Knute: ‘Don’t let anyone put you in a box’

Award-winning journalist gives advice for students entering the workforce

BY BARRY MCNAMARA

During her award-winning career in broadcast journalism, Caitlin Weinstein Knute ’01 has not yet given a commencement speech. But the talented news anchor for television station KSHB-41 in Kansas City was able to reply very quickly with advice from her career for the students at her alma mater who’ll soon be entering the workforce.

“Step out of your comfort zone and try different things,” said Knute. “Don’t be afraid of failure. There’ll be bosses who are not what you’re hoping for and jobs you don’t get. I can’t imagine doing anything other than what I’m doing now. I knew what I wanted to do and I kept going after it. If opportunities aren’t there, create them.”

Her other advice ties into the “award-winning” portion of her résumé: “Don’t let anyone put you in a box.”

When Knute was getting started in the industry, she was told her strengths lie in covering lighter stories.

“Now, I’m an investigative reporter,” she said.

And she’s a good one. Knute brought home two honors from the 46th Annual Mid-America Emmy Awards.

One of her winning pieces, titled “A Hero for Homeless Students,” won in the education/ schools category, while the other Emmy winner, “Bonded Through Tragedy,” earned the top honor in the societal concerns division.

The latter piece profiled two mothers from different backgrounds who lost sons to “police-involved shootings,” then struck up “a genuine friendship despite, on the surface, not seeming to have much in common.”

“One of the mothers lost her son in a shooting in Overland Park (in 2018),” said Knute. “He was white, 17 and the police shot into his minivan 13 times. He was hit six times. The case created a lot of attention.”

For the other incident — a 24-year-old Black man killed by police in 2013 — there was far less media coverage.

“The moms met at a support group, and we came to learn about it as a potential story,” said Knute. “When talking with them, the one mother pointed out that the coverage for the Overland Park shooting far outweighed the other shooting. Upon reflection, I thought, ‘This mom’s right.’”

Knute’s piece not only chronicled the friendship, but also examined what the police can be doing better.

“It was not an anti-police story by any means,” she said. “It’s just a push for more police transparency.”

The other story grew out of Knute’s larger interest in reporting on homelessness in Kansas City.

While doing that reporting, she came to learn about Arthur Seabury, who teaches at Hogan Prep Academy, which has the highest population of housing-challenged students in the metro area.

Knute said she wouldn’t have been able to tell the feel-good story, or at least tell it as fully as it deserved, in her early days in the business.

“The thing I’m most grateful about how news has changed during my career is that everything used to be short, fast and less content,” said Knute. “Stories were 20 or 30 seconds, and at the most you could maybe go a minute-fifteen or a minute-twenty. Your editor would say to you, ‘If you don’t cut it down, I will.’”

But over the years, she said, binge-watching on streaming services such as Netflix changed that approach.

“We realized that people have an appetite for longer stories,” she said. “It became OK to have a five-minute story. You don’t think twice about it now. You need time to tell these stories. Both of my Emmy stories were longer pieces. It’s become more about quality than quantity, and I think that’s a great change.”

Knute also earned an Emmy during her days with WEEK-25 in Peoria, Ill., and won a regional Edward R. Murrow award, as well. Her career has taken her to stations in Raleigh, N.C., and Des Moines, Iowa, in addition to her time in Kansas City and Peoria.