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The town takes on some air

Posted in journalism, sports, Uncategorized, tagged , on September 14, 2010| 3 Comments »

Now there’s a game that was worth losing some sleep over!

Chiefs 21, Chargers 14. Finish time: about 12:15 a.m.

It might go down in the annals of local sports as the game that put Kansas City back on the NFL map.

Isn’t it amazing how one game can lift the spirits of a town that has seen so many years of frustrating losses for its two primary major-league franchises?  

All that losing, combined with the Chiefs’ relatively poor pre-season play, had a lot of people on edge and gloomy about the team’s prospects. Why, just a few weeks ago, The Star’s Adam Teicher and Chiefs’ head coach Todd Haley had a testy exchange at a news conference, and it looked like bitterness was going to be the season-long tone out at Arrowhead.

I was one of those people who was gloomy about the team’s prospects.  On July 22, I wrote, accurately, in this space that the sun was setting on Jason Whitlock’s career at The Star. (He resigned last month.) I went on to write, terribly inaccurately, it appears, that one of the reasons Whitlock was verging on irrelevance in Kansas City was that “the Chiefs are in a sorry state.”

I went on to say: “…they have a hot-headed, yet dull-as-dirt coach in Todd Haley; they have an egocentric president, Scott Pioli, who hides in his office; and they have a sub-par group of players. So, really, what does it matter what Whitlock might write about this year’s Chiefs?”

Now, clearly, there’s a guy who didn’t know what he was talking about! There’s a blogger — the kind I like to complain about — who was just standing on a soap box and making noise. I could have, and should have, qualified it, as I learned to do in my many years at The Star, and said, “It appears that the Chiefs are in a sorry state.” That would have given me some cover.

At least, however, I was swimming in a crowded pool. And now all of us who were in that pool want out; we want out of the pool of despair and into the waters of rejuvenation because football is back in Kansas City. Once again, the Chiefs own the town…Well, I guess I better say it appears that the Chiefs own the town.

And what about Whitlock? How do you think he feels today? Wherever he’s writing now — Twitter or Foxsports.com — look for him to try to minimize this thrilling victory, to write it off as an aberration. But deep down, where his little heart is beating, I’ll bet he’s sorry that he’s not here writing about this team, with its talented, enthusiastic young players and its new, deeply experienced offensive and defensive coordinators.

If he were here, I’ll bet he’d be calling today on Chiefs’ fans everywhere to “Get on the bandwagon…This team might go undefeated!”

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The Sultan says….

Posted in Uncategorized on September 10, 2010| 4 Comments »

Hello, all you JimmyCsays fans. I hope I’m not barging in here, but Jimmy is just back from his vacation in Turkey, and he’s too tired to file today. So, he’s authorized me, Sultan Salami, to fill in. 

I was privileged to host Jimmy during his 12-day Turkey trot, and I’d like to share with you a slide show featuring some of the people and places we saw.

So, if you’ll just grab a chair and look up at the screen, we’ll get started.

Click, click….

There now, that’s the country that stretches under my robes from Georgia and Iran on the east to the Aegean Sea on the west. It straddles two continents — Europe and Asia, with Africa to the south. 

Click, click…

 Oh, that Jimmy…what a card! There he is playing Sultan. I had to smack him for that. Nobody, and I mean nobody, impersonates the Sultan.

Click, click…

That’s my carriage. Jimmy wasn’t too impressed, but, like I told him, “It beats a camel!” (He got a chuckle out of that, but when we stalled in rush-hour Istanbul traffic, he really got ticked.)

Click, click…

Here’s one of our carpet delivery guys. They’ll bring them to you anytime, anyplace, even drop ’em in your window…provided you fork over the lira.

Click, click…

Speaking of carpet…Would you buy a carpet from the little guy in the blue shirt? Hah! JimmyC did, and, I have to tell you (although I certainly wouldn’t tell JimmyC this) that he fleeced Jimmy right out of his camel-hair Jockey shorts. 

