Tag Archives: Rich Steele
Steele: Why Star Downplayed NC Muslim Slaying
Each day the Kansas City Star emails “Your Morning News,” a summary of its Top 10 news stories of the day… Before opening my email, I guessed that the tragic slaying of three young Muslims – two of them female in … Continue reading
Steele: Star’s Brownback OCD May Be Fatal
As I write this, three of the five “trending stories” on the Kansas City Star‘s website involve Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and his budget… In one of the stories the Star absolves KCK’s much discussed 48K piano for Kansas’s budget … Continue reading
Steele: The Star Is Wrong About ‘Pianogate’
“So maybe the ‘optics’ are unfortunate,” reads the opening sentence in the Kansas City Star editorial on Pianogate, “but the Kansas City, Kan., school board ought to be applauded for investing in its students.” For starters, any editor who uses “optics” … Continue reading
Steele: The Media ‘Misremember’ a Lot of Stuff
NBC anchorman Brian Williams has taken more fire over his remarks about Iraq than he ever took over Iraq itself… In the process, Williams has added a handy new locution to the lexicon of the disingenuous, the word “misremember.” A … Continue reading
Hearne: The Star is Right, Sumner Piano Controversy a Non Issue
All of you who think I’ve got an undying hate of the Kansas City Star take notice… I’m just as capable of praising them at times as I am of bagging on them. Yeah, it’s far easier to criticize and … Continue reading
Steele: So Why Does KCK Super Make Twice What Guv Does?
“What’s the Matter with Kansans Valuing Tax Cuts above Education?” KCK School Superintendent Cynthia Lane asks in her blog. “Have we considered the ramifications of these actions on our communities and way of life? Perhaps Kansas is comfortable accelerating a system of the … Continue reading
Steele: A $47,000 Piano but Kansas Schools Are Hurting?
There’s scarcely a media outlet in the world that has not wept a Niagara of tears for the alleged slashing and eviscerating of the Kansas education budget… The outcry is so universal that even Aljazeera America–typically mum about the slashing … Continue reading
Steele: How KC Can Spare Itself a St. Louis-Style Bloodbath.
No one tracks crime and punishment more analytically than local political scientist Dr. Ernest Evans… Evans predicted what would happen in St. Louis after the Michael Brown shooting on August 9, and his predictions have come sadly true. In the … Continue reading
Steele: KCTV Risks PC Blowback, Praises City Union Mission
In a recent piece on the City Union Mission, KCTV5 did a positive story about the excellent work the Mission has been doing for the last 90 years with the area’s homeless… Notably, KCTV5 did so without mentioning the Mission’s policy on … Continue reading
Steele: Is The Star Getting the ‘Teen’ Message?
In a refreshing change, nowhere in the article on the abduction of a south Kansas City man does Kansas City Star reporter Matt Campbell refer to the accused, De’zahn James Carey, as a “teen.” He’s referred to only as a … Continue reading
Steele: Am I the OP Abduction Suspect?
According to KCTV5, the suspect in an attempted kidnapping last week in Overland Park was “described as 6′ tall, heavy-set, and was wearing a ball cap and a dark heavy coat.” Let’s see, 6′ tall? That’s me. Ball cap? Me. … Continue reading
Steele: Oh No, ‘Lobbyists’ See Brownback Budget
The Sam Brownback budget is to the editors at the Kansas City Star what Moby Dick was to Ahab, what Bill Clinton was to Monica, what snow is to CNN (Juno, anyone?)–an unhealthy obsession bordering on mania… The latest breathtaking … Continue reading
Steele: Missouri Dem Office Squabble Gets Nasty
As reported in the Missouri Torch, Democratic State Rep Keith English of Florissant got a new office and made some new enemies… Apparently, English was awarded the office after crossing party lines to help Republicans overturn a Jay Nixon tax … Continue reading
Steele: More of Those Mischievous “Teens”
The Kansas City Star headlined its story on the recent water park death of a young black girl, “Three KC teens charged with murder in slaying of 14-year-old Alexis Kane.” The Star is hardly unique in its use of the … Continue reading
Steele: Have Kansas Teachers Become The Rural Aristocracy?
Although rural Kansas school districts do not have anything like the seventy-four $100K-plus employees of the Blue Valley District or the sixty-two $100K-plus employees in Shawnee Mission, they don’t do half bad – especially compared to the people paying their … Continue reading
Steele: Guess How Many Blue Valley Employees Make 100K +
Employees of the Blue Valley School District have got to enjoy the chronic editorial handwringing about the alleged underfunding of public schools… In between calls to their stockbrokers and money managers, this has to be a subject of great amusement … Continue reading
Steele: Steve Kraske, Please Tell Us The Sebelius Story Is A Joke
The featured Kansas City Star headline reads as follows, “Kathleen Sebelius criticizes Gov. Sam Brownback’s vision for Kansas.” This is one of two prominent Brownback-bashing articles in Wednesday’s newspaper – by freelance political writer Steve Kraske – a slow day … Continue reading
Steele: St. Louis PD Goes Silent on Crime Stats
“Just checked the STL Police Dept. website,” wrote a criminologist friend who monitors crime trends. “Not only do they not have the latest homicide stats, but they even took off the stats from the week ending Jan. 13–the current listing … Continue reading
Steele: Star Goes OCD on Brownback Budget
In the same week that the Kansas City Star will editorialize rhapsodically about Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, one in which he will lay out the numerous new ways in which he plans to keep increasing the national … Continue reading