Thursday, October 15, 2009

Branson Daily News shirks its duty on Pete Newman/Kanakuk coverage


A prominent member of the community is charged with felony sex crimes involving underaged boys. The case has received national attention, yet the community newspaper, for the most part, has acted as if nothing ever happened.

Since the arrest of Pete Newman, former director of Kanakuk Kamps, Branson, Sept. 14, the Branson Daily News, the newspaper of record for the community, has written only one story...waiting five days to do that...about the case. Considering the prominence of both Newman and Kanakuk in the community, the story calls out for a follow-up, but so far nearly four weeks have passed and not a word has been written as far as I can determine.

Perhaps I am being a bit overcritical though. In a community like Branson big news stories are happening all the time. A check of the current online edition of the Branson Daily News shows the business community is battling underage drinking, and the mailman started the American Tarantula Society. And those are the only stories on the homepage.

Perhaps the newspaper will devote some of its resources to the Pete Newman story once these breaking stories slow down.

2 comments:

Kathee Baird said...

Hi Randy,

I have a call in to Taney County prosecutor Jeff Merrell.

There is a prosecutors conference going on this week so I bet it will be Tuesday before I hear back from him.

Anything you would like me to ask him?

k

Randy said...

No questions that I can think of, Kathee, other than those i am sure you will ask him I look forward to seeing your post.