It's official (now): Whitlock leaving the KC Star

Democracy is almost already dead, man. ... Newspapers have already died.

 

This radio guy is asking pretty tough questions.

 

How many times has he referred to pimp hands and working his corners and bojangling?

 

I quit listening right after the station played a preseason Royals preview.

But Deadspin noted at least one use ... 5:55: He says smart things about incarceration rates and the drug war, but of course when it comes time to actually write something, he yammers about "bojangling" rappers.

 

I heard Fox Sports Radio just hired Pat O'Brien for a show (hopefully to take over for the even more awful crew that precedes Petros and Money) - maybe they'll team him up with Whitlock.
Trust me it can't get worse than Vic the Brick and Hartman.

 

Dan, I believe Pat O'Brien is now with Jacobs and Hartman.
He's the addition to the show.

 

I understand Michael saying he wouldn't hire Jason.

I'm positive I could work with Jason. But listening to him on the radio now, there are little areas where his self-importance gets to be a bit much.

It's not anything about his three hours on the radio today; he says listeners are interested, and he's absolutely right.

But when he starts getting into how this radio appearance is important because it's about media and newspapers and democracy and the future of America and THAT'S why it's important -- well, he loses me a bit.

At his most basic, Jason is a sports and culture columnist. A really good and interesting one. But none of this is about the future of America.

 

Whitlock just told young writers to blog, not write for papers, to "build their brand"

That's what's wrong with journalism in the first place.

 

One other thing today: He just said for the second time that a good journalist should be fair, "and don't pick sides."

Columnists pick sides. Jason picks sides. All the time. I'm not sure what the hell he means when he starts going down that road.

Now he's talking about playing it straight, staying objective and keeping your personal feelings out of it. I don't get it.

Fair? Sure. None of the other makes any sense to me.

 

Fannin expended so much energy encouraging, defending and promoting Jason for 13 yeas, and this is how the guy pays him back?

I know Fannin and I know Jason. I worked with Fannin and I worked with Jason. There is one of those two I'd invite in my foxhole, and it ain't the guy with the martyr complex polluting the radio today.

A disgusting, graceless performance.

Mike Vaccaro

 

Let's face it, the straw that broke the camel's back for Whitlock is legitimate.

Yahoo wrote a high-impact story that had a huge effect on the Kansas City market regarding the Pump brothers and a huge ticket scam at the University of Kansas. The KC Star refused to make any mention of that report in their pages (Jason King, a former Star reporter, penned the Yahoo report too). Because of that, the KC Star readers were given an intentional incomplete look at that whole scandal. It was a disservice.

My father is a Star subscriber and I had to fill him in from half a country away because the Star wouldn't.

Why would you go out of your way not to mention it? Because you're writing for awards, not for your readers. The KC Star didn't want to acknowledge that they got beat on an aspect of this scandal because they were trying to win awards for their coverage of it.

How can Fannin justify that? You would never get away with that shit in New York.


Sadly, that excellent point by Whitlock will be overshadowed by his classless jabs at Fannin's personal life.

 

I agree with Vaccaro. After all the shallow blathering that Whitlock did about wanting to be Mike Royko and serving readers and holding the powers-that-be accountable, he went ahead and took the worst dump of all time on the one guy at The Star — Mike Fannin — that actually cares most about all of those things. Terrible.