Topic: Objective reporting

Photo of Dave Ranney, John Marshall, and Mike Shields

Interview of John Marshall, Mike Shields and Dave Ranney, July 30, 2025

Interviewed by Jim McLean

In this 2025 oral history interview, Jim McLean explored with John Marshall, Dave Ranney, and Mike Shields some of the issues they covered as Statehouse reporters and how news coverage has changed over the last fifty years. The three reporters, who all worked at Harris News, describe providing in-depth coverage, such as Marshall’s descriptions of school finance debates, Shields’ work on Kansas water issues, and Ranney’s articles on social services issues that impacted Kansans’ lives. Marshall noted that through Ranney’s reporting on social issues, “we found that for the first time we could raise the consciousness of almost the Show Moreentire community of Kansas. Made this an issue. Made this something that people talked about and were concerned with, especially legislators.” They shared their thoughts on how Harris News made “Kansans aware of Kansas” and the importance of covering local stories about local people and not just Topeka, Kansas City, and Wichita. They noted that today “we’ve lost the quality control of the information being presented out there.” They also recognized Dale Dennis, formerly at the Kansas Department of Education, and Richard "Dick" Ryan, former Director of the Kansas Legislative Research Department, as sources of detailed information to ensure that Kansans received accurate and reliable news from the Statehouse.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of Tim Carpenter, August 4, 2025

Interviewed by Jim McLean

In this 2025 interview, Tim Carpenter described how reporting from the Statehouse evolved over his almost 40-year career. The setting for the interview was the historic site, Red Rocks, which was the Emporia, KS home of renowned journalist William Allen White. Carpenter recalls that early in his career, reporters were given time for investigative reporting that informed the public about important issues. Today, due to drastic staff cuts, reporters often only are able to write about legislation after it has become law. He observed that that there has been a loss of an Show Moreopen leadership style and collegiality in the Statehouse, with some elected officials closing themselves off from the press and refusing to share information with the public -- while complaining about press coverage. Carpenter shared his concern that people only want “echo chambers” that tell them what they want to hear, and don’t distinguish between opinion pieces and factual reporting. In Carpenter’s words, “Now people are so combative they don’t even want to listen to other people’s ideas, and that’s to the detriment of all Kansans.”

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of Steve Kraske, September 11, 2025

Interviewed by McLean Jim

In this 2025 oral history interview, Steve Kraske reflected on his 33-year career as a political reporter and editor for The Kansas City Star covering the Kansas Statehouse. Kraske shared his memories of the Mike Hayden- Joan Finney gubernatorial race, the Bob Dole - Bill Roy US Senate race, and the conservative rise that began when the self-described “Rebels” such as Rep. David Miller, Rep. Kerry Patrick, and Tim Shallenberger were elected to the Kansas House of Representatives. In this interview, Kraske shared his observation that reporters “don’t hope for bad things because we Show Morehave hard questions. You hope all of this makes for a better state, a better community, a better country.”

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of John Hanna, December 19, 2025

Interviewed by Jim McLean

John Hanna recalled his long career as one of the top journalists in Kansas in this 2025 interview with Jim McLean. Hanna described how covering the Kansas legislature has changed from the years when several reporters were able to cover multiple committees each day to now where a single reporter has “to tell big, broad stories to the largest audience possible.” He observed that there is “still a need for good journalism to help organize and make sense of what’s going on and to write about patterns and trends and context.” Hanna acknowledged the difficulty of maintaining Show Morethe AP style of balancing every story and giving each side equal coverage when you know one of the sides is demonstrably not true. He observed that there is an organized campaign by national groups that are getting legislatures to act and that it is “important for the reader to understand—where it’s coming from, how money is being spent, who benefits, who doesn’t.”

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of Sherman Smith, June 8, 2026

Interviewed by Jim McLean

In this 2026 interview of Sherman Smith, the editor-in-chief of the Kansas Reflector, Smith discussed a career in the evolving landscape of journalism in the early 21st Century. He recounted his observations of the newspaper industry’s transition from hard copy to digital media and his experience starting out in the early days of that transition at the Topeka Capital-Journal. Smith was in an excellent position from which to observe the changes that occurred in both reporting and the business model of local newspapers as he held various positions over a decade and a half at the Capital-Journal. Smith Show Moremoved from the for-profit to the non-profit news sector, founding the online-only Kansas Reflector in 2020 — a time when many traditional news organizations were in decline. He described the importance of reporting to citizens’ oversight of state government and the role now filled by non-profit, digital-only news media across the nation. Smith observed that the public continues to appreciate ethical investigative reporting that holds public figures accountable. In Smith’s words, “The appetite for quality journalism has not gone away. I think that gives me hope for the future.” Show Less