Celal Belli — aka Jelly Belly, aka Reasonable Charlie — is one of our most outstanding carpet merchants. Once Jelly got JimmyC in his showroom just outside Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar and got some hot tea in him and the missus, it was pretty clear that Jimmy was going down. For my part, I stayed out of the negotiations. I’ve seen a lot of you “walking wallets” from the West try to match wits with our carpet croupiers, and it’s usually pretty pathetic. 

The turning point, if there ever was one, came when Jelly looked at Jimmy and said, “Money comes and goes; this (the carpet) is forever.” Jimmy’s eyes kind of glazed over, and he looked at the missus, and the missus looked at the carpet, and, bingo, out came the Citi card. 

Oh, yes, there’s an addendum to this story. Jimmy sent me an e-mail today, saying that his Pomeranian, uh, “broke in” the carpet with a few Istanbul-inspired turds. Guess the little guy just didn’t appreciate hand-woven wool!

Click, click…

There’s Jimmy’s missus, Patty, with one of our foremost foreign-trade emissaries. I didn’t catch the emissary’s name, but, I’ve gotta say, Jimmy doesn’t learn very fast. Once again, Jimmy looked like a character in my favorite W.C. Fields movie, “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.” 

On a rainy day, this guy latched on to Jimmy along Sultanahmet street, the main tourist drag in Istanbul, and directed him and Patty to an overpriced restaurant. After lunch, our trade emissary took Jimmy and Patty to a few souvenir shops, where they dropped a few more lira. And, then, wouldn’t you know it, Jimmy tipped the emissary! Did I tell you how much we love you Americans?

Click, click…

The rainy day was not at all disappointing, however. For one thing, at the restaurant, Jimmy and Patty got the services of one of the finest, most gracious waiters in Istanbul. His name is Mevlut Balek. Jimmy was really struck by the fact that Mevlut (pronounced Mev-lute) looked a lot like Frank Sinatra and had a hat like the one JimmyC always wears.

Click, click…

Oh, yeah, our kids are just like yours…always cutting up and mugging for the camera. 

Click, click…

I was pretty sure Jimmy was going to like our Aegean coast (this near Bodrum), and I was right. In fact, Jimmy thought it was white hot.

Click, click…

Fortunately, the glass-clear, turquoise-looking water is cool to the touch, and Jimmy was able to collect himself.

Click, click…

Not everybody gets excited at the beach, though. Sometimes it’s just nice to close your eyes and let your cares melt away. 

Click, click…

What’s that? Wait a minute…I’ve got to consult my Arabic-English dictionary. Oh, here it is…

Thanks for dropping by. Sultan says don’t be a stranger now!

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Posted in Uncategorized on August 28, 2010| 2 Comments »

Well, Jason Whitlock needed a vacation, and now it’s my turn.

Unlike Jason, however, I will return. As The Happenings put it so achingly hopefully in 1966…”See You in September.”

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A new hero in town?

Posted in Uncategorized on August 27, 2010| 3 Comments »

From the avalanche of criticism that greeted last week’s announcement about Polsinelli Shughart’s plan to build a high-rise on the Plaza, one published comment struck a chord with a lot of people. 

A woman said the law firm’s leaders would have been “heroes” if they had committed the firm to resurrecting the West Edge project on the southwest part of the Plaza.  

Well, Polsinelli Shughart bypassed its chance to be the hero, and in the process it may have tarnished its reputation forever. 

On Thursday, however, a new prospective hero stepped forward. And it’s none other than AMC Entertainment, one of the nation’s largest movie theater companies. 

Kansas City-based AMC emerged as the primary tenant after a group associated with RED Development submitted the apparent high bid of $10 million for the long-stalled office and hotel project, according to The Kansas City Star. 

To me, it is fitting that AMC become the hero because the man who took AMC big-time, the late Stan Durwood, probably would have wanted to help clean up the West Edge mess that advertising mogul Bob Bernstein and snake-oil salesman Ray Braswell left us. 

