JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

With the Chiefs down and out once again, this seems like a good day to forgo the long ball and go with some flair passes and quick hits up the middle. Here goes…

Mike McGraw

The death Saturday of this longtime, legendary Kansas City Star reporter is a loss not only to local journalism but to the entire metro area. Besides winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for an expose on the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he relentlessly bored into the questionable convictions and harsh sentencing of the five people suspected in the 1998 explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters. As a direct result of his work, the youngest of the five people convicted was released from prison last year. That defendant, Bryan Sheppard, paid McGraw the ultimate compliment when he said, “He had fought for so long to go after the truth.” 

Mike McGraw

One story of McGraw’s that got a bit overlooked was essentially solving one of Kansas City’s most enduring and maddening murder mysteries — the July 1970 shooting of black political leader Leon M. Jordan outside his Green Duck  tavern. In a 2010 story, McGraw and another Star reporter placed ultimate responsibility for the murder on a mob-connected, liquor store owner named “Shotgun Joe” Centimano. The reporters concluded that Shotgun Joe hired some African-American men — never identified — to take out Jordan and make the crime look like something other than a mob killing. The apparent motive was to try to reduce the ascendant power of the black political organization Freedom Inc., which Jordan co-founded.

McGraw, who was 69, died of cancer. He had a hell of a career and, moreover, a relaxed manner and gentle smile that projected authenticity and warmth and put sources at ease.

Scott Tucker

From standout human being, McGraw, we turn to a true turd, Tucker. (Like Chiefs’ games, journalistic transitions aren’t always seamless.)

Co-king of the payday lenders along with brother Joel Tucker, Scott Tucker was sentenced Friday to 16 years and eight months by a U.S. District judge in New York.

Scott Tucker

To me, this amounts to a hard slap on the wrist. The government was asking for 20 years; the defense was asking for 15; and the judge came down in between but leaning toward the defendant.

I don’t understand that. Here’s a guy who exploited an estimated 4.5 million people through “deceptive loan terms and illegal interest rates” and who already had a conviction for bank fraud in 1992.

Moreover, he didn’t exhibit an iota of regret for his crimes, describing himself in a letter to the judge as “an entrepreneur, a jobs provider, and a contributor to the American economy.”

At least he didn’t get out on bond, like most rich criminals do; he was taken into custody right after the sentencing…Tucker, who lived in Leawood, is 55 years old. I hope when he comes out, it’s toes up.

Anthony Piercy

Sorry to bring you back-to-back turds, but we might as well deal with them together.

This totally discredited former Missouri state trooper who watched Brandon Ellingson drown after bouncing the handcuffed young man from his speeding patrol boat on May 31, 2014, is now suing to try to get his job back. He was fired in December by Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Sandra Karsten and now alleges that Karsten exceeded her authority in firing him last month.

It’s going to be a sorry situation if a judge concludes the head of the highway patrol can’t fire a totally unfit trooper.

Anthony Piercy

I mean, take a look at this guy…He’s not only temperamentally unfit for the Highway Patrol, he’s not physically fit. I suggest that he move on to professional wrestling, where everything is fixed and all punches are pulled.

Newspaper advertising campaign

I have said for years The Star should embark on a marketing campaign to remind people of its importance in the life of the metro area and to try to re-establish its public profile. For a variety of factors, its relevance has slipped significantly the last 10 to 15 years, and circulation figures indicate it’s going to take some dramatic steps to turn the tide — and even that might not work.

The New York Times and The Washington Post, by contrast, have been experiencing tremendous expansion of their influence and readership by being consistent and 0strong voices in the face of chaos in Congress and the White House.

At this point, they could just sit back and count their new subscribers and watch the money roll in. But one of those papers, The Times, is taking the opportunity to launch a new marketing campaign, emphasizing the importance of speaking truth to power.

The campaign got underway on two full pages of the Times’ print edition today. Here’s what those pages look like…

Happily, this campaign is taking to the airwaves, too, starting with an ad on tonight’s Golden Globe Awards show.

…I have a feeling 2018 is going to be a huge year for The Times and The Post, and I think we should all be grateful these two papers are doing what they’re doing. If not for them, those who now hold sway in Washington could well demolish everything in their path, and our nation could be reduced to the likes of Turkey, Iran or Russia.

May the press — and presses — continue to roll!