Two days ago, it was all praise in this corner for The Kansas City’s Star’s three-part, investigative series on fire departments’ failure nationwide to develop consistent training standards and to apply lessons learned from disasters that took firefighters’ lives.
Today, though, I’m bringing down the cudgel. We will examine — yes, you will be right there with me — how and why The Star has whiffed on a huge story that, in my opinion, is nearly as important as the firefighter story. Moreover, it’s a story of more immediate interest in our region because it is about shortcomings in Missouri state government.
The story behind the missed story has something of a cloak-and-dagger element. It revolves around a former prize-winning KC Star investigative reporter, Karen Dillon, whom The Star fired in 2013. At The Star, Dillon won several big awards, including the prestigious George Polk Award in 1998 for a series about the finances within the NCAA and lack of gender equity. She would be the first to admit, however, that she was also a thorn in management’s side at The Star with her outspokenness.
Dillon, 64, is now a freelance investigative reporter, and she recently produced a blockbuster story for The Pitch. It’s a story The Star undoubtedly would love to have had, but for reasons we will explore, is now virtually ignoring.
Let’s take this in two phases — First, Dillon’s expose and then how other news operations, including The Star, have handled it.
Dillon’s story
Karen Dillon
Late last month, The Pitch, a weekly paper that has been gaining stature in recent years with deeper reporting and investigative take-outs, ran a story Dillon researched and wrote about widespread sexual harassment by employees in the Missouri Department of Corrections. The story went far beyond the exposure of sexual harassment, however. It also broke open a secretive system the state has been utilizing to settle cases in which DOC employees filed lawsuits.
The payments have come from the state’s Legal Expense Fund — a slush fund, of sorts, that provides a nice cover for the state by throwing something of a veil over the settled cases. As part of settlements, the state requires many plaintiffs to sign a release and waiver agreement that allows the state to assert it did no wrong and also prohibits the victims and their attorneys from revealing details of the agreements.
The result of this secretive scheme, Dillon wrote, is that state departments that have deep-seated problems — like the Department of Corrections — can avoid making needed corrective changes and, worse, can retain as employees those guilty of sexual harassment or other unacceptable behavior.
As Dillon wrote: “The result is beneficial to almost everyone involved — except the taxpayers of the state, who are footing the often-substantial bills.”
The most shocking and disturbing part, as Dillon reported, is that payments from the Legal Expense Fund to settle Corrections Department cases have skyrocketed in recent years. Consider this: From fiscal years 2002 through 2006, the DOC paid out $340,612 in settlements and judgments, but between 2012 and 2016 that figure rose to nearly $7.6 million!
That in itself is enough to make a person scream holy shit! — and recognize there are big, big problems at the Department of Corrections.
Dillon’s story emphatically and graphically established the depth of the problems. For example, some male DOC employees had called female co-workers “nigger,” “token nigger” and “sexual chocolate.” One woman was called a “Tijuana crack whore.” Other women have been commonly referred to as “bitches,” “whores” and “cunts.”
It gets worse. Male employees, Dillon wrote, “have rubbed their groins against female guards, slapped women’s buttocks and commented on their breasts; and have commented about their wives’ and girlfriends’ sexual prowess or lack thereof in front of other employees, including women.”
Dillon’s story is exhaustive: It consists of 4,028 words in the main story and another 4,185 she devotes to 13 specific harassment cases. It is also compelling; it’s the kind of story that, once into it, you can’t put it down.
You can read the entire story here.
Treatment by other news-gathering operations
Responding to Dillon’s report, the state’s other major metropolitan daily, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, ordered up a story of its own and put three reporters on it. On Dec. 8, a little more than two weeks after Dillon’s story ran in The Pitch, the P-D ran a story under the headline “Investigation of Missouri Corrections Department sought as harassment claims soar.”
Generously and appropriately, the Post-Dispatch story credited Dillon and The Pitch with the scoop.
The Post-Dispatch also ran an editorial about the situation. The editorial started like this:
It is unacceptable for the Missouri Department of Corrections to continue withholding information about reported payments of about $7.6 million to employees who say they were harassed and targeted for retaliation when they spoke out. The department’s leadership must answer for not fixing the problem, attempting to sweep it under the rug, and failing to provide a full accounting to Missouri taxpayers — the people who are actually footing the bill for the payments.
Two days ago, on Sunday, the News Tribune in Jefferson City ran a story saying Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway had announced late last week that her office would audit the Legal Expense Fund. The News Tribune also credited The Pitch and quoted from that story extensively.
…Where those two papers recognized the importance of the corrections department story and saw fit to air it more broadly, KC Star editors down at 18th and Grand greeted the story with hand wringing.
