They say good news travels fast but bad news faster…
Such is the case with former Johnson County Sun main man-turned Kansas City Star scribe Steve Rose.
To wit, Rose’s largely forgettable column in last Saturday’s Star morphed into no less than six Google pages of followup stories in other media after a lawsuit was filed against them.
That after Rose laid the pipe – allegedly – to Kansas State Sen. Jim Denning by attributing false statements about Medicaid expansion to Denning in his column.
The deed went down Saturday and on Monday Denning sued the Star for defamation, alleging that Rose’s column made “false statements which have exposed Senator Denning to public hatred, contempt and ridicule.”
For which Denning’s lawsuit provided a colorful example in the form of an email from a dude who identified himself as “Ed Rogers.”:
“I will not address you with a title,” it began, “you must earn that respect and believe me when I say that you never will. Who the fuck made you the judge, jury and executioner for those who need medical care? Who the fuck do you think you are, asshole? What you are is a pathetic, insecure piece of dog shit and that is probably an insult to dog shit. Just keep your fucking mouth shut and for once try helping ALL the citizens of your state, not just the ones you deem fit to even exist. Better yet, resign and and go back to pushing shopping carts at Walmart. That is if you are capable of such a difficult task. Pathetic, fucking asshole. Ed”
Equally entertaining – but unfortunately for Rose, telling – were emails he sent to Denning’s subordinate appearing to admit that he’d messed up and offering to resign from the Star.
Make no mistake: it doesn’t take a journalistic genius – nor the pair of attorneys I consulted – to make a strong case that Rose and the Star are up shit creek on this one.
Regardless of what a certain defamation case loser veteran may suggest, this is no mere 1st amendment issue – far from it – more on that later.
“This is what happens when the Star decides to double down on their intellectual jihad against Republicans and conservatives and they get sloppy,” says one local attorney.
Stay tuned.
“Messed up” ?? How about made up quotes from whole cloth to promote an agenda, maliciously lied and then proposed a coverup to the victim so it would all go away. $75,000 is nothing like what this should cost the dishonorable Star and its arrogant slime ball “columnist.”
The $75,000 number is merely legal window dressing…plus court costs and legal expenses…
Trust me, they’ll be shooting for far higher, well into six figures or more.
$75,000 is the minimum amount necessary to claim when invoking federal jurisdiction. It’s not the amount that will be claimed at trial..
You are correct sir, JH