FEEDBACK: "I can understand where the Star is coming from, sending someone like Aaron Barnhart to cover the Zona Rosa "event." With all the layoffs, it's not surprising that the few reporters still kicking around are having to stretch themselves, beat-wise. "It wouldn't surprise me at all to open the paper and see Joe Posnanski reviewing the Kansas City Ballet's "Nutcracker" performance, or Jenee Osterheldt writing a op-ed piece analyzing Obama's economic team, or Yael T. Abouhalkah or even Mark Zieman himself pitching in on the "Top O' the Mornin'" column from time to time. In these ecnomically challenging times, I guess they're lucky to have newspaper jobs at all."
Stop the Presses!! The Fairy Princess has arrived at Zona Rosa.
11-24-2008 STAR TV CRITIC NOW ON FAIRY BEAT How tough are things at the Kansas City Star these days? So tough that national TV critic Aaron Barnhart has been relegated to covering the arrival of the "Fairy Princess" to Zona Rosa shopping Center (LINK). He was also called on to write a recent KCSymphony story. Is a QuikTrip store groundbreaking on the horizon? If that isn't bad enough, Barnhart actually had his by-line on the Fairy story. It's the kind of story that would normally be covered by a journalism intern--or no one at all. Speculation is that Zona Rosa is an important Star advertiser and that may have led to the assignment of a veteran journalist. Barnhart is philosophical about the hard-hitting assignments. "Yes, in these economically challenging times (as the higher-ups keep calling it), we're all pitching in at the paper," he wrote on his TV Barn site.
FEEDBACK (11-25-2008): The Public Relations representative for Zona Rosa, Megan Neher, has written a response on a blog explaining why the arrival of the Fairy Princess deserves coverage by one of the Kansas City Star's leading columnists. She says that as a former journalist she knows news and that the Fairy Princess is an important story and deserves suitable coverage.
12-01-2008 Barnhart is also doing listings for the KC Symphony.
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