To be sure, I wasn’t there to witness it, but I can assure you from how The Star has handled the story that hand wringing was what took place.
Dillon’s story had run in The Pitch on Nov. 22. During the ensuing two weeks, The Star was absolutely silent on the story. No story, no “brief,” no throwaway mention.
Then, last Friday, after The Star’s brain trust had come to the realization that this was too big a story to ignore, Jefferson City correspondent Jason Hancock and part-time political writer Steve Kraske did a back-door job on the Department of Corrections story.
What they did was include it as an addendum to a separate story, one about an age and gender discrimination case that another state employee had filed. That employee had settled her case for $2 million, which was coming, of course, from the Legal Expense Fund. At the bottom of their story, Hancock and Kraske listed six additional employment cases that had been settled, including two from the Department of Corrections.
In their closing paragraphs, Hancock and Kraske briefly segued to the problems in the DOC and touched on the state auditor’s upcoming investigation.
**
So, what we have here, basically, is The Star turning its back on the story.
Why?
Well, unfortunately, the answer is fairly clear. In all likelihood, it’s small-mindedness — and, by extension, punctured pride. Pride punctured at the hands of an outstanding reporter whom The Star let go.
Listen to how Mike Rice, a former reporter whom The Star laid off in 2008, analyzed The Star’s blown coverage in an email to me last week:
Mike Rice
“The story that Karen Dillon reported for The Pitch was journalism at its best. It exposed significant wrongdoing…The Star’s editor and metro editor should be embarrassed that they did not uncover this…It is clear to me The Star’s management does not want to admit that they were scooped by a reporter they not only laid off but disliked because of her outspoken stance on the paper’s staffing cuts and the impact it has had on the quality of their product.
“I think they are hoping to see the story go by the wayside, but that is not going to happen.”
**
As I’ve said many times, The Star is still unquestionably the big dog on the block as far as reporting power goes in Kansas City. It has the power to dispense information and the power to withhold it, which is sometimes appropriate. But when it withholds, or buries, important stories that would be of keen public interest, it does a tremendous disservice to its diminishing number of readers and subscribers.
This is a shameful commentary on The Star, and I’m embarrassed for my former employer.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Fine commentary, Jim. Hope Karen Dillon sees your blog. She deserves the highest accolades possible.
Laura
Thanks, Laura…I’ve been exchanging emails with Karen today; she’s read it by now. She is a real fighter. I admire how she has persisted with her reporting mission, despite being let go not only by The Star but more recently by the Lawrence Journal-World after an ownership change.
Good for Karen! And good for you, Jim, for keeping the spotlight on.
Yeah, that new publisher is gonna turn things around.
I wonder what’s going through the head of the managing editor right now.
You love to come back to that managing editor, Les!
(That would be Greg Farmer, for those not on the inside.)
P.S. Thanks for the compliment, Les.
I’m glad The Pitch was smart enough to pick up, and give leeway and support to, The Star’s castoffs. As you well know, The Star is not unique in its decline as a newspaper; what’s sad is the management doesn’t seem to know it.
Good to hear from you, Bruce. (Readers, Bruce is a former editor — maybe publisher — of The Pitch.)
Star managers know the operation has fallen badly; they just won’t talk about it publicly. Their beef, a genuine one, is that corporate hq in Sacramento, the McClatchy Co.,has tied local leadership’s hands because McClatchy is so deep in debt.
Jesus, Fitz–do some reporting. Google Bruce Rodgers, and his LinkedIn page states clearly, he was EDITOR of the Pitch from 1993 to 2000. It only took one minute to do the research. Don’t be lazy.
You also write in this post that Dillon was “fired”, whereas Mike Rice asserts she was laid off. Firing is for cause. Being laid off is for budget. Dillon is a great reporter, and the Pitch is darn lucky to have her as a freelancer, since they lost Steve Vockrodt to the STAR. He is now their “utility infielder”, like Dan Margolies was during the Jim Hale era–whenever there’s a big story, the publisher now goes to Vockrodt. Even tho he is assigned to the business desk, they made him the lead on Verruckt/Schlitterbahn.
Great story, Jim. And I’m delighted for Karen — always one of the best.
Great to hear from you, Joe…We had a helluva run together on those two “double trucks” on Brice Harris back in ’91.
Thanks very much Jim for taking the time to peel this onion, so to speak. Your reporting and writing on this are spot on. In your own words, I couldn’t stop reading.
I’m so glad I was in a position to tell the story about the mistreatment of so many prison employees, and there are more stories on MDOC to come, as you well might guess…
Keep kickin’ ass, Karen…You’re shaking ’em up down in Jeff City. I hope the DOC gets a much-needed cleansing under Gov.-elect Eric Greitens. I hope, too, he’s paying attention.