In a way, Durwood, who died at age 78 in 1999, saved downtown, where AMC company currently has its offices. It was Durwood who conceived of, pushed for, and named the Power & Light District. It took his former girlfriend — a woman by the name of Kay Barnes — and a Baltimore outfit — Cordish Companies — to make it happen. But it’s still very much a part of Durwood’s legacy. 

Durwood

His main legacy, in case you didn’t know it, is the multiplex theater. He opened the first one, side-by-side theaters at the Ward Parkway Shopping Center, on July 12, 1963. 

In a 1999 article about Durwood’s death, the Associated Press wrote: “It was clear he didn’t have the multiplex figured out yet: Both screens played the same movie — “The Great Escape,” starring Steve McQueen and James Garner. But the idea was born, and according to AMC, Durwood coined the multiplex name at that time, too.” 

Durwood never sought the limelight and didn’t promote himself; he just stuck to business and pushed the ideas he thought would work. It was in the same low-key vein that AMC spokesman Justin Scott commented in The Star on AMC’s possible interest in the West Edge: 

“Currently, we are making some preliminary inquiries into some locations in Kansas City, yet no decisions are being made at this time.” 

To me, it’s playing out as a picture of two companies. The picture I have of one — Polsinelli, Shughart — is of a brash, boastful and back-slapping group congratulating each other on their initial Plaza plan, which they thought was a done deal…before the public weighed in. 

The picture I have of the other is of a group of no-nonsense folks who keep their heads down and try to figure out what is best for their company and the city in which they operate. 

And when those folks get together in the boardroom, I have no doubt that they talk business below a portrait of Stanley H. Durwood.

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This series is a big, big winner

Posted in journalism, Uncategorized, tagged , on August 25, 2010| 2 Comments »

I’ve been whacking away at the KC Star the last several days for various journalistic offenses, including running an untimely letters to the editor page and failing to include in a front-page story the governmental-approval process needed for construction of a controversial office tower on the Plaza.

But today I’m taking off my straw hat (see “About Me” page) to you, KC Star.

A group of editors, reporters, photographers and graphic artists has put together what — halfway into it, at least — is an amazing series on the Kansas City School District.

The six-part series, which began Sunday, is beautifully written, carefully and thoroughly reported, and strikingly presented, with great photos, graphics and sidebars. Each of the three parts that appeared Sunday, Monday and Tuesday started out front and then “jumped” inside to take up two full inside, facing pages. 

For any reporter, getting a story that starts on the front and covers two full inside pages is a rarity and a thrill. I was involved in two or three such stories during my 25-plus years as a reporter at The Star.   

Paralleling “Special Report — Saving 17,000 kids” is a six-part series about the end of the line for Pinkerton Elementary School, one of 24 district schools that closed for good last May. That series was written by Eric Adler of the features desk.

To tell you the truth, I haven’t yet made the time to read Adler’s stories carefully, but from a quick scan, they look equally impressive. Tuesday’s installment, for example, profiled the school’s dynamic principal, Derald Davis. (My only beef is that Adler didn’t tell the readers whether Davis has a job in the district this year. Maybe Adler is holding that bit of information until later in the series, however.)  

Day 1 of  “Saving 17,000 kids” was largely about the failures of the past, but it pointed toward the future. “…Granted, in this pivotal year to come, success for the children could be as elusive as ever…” reporter Rick Montgomery wrote. “But at least now everyone seems to be on the same page: It is about the children.”

Day 2 featured a searing profile of Superintendent John Covington, who came to Kansas City from Pueblo, Colo., a year ago. Covington granted long-time school district reporter Joe Robertson full access to his comings and goings, his thoughts and philosophy, and it paid off for them and the readers. 

One of the highlights of the piece is Robertson’s recounting of a day that Covington went home from work exhausted, went straight to bed and woke up at 7:30, worried about being late to work. After taking a shower, he found out it was 7:30 p.m. He’d had a nap, not a full night’s sleep.

