This morning just after 7:30, I got e-mail from a blogger asking me for comment on an item on another blog saying that former Star columnist Rhonda Chriss Lokeman had been arrested on the evening of Jan. 1, 2009 on a DUI charge. There's a story about it now on KansasCity.com.
It was news to me. And as I discovered when I asked editors in the newsroom, nobody there knew about it there either, from the police/justice assistant city editor on up to editor and vice president Mike Fannin. Obviously, they know now. Reporters don't look at daily records of traffic violations and arrests, though anyone can find Missouri court records at Case.net. Cases have to be entered into the system before they're searchable there, obviously. Most media don't find out about traffic stops and arrests of notable people unless someone tips them off. That didn't happen here until this morning.
So do I think it should have been reported even today, asked one blogger who wrote me? Rhonda's a public figure with a very long history at The Star and The Kansas City Times. She started as a reporter in 1981, then joined the editorial board and began writing columns in 1984.
She resigned her position when her husband Mark Zieman became publisher in March of 2008, because company policy doesn't allow spouses to be in the direct line of supervision (and obviously, the publisher is over all employees). The Star carried her now-retired syndicated column from Creators up until Dec. 28 of last year, when the final one ran.
I'd say sure, this story is worth noting, inasmuch as she's a name who's known to readers of The Star.
Zieman blew it
Digusting. Lokeman is not only a former columnist for the Star, she's the wife of the publisher. Zieman owes every reader an apology.
“Lokeman worked for The
“Lokeman worked for The Star until April 2008, about a month after her husband, Mark Zieman, became publisher. Her syndicated column continued to appear in The Star until she retired after her Dec. 28 column.” Well, at least now we know what happened to Rhonda Chriss Lokeman. It is curious, though, that she is still listed as a columnist in the Opinion section of the Star’s website, even though she hasn’t officially worked for the Star and has been out on her own since April. In any event, her status as a “syndicated columnist” was a pretty obvious ploy to get around the nepotism rules at the Star. According to the website below, the Star was about the only major paper to publish her column.
Assuming she was driving under the influence, I do hope she gets the help she needs so something like this never happens again.
http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/2008/12/revealed-rhonda-chriss-lokeman-is.html
VOR, that's just an archive
VOR, that's just an archive of her columns, just like mine. No reason I can see to erase the past, since those pages are set up to stay in place for a year. But maybe the Web editors should remove her from the drop-down on "columnists," since she's not writing currently.
How many other syndicated
How many other syndicated columnists are listed there (and have an archive of their columns)? She is the only one, and she just happens to the spouse of the publisher. Go figure.
But all of that is just ancient history at this point. Like I said, I sincerely hope she gets the help she needs.
Point well taken. Really,
Point well taken. Really, that whole section of the Web site needs an overhaul. Mary Sanchez still writes for Opinion, but her column isn't listed at all on that page. The partial redesign of the top navigation and landing pages last year wasn't a total redo from the bottom up, which is what KansasCity.com needs. Rhonda isn't listed at all on the roster at the bottom of this page and I shouldn't really be in the same list as the editorial board columnists, since I am really part of the news side.