I always go on the premise that most things I find interesting, you will too. And enough of you keep coming back that I think I’ve been proved right. So, let’s take a look at a few things, here and there, of more than passing interest…
:: A story in Wednesday’s KC Star said former Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders is coming up for sentencing next Wednesday after having pled guilty in January to a federal corruption charge.
It didn’t surprise me that he is seeking to do his time at the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, S.D., five hours north of Kansas City. FPC Yankton was on the Forbes list of “American’s Cushiest Prisons” in 2009. The surprise came in the second column of the story, when reporters Mike Hendricks and Steve Vockrodt cited a court document that said Sanders has been working construction since resigning his job with an Independence law firm.
To that, I say…balderdash.
Mike Sanders
I wouldn’t believe it if his lawyer submitted photos of him in a hard hat, jeans and “over-hauls,” with a tool belt around his waist. If you’ve ever seen Sanders, you know he’s pale and pasty, as if he’s averse to the light of day. I doubt he’s ever done much more than help his wife hang family photos. (Hey, I’m not claiming to be Mr. Handyman; I can’t do much more than help hang photos, too.)
…One of the unwritten rules of law is make sure your client is employed — or can claim to be employed — when he comes up for sentencing; it makes him look like he has a chance to become a solid citizen. But If Sanders actually has been working construction, I have one big question: What does he do about the toupee — does he wear it to work, or does he leave it at home so he won’t be recognized while on the job?
:: I’m always on the lookout for examples of outstanding writing, and I came across one in a New York Times story about Tiger Woods the other day. The gist of the story, by sports feature writer John Branch, was that while Tiger is successfully coming back to form after four back surgeries, including spinal fusion, he remains as enigmatic as ever. Just as when he was on top of the game, he is drawing huge crowds wherever he plays, but — also as in the past — he gives out very little about his personal life.
John Branch
Branch says the only thing Woods gives back to the crowds in return for their adoration is “his talent and reputation and an averted gaze.” Branch’s “kicker” — the last few lines of the story — is memorable:
Tiger Woods is back, at 42, in 2018, far more than a memory, in good humor but keeping most of his thoughts to himself. He is a renewed but older man in a different age, forever recognizable from a distance.
Welcome back, Tiger, the people shout, waiting for a response.
:: McClatchy, owner of The Star and 28 other daily papers, is back in the news. And again it’s not in a good way.
The Poynter Institute posted a story yesterday under the headline “As Wall Street sours on McClatchy, a longtime lender is also now buying up its stock.”
Its stock price and market capitalization (total value of outstanding stock) continue to dwindle, and it has continued selling off newspaper headquarters buildings and other assets to help cut corporate debt, which remains at more than $700 million ( although down from more than $2 billion after it purchased the Knight-Ridder papers in 2006).
One of the most interesting things in the story was that the company has consolidated the bulk of its debt with a longtime creditor, Chatham Asset Management, which is…a hedge fund!
In a May post, I wrote about another hedge fund, Alden Global Capital, that purchased The Denver Post and some other papers in 2010 and has been systematically milking The Post for revenue while laying waste to the paper, including slashing its staff.
I don’t see anything to prevent a hedge fund, like Chatham, from taking over McClatchy some day.
Here’s the most telling sentence in the Poynter story:
The financial hazard for the company is that a turn for the worse — a recession, for instance — could force reluctant family owners (members of the McClatchy family, who have a controlling interest) to consider bankruptcy reorganization…or a sale or breakup.
In that May post, I said the situation for The Star and the other McClatchy papers could get even worse than it is. If Chatham takes control and follows Alden’s lead by “harvesting market position,” that, indeed, could happen.
There are few to no good options for The Star at this point. McClatchy almost surely would not sell it to a local “savior” because that would be like removing the cherry from a very small cake. So, all we can do is watch helplessly as the cake sits on the table and continues to look less and less appealing.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
I confess that I just snorted coffee through my nose at the “what does he do about the toupee” Question of the Century. I had a waaaahhhh??? moment myself at the thought of Mike Sandere as a burly construction worker when I read the article.
