Kansas City Star Columnist Mike Hendricks was slapped in front of a radio audience of millions yesterday and I think we need to revel in that fact.
This isn’t the first time that Hendricks has been publicly embarrassed. In fact, it might be something of a third strike. His public pay cut amid Star layoffs couldn’t have been nice and to make matters worse Hendricks immediately went on Facebook to whine about his bad news, contemplate a new job search and insult his readers. Hearne and I disagree on this one. Hearne argues that the pay cut was an effort to keep Mike at The Star whereas I think if a salary is docked it either translates into “go away” or reveals an employer doesn’t care what happens to the employee. Either way, ranting about it online is definitely a mistake. The Second strike against Mike Hendricks came when he was revealed to be an arrogant jerk during some e-mail job search.
And now he had to correct himself for foolishly using Myspace as a research tool.
So just how long will the Kansas City Star endure his constant screw-ups?
Again, I really want to put this in perspective.
Take a look at the page that Hendricks mistook for the Myspace profile of Tania Beck.
The phony page only has two friends. It’s hot pink and there’s a heart .gif file that’s right out of 90’s Internet graphic design.
And let’s not even get into all the implications of the dude trolling Myspace in this day and age when Facebook has pretty much become a substitute for the Internet.
Again, what was worse is that he sorta blamed himself but really blamed the Internet for his mistake. The blunder was not only embarrassing but proves that the Kansas City Star columnist is having a real problem making the transition to this new digital age of media.
I hear that The Star has a “Verification School” for reporters who screw up constantly . . . I can only hope they offer some classes online so that Mike Hendricks can catch up to the rest of the rapidly evolving media world.
Tony Botello
O the bitter tears
O the bitter tears. I’ll translate:
Dear Mike:
I’m jealous of you because you’re white and married and make a whole lot more money than me at a place that wouldn’t give me the time of day when I applied to be a Joco community reporter there. I also think I’m smarter than you, even though the only money I get from blogging is from Patsy Tuohey.
Kisses,
Tony
Ravey
Good job T. That’s somebody who has been reading you loyally for 4 years.
And I think he had you confused with the other fat messakin from The JCCC student newspaper.
dave-o
Mike is a good guy. I like his writing sometimes and this was just a simple mistake. Give him a break T.