The most amazing aspects of the “Jack Justice” story, to me, are 1) that this guy was able to get through an entire election cycle without either the news media or his opponents exposing him as a bigot and 2) that his brand of bigotry is openly espoused on the radio.
Here’s a sample of what he’s said on the air…
“Jews control the media…Jews control the legal system…The Jews who are involved in Republican politics are grooming America, just as a pedophile grooms his victim and grooms his victim’s family as they are preparing the way for them to violate those children.”
And this…
“The Jews have recruited surrogates through the universities. They have recruited surrogates through their political donations. They have recruited others outside of Judaism to carry out their treachery.”
Steve West
Jack Justice, as most of you know by now, is the alter ego of Steve West, the Republican who on Tuesday won the nomination for a seat in the Missouri House by nearly 25 points.
Nothing about his radical background or his antics on a Liberty radio station — KCXL, 1140 AM and 102.9 FM — came out during the primary.
It wasn’t until Wednesday evening that West was exposed by an email that the incumbent in the 15th House District in Clay County sent to members of the media.
Jon Carpenter
The Democratic incumbent, Jon Carpenter, said in that email, “It is my hope that folks who voted for Steve West in the republican primary weren’t aware of any of this stuff.”
The only good news here is West appears to be a long shot to win in November. Carpenter already is a two-term winner and is now going for what would be his last term, before term limits would knock him out. (The District includes Gladstone and major sections of N. Oak Trafficway and N.E. Antioch Road.)
But it’s very troubling to realize that Steve West/Jack Justice — and what they stand for — got by the media and his three primary opponents.
I don’t think this would have happened back in the days when The Star was at full force and covered virtually every contested race in the metro area. Locally, we had bureaus in the Northland, Southland, eastern Jackson County, Wyandotte County and Johnson County. The bureaus took the lead in covering races in their areas, and every candidate and every issue got a good look-over by at least one set of journalistic eyes.
Of course, it’s all changed now, and there’s no use wringing hands over what was. It’s the new-media reality; it just isn’t very good.
The result is that Steve West and other charlatans can present a friendly, you-can-trust me face to voters without anyone bothering to check out their backgrounds.
**
Now, to the second part of the equation — this screwball having a radio show.
We all know there are a lot of terrible radio stations up and down the dial on AM and FM. The only AM-FM stations I ever listen to are KCUR-FM; Kansas Public Radio; Soren Petro’s show on Sports Radio 810 WHB; and Kansas City Royals’ games on 610 AM Sports Radio.
Out in the country, you can find a lot of religious radio stations and a lot of stations giving the soy bean and livestock reports. But you find very few, absolute dirt-ball stations that traffic in bigotry.
KCXL offices on S. La Frenz Road, in or near Liberty
There’s one in Belleville, IL — KQQZ-AM — where a shock jock named Bob Romanik has openly used the N-word as recently as last year. And then there’s KCXL, which is based in Liberty.
Prominently displayed on its website are the words “Daring to be different everyday.”
And then there’s a paragraph that, I guess, could be called its mission statement. It goes like this…
“America is a very different country than it used to be. We used to be a country of freedom, job, opportunity, and equality. Now, we are a country that looks down upon traditional values. We are a country that puts its citizens second to citizens of other countries. But most importantly, we are a country that, rather than speaking the truth, we hide it, in fear of being ‘offensive.’ At KCXL 102.9 FM and 1140 AM, we bring you the truth. We tell you the things that the liberal media wont (sic) tell you. We make it our goal to inform our listeners on the issues that matter. We are your information station!”
Besides Jack Justice, another looney-tune whose show is carried on KCXL is Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist who asserted that “no one died” at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the 2012 and that the 20 child victims were “child actors.”
A Google check indicates KCXL’s owner appears to be a man named Pete Schartel of Grain Valley.
…Now, I know it’s not illegal to use the N-word on the radio or to assert that Jews control the media, but it’s hard for me to conceive of such tripe coming through the radio. I guess the First Amendment is alive and, uh, well, and I’m sure thankful for SiriusXM radio.
Long live the 60s on 6!
Such tripe coming through the radio OR getting you elected. Scary.
