KC Star Sports Editor Lawton resigns

Well, well, well ...

http://deadspin.com/5592824/

 

I'm gonna call BS. Someone would would have to write a lot better than those three italic sentences to get my $200 check. Plus, I'd pay cash.

 

Oh my.

 

I don't know Jason Whitlock personally, and I've never met him, but I'm here to talk about Holly Lawton, someone I consider a top-notch sports editor and one of my best friends through APSE.

Giving up this job had to be tough for Holly, but she obviously is ready for the next phase of her professional life. She's not only a terrific sports editor, but anyone who has known her for any length of time knows she's a terrific person.

I had the pleasure of doing a Management Doctor workshop with her at the 2010 APSE convention in Salt Lake. As usual, she was insightful, smart and funny when she was involved in the discussions. Those sessions were not well attended (I should have left my name off the session), but we had terrific informal disucssions on all sorts of things facing our industry as we move forward.

Holly will land on her feet doing something she wants to do. I wish her only the best, because she's one of the best. That section has a wonderful track record, and Holly and Mike Fannin were at the top of it for many years.

I, for one, don't need details as to why she's leaving. But I know sports journalism is a little poorer for it.

 

Greg Hall has bounced around a lot since his days at the Star

I'm not going to opine publicly about this as any common sense would lead you to find that I wrote for the Star for a while, just figured that there needs to be some context with anything that Greg Hall has written over the last 10 years. (I think I was still in grade school when he left the Star)

 

This.

 

I respect the opinion of many of you guys who have gone through the trouble of naming all these others who contributed to making the Star a must-read section. On some levels you are correct. But make no mistake, it all started with Whitlock. Jason came in as a 27-year-old sports writer who had never had a full-time column before (I don't believe) and he turned that section and the city out in first hand full of columns. I am not telling you guys who I heard, I am telling you what I know. I was there. Dale Bye made a bold move in hiring Jason and it has paid off considerably. People in Kansas City bought the paper because of Jason and then they were entertained by the others. All I've said since the beginning is you have to give Jason Whitlock credit for coming out of nowhere and becoming a national name while bringing the section along with him. Where there is something going on in Kansas City country I always click on the Star to see what Whitlock's spin is. I may not always agree but I do come away more informed.

Think about this, just by the fact so many people on this board have so many strong opinions about Jason, whether positive or negative, speaks to how great of a job he has done and continues to do both with the Star and with Fox. The guy has a voice and an opinion that is always worth reading. Let's admit that much.

 

Except he's not doing his job for the Star. Hell, I don't remember the last time anybody linked one of his columns here. His Fox columns? Oh yes, but not the Star. Looking at his recent (April and May) columns on the Star and they read, well, Albomish.

 

He's just been out making Kansas City greater the last few months.

The whole city, not the paper. Hell, maybe the entire state.

 

Personally, I think he's in extended therapy sessions with Dr. B.A. Homer. That, or he and Jeff George are making it drizzle in some strip club somewhere.