Mar

29

KCTV gets a wrist slap for the fertilizer story

March 29, 2005 |

Last year KCTV-5’s Dave Helling got caught making shit up when he tricked a small town fertilizer salesman into selling him fertilizer for a bomb, even though the stuff he bought wasn’t actually explosive. Now the journalism watchdog Columbia Journalism Review has admonished Helling and KCTV for the incident. They also praise St. Louis’ KMOV-TV for their legitimate, well-executed version of the same concept. So not only did KCTV copy an idea from another station, they did so very badly. What part of “Live, Late-Breaking, Investigative” does this fall under?

Helling solemnly concluded, “It is clear tonight — very clear — that security remains a concern across the country.” Indeed it does. It is also clear — very clear — that shoddy journalism remains a concern across the country. Just ask Mr. McGraw.

Columbia Journalism Review, February 2005
Pitch Weekly’s Tony Ortega: Channel 5’s fertilizer bomb story keeps growing.
BlogKC: KCTV-5 Sleaze Exhibit A


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. the stranger on March 31, 2005 10:59 pm

    kc weekly review - april fool

    this is what happened to us this week: opedart.comthe women’s ncaa tourney was in town this week local blogger ryan wrote this depressing but beautiful essay about relationships. Spinners and other exorbitant auto accessories were still the rage for t…

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