Whatever happened to halfway unbiased journalism?
When it comes to politics it’s long gone. As evidenced by the local newspaper of record’s relentless, blatant efforts to diminish Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach. Right down to running an unflattering, sinister pic of him above in the online story reporting that Kobach had won.
Look, I’m no fan of Kobach’s, but I do have an affinity for level playing fields, fair play and the like. Both of which are increasingly missing-in-action in local and national news.
In no small part because of the massive layoffs in most newsrooms and influx of inexperienced reporters with paper thin resumes from beleaguered “news” organizations like the Pitch and Kansas City Business Journal .
Net result: pretty much anything goes.
What halfway fair minded individual can watch CNN these days without cringing? That once heralded news network makes Fox News look “fair and balanced.”
And while the Kansas City Star has long been a supporter of most things Democrat and liberal (just ask Stomps), until the past year or so I’ve never seen anything approaching the levels of over-the-top bias being exhibited daily.
The Star news staff more closely resembles a political party than independent journalists.
Take the recent hit job on an area “GOP” nominee who in the Star’s headline “racked up $12K-plus in child support debt.”
Like that’s not intended to bias readers against the dude from the get go.
However, talking to local women attorneys there are many understandable reasons why people can fall behind in such payments…job loss, difficult economy, disagreements over finances to name three.
And rather than the dude being a chronic offender, he caught up on the amount he was behind and the court reduced his payments to make things more equitable. Five years later he fell behind again but settled up and put the matter behind him.
That was five years ago.
What this story really was about was the reporter disagreed with the dude’s politics. As evidenced by noting that the pol in question “peddles bigoted conspiracy theories on the radio.”
In who’s opinion? The reporter’s.
Another story by a Star newbie tried to exonerate Lawrence Dem Paul Davis for a strip club romp when he was 26 and could hardly be expected to be held accountable for his behavior.
According to the reporter, Davis only sin was he just happened to be “at a strip club when it was raided in a search for drugs 16 years ago.”
No biggie. Davis was at “the wrong place at the wrong time.”
But wait!
To anyone familiar with the workings of a strip club, there was more to it.
For starters Davis was there on a schmooze as a member of the law firm that was representing the club that was being busted for drugs and tawdry activities.
And given Davis’ geek-nerd demeanor and that he was later trying to win the governorship in one of the most conservative states in the union that did not bode well for him.
The police chief in charge of the raid said Davis had been drinking and was caught in a compromising position in a back room.
Do I need to spell this out for anybody besides the Star reporter?
Strippers take horny dudes like Davis into back rooms so they can conduct “business” away from the eyes of undercover cops and fellow sleazy strip club attendees. They don’t go back there to read poetry. They go back so said dudes can play grab-ass and/or try and “get off.”
Hence the term “compromising position.”
So the potential future governor of Kansas was home alone with a topless stripper.
Should Davis have gone to jail or forever hang his head in shame?
Of course not.
But in the “me too” world today, it was hardly inconsequential…
Unless of course you’re a member of today’s news media.
Dead on the money Hearne.
Thank you for continuing to keep an eye on these flunkies, group-thinkers, lapdogs, advocates, cause crusaders, anti-intellectual dolts, and all-around jackasses (none of them journalists) that inhabit most of the media, Hearne. Like you, I disagree plenty with all the deranged right-wingers, but also something rubs me very much the wrong way (as an old MU J-School grad) about how the leftist 20 percenters have this incredibly unfair built-in advantage by virtue of most media members being these sniveling little down-for-the-cause acolytes of the left-wing persuasion. And not journalists. In any sense of the word. Not only pathetic, but rather scary.
Bottom line is that the vast majority of the reporters at the Star are not honorable, honest people, and they have an overblown sense of their own intellects and importance. Twenty years ago the Star management would have been ashamed and embarrassed. Today management doesn’t know the difference, yet wonders why they are viewed with such contempt … yet wonder why their newspaper and their industry is circling the drain.
We used to get check marks for editorializing in a news story, even in high school journalism. What ever happened to sticking to who, what, where, when, and why?
“The Star news staff more closely resembles a political party than independent journalists.”
– while the Star sports department is pom poms and cheering section, one views fact jaundiced eye in lieu probity. Unsatisfied to merely whip narrative into grammatical shape, they enjoy ‘massaging’ – passing off a local sports inferiority complex as fact – when in fact it is what is known ‘fake news’, the parlance.
I corrected the KC Star for claiming in print (then) Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles had the best average yards per carry (ypc) average of any player in NFL history. Fact: Charles did not, does not, nor will he ever have the best ypc average, NFL history. Who does? Michael Vick, a former QB.
Instead of the Star simply making a correction/changing ‘best ever ypc average of any player NFL history’ to ‘best ypc of any RB in NFL history’, they did nothing. Well, not nothing, actually. They did do something. They banned me (not unlike a social media today bans dissent which is not in lockstep their agenda.)
I replied in their online comment section, provided stat proof/narrative. The KC Star never made the correction, rather, removed all my posts, and ability to make a future comment(s) for daring to refute their printed balderdash – hilarious – and so liberally typical, too.
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For the record, among NFL ‘RB’s Charles currently has the best ypc average a career (emphasis ‘RB’s’/’NFL’, an asterisk ‘number of career carries’ considered too, as Jim Brown carried 1000 + more times wear and tear on him, making his average 5 + ypc far more impressive than a far less carry-utilized Charles.) Terms pro football overall another RB Marion Motley has a better ypc average than Charles or Brown but as his pro stats were earned both NFL and AAFC, the NFL doesn’t recognize Motley.
But the Pro Football Hall of Fame does. Result, the best ypc average ‘in pro football history’ belongs to QB Vick, followed QB Cunningham and then RB Motley; Jamaal Charles is no better than 4th best all time, all considered.
And that’s my KC Star experience/your fun football facts for today… you’re welcome.
😎