Tony: The Star Politely Ignores The Success Of Art Brisbane

Based on my extensive interactions with newsies from The Kansas City Star, I must note that cattiness is one of their defining attributes.

Normally, I hate to make generalizations but since it’s middle and upper-class white people we’re talking about: No problem. So, as The Star continues it’s painful implosion I wasn’t too surprised to notice that they didn’t take time out to acknowledge the success of one of their former homies. Art Brisbane landing his gig as the public editor at The New York Times only elicited a small print burb from Kansas City’s so-called paper of record while the news sent shockwaves through the rest of the Internets.

Off the top of my head, I think this lack of recognition is mostly about petty jealousy. The New York Times is the last bastion of old world print journalism whereas The Star is the barnyard manifestation of the silly idea of for-profit business as an unelected and largely unsanctioned branch of government. Don’t worry, technology is quickly leveling the playing field on which the NYT must play and they show the same silly instincts as The Star regarding participating in digital media. But, The inevitable decline of the Dead Tree NYT will take longer than the fire sale currently going down at The Star. Therefore, Brisbane landing a respected gig at a better paper should have been cause for celebration for a paper that desperately needs to work on making connections.

Sadly, petty Star people couldn’t swallow their pride and wish the guy good luck. And I think I have a few ideas why.

Two words: Rise Up.

Behind the scenes, there has always been blame sent the way of Brisbane for the horrible disaster that was the Rise Up insert that cost the company tons of cash. It has all been settled now and not really worth going into but the upshot is that Brisbane now takes the blame for the horrible deal based on gossip from newsies while the guy will go on record with anybody and note that he didn’t negotiate an EXTREMELY unwise deal to give Janice Ellis and company credit.

So, the hard feelings have a bit of financial reasoning . . . However, I’m still pretty sure that they’re just jealous that a former colleague got a great gig as they make their way to the unemployment line.

Tony Botello