Remember that line about walking softly and carrying a big stick?
That’s hardly the case in Lawrence, Kansas where the walking is almost always pretty darn soft and the size of the stick is not only small, it’s all but invisible.
That’s the sad reality for a town that by virtue of its proximity to Kansas City and the presence of the University of Kansas desperately wants to believe that it’s big time but all too often falls far short of the mark.
Narrowed to a single reason, owing to a lack of leadership at the local newspaper.
That said, even the proverbial blind sow find an acorn every now and then.
Case in point, an editorial earlier this week in which the Journal World calls out KU chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little for her silence on former KU coach Roy Williams academic scandal with the North Carolina basketball team.
ESPN reported last month that Williams was “worried sick” about a pending NCAA investigation into his players taking “paper classes” in a bogus African-American Studies Department at the university.
To date the 64 year-old Williams has managed to plead naiveté to it all, but who really believes that?
Asked if he thought he could have done more, Williams played his usual “aw shucks” pissed off schtick by countering with, “You can say I’m too short, too ugly, too much gray hair, that I have a bad golf swing, but there’s not one fricking person in the world that can say that I never emphasize the academic side of it,” Williams quipped. “If they say that, they’re lying or whatever.”
How about just cut the defensive bullshit and concede the obvious, Roy?
That in retrospect, of course you could have done more and wish you had? That would be taking the high road, instead of implying that for however many years you had no clue whatsoever that something this ridiculously heinous went down on your watch.
Instead we get the Joe Paterno defense.
The $64 million question: Has Joe Posnanski signed on yet to do Williams’ bio?
Back to the Journal World editorial bagging on Gray-Little…
“People who care about Kansas University are legitimately concerned about the academic scandal involving the University of North Carolina basketball team,” it begins.
“Also, the investigation confirmed 18 years of academic fraud at UNC, including 10 years when KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little was serving as a top academic officer at UNC,” it continues. “It’s no wonder KU friends and alumni have some questions and concerns about whether the KU basketball program also could get caught up in the UNC scandal — and Gray-Little’s refusal to address the situation does little to calm those concerns.”
Ouch.
Other than capitalizing on the campus sex scandals of late and rubber stamping the many missteps by KU’s athletics department, Little has done little, aside from quilting together a hefty paycheck and trying to stay out of everybody who matters hair, but flying under the news radar on potentially controversial topics.
The elephant in the room being the news and editorial side of the Kansas City Star is obviously is won’t to give Gray-Little a pass on all but the most egregious offenses because she is both a woman and a person of color.
So allow me at this point then to give a shout out to the Journal World for wading into a topic even the KU sports suck-ups at the Star wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.
“In February, soon after news broke about UNC basketball players receiving grades for fake classes in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, Gray-Little issued a statement saying that, if she had known about the problems at UNC, she ‘would have taken action to address them.’ Since that time she has refused to comment on the situation at UNC,” the Journal World continues. “Nor has she commented on any steps she might have taken to make sure KU athletic programs were in the clear regarding academics both before and since she arrived on campus in 2009.
“Maybe KU has nothing to fear. Maybe everything on the academic front was on the up and up when Williams and Walden were at KU and after they left. But coaches or academic officials denying that they knew anything about a situation that arguably should have at least raised their suspicions isn’t very comforting. Being able to deny you knew anything about an unpleasant situation doesn’t mean it didn’t happen — or that you shouldn’t have known it was happening at the time.
“This is a situation that cries out for involvement by the Kansas Board of Regents, whose members also have been unwilling to comment on the issue. Are the regents demanding more answers from Gray-Little than she is willing to give to the public? What are the regents doing to ensure that all state universities are free of the kind of academic scandal that has erupted at UNC? These are questions that need to be answered.”
The kicker:
“This is an instance where the silence of KU’s chancellor and the Board of Regents isn’t golden — it only raises concerns and suspicions about what the public isn’t being told.”
What more can I say – “ditto,” “amen”?
How about a little reporting on this from The Pitch and/or the Star?
Or am I going to have to sic Harley on it?
Dolph hates KU.
Who is the dude in the pic going through a severe mid-life crisis?
He sure makes a ton of dough off ’em, Bob…
I’m going to assume your question was rhetorical.
Nice piece Hearne.
Academic fraud, as everyone knows, is rampant throughout colleges all across America. Just pay the athletes. Gawd some of the interviews on TV with Scholar/Athletes who are supposedly matriculating towards a degree is just brutal. Third graders from the KC School District are more articulate.
On the other hand, this actually could solve a kcconfidential mystery. If Harley actually went to MU and received a degree, he must have lettered in 5 sports.
no chuck…when you were repairing black and whitetv’s Harley was
the king in Columbia.
didn’t need any help…actually wwe putabout 20 of the football’s teams
stars thru college….story to come.
now get back to reading mein kampf with your hitler loving buddies
and getting your new white robes fixed by the old ladies!!!!!!!!
There is a street in Columbia called “Short Bus Ave”, so Harley thinks they named a street after him and he is “King of Columbia”.
——didn’t need any help…actually wwe putabout 20 of the football’s teams
stars thru college….story to come.—–
Harley, lies when he breathes. Get back over to your “Mansion” in Red Bridge you liar. Harley thinks if he drops a quarter into a Salvation Army cup once a year, he is a big wheel with local charities.
