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NY Times pisses off KC vegans and vegetarians with lame BBQ stereotypes

BlogKC — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:51:56 +0000

A. G. Sulzberger, son of New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, is doing some time in the provinces, working at the Times’ Midwest bureau here in Kansas City. Since before moving here he’s been freaked out about being vegetarian in the world capital of barbecue. His most recent dispatch from the hinterlands is a terribly under-researched and un-informed piece that makes it sound as if we eat lard in our cereal and the streets run with cow blood.

The city’s vibrant growing vegetarian and vegan community is outraged, virtually pelting Sulzberger with tofu and seeds. Amber Shea’s Almost Vegan blog sums the vege-rage.

Apparently Sulzberger was too caught up in a bizarre obsession with ordering vegan food at Arthur Bryant’s to notice the many real options around the city. And he definitely seems to have missed KC’s recent star turn as the city to watch for culinary innovation in 2012.

Nonsense in the ‘Burbs puts KC in the national headlines

BlogKC — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:33:58 +0000

Look down there at the bottom of the MSNBC home page. Those last two headlines garnered national attention today for two of our beige neighbors.

In Independence, a lawn ornament is shot dead by cops when it’s mistaken for a live crocodile. In Overland Park, a naked jogger jumps into a busy public pool.

KSHB E-Tax Journalism FAIL

BlogKC — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:44:17 +0000

This is the current KCMO Election Board home page, an attempt to correct some very bad journalism over at KSHB-TV 41. The TV station has corrected the election story on their web site, but without any indication that there was a problem and a correction.

KC Star finally, finally revamps web site

BlogKC — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:52:33 +0000

Today the KC Star finally unveiled a much-needed facelift for the home page of its web site!

The old Knight-Ridder template had become an incredibly unusable hot mess with new features and ads bolted on willy-nilly over the years. The new site is a huge improvement that coherently organizes the news stories, tones down the advertising, and makes the font much more readable. The actual news content is no longer buried in small print by a competing array of ads and self-promotions.

Readers can also customize the home page a bit rearranging and even hiding the various news sections. Yes, you can even hide the Ink section!

Sadly, the new beauty is only skin deep. The Star has yet to carry the new home page design into the interior of the site.

African-Americans and Downtowners prevail in City Council Redistricting

BlogKC — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:40:06 +0000

Yesterday the City Council approved a redistricting map that:

preserves the 3rd and 5th Districts with 60% black populations,
moves all of Downtown into the 4th District,
splits Waldo between two districts,
and splits Latino communities and Old Northeast neighborhoods between three different districts.

See our previous post comparing the major choices in the redistricting.

KC Star: Council approves new boundaries for next election.

Tony reports that Lynn Horsely, the Star’s primary City Hall reporter, missed one of the biggest stories of the year due to being out for one of the newspaper’s mandatory furloughs. Appareantly the furlough policy doesn’t allow for flexibility when big stories break on a reporter’s beat.

Journalism FAIL

BlogKC — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:29:09 +0000

KMBC-TV 9′s Lara Moritz just referred to last week’s NAACP convention “in St. Louis” – even though it happened right here in Kansas City. Maybe Lara should be forgiven since her station recently moved from a building mere feet from … Continue reading →

Flooding coverage

BlogKC — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:41:16 +0000

KC Free Press has a recap of recent flash floods with a little bigger perspective than most of the local media. It notes new challenges in notifying the public weather emergencies when the few people left in front of TVs are watching DVRs instead of live programming.

One solution are the alert services and Twitter feeds offered by local media outlets. Unfortunately those tend to be cluttered with non-emergency and promotional messages. Our favorite is the KC Weather Podcast, which is also on Twitter. It’s one of the few that’s worth setting to send tweets to your phone.

Back with Beer and Boobs

BlogKC — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:59:26 +0000

We are back from a spring break with beer and boobs.

First, the boobs. Viewers of last night’s KSHB-TV 41 newscast witnessed a tube top malfunction when footage of Rockfest mudslides included some bare breasts. An ashen-faced Mark Clegg had to apologize on air. Sadly the offending footage has already been removed from the station’s web site.

Perhaps if Aggie Stackhaus had tried some topless mudsliding she wouldn’t be so upset about Rockfest trampling the grass in Penn Valley Park.

Second, the beer. The KC BeerFest returns to the city from its hinterland sojourn in the parking lots of Village West strip mall. The annual brewfest features microbrews from KC and around the country, including Avery, Bells, Boulevard, New Belgium, Unibroue, and many more. KC BeerFest starts at 1:00 p.m. Saturday in Westport.

Star lays off more people even though business is good

BlogKC — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:21:57 +0000

The KC Star has laid off more people, even though they seem to still be turning a profit and are seeing their ad business rebound. The constant layoffs at the newspaper aren’t about the Star’s business, but rather about a … Continue reading →

KC Downtown Documentary goes national

BlogKC — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:00:51 +0000

Last year’s documentary about the decline and redevelopment of Downtown Kansas City has gone national. It is currently airing on PBS stations across the country. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be scheduled for another local showing anytime soon.

www.nextamericandream.com