Day 3 of the series (Tuesday), featured business writer Mark Davis’ microscopic examination of the district’s financial problems, abuses and, now, vigorous attempts to set things straight. (For example, the district has pared its vendor list from 6,200 to 985.)

Davis quoted Covington, who seemingly is on a crusade to root out insider deals and employment, as saying: “We are going to make sure, under my watch, that the days for making decisions based on the best interest of adults, and this patronage and cronyism that has been so long known to have had a negative effect on how we operate public schools in Kansas City — please know that while I sit in this chair, those days are gone.”

And do you know why I believe him? Why, in one respect, I think he’s got this district moving in the right direction? 

There has not been a single mention of perennial school district sycophant Clinton Adams Jr. If Clinton has left the scene, or has been removed from it, the outlook is much more promising.

Congratulations, then, to John Covington for starting the turn-around of the Kansas City School District and to The Kansas City Star for devoting the time, space and, yes, money to tell this very important story.

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Electronic subscriptions….elevator up?

Posted in journalism, Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 24, 2010|

Electronic subscriptions now make up more than 10 percent of the total number of paid subscriptions to The Kansas City Star.

A “consolidated media report” (CMR) generated by the Audit Bureau of Circulations shows that slightly more than 10 percent of Sunday subscriptions are of the electronic variety.

The proportion is higher during Monday-Friday, when about 13 percent of subscribers take the electronic rather than the printed edition.

The advertised price of an electronic subscription is $4.95 a month, which is about one-third the cost of the print-subscription rate.

As of March 31, the total number of Sunday subscribers was 314,449, with 31,755 of those being electronic. The number of print-edition subscriptions was 282,694.

Print-edition subscriptions to the Sunday Star have fallen by more than 100,000 since 2004, when Sunday circulation was 388,425. 

During Monday-Friday, print-edition subscriptions are below 200,000 every day except Friday. 

In the late 1990s, weekday subscriptions to the printed edition stood at about 250,000, and The Star waged a marketing campaign aimed at getting to “300,000 by 2000.” The goal (again, referring to weekday circulation) was never reached. 

On its Web site, kansascity.com, The Star advertises “E-Star” as “a clickable replica of our newspaper.” 

“The electronic edition contains all the news, photos, ads, box scores, and special sections in the printed The Kansas City Star,” the company says.

In 2008, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, an industry-funded group that is paid by publishers to audit their circulation, approved the testing and creation of a consolidated media report for member newspapers. The Star has participated in the consolidated reports from early on.

ABC says: “The report allows newspapers to provide advertisers with a comprehensive view of the newspapers ‘total media footprint’ across multiple products and channels by reporting total gross distribution data.”

While helping newspaper companies market themselves to advertisers, consolidated reports also serve another purpose: They make print-circulation losses less conspicuous than they were before the days of the “CMR.”

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Oops…Did we fail to say this needs City Council approval?

Posted in journalism, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 21, 2010| 1 Comment »

I love to see Kansas City area residents rise up en masse against flim-flammy plans to encroach on cornerstones of Kansas City history.

And so it was with great satisfaction that I watched the tidal wave of opposition swell all day Friday against the Highwoods Properties-Polsinelli Shughart office tower-and-money grab that would destroy the integrity of perhaps the Plaza’s most important intersection, 47th and Broadway.

The proposal to build an eight-story, $57 million office building for the Polsinelli Shughart law firm has unleashed such a fusillade that the plan probably is D.O.A. However, where the power of money is involved, you never know, so it’s probably going to take a Phil Spector-like “wall of sound” to keep this plan from going forward.  

Having covered City Hall between 1985 and 1995, I can tell you that the one sure thing that councils respond to is a roomful of people. If big crowds  show up in opposition to the proposal, the council almost certainly will kill the plan, if it gets that far.  

