Star Readers’ Rep Makes a Case for the Dulls

BY DAVID MARTIN

Mailer had the balls the Star lacks.

Derek Donovan, The Kansas City Star’s readers’ representative, posed a question in a recent column: Should journalism be interesting?

Donovan says “yes.” But only to a point.

Seldom missing an opportunity to make the lively pursuit of journalism seem tedious, Donovan wrote a piece in Sunday’s paper about “newsmakers’ behind the scenes behavior.” Donovan threw out a generic example of an official “who has a pattern of uncivil behavior behind closed doors.” Does the conduct belong in print?

Donovan suggests that readers would get a more “truthful” picture if reporters didn’t save stories of politicians’ blowing tops for the barroom. Still, as he usually does, Donovan finds room to equivocate. He fails to put a name to an example and ultimately concludes that the proper amount of descriptiveness remains “an open question,” the rallying cry of the mealy mouthed.