Earlier this year, a couple hours after midnight, while looking through archived newspapers an editor, publisher and I were debating who the best writer in the area was.
I said Kathryn Buckstaff and I stand by the statement.
Graced with spectacular vernacular, Buckstaff has published three books, several magazine articles and hit the front page of the Springfield News-Leader on a regular basis.
To Buckstaff, reporting was all about relationships. She had the exclusive on some great stories and earned loyalty from much of Branson's top brass.
Her stories were the most likely to be framed, should an area business have a keepsake from a regional paper.
Her love for the community made some stories difficult to cover.
Mike Brittain, member of the council of elders told me it's impossible to write without bias and there were moments when I challenged hers - she politely responded - thanks for reading. Read I did.
She hated politics - reporting was far less a love than writing.
She hated having her picture taken but - if you took a shot anyway chances are you'd catch her smiling.
I can personally say, I've learned a lot from Kathryn Buckstaff
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Ron Davis reports the Springfield News-Leader eliminated the Branson Bureau after 20 years. Kathryn Buckstaff was the Branson Bureau Chief.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Kathryn Buckstaff
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4 comments:
Why can't Springfield be Springfield and Branson just be Branson. We are now building an airport that is suppose to accommodate anything that comes our way, so lets get Branson off the Springfield National Airport. It might be best to ask them to take the name off than to sit and do nothing and have them scratch it off.
Springfield had their chance at Country Music back in the 1950s with the Ozarks Jubilee, and let it slip away. Springfield could have been the Branson of the Ozarks, but we know how that played out.
Perhaps the jury is still out on the Branson Landing vs the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau. Remember the old saying there is room for many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, i.e. the future of Branson Convention Center. A start up convention of 300 school administrators is a pretty poor showing.
Thanks for giving me something to chew on.
Kathryn Buckstaff gave Branson a lot of good scoops - stayed on a side of a political aisle no other reporters in Branson have.
I wanted to pay my respects.
The larger issue is Gannett itself.
On Branson Agent, the media intelligence blog we posted Gannett's stock price with a graph sloping downwards.
Since, in some cases Gannett is responsible for giving us the best coverage (In others they're not - all have their strong points.
Ganett has invested 20 years in Branson - making them the longest standing press (all others have been bought out in the last 5 years - the labels reman).
Branson relies heavily on the Springfield market. We have a symbiotic relationship with them and the Springfield News-Leader gives us a lot of ink in a large area. We spend tens now hundreds of thousands of dollars to market to the Springfield area.
Springfield isn't about Country Music but it's important to the Branson economy.
There are vital services they provide to our infrastructure....
I agree its sad our community is losing coverage and support. But to say that Kathryn Buckstaff steered from politics is a joke. She squished stories and was bias on her stories that went to print. Her relationships with previous alderman kept her from being nonobjective. Not saying she is not a good writer, but she needs an opinion page and not citing articles of fact.
I agree on some of your points.
She had a close relationship and tended to lean towards the political beliefs of our "economic progressives.
Some areas she didn't cover at all - (highly unlikely to cover the county seat and wasn't a big fan of our county leadership)
However, her bias is far less underhanded than the 7 week tax lobbying effort of "paid off" reporters trying to shove special interest money to private hands.
These acts are far more hideous and show a severe lack of ethics.
As I wrote in the post, where she was biased I challenged her on.
It's hard not to be biased but to lobby on the front page of the newspaper, failing to disclose revenue sources, aligning and negotiating for a tax increase takes the cake....It's really hard for me to watch - Buckstaff never did that....
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