In journalism – as in most businesses – everybody is is expendable…
In the case of the Kansas City Star, one need only flash back six years to when frontline columnists Joe Posnanski, Jason Whitlock and myself were practically the face of the newspaper locally and paid double or more what most other reporters and writers made. I remember the FYI editor FYI joking that she practically needed a separate line for me in her annual budget proposal.
Anyway, life goes on, right?
That said, in its current state, the Star would have an extemely hard time recuperating from the loss of Sam Mellinger.
That’s right, because even though the sports columnist who stood in for Posnanski and Whitlock didn’t take the world by storm like his predecessors had – Mellinger’s body of work in just a few short years has actually surpassed them in quality.
As evidenced by his column today- “Goodell Fumbles on Abuse Issues” – dissecting how embattled NFL commission Roger Goodell and the league blew their chance to set an example worth following on “domestic abuse.”
Where Whitlock might have gone in guns blazing or Posnanski might have smothered readers with endlessly-long, touchy-feely prose, Mellinger outdoes them both by engaging readers the old-fashioned way; with smart, succinctly-written, engaging thoughts that cut straight to the heart of the matter.
Out with over-the-top bombast and flowery-to-a-fault word overload, in with straight to the point thoughts and remarkable writing.
“Goodell and league executives have come by their defining arrogance quite honestly, because for the last two decades there hasn’t been a problem they haven’t been able to solve by the pure awesomeness of their sport. The predictable pattern goes something like this: A crisis presents itself, fans react, then a Sunday comes and we all forget,” Mellinger begins.
It’s not easy writing 50 word sentences that well without overdoing it.
“If the NFL were the cultural leader it wishes itself to be, it would’ve used the video of Rice knocking a woman unconscious to make a real statement against domestic abuse,” Mellinger continues. “If the NFL had the moral clarity it talks about in press releases and sound bites, it would’ve woken up to the crisis of men beating up women in time to take real steps in both education and punishment for 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald and Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy and whoever will soon become the next NFL player arrested for domestic violence.”
Next instead of merely clobbering the NFL, Mellinger sticks it to them in a way that has to hurt:
“The NFL has always been a bit patronizing to its female fans, acting as if a month of pink wristbands in support of breast-cancer research and selling pink jerseys qualifies as outreach.”
In a single sentence Mellinger made it clear that the Ray Rice controversy is but a window into a far larger problem.
Next he reminds readers that he’s a Kansas City Star columnist:
“We all — media, fans and NFL decision-makers — missed an opportunity two years ago when Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend and then himself,” he writes. “This was the worst possible outcome of domestic violence, an innocent life lost, but the talk then centered much more on Belcher and head injuries..In a better world, with better leadership from the NFL, this could have been a similar moment for domestic abuse.”
Then Mellinger drives home his point without resorting to blustery displays of grandstanding or fluff:
“This could’ve been a seminal moment in our country’s tolerance for men beating up women,” he begins.
“Charges against Rice were dropped, a sign of how difficult it is to punish domestic violence, but the NFL could have been a leader here. A new policy against domestic abusers — six games for a first offense, up to a lifetime ban for a second — could’ve been presented as a strong statement instead of PR maneuvering.
“Goodell’s incredible mismanaging — going too light in the beginning, whiffing on public sentiment and now what looks an awful lot like a bad cover-up — made all of that impossible.”
Nuff said? I think so.
This is a column that would have made the New York Times, Washinton Post or ESPN proud, and therein lies the problem.
Because of Star editor Mike Fannin‘s Midas Touch in sports, the newspaper has served as a springboard for its sports writers to move on to bigger and better (and higher paying) positions elsewhere.
Which returns us back to my original point.
At this stage of the game, the Star can ill afford to lose Sam Mellinger.
Because when you boil things to their essence, the sports section is really the only part of the Sar that hasn’t suffered mightily in the last eight years downturn.
The so-called A Section and front page continue to lose ground to superior online coverage of national and worldwide news and events. Meanwhile local, headline-quality stories have suffered massively by the layoffs and departures of people like Karen Dillon and Dan Margolies.
The Metro or Local Section exists mostly in name only, suffering from an attrition in both reporters and the space allocated to what stories are reported.
The Business Section has become all but a joke.
The Star gave up years ago on trying to compete with the now-equally depleted Kansas City Business Journal . On top of which it’s a given that heavyweight local companies like AMC and Sprint are far more beholden to the Wall Street Journal and national media than they are what’s left of the business section.
Local and small business columnist Joyce Smith remains strong, in no small part owing to that these days virtually nobody else is competing with her. But make no mistake, Smith may be unstable, but she may be the hardest working writer at 18th and Grand.