Olsen: Say, how did you get here?
Kent: Well, Jim, that’s a long story.
Keep lighting the matches.
The editor in chief of The Daily Planet has weighed in…
This sounds like a matter where the Star’s public editor needs to ask tough questions of the editors, and report back to readers why there was such limited follow-up by the Star.
Yeah, right. That’s about as likely as Trump swearing off Twitter.
Oh, God, I hope you don’t get Altevogt wound up again about Derek Donovan…The mention of DD’s name throws him into a frenzy.
Frankly, I think Karen Dillon’s story is one of the best investigative pieces I’ve seen in any Missouri paper in a long time. All kudos to her! In fairness to Jason Hancock, I first learned of the story when he tweeted a link to it.
Jason Hancock is a real straight shooter and outstanding reporter…Welcome to the Comments Dept., Bob.
I have admired Karen since I first met her. What a journalist and human being. Her outspokenness is a strength. Reporters should push back to authority, question them, persevere, follow up. I watched her and tried to learn. The day she was laid off was the day the light dimmed at my former paper. (And Joe Popper, your writing was the reason I chose The Star over dozens of others.) Thanks, Jim, for having a place where writers’ voices still resonate.
Amen, Lee. Each of us who worked at The Star hold dear the importance of what we were doing and will always — not to get too maudlin here — continue to carry with us the search for truth.
Well then, I guess I have Mr. Popper to thank, Ms. Kavanaugh. I miss reading you.
How far The Star has fallen from one day (the firefighters story) to the next.
Always love your comments, Gayle, but that’s off the mark. Jerry LaMartina, a former Star employee, got it right when he commented about the firefighter story…
“It’s amazing, the high quality of work The Star sometimes still does, like this series, while in many other respects it seems to be circling the drain.”
Obviously I didn’t make my point if you think I’m off the mark. In my mind I was saying exactly what Mr. LaMartina said, but in a different way.
Tracyinkc: Thanks for the clarification on Bruce Rodgers.
As for the terminology I used about Karen — saying she was fired — I researched that pretty well myself…I sent her an email before posting and asked her whether it was more accurate to say she was laid off or fired. She replied:
“You can use laid off or fired. I wasn’t given a choice the second time around.”
And as for what she meant by “the second time around,” I’ll let you tell me — and the readers…Just givin’ you another chance to show off, girl.
Waiting for Karen’s story, of course. Was this part of the Sophie’s Choice that Mia WhatsHerName did, where Barb Shelly said, kill one: either yourself or your friend?
Technically, when you are FIRED you do not receive severance, you are shown the door, and searched in hopes you don’t steal the stapler. When one is LAID OFF, you do receive accrued vacation time, and are given a set of weeks of severance equivalent to your years of past service. And–maybe the Costco sheet cake.
The layoff packages at some times at the STAR were sweet or lean, depending on budget. It all started with Gerald Garcia and Mr. Hale. Garcia let 31 people go. Had to be done. They got rich from Cap Cities stock, but most still bitched the rest of their forlorn days.
Psychologically, as well as financially, Karen Dillon will be happier if she chooses to “embrace the more empowering interpretation”! Walking thru the next decade asserting “I was fired by the STAR for being hard to work with and a thorn in management’s side” is not very enrolling for future contract or full-time employers!!!!!
In Hearne Christopher’s case, it didn’t hurt him financially, because he inherited $10 million from daddy and Gramps. But it became the unresolved anger story of his past decade or more: He started one of those bitch blogs, where every other story of his was about kicking the dinosaur STAR. OLD news. He was not “fired;” they offered him half his old salary (which he didn’t need, but oh well) and he WALKED!!!
Here’s the lesson for Karen Dillon (AND EVERYONE ELSE IN LIFE) to take regarding jobs and relationships — one I had to learn when my career collapsed due to the economy; learned from Werner Erhard and the Forum and Rev. Mary Omwake at Unity Church…
Don’t park your past in your present.
Also, don’t park your past in your future.
Don’t “expect” AND VISUALIZE your future to be just a repeat of the past, or else it will magnetize and then that’s exactly how it will be.
Put on your big girl panties, throw your shoulders back and move forward with a smile on your face and expectations for a brighter NEW future.
Sophie’s Choice, yes, but Barb Shelly had nothing to do with it, and I doubt that publisher Mi-Ai Parrish had a hand in it. Top editors apparently presented Karen and a less-senior reporter, Dawn Bormann, with a “proposal”: One of you has to go; you decide which it will be. That was in 2012, and Bormann drew the short straw. The next year, no option was presented: Karen was (yes, you’re technically right, Tracy, laid off). She got severance and was not patted down for the stapler.