Here’s another thing I know about this mushroom cloud: The hysteria would not have reached such proportions (hundreds of calls, e-mails and Web comments to The Kansas City Star) and the outrage would have been more clearly focused if The Star, in its Friday morning report, had laid out the government and regulatory approvals that are needed to proceed with the project.

The project will be reviewed first, on Oct. 5, by the City Plan Commission, an appointed group, which makes recommendations to the City Council. The City Council would have the final say, regardless of what the Plan Commission did. 

Unbelievably, Collison’s story didn’t have one mention of the regulatory process or the approvals that the project requires to move ahead. Collison has been with The Star for at least a decade and is an excellent development reporter. I don’t know what happened in this case; it was just a terrible omission. When I wrote to Collison on Friday, asking about the regulatory process, he wrote back, saying, “I’ve been up to my eyeballs with the outrage over this today.”

At least two editors — probably three or four, including a managing editor — read the story, and someone should have said, “Hey, this story doesn’t say if City Council approval is needed.” That’s all it would have taken to put the situation in proper perspective and help readers channel their anger. 

As it was, the story made it look like the building was a done deal. The story had Highwoods’ and the law firm’s  chief executives exchanging oratorical high fives. I could almost smell the smoke from the victory cigar in the statement of W. Russell Welsh, Polsinelli’s chief executive, who said, “We could not be more pleased to have our own building in the center of the Plaza, where our firm began nearly 40 years ago.”  

On Saturday, Collison and The Star moved to undo the damage from Friday’s confusing story. The first paragraph of today’s story, the lead story in the paper, said: “Plans for an office development in the Country Club Plaza that includes demolishing a vintage building have ignited outrage among Plaza devotees — and they will have their day at City Hall.”

Appropriately, the story was as much a correction as it was a report of the outrage.

To me, this episode reflects a couple of things: First, we love our Plaza, with its graceful, Spanish architecture and distinctive feel, and, second, The Star has to be very, very careful — and thorough — in reporting about proposed changes to venerable Kansas City institutions like the Plaza.

The reporting and editing lapse that occurred in Collison’s Friday story is, unfortunately, happening more and more. That is almost inevitable with a diminished staff, and it demonstrates once again how The Star’s status as the area’s most powerful and authoritative news-gathering operation has slipped.

It’s still the biggest and the best, but not as big or good as it used to be.

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KC Star letters to the editor…snail mail

Posted in journalism, Uncategorized, tagged , on August 20, 2010|

I don’t know if you share my opinion about this — of if you’ve even noticed — but it seems to me that the letters to the editor page of The Kansas City Star has gotten kind of moldy.

There’s too much lag time between the articles that triggered the letters and publication of the letters. As a result, the letters page has become increasingly dull over the last several months. 

I’ve been thinking about this lately, and on Thursday I decided to run a little test on the timeliness of letters that ran Wednesday and Thursday.

Here’s what I found: On those two days, a total of seven letters included parenthetical references to articles that generated the letters. (Some letters are about ongoing stories or situations and not pegged to specific stories.)

Of the seven, five referred to articles that had been published at least two weeks ago.  

To me, that’s pretty bad. 

I decided to compare that with the letters that appeared Wednesday and Thursday in The New York Times. On those two days, The Times published a total of 10 letters containing parenthetical references to articles that prompted the letters.

Of the 10, nine were published within eight days of the published articles.

To me, that’s pretty good.  

What is the upshot for readers? In my opinion, The Star’s letters page has a dated, heavy feel to it, where The Times’ page is lively and topical. 

Hate to say it, but that applies to the two papers in their entirety, too. Of course, The Star, like almost all second-tier dailies, has suffered terribly from contraction and readership loss, while the top-tier, national publications — The Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today — have held up somewhat better.

I must confess that one of the reasons I decided to run the test is that I submitted a letter to the editor on Sunday (Aug. 15) about a column that day by E. Thomas McClanahan of the editorial staff. McClanahan wrote eloquently and insightfully, in my opinion, about his opposition to the proposed mosque to be built two blocks from Ground Zero. (For the record, I’m against it, too.)