We are currently on a Sunday/Wednesday subscription with the Star. When we switched six or so months ago, from the too-expensive-for-content-you-no-longer-receive 7 day contract, the next week they basically eliminated my favorite Sunday Home section. And after renewing a few weeks ago they suddenly folded the once glorious Wednesday food section into the A, rendering it nearly worthless. Yesterday I was totally into a very interesting food article when it simply ended midstream in the middle of a paragraph, without the satisfaction of even a period. This is the fourth week in a row I have encountered an incomplete article I was engrossed in. The Star is circling the toilet bowl at this point.
I’m sorry you snorted the coffee, Lisolette, and hope you didn’t stain any good clothing. But that’s just the sort of reaction I was hoping for when I wrote that, so mission accomplished!
…There’s nothing in journalism quite like one of those “drop-off” stories when you’re not at your destination. They’ll probably re-run the entire article in a few days, whenever they can get around to it. So, stand by…
Hey Jim,
This is worth a read, from the same Poynter story:
“The 30 newspapers — including the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star and The News & Observer of Raleigh — are profitable and in no danger of going out of business. A potential buyer would need to come up with not only the $69 million for the stock but assume the debt as well (and there are pension liabilities in the mix).”
Thanks for your edit, Jim. Missed that you’d already posted the link to the Poynter story in your original post.
America fell hard for Tiger early on; despite no discernible evidence they convinced themselves he returned that love. Which was fine (though idiotic; I have a YUUUUUUUGE…”thing” for Scarlett Johansson, but I’m not simple enough to believe she’s even microscopically aware {or ever will be} of my existence) until they discovered he was topping every bit of bint between Pinehurst and 17 Mile Drive.
Shocked, shocked I say!, America dropped him like a polonium filled baker and declared him “dead to us.”
Now he’s returned to form and America dithers about like a teenaged girl, worried the distance between Tiger and “us” is growing with each passing tournament – will he or won’t he love us again?
Utter blather.
The only other idée fixe more destructive to the American people than their blind worship of celebrities is their love affair with guns.
~~~
Sanders should actually be forced to work real construction at whatever Fed pen to which he’s (hopefully) sentenced.
That’s a toupee?? I always thought his hair looked like he’d just woke up. Hope he didn’t pay much for it. The thought of working construction *is* pretty laughable. Pasty is the absolute right word. I always thought it was “overalls,” ’cause they’re “over all” your clothes.
It is overalls here in the city, Gayle, but in some places it’s “over-hauls.” (Thus the quotation marks.)
Ohhhh, one of them made-up words. I get it.
Tiger Who?
When Berg came to town I had high hopes that he would turn The Star around. I was encouraged with hires like Steve Vockrodt and the work he, Mike Hendricks and Andy Marso were doing was certainly interesting. Best of all, there was a new editorial board, but it is now clear that Berg’s tenure has been an utter failure and the political season is underlining that in spades.
In the 3rd District primary, the editorial ignored the one candidate that Yoder was afraid of and chose Sharice Davids, a carpetbagging radical imported solely to run for the seat. First, they lied and said she was a “centrist”, then they wrote an apologia that referred to her as a “Johnson County attorney” when she doesn’t practice law there and her forms claim that she resides on 5th Street in KCK (also false). Next, they claimed that a story their own reporter, Bryan Lowry, broke was false, that she wasn’t interested in shutting down ICE.
Adding to those fiascos, Dave Helling just jumped the shark by predicting that Johnson County would face economic destruction if Kris Kobach was elected. Please, Johnson County wouldn’t face economic destruction if Sly James were governor.
Bottom line, there is no one on the new board that has any credibility with half of The Star’s potential readers and that includes the new hires from out east and the nepotistic hire of an other half.
While what little hard news The Star produces has been fairly decent (technical glitches aside), at a time when all political eyes are focused on important statewide, races McClatchy shipped Lowry off to DC leaving behind Hunter Woodall, the likes of which haven’t been seen since Roger Myers toppled off a bar stool. Worse yet, he’s competing against Sherman Smith at the Cap-Journal, Jonathon Shorman at The Eagle and John Hanna at the AP, all solid reporters.
Maybe the best thing would be if some group of locals, perhaps ex-Star staff, put together a digital competitor and put The Star out of its misery.
Jimmy C…not sure of the exact date, but surely within our lifetimes, your blog’s circulation will exceed the The Star’s!
I’ll be the first to announce that, John, but I have a ways to go yet!