Best Newscaster

Occasionally, we at the Pitch find ourselves shoulder-to-shoulder with our journalistic peers, covering press conferences or events sure to make the nightly news. Much of the time, the events themselves aren't nearly as entertaining as the folks who come to cover them, in particular the TV news crowd. Whereas newspaper reporters are often dowdy and stale, broadcast journalists swoop in, all vain and urgent, with intoxicating displays of made-for-TV drama. The best, of course, also ask good, hard, fast questions aimed at getting straight answers from the powers that be. Channel 5's Dave Helling is a top player when unleashed from his anchor desk. But the best is KMBC Channel 9 news reporter Micheal Mahoney. Whether he's in the face of Mayor Kay Barnes or moonlighting as a pundit on KCPT Channel 19's Kansas City Week in Review, Mahoney seems far more interested in the substance of his words than in the inflection he uses to vocalize them. (If that seems like a low standard of excellence, you're not watching enough TV news.) As a side note, Mahoney could portray a mouse with almost no makeup. Beat that, Anthony Powell.