What a phony.
Were you on any more “Jury Trials” we don’t know about? Maybe you and Morgan Fairchild hooked up when she was in Columbia working with you at a “Charity”?
Paul looks like he is playing guitar for Jimmy Buffet.
🙂
I would send my photo in but I look about 20 yearsyounger than shoedog…
don’t need the old style goatee….I brush my hair and I don’t look like
my pic is a mugshot. sorry wislun.
Heere’s facts: the bitch and Williams both were part of the charade.
these players need help. but without the years of pearce and twins
ku is one broke dick school. Now that you reelected brownie “nice job”
back look for the school to do even further in debt.
Self is getting anxious. See his new toupee….its different than last years
and its got thicker look. He’s pissed off…can’t get the dorms he wants…
just got a new plane at 8 million while schoolkids are cramped into
their classrooms….waiting for sword to come down on ku and kstate
to save what 800 million in one year and you’ve already slashed everything
but the postman on colyers route.
See what great business people these anti abortion/antio immigrant/
antil minority/anti development/anti everything are. They ran our great
state into the ground and now we’re broke boys.
Now they need another 5 million to pay off Charlie and hire some other
sirloin stockade all you can eat fan to run the football team.
The overall look of ku is hideous and students and complaining about
faulty wiring/backed up plumbing/poor grade food and other major projects
the state can’t afford.
And they wonder why brownie didn’t take the aca money? figure it out.
Williams and his little honey knew all about the grade scandal. Once a
liar…always a liar.
Here’s whatyou do….do what I did.
Tell Williams to put up $100,000…..take a lie detector or hire someone
to check over those grades. If he’s right he makes his money plus 100K…if
he and nice lady lied…he loses 100K…although that’s not much to roy.
Lets be honest…this state has hit the lowest points in our history.
Brownie and his cohorts have made us the national laughing stock of the
entire nation. Their experiement went bad…real bad…and everyone from
coast to coast compares the worst economic experiment in trickle down
policy to Kansas….even a book….WHAT HAPPENED TO KANSAS…how
embarrassing.
the state of dole/Eisenhower/other fair pols that learned to work together
to make this state great…and its all washed down the drain by the political
filth of the republicans.
I travel and the first thing people say…KANSAS? as if we’re some
idiots …and truth is we are.
Of course southy and his upper crust don’t care. Everything’s paid for
for them….nowork….win the baby lottery…and presto…”screw all the rest
of you people”.
In the end….big boy has a perfect pic on here. He’d be the poster child for
abortion rights activists….wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not much talk this week since UK utterly destroyed KU. One of the most lopsided victories in years. KU does not deserve to be in the top 50.
That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration, Jack but…
On the other hand, I went to Arizona -not KU or MU or K-State – so I don’t have a dog in the local fight per se.
Truth be known, I’ve leaned towards KU over the years, partly because of its proximity to Kansas City.
However now that I’m living here I’ve kinda grown away from the mostly. There’s just too much Jayhawk and not enough balance in other important areas.
Like this town is all but run by the school and a handful of wealthy booster types with very little accountability.
For example, they have a sports opinion columnist but nobody on the news and editorial side. The “metro” columnist – if you will – is a dude named Chad Lawhorn who doubles as the town’s main news reporter and then rights a Joyce Smith type column in which his main schtick is acting like a hick who just hopped off the turnip truck.
The publisher Dolph Simons writes a Saturday column which I’m sure in an embarrassment for what few actual journalists on the staff – Karen Dillon being the most significant. But his usual subject matter is good, old boy style whining about Democrats and towing the line on Fox News talking points.
His columns are embarrassingly long, repetitive and predictable usually.
They can knock one out of the park on occasion with an unsigned editorial, but since there are no “name” columnists outside of sports that take on issues and/or people, the newspaper effectively has no teeth.
And with a circulation believed to be in the neighborhood of maybe 10,000, it’s hard to get much traction in anything outside of, oh, KU basketball and maybe football.
Your point about this year’s KU basketball team is well taken, but I suspect they’ll spend their fair share of time in the top 20 or 25.
And how about those UMKC Kangaroos kicking Mizzou’s butt the other day?
Whew!
Somewhere up there former AMC honcho Stan Durwood is smiling!
I no longer listen to sports radio because it’s all about KU. Eventually it seemed every topic became a KU topic.
Yes, the local media was all over UMKC beating UMC …. they still are — but the UK annihilation of KU was soon forgotten and not covered. Sorry but KU is not a rankable team this year. I’m sure the AD is trying to adjust future schedules to eliminate any ranked teams.
Simons bleeds KU. I’m amazed that he allowed anything negative to be said about it.
That said, the Journal-World is probably the finest paper in the state. They just hired Karen Dillon to do investigative work and historically they have covered many a scandal covered up by the rest of the Stalinist media in the state.
For instance, Simons single handedly exposed Kathleen Sebeljevich’s attempt to send the most profitable of the KU Med Center’s programs over to her Missouri benefactors, leaving Kansas taxpayers to pick up the tab for the losers that remained.
Owing to his constant editorials our Kansas governor/Missouri whore was stopped pretty much dead in her tracks, inflicting only limited damage.
sebelius will get what she wants and who she wants. Still has her people
in the dept.
the money willgo to Missouri….politics my boy.