Hearne: Bombshell Star Hawley Hit Sputters

For the reporters and editorial writers at the Kansas City Star for the rebuke they suffered when Missouri secretary of state Jay Ashcroft shot down the newspaper’s failed attempt at derailing Josh Hawley.

The newspaper’s been badgering and shortchanging he new Missouri senator ever since he succeeded in unseating the Star’s preferred candidate Claire McCaskill.

So desperate was the Star at one point after its story right before the election accusing Hawley of using state employees in  his campaign fell flat, that editor Mike Fannin came out in a followup piece to blather about how big a deal Hawley’s alleged misdeeds were.

“We have the story documented,” Fannin fumed. “Those documents spell out clearly what happened: That Hawley turned over management of his office to consultants almost immediately after being elected and contrary to what he told the public. This is an easy story to stand by. The sourcing and reporting are unimpeachable.”

So unimpeachable that the Missouri secretary of state has now ruled Hawley did not break the law.

Not unflattering enough

Now the same liberal political hit group that fed the newspaper the purported “dirt” on Hawley has joined forces with the Star againin nit-picking on whether Hawley’s staff may have used state vehicles during his campaign.

Seriously, guys.

On top of which, every time the Star runs on of it’s political hit pieces on Hawley they garnish it with an unflattering pic.

Why not just skip the pretense and rent out the newspaper’s recently emptied out newsroom space to the American Democracy Legal Fund and be done with it.

This much is clear: the days of halfway objective political reporting are fading fast.

And that’s too bad for the City of Kansas.