KODE put anchor Tara Brown in the field today and if her story on the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts is any indication, it should happen more often.
Ms. Brown put the KODE stamp on the continuing story of the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church child molestation scandal, with the station's package including an interview with a former member of the alleged cult.
Also featured were the obligatory courtroom photos and an interview with the McDonald County deputy who investigated the case.
One question: Were any stipulations included in the bond concerning contact with children? Often those things are mentioned on case.net and this time it wasn't.
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It wasn't the top news story of the day, but Jennifer Denman of KOAM also landed a big get, talking with the father of one of the Riverton students who were arrested in connection with an alleged Columbine-style plot. The father said his son would be attending night classes all through the 2006-2007 school year and will be allowed to return to Riverton High School for his senior year.
Might be the most work Tara has done in quite some time.
ReplyDeleteYou can always tell when an anchor wants out of the market, they start doing work! It's all just video to put on a resume tape.
ReplyDeleteRandy: You may want to examine further how Denman got the interview. Some serious journalistic ethics are in play there.
ReplyDeleteAgreed about the resume tape thing. Asking obvious questions like "Do you think your clients are innocent" is hardly needed. Acting like you are a badass and waiting outside for the "ambush" interview is just stupid looking. Especially when the attorney would likely give the same answers if you just asked him nicely.
ReplyDeletenice to see Randy finally warming up to KODE. they've got the most exciting newscast in this area.
ReplyDeleteExcept for my constant disapproval of the crawl at the bottom of their newscasts, I have been consistent over the past few months with approval for many of the things I have seen on KODE. KODE has a strong stable of reporters with a good mix of talented younger reporters and veterans and for the most part it sticks to the news at the top of the hour rather than striving for a Regis and Kelly feel. There is still plenty of room for improvement, but the effort has been there.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to see a good reporter like Denman have her ethics questioned by a jealous competitor. If you had any ethics you wouldn't accuse someone of doing something wrong before you even knew the circumstances. Keep up the good work Denman you are a top notch reporter with hard-core ethics. Maybe some of the girls and boys at KSN and KODE should go to journalism school and learn how to do real news. KODE does have some quality reporters in Shannon Bruffet and even the arrogant Dan Tordjman (who takes credit for his photographers contacts). But there are a few interoffice romances going on between the two stations that would lead one to believe the attack on Ms. Denman is nothing more than a jealous girlfriend shooting off her mouth.
ReplyDeleteDan Tordjman is arrogant? Everything you said is disqualified based on that assessment. The guy comes in early, stays late and is one of the best people to be around. Always smiling and has a great work ethic. He'll be missed at KODE.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to know what soap operas are going on between the 2 stations, just go to their trashy myspace sites. That will tell you enough. Nice to know these "pillars of the community" are setting good examples for the youth in the area. Their trashy, foul-mouthed language, followed by their references and pictures of drinking is enough to makes these "professionals" rated R!! Clean up your act guys and gals! All of the kids in the area look up to you and read your myspace sites regularly.
ReplyDeleteBack to the topic....Tara did a great job on that story.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see Tara is not just reading, but commenting.
ReplyDeleteThey are people in their early 20's for the most part. You can't honestly expect nun-like actions. It's as you would expect for the set of circumstances.
ReplyDeleteYou should look into why a Jasper County Deputy on his myspace has his new fangled cowboy hat on and is playing with his gun. His wife too...
Hey Tara way to go, its seems like some of your co workers are jealous because you went after the story and they didn't. Its only obvious that someone outside of KODE wouldn't right that stuff. Keep up the hard work.
ReplyDeleteYa, keep up the work. The sooner your resume tape gets filled with self-serving stories, the sooner you can leave.
ReplyDeleteResume tape huh, sounds like someone's a little jealous. Tara's a hard working journalist. Maybe some of you, if not ALL of you TV folk need to learn from her. I don't remember the last time any of you local stations put a story together like hers.
ReplyDeleteIf going out on a story once every few months counts and doing nothing at work counts as hard working, then perhaps this industry is more messed up than one can imagine.
ReplyDeleteStanding outside waiting to ask an attorney some questions in a fake confrontational manner and getting an interview with the sherriff's department is hardly breathtaking.
Delve into the history of the church, community involvement/knowledge, the workings of religious whackjobs, get some victim or victim family interviews, etc, then we can start to address a complete story.
In response to the comment made earlier about Jennifer Denman being a great reporter.....i don't agree. She has potential, sure; but having met and worked with her first hand, I can tell you that it usually helps if the reporter has character on top of her skill. It also helps if everyone at KOAM would stop putting her on such a high pedistal just because she kisses a lot of butt. As for her handling of the Riverton stories, did anyone even notice that she didn't even ask them if they planned on going through with the plan; or even if they were involved with it at all? No - she went for the 'porr little me, I'm the real victim here' story about kids who wanted to kill everything around them. I'm sorry, but that's crap reporting.
ReplyDeleteTara came on like a bull in a china shop during that ambush interview, then went and hid out from the rain in her fancy high-dollar jeep. Meanwhile, Rick Peck from McDonald County and John Ford from Neosho had gotten the same information 20 minutes earlier from attorney Dewayne Cooper without being jerks about it.
ReplyDeleteGood job? No way, Jose. Tara probably couldn't even have told you where McDonald County was a couple of weeks ago. All hat and no cattle, my rancher dad would say.
Hey rancher's son...don't miss those tryouts at the Joplin stockyards.
ReplyDelete"The Farmer Wants a Wife"...I wonder how many stories KODE will milk from this show.
Randy, you should know not to put up the anchor's pic on the web site especially a female's. You are getting the hens all upset.
I worked in one of those newsrooms not to long ago and remember the female anchor at KODE was always the most hated.
I could never understand it. It happened it the past and it will happen again in the future.
I would post my name but I don't feel like taking the abuse that other reporters have gone through.
As my dairy farming daddy from Oklahoma would say...if you squeeze to hard you might spill the milk. (I was hoping this would segue nicely from the previous comment)