'Born writer' wins broadcast journalism awards

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Some people are born writers, and Missy Shelton, governmental affairs producer at public radio station KSMU, knows she is one of them.|ret||ret||tab|

Shelton's skill and dedication won her the Radio and TV News Directors Association's regional Edward R. Murrow Award in March of this year. Competing against small market radio stations from several states, she received the award for a feature about adoption legislation in Missouri. She is waiting to hear if the same piece wins the national Murrow Award.|ret||ret||tab|

Her work also recently won KSMU an award for general coverage of education issues from the Missouri State Teachers Association. KSMU competed against all other radio stations in the state, and was the only Springfield news agency to receive an award. "It means we're doing the right thing in terms of education reporting," Shelton said.|ret||ret||tab|

"I started writing at a very young age," Shelton said. "I did creative writing as a child plays, poems and stories and that's still very important to me. I write facts all day, but it's nice to have an outlet where I can make up stuff and let my mind run free. It improves my writing at the station to be able to do that in my free time."|ret||ret||tab|

Free time doesn't come easily for Shelton. She drives to Jefferson City on Monday afternoons and returns to Springfield Thursday evenings. While in the state capitol, she covers legislative sessions and political developments. Her Missouri news reports become available to all National Public Radio stations nationwide when she posts them on a news Web site operated out of the capitol, and the reports are, in fact, aired in other states.|ret||ret||tab|

Shelton has been a journalist since her high school days in Kingsport, Tenn., where she ran editorial pieces in the school paper. |ret||ret||tab|

Later, as a journalism student at Missouri University in Columbia, she began to "intensively write radio and TV copy, and work for the NPR station in Columbia," she said. "I also filed pieces with KMOX radio in St. Louis, a talk radio affiliate of CBS. I primarily covered state government, and that's when I first fell in love with doing this." |ret||ret||tab|

Shelton admitted that prior to covering politics, she "honestly didn't care about it." After she started actually doing the work, however, she found that she wanted it to be her career. |ret||ret||tab|

"I fell in love with everything about it," she said. "Everything they do in the capitol is pertinent to my life as a taxpayer and a voter. I try to make this news accessible and interesting to people who are political junkies like me."|ret||ret||tab|

After college, Shelton found herself working at KNTV in San Jose, Calif., as an assignment editor, but "missed my fianc in Springfield and missed Missouri. I missed covering state government and the NPR reporting, which allowed me to look at issues rather than provide spot news coverage."|ret||ret||tab|

Shelton went to work at KSMU in February 1999. She said she was surprised to be allowed to cover both national conventions. |ret||ret||tab|

"To be a reporter at a national event was challenging but I love challenges and I love breaking new ground. It was so important to our listeners. I wanted to look at the bigger picture and show how it related to Missouri delegates," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Shelton and her fianc, Brad Belote, married in September 1999. Belote is a news producer at KY3 TV. "We have interesting conversations because we have different news philosophies and we debate how stories play out in the media," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Shelton believes that it is essential to be objective and fair when covering stories, so she doesn't consider herself a member of either major political party. |ret||ret||tab|

When she thinks a story might be slanted, she said, she asks someone else to listen and decide.|ret||ret||tab|

Her passion for her work is fueled by the fact that each day is different. "One day I'm covering abortion, the next education or environment," she said. "And I love the opportunity to interview real people who are willing to come to the capitol to testify for or against a bill that's going to committee. Here's an example there was a bill to ban handheld cell phones in cars. Hearing a mother testify (about her child's death in a motor vehicle accident involving a cell phone) put a human face on the issue. It's much more compelling when the audience hears the story about this woman."|ret||ret||tab|

Although Shelton said she wants to stay with KSMU for the foreseeable future "I have such tremendous support from the management and am encouraged to dream big" she added that ultimately she would like to work as a Capitol Hill correspondent for NPR in Washington, D.C., covering Congress or the White House.|ret||ret||tab|

According to Shelton, one of her most memorable local stories was when she covered the crash in which Gov. Mel Carnahan died. |ret||ret||tab|

"I almost got on the flight myself," she said. "I was scheduled to fly to New Madrid with them but it didn't work out. It was terrible. I had covered Carnahan for four years and knew him from having covered him and I knew Chris Sifford. I got what turned out to be the last recorded Carnahan interview. It was a light interview we had been joking, and it was informal. I was happy with that; it was a side of Carnahan people didn't see very often."|ret||ret||tab|

Such strong involvement with politics and politicians begs the question as to whether Shelton harbors political ambitions herself.|ret||ret||tab|

"I never say never, " Shelton admits. " I am interested in going to law school someday. At that point I might open the door to going the route of running for office, but right now I certainly don't have that ambition."|ret||ret||tab|

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