Lewis Diuguid, an editorial writer who calls letter writers to verify that they, indeed, penned the letters, called me on Monday and said he’d try to get the letter in.

Now, really, it makes no difference to me if the letter gets in. But I really would like to know what the public feedback is on McClanahan’s piece, and I don’t want to have to wait two weeks to get that feedback.

What really galled me was that yesterday a letter ran under the headline “Mosque at ground zero.” I eagerly went to the text, thinking it would be about McClanahan’s column. But, no, it was a letter from Chris Anderson of Basehor, who was writing about an Aug. 4 article titled “Mosque plans advance.” Anderson’s first line was “Where is the outrage over the project mosque by the World Trade Center?”

Well, the outrage certainly escalated between Aug. 4 and Aug. 18, didn’t it?  

I guess the letters pertaining to McClanahan’s column are waiting in a queue…waiting like tax returns stacked up for processing by the IRS.

Yesterday, I e-mailed Miriam Pepper, vice president and editorial page editor of  The Star, and told her about the results of my test and that I intended to write a blog entry on the subject. 

Miriam, one of the most solid and respected editors at The Star, declined to comment, and I can appreciate that. She has nothing to gain by defending the status quo, and feelings could get ruffled in house if she said the page needs improvement. 

Here’s the gist, though. The letters to the editor page is one of the most important parts of the paper. It’s where members of the public get to weigh in, in black and white, on issues that are of importance to them. It’s a garden of ideas, and it’s fun and informative to see what seeds are being planted and to try to figure out which might take root.

It’s important, then, that the letters be timely. In the computer era, people can get plenty of feedback on just about any issue, but millions of people still look to the letters page of their daily papers every day to gauge the ebb and flow of public opinion on current issues.

For the vast majority of serious current-events followers, I dare say, a letter published on the letters page of a daily paper, signed with a person’s real name and disclosing their city of residence, carries far more weight in the court of public opinion than an anonymous comment (or, for that matter, a signed comment) on any blog or Web site.

So, let’s get cracking down there, KC Star!

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Of symbols and bold ideas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 18, 2010| 2 Comments »

It was a moment of inspiration from my colleague Hearne Christopher over at KCConfidential.com.

He came up with the idea — I’m getting to it — after reading KC Star reporter Matt Campbell’s story on Sunday about the “eternal flame” atop the World War I Liberty Memorial costing taxpayers $100,000 a year. 

Hearne’s idea, which he proffered in response to a person who commented on his blog entry about the story, was to supplant the costly steam-production system to a very economical model.

He wrote:  “How about they buy one of those big fans at Wal-Mart, tie some orange, yellow and red streamers to it and let it rip! Who said you have to have smoke with your fire?”

At first blush, I loved it. I e-mailed Hearne and told him it could be “a uniquely Kansas City solution” to a big dilemma and suggested that he start promoting the idea.

But then I started thinking about what the flame represents — the gravity of it — and qualms set in. I certainly don’t want a more economical model to cheapen the tribute to the Allied troops who died in World War I.

Then, I ran it by me wife Patty — my sounding board — and she immediately turned thumbs down. She gave me hope, though…Maybe the fan and streamers could be used as a humorous tribute to something less serious but still “uniquely Kansas City,” she said. Then she floated a totally ridiculous idea — hooking up the streamers and fan to the rear of a cow sculpture.

“What are you talking about?” I said. “Methane? I don’t get it. What’s the connection?”

“Well, you know,” she said, as she cleaned up around the stove, “the cowtown thing.”  

She acknowledged that her idea really wouldn’t have anything to do with fire, and she quickly changed the subject on me. The whole thing got me thinking, though, about a couple of other symbolic ideas that caught my fancy in years past.

One of them was floated here but never got off the ground. The other was in my hometown of Louisville, Ky., and it did fly…for a while.

