Friday, February 10, 2006

NEWS-LEADER EXCLUSIVE?

Not really.

The big buzz in Springfield on Friday is about a new arena for Missouri State University. A compilation of all the leaks from the campus shows the arena will cost about $60 million; will be juiced by a $25 million gift from John Q. Hammons; and will be completed by late 2008.

We heard most of these details on KSMU, the public-radio station. They were first with the story at just before noon on Thursday.

So imagine our surprise when we read Friday's News-Leader (online, of course) and saw this curious tagline at the end of the paper's arena story:
News-Leader.com was first to report this story Thursday afternoon.
Technically, the newspaper could claim it was "first to report" on Thursday afternoon, because KSMU's report aired at 11:59 a.m. Thursday. Just know the newspaper wasn't the first to report the story, despite its preening tagline.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ron for keeping 'em honest!!

Anonymous said...

KSMU's radio report didn't do me any good, cuz I didn't hear it. I'm sure it was a good report if you say so but since they didn't bother to put it on their web site, most people like me missed it so what good is it? At least the News Leader site had the whole story when I looked for it yesterday afternoon. KSMU's web site didn't even have a story about the arena at all yesterday! You'd think THEY could get info about the new arena. They work at MSU!

Anonymous said...

Gee, anonymous 2, you didn't look very hard. I found it right away. http://ksmuonline.missouristate.edu/news.php?text=1544

Anonymous said...

I meant THURSDAY Doc. It's Saturday now. Of course you can find the link NOW. Read a little closer. They had nothing Thursday at all. I looked there, KY3, KOLR10, the others, even Chatter. Nothing on Thursday afternoon.

Give the paper credit. They actually had the story on-line where I could find it when I heard the rumors Thursday. Nobody else did.

I agree with Ron that the "first claim" at the end was a little childish, but isn't that what TV does all the time? Maybe it just looks different when newspapers sink to that level of self-promotion.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much this is going to raise student tutition?