Recently bailed Star big business heavy hitter Kevin Collison moved on to a likely bigger and safer paycheck (assuming his on-the-job training works out). Collison’s affable manner combined with the fact that the Star dwarfs other local news outlets helped insure that the newspaper remained the go-to media for big real estate and business deal announcements.
While that’s unlikely to change, who’s going to keep the ball rolling with Collison’s lengthy list of well-schmoozed sources? That makes his loss potentially huge for one of the newspaper’s few remaining strengths.
The Opinion or Editorial Section is another matter.
It hasn’t exactly been on fire in recent years, with a cast of mostly low-key leftovers who one-by-one were either demoted and/or quietly fell by the wayside. Add to that the Star’s diminished reporting ranks and accompanying loss of significant news coverage, its rapidly declining circulation, increased sensitivity to offending advertisers and lack of a strong hand on the tiller.
Net result: editorial writer Yael Abouhalkah has been left to do just about any of the lifting – heavy or not – that halfway matters but he’s been at it for so long that he’s become almost comically predictable.
So yeah, if sports loses Mellinger the Star could be in big trouble.
Oh, they can and will replace Sam but if a tree is cut down in the forest and then written upon but nobody reads it, does it really matter?
I’m not as impressed by yet another Social Justice take on the Ray Rice situation…but I agree that he is a huge improvement on the fakey aww-shucks-I-do-love-them-sports columns of JoePo.
How about versus Whitlock balbonis?
And I thought Sam’s take was far superior to what I’ve been hearing and reading.
I’d hate to see him go if he does. He made a difference. I like Sam the man.
“Because of Star editor Mike Fannin‘s Midas Touch in sports, the newspaper has served as a springboard for its sports writers to move on to bigger and better (and higher paying) positions elsewhere.”
Neither Whitlock or Posnaski are making near what they are at their primary jobs as they did at the Star.
Sam is good people. He’d be smart to stay at home and learn the lessons Whitlock and Posnaski learned. Big fish/small pond will always be better for a hometown kid. Whitlock and Posnaski have worked at least three or four jobs a piece since they bailed on the Star.
Admitted counterpoint… the Star would not have been able to afford their old salaries. Weird times we live in now.
Whitlock and I believe Posnanski came in on another sports editor’s watch, Bob.
Besdies, I wasn’t talking about them moving on. They were highly paid long haulers who didn’t part company with the Star until the money ran low.
Not so sure about the money.
Whitlock seems to have struggled but Joe reportedly made some major bank on his light weight Joe Paterno book deal.
And unlike Jason, Joe’s blogging quite frequently for NBC Sports, so he could be making some pretty good dough. He seems to write more frequently – or as frequently anyway – as when he was pulling down low six figures at the Star.
Haven’t heard if he’s landed any new book deals.
I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Poz came aboard at the Star under Dinn Mann.
I’m pretty sure you’re right and if I wasn’t a little lazy today I’d verify it.
Mike Fannin also came aboard under Dinn, who is now at MLB unless something dramatic has happened.
In any case, credit Mike with bringing in and/or fostering a number of sports scribes who have gone on to bigger and better.
And more importantly, the talent that remains at the Star that replaced the one who left, were laid off or retired.
Would that his magic touch extend to other sections of the newspaper besides sports. I know his hands are probably tied money wise, but…
Where is the new me?
Where is the new Dan Margolies?
Where is the new Kevin Collison (no gripe here, Kevin just left)
Where is the new Art Brisbane (Local columnist)? Or Mike Hendricks, for that matter (but Mike never really put it all together as a columnist, he does much better as a reporter)?
Where is the new Karen Dillon/Mike McGraw?
Actually, I think that might be Dugan Arnett, but the jury is still out. The Nazarene story was pretty good but there was so much journalistic tap dancing going on it was kind of a strained, difficult read. I do know that one player involved is very lawsuit happy though, so maybe just prying open the door was the safer way to get started.
hearne…stop living in the past.
the star is dying…we all know it.
you were a reporter of gossip.
get over it.
put those things behind you and move on.
You will free your soul of all that hate and anger.
your friend
Harley
How much I owe you for that, uh, therapy?
All of my pals and I continue to subscribe to the RedStar ONLY because of the Sports Section. And, the Sports Section would be very much worse off with out Mellinger.
Other than the information found in Sports and the Obits, seems to me the only current raison d’etre of the RedStar is to influence the Ks. governor’s election….they just won’t stop with their unrelenting effort to have Brownback ousted…
So, if they lose Mellinger, and can’t adequately replace him, they may go out of business because of that occurance alone.
mellinger is cool. like his stuff.
he has insight….
but he too will move on…
they all do.
And as far as whitlock…saw him do an entire hour on espn last week ….
not bad. If he hangs on…he culd pick up something big on that network.
there are so many sports tv channels anyone with even a little sports
knowledge can get on tv these days.