P.S. Enjoyed your “sermon from the mount.”
I remember the Brice Harris/Monday Morning Club story that you and Joe Popper did back in 1991. That was an absolutely fascinating story about the local politics of that era.
The Monday Morning Club (group of civic leaders including the late Don Hall) that hand-picked Brice Harris as its mayoral candidate was one of the two big stories Joe and I collaborated on. The other was the ensuing monkey business that his campaign managers — Rick Moore and, of all people, now-Councilwoman Theresa Loar — orchestrated, illegally diverting Harris campaign funds to a separate campaign committee they created with the explicit purpose of discrediting another candidate, the late Dick King.
(King, as some of you will recall, was a recovering alcoholic who had once angrily left an Independence restaurant with a bunch of people’s coats and tossed the coats out of his car while driving along I-70…Most people got their coats back.)
The tear-down campaign was successful, but King fired back and wrecked Harris’ chances. Councilman Bob Lewellen, who had been running fourth in the campaign, rose to second place, behind front-runner Emanuel Cleaver. Those two prevailed in the primary and went on to the general election, which Cleaver won handily.
On the basis of our expose, then-Jackson County (and now deceased) Prosecutor Albert Riederer charged Loar with something less than a misdemeanor — he wasn’t about to come down hard on a political facilitator whose help he might need in the future — and she pleaded guilty and got a slap on the wrist.
That’s more than many readers wanted to know but it was a hell of a story, starting on the front page and taking up two facing inside pages — thus the “double truck” I referred to in response to Joe’s comment.
I’ll try to answer your questions Tracy.
I think my situation with colleague Dawn Bormann was termed the Hunger Games.
Here are a couple stories that explain what happened.
http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/karen_dillon_kansas_city_journalist_police_records.php
http://www.pitch.com/news/article/20565310/dimming-star-things-just-get-less-and-less-bright-at-the-citys-shrinking-daily-paper
Here is the definition of fired:
Fire
ˈfī(ə)r/
verb
past tense: fired; past participle: fired
2.
dismiss (an employee) from a job.
“having to fire men who’ve been with me for years”
synonyms: dismiss, discharge, give someone their notice, lay off, let go, get rid of, ax, cashier; informal sack, give someone the sack, boot out, give someone the boot, give someone their marching orders, pink-slip; make redundant “he was fired”
Btw Tracy, The Star did give me a severance package because they were concerned I would sue, I’m sure. I did not get a lunch, a Costco cake, a card, or anything else. My editor of 16 years Craig Nienaber did not say goodbye. Greg Farmer did, however, take the time to point out to me when he was firing me in November 2013 that this time I was alone in the room with no other employees whose jobs were also on the line. I think he meant that this time around The Star would not have the Hunger Games scandal to deal with.
I really don’t know anything about big girl panties, and I really don’t think I want to.
In the ensuing three years since I was fired, I did pick myself up and have continued to do what I think I do best, report on bad government. You can read what I’ve been doing on my website _ the first six stories are some of the projects I did for LJW, NBC 41 and the Pitch since February 2014: http://morethanamatter.pressfolios.com.
I do plan to continue doing what I do for a little while longer, God permitting.
Karen, please count me among the Lawrence residents who were thrilled to see you reporting for the J-W, then mystified by your sudden absence. We used to subscribe to two newspapers, the Star and the J-W, and we read the Cap-J and the Eagle at the office. No longer. The news hole in the Star shrank so significantly that we dropped it. The J-W became nothing but sports and Dolph rants. We eventually dropped that also. And it’s slightly embarrassing to admit that fact, as we are both former newspaper reporters. Anyway, we are grateful for your continued pursuit of the truth.
Just to clarify for non-journalists, regarding the name of Karen’s website. In journalism there’s a term called “A” matter, which is boiler plate you can insert in a story you are working on, usually while waiting for the “new” news element, which comprises the top of the story. Getting the “A” matter in place gives you a running start so you don’t have to mess with it when the breaking news explodes and you’re under the gun.
So, Karen’s website name is better understood when broken down as “more-than-A-matter.”
And won’t the Star be beside itself when Dillon’s reporting garners her (and, by extension, the Pitch) some well-deserved honors?
She will certainly deserve them.
That would be the ultimate humiliation considering how award-obsessed The Star’s management has always been.
Readers: Debra Hesse (see comment above) is a DOC employee whose case discrimination and harassment case went to trial in Jackson County early this year. The jury awarded her $1.9 million, which, as I understand it, has not yet come through.
Bravo Karen Dillon!
It’s official: George Lombardi is out. I’m sure he’ll be sending Karen a Christmas card.
Here’s the story — somewhat hazy — about the director of the Missouri Department of Corrections.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article121066233.html