have hit the party zone known as Westport. Not even counting the obvious – Power & Light, Plaza, Martini Corner & Waldo – the once prosperous Westport is down, way down, but not totally out. And a drowning entertainment district will grab at whatever it can. Continue reading
Star Search: Whitlock Moonlights on Fox, Skips Out on Star for Big 12
Maybe I need to get my size ultra-small thinking cap adjusted…
But I’m suffering from a minor case of shock and awe over Continue reading
Star Search: Ferris Whitlock’s Day Off, Rebirth of Jasper’s & Walt Bodine (Almost) Takes a Bullet
A long overdue omission is rectified in today’s Kansas City Star…
In the form of a well-written story Continue reading
Star Search: The Issue of News Judgment, Future of Sports & Color Comics
It’s back to work for what currently constitutes the full Kansas City Star newsroom…
Tuesday is the first fully staffed paper of the week, following the Star’s skeletal weekend staffing.
Let’s see what they got!
Okay, time out. Looking at today’s front page reminds me of how difficult it is to come up with truly poignant news stories and features. I won’t pretend that if I ruled the world, things would be any easier.
The problem is twofold… Continue reading
Hearne: The Flip Side of Norah Jones at the Midland
Alow me to begin this “review” by saying that I know Brian McTavish and I’m no Brian McTavish…
But since McT got trapped off base somewhere between Gretchen Wilson and the Ballet Ball, I batted for him Saturday at Norah Jones’ concert at the Midland by AMC.
The venue was superb; the sound lighting, staffing – all first order. Which brings us to the show.
So let’s cut to the chase… Continue reading