I heard a radio talk show host today ask how this guy’s election could have happened. That’s an easy answer – because state house elections aren’t thoroughly covered by The Star anymore. I realize that newsrooms are a totally different world from the ones that we worked in. If it didn’t cover it because of a lack of personnel, that’s one thing. But if the paper’s editors don’t deem local elections_ even state and municipal races_ important, than we’ll be seeing more and more extremists holding elected office.
As I said in my email to you this morning, Mike, I think election coverage is one of the most important things a newspaper does.
And even with The Star’s greatly diminished staff, management should make every effort to give people some information about every contested race and every issue on the ballot.
If necessary, they should throw everyone remaining on the editorial side at the task. And I’m including editorial page v.p. Colleen Nelson, managing editor Greg Farmer, editor Mike Fannin and publisher Tony Berg. It’s that important.
Hell, with only about 200 employees, those managers can’t be that busy! Make some calls, write some copy, get a byline!
Before The Star’s newsroom cutbacks, most state house and state senate elections were covered by reporters in the bureaus. It was a huge team effort. And I’m certain that a bureau reporter would have found out this crucial bit of information about Steve West in the days leading up to Tuesday’s election. Mike Fannin and Greg Farmer can shout to the top about every award the paper has won in recent years and I’m sure that they will dismiss our opinions as the rants of old, bitter former employees. But this dearth of local election coverage is a major disservice to the public. There are scores of unqualified people running for state legislature, county commission, school board and city council seats and they cannot be allowed to toil in the dark. If elected, they will be making important decisions that affect everyone of us _ i.e. taxes, roads, schools. Yes, stories about these small races are not going to generate a lot of clicks. But someone has to hold the Steve West’s of the world accountable. I remember a day when The Star did that.
Bingo. Mike is absolutely correct. Trusted local reporters who know the landscape and know where the bodies are buried are valuable resources. Their work is also held out as objective and it’ fairly easy to discern if they’re biased one way or the other.
The editorial board is useless. The new batch has already worn out its welcome with a significant portion of their audience (to the extent they have an audience). They’re just as predictable and tedious as the old batch. “Meet the .new boss, same as the old boss..”
Mike, Fitz, it isn’t just the hollowing out of the Star’s reporting that is at issue. Once there was a Belton Star-Herald, an Olathe Daily News, a Cass County Democrat-Missourian and a Lee’s Summit Journal, just to name a few. All four were swallowed by the Star’s owner, gutted, or supposedly folded into what used to be the zoners. None of those newspapers are robust anymore. One doesn’t even exist. A few years ago, the Star, its southland zoner, the Star-Herald and the Democrat-Missourian failed to warn readers that the Republican candidate for Presiding County Commissioner was a convicted violent felon. He not only made it on the ballot to election day, he won, beating an incumbent Democrat who was respected by both party regulars. That defines the term: epic fail. Those same Cass County voters ousted a 10-year veteran prosecutor who had tried and won 21 homicide cases, her successor lost his first murder case. Newspapers aren’t relevant to the majority of voters anymore because they don’t read them.
Great point, Steve: If papers (and their websites) aren’t being read, they simply aren’t as relevant as they were.
Here I live in a county of about 222,000, the fifth most populous county in Missouri. No TV, radio, newspaper or web coverage of our crazy politics, other than this site. KCXL is a bile outlet and has no news. The Courier-Tribune “newspaper” is devoted to high school sports and shilling for local businesses and organizations. I do try to keep up on local news but not once did I see a word about West. A sorry state of affairs, but thanks for exposing this guy. I can only echo your other correspondents about the gutting of good reporters at The Star and elsewhere.
I can’t take any credit whatsoever for exposing him, Bob, but I will accept polite applause for piling on.
Hi, Jim …
You attribute the absence of any coverage on this Justice Jack’s background to a scarcity of reporters. The quick-turnaround 1/2-page editorial suggests the Star did know something earlier – meaning “silence” was not due to ignorance.
Who knew something, what did they know, and why did they not publish it earlier?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Mike
Get in there and make some calls and get us the answers, Mike…Like you say, inquiring minds want to know!