[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 27, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO MIKE SHAIN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JO ANN EMERSON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 27, 2009

  Mrs. EMERSON. Madam Speaker, there are all kinds of public servants 
in our communities, but we seldom think first of journalists in that 
category. In the Eighth Congressional District of Southern Missouri, a 
journalist springs to mind as a public servant: Mike Shain of KFVS in 
Cape Girardeau. Mr. Shain is retiring after 53 years in the news 
businesses (the last 37 at KFVS), and I want to commend him to the U.S. 
House of Representatives for his long labors in the service of our 
region, our state and our nation.
  Though the craft of news reporting has changed greatly in the time 
Mr. Shain has spent in the business, his fair reporting, his work 
ethic, and his professionalism have remained constant. Everyone who has 
looked at Mr. Shain over a microphone or across a table on the set of 
his weekly news magazine knows they have better done their homework. 
Mr. Shain takes preparedness to another level--he knows his subject 
matter and his audience inside-out.
  Whole generations in Southeast Missouri have grown up with the 
informed voice of Mr. Shain in their ears. He has not only conveyed to 
us the news of the day, but he has also placed that news in context for 
his viewership. He has told us what is important as well as why. He has 
always had something important to say, which is a tough thing to do 
when most of your sentences end in a question mark. Still, Mr. Shain 
has been so successful and is so respected because his intellect is 
only surpassed by his understanding of the news media and its 
responsibilities to the public.
  In service to the public, Mr. Shain has shaped minds and informed 
opinions among an electorate in Southern Missouri which is serious 
about its civic duty, patriotic obligations and the well-being of its 
neighbors. His name is synonymous with the news--with what is current 
and worth understanding. As much as the station that broadcasts him, 
Mike Shain is an institution.
  Even though regular viewers of our evening news will no longer see 
Mr. Shain every day, his presence will continue to be seen and heard in 
the generations of newsmen and newswomen who have learned their craft 
from him. Mr. Shain's voice will be missed across the Heartland, but 
his legacy will endure. I'm proud to have known and worked with Mr. 
Shain, and I am glad to thank him on behalf of the entire Eighth 
Congressional District of the State of Missouri.