I was fascinated by Managing Editor Buzz Ball's page-one article in the Sunday Neosho Daily News about Neosho High School counselors.
The lead reads: "Excellence in education has always been the primary objective of public education, especially in the Neosho R-5 School District."
Hmm. While I enjoyed reading about my former co-workers Rob Lundien and Anne Bryan, I am concerned that Buzz seems to think that the Neosho school district prizes excellence more than other school districts. I am sure that those in the East Newton, Seneca, and McDonald County school districts also prize excellence in education.
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Speaking of Buzz Ball, he has written a considerable amount recently about his 50th birthday. I am approaching that same milestone later this month (actually 12 and a half, since I was born on Feb. 29). If I drone on as much about it as he has, please just put me out of my misery.
I have nothing against columnists writing about themselves, if they offer insight into some public issue or if they use it as a way to tell a story. Unfortunately, the vast majority of locally-written columns, including many that appear in the Daily, fall into that category. Opinion pages are meant to foster debate on local, regional, and national issues, and to shed light on persons and places in the news. A mixture of personal family stories and self-serving Jefferson City columns is not living up to that obligation.
5 comments:
Mr. Ball fears comment on a public issue more than duck hunting with Deputy Leader Chaney.
Buzz also did not double check his facts. The 8th and 9th grade counselor is John Baker not "George" Baker. Buzz always covers Neosho and that is it. Another reporter would have gotten info from various area counselors. For Buzz this is his area.
I agree with your thoughts about Buzz Ball, but Kay Hively always has something interesting and usually something new to me. The man she wrote about this week is someone I never head about. I am glad she brings things like that to the surface...I always learn something from her. She doesn't try to be something or say something that she isnt. And she doesn't suck up to people.
I was definitely not including Kay Hively in my indictment of the "me, me, me" columnists.
I, for one, enjoy columnists who can combine personal experience or insights with current events that touch the majority. I've seen a few columnists do this very well in the Globe and if the rumours I hear are true, one of those columnists who wrote at one time for the Globe will soon appear in the Neosho Daily.
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