The one here was put forward, as I recall, by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver during the time he was mayor — 1991-1999.  Seeking a permanent and dramatic tribute to Kansas City’s jazz heritage, he proposed  that a replica of a huge saxophone be built and then installed on the Missouri River so as to jut out of the water.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better idea before or since. For some reason, though, it didn’t take off. Just died. If Charlie Wheeler had come up with it when he was mayor (1971 to 1979), maybe it would have come to pass. Wheeler, in case you’re not old enough to remember him, was known for his bold ideas and crazy antics, such as wrestling a bear in the mayor’s office, on the 29th floor of City Hall. (“The bear sat right there on that couch and drank a Pepsi,” Wheeler said later, in his inimitable nasally whine.)

Another unconventional idea that I really liked — the one out of Louisville — was to build a moveable fountain in the Ohio River, along the city’s breathtaking riverfront development. 

Called the Louisville Falls Fountain, it was dedicated Aug. 19, 1988, five days after the death of its benefactor, Barry Bingham Sr., former owner of The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times newspapers. 

Louisville Falls Fountain...in its heyday

The fountain emitted about 16,000 gallons of water per minute in the shape of a fleur-de-lis (the symbol of Louisville), and it initially shot water to a height of 420 feet. According to Wikipedia, it was to be in use from Memorial Day through Thanksgiving from morning until midnight. But…there were problems. It listed to one side and always looked to me like it was in danger of toppling. Also, costs were higher than expected, and chronic malfunctions depleted the fountain’s maintenance fund.

If that wasn’t enough, the poor fountain came under ridicule, too: A radio talk-show host, Terry Meiners (who’s still on WHAS-AM radio, 840 on the dial), dubbed it “The Belching Barge.” That was the coup de grace. Eventually, the fountain was sold for scrap and, again, according to Wikipedia, “sits in the Ohio River in New Albany, Ind., waiting to be taken apart.”

And so, the moral of this story — coming back full circle — is that when fielding unconventional ideas, maybe modest is best….like Hearne’s idea about the fan and streamers.

Surely, that concept can be put to good use somewhere on something in Kansas City…just not on the rear of a cow sculpture.

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Whitlock waves goodbye

Posted in journalism, Uncategorized, tagged , on August 17, 2010| 5 Comments »

Well, The Star made it official today: Jason Whitlock is leaving The Star after 16 years as a sports columnist and six weeks as an Op-Ed columnist.

After 10 weeks of being “on vacation” (the weekly explanation that The Star has been trotting out to readers), Whitlock is now free “to pursue other interests.”

I predicted here on July 22 — after his columns had been missing for six weeks — that he was finished. (By the way, my hunch has won me a lunch bet with my colleague Hearne Christopher of KCCconfidential.com.)

The latest signal, to me, that he wasn’t coming back came last Friday when he posted this message on his Twitter account at 7:33 p.m.: “I know I’m lazy, but how did Tiger’s Wood (stet) finish today?”

He was asking, in other words, for somebody out there in Twitter land to tell him what score Tiger Woods had recorded in Friday’s round of the PGA championship, held in Wisconsin.

It struck me immediately that if the guy was too lazy to go to ESPN.com, or any number of other Internet sites, and check a player’s score, he was by no means ready to return to real work. 

There really isn’t much more to say. His obit has been written (see Aug. 2 post on this site), and he’s done about all he can do at The Star. He’s made a significant contribution to Kansas City sports coverage, and he helped catapult Sports Daily into the top ranks of the nation’s sports sections. The challenge for The Star now will be to keep the sports section in the top tier, especially with Star sports editor Holly Lawton’s recent decision to resign. 

Clearly, though, the time is right for Whitlock to move on: The paper, like most other metropolitan dailies, is in flux; the Chiefs seemingly are headed for another dull season;and Whitlock obviously is sick of writing for The Star.

So, good luck, Jason. We’ll be looking for you under the arc lights.

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