05-01-2008 STRATHMAN SAYS KCTALK NOT SOURCE FOR SWEEPS PIECE Jenn Strathman, "Call for Action" reporter at KSHB, said in no way did she get her idea for a sweeps story on Franklin Suzuki from a discussion board. KSHB-TV41 vs. Posters? Strathman responded to the question during an interview on the Darla Jaye talk show on KMBZ-980 Thursday morning that she had received much of her information from a blog site. Posters on kctalk.com claimed the story had been on their site for months with officials from Franklin Suzuki attempting to explain their actions. Moderators at kctalk were expecting Strathman to give them credit for it and notified their members to watch the piece. However, kctalk was never mentioned and members of the discussion board are furious. Strathman was adamant that she first began hearing about the story from viewers last spring. "We absolutely, positively did not get the story from the blogosphere," she told Jaye. "We have received hundreds of calls on our 'Call For Action" about Franklin and those were the source for our story." Officials from kctalk.com developed a response 5/2 and Strathman responded 5/3 (both below).
FEEDBACK FROM JENN STRATHMAN, 5-01-2008:
"...I became aware of the blog concerns over whether we would or would not give credit to KCTalk yesterday afternoon. I can assure you that I did not take the story from the blog. I did not become aware of the blog until midway through my research. "My complaints came directly to me and Call for Action. We get hundreds of complaints a month, and the complaints to CFA directly were the source of the story. I've had pretty frank conversations with my victims and gotten to know them quite well and in candid conversation the blog has never come up. So, I'm not sure any of them even blog there. "I believe in giving credit where credit is due and our station has given credit to bloggers on previous stories where they have been the source. Right now KCTalk did not fit into my story because it's not how I found out about this story. I hope this clarifies some of the concerns. Thanks."
-----Jenn Strathman, Call for Action Reporter, NBC Action News
FEEDBACK FROM KCTALK REPRESENTATIVE (05-02-2008)
First, let me respond that KCTalk.com is not an accredited news site. We do not issue news articles or have hired or freelance reporters. We are an online community that allows people to gather and voice opinions on whatever they wish to discuss.
With that said, our site has and continues to be on this hot issue since September of 2007. In this time we have called Chad Franklin Auto Sales in the attempt to bring their attention to this matter. We also sent emails to the dealership.
Finally we got one of their representatives to join the site and try and help people. This did not work. It appeared that the representative was trying to relay information from the Corporate Offices of Chad Franklin and give instructions to people that were feeling cheated on how to get some progress with their cases. The members on our site would follow those instructions to the letter only to be allegedly lied to once again.
When all these aspects of trying to help our community failed, we pushed to start contacting "Call For Action" to bring their attention to the potential legal issues that were being voiced on our site. This was Channel 41 here in Kansas City, NBC Action News. Ultimately this is the station that decided to take the story.
Jen at NBC stated she did not know our site even existed until the night of the first broadcast of this story. This is almost impossible in our opinion as it was our members that she has been in contact with. Over 100 members stated that they contacted her just for information. I am more than positive she talked to people that never heard of the site also. She stated never in months of talking with them was KCTalk.com ever brought up. This was discounted in a post over month and a half ago by one of our members who posted that they told her directly that he was referred to Jen from KCTalk.com.
Also as a reporter one of the first things that would be done is to Google the name "Chad Franklin" to see what comes up. KCTalk.com is the first returned result even over the dealerships own site.
As to reports that NBC "stole the story from KCTalk.com", this is impossible. We never had a "story" posted to steal. Our surprise is the fact that people have reported to us that they told her directly they were being sent to her from KCTalk.com, but she did not know the site existed. There is over 1,100 posts of information from well over 100 different people on this issue at KCTalk.com and she never researched it or used it to develop a story? If this is the case, then there is some terrible reporting happening, which I do not feel NBC does. As for proof that she used KCTalk.com for her story, if we did have the proof, we would not want to make NBC out to be a liar for helping out Kansas City by taking this story. That was and still is the important goal in getting NBC involved.
We are not wanting credit for the story, nor do we deserve credit for the story. It was our understanding that we helped to develop the story with the information that we have available for anyone to see. We felt that we deserved at lease credit as a source for this information and helping to assemble the people that ultimately she has and continues to contact for future runs of this issue.
Ultimately though, our focus at KCTalk.com is for our members. The fact that they are getting some help to obtain resolution through NBC Action News is great. I am more than happy to see that a station finally stood up to a company that is in my opinion hurting our community as a whole here in Kansas City. While it would be nice to acknowledge that we helped NBC develop this story if that is the case, the fact remains that people are getting help with a serious problem, and that alone is thanks enough for doing what we do at KCTalk.com.
Frank Arena KCTalk.com Administration Team
Jenn Strathman
Jenn Strathman Responds (05-03-2008):
Just some points to clarify in response to KCTalk comments. I think KCTalk is a great reosource for people to voice their opinions and appreciate their response. However, there are a few points to clarify. KCTalk mentions�. "Jen at NBC stated she did not know our site even existed until the night of the first broadcast of this story." In my statement, I said I did not know of the concerns over the credit issue until the night of the broadcast. As for this comment from KCTalk� "She stated never in months of talking with them was KCTalk.com ever brought up. This was discounted in a post over month and a half ago by one of our members who posted that they told her directly that he was referred to Jen from KCTalk.com." As for the post a month and a half ago stating that I was contacted by a member of KCTalk�.my emails confirm that member did not contact me until April 15. My story was pretty solid at that point. I have spoken with that individual and he re-posted that he was mistaken on KCTalk and he contacted another station in March, not NBC Action News. He did not contact me until April 15th. Several KCTalk members have contacted me since and they have been helpful in continuing to monitor this situation. I think it�s great there is a blog out there for people to voice their opinions, but again I did not find out about this story from KCTalk. ---Thanks. Jenn
