Monday, the KC Free Press published my thoughts on labor’s desperate attempt to get one last favor out of Henry Rizzo before he loses to Crystal Williams. This morning, the KC Star ran the same thing, anonymously rehashing my analysis into their own words, but adding a nice bit about how Fred “I’m NOT Running – Oh, Wait, Maybe I Am” Arbanas is pathetically seeking labor support to avoid being ousted by Terry Riley.
I’m not complaining about the Star using me for analytical guidance – I applaud them for that. Editorially, they can gain much from following the lead of bloggers, who are often more insightful and creative than their stable of entrenched former journalists. (Maybe there’s something in the walnut wood polish that causes weariness?)
The point that ought to outrage intelligent and alert Kansas Citians is the fact that THE STAR HAS NOT WRITTEN A SINGLE NEWS PIECE ON RIZZO’S AND ARBANAS’ SELL-OUT TO LABOR!
The only place Star subscribers can read about labor’s scheme to seize control of county contracts is in the editorial pages, where it’s been mentioned twice. Today’s article and last week’s article are merely editorials, opinion pieces unsupported by factual reporting from the news sections of the paper.
This is a real and serious problem, and it says volumes about the sinking of a once-great paper. The news sections ought to be the driving force of the paper – the place where the facts are gathered and the secrets exposed. And the editorial page ought to be where the editors get to analyze and opine about the news covered in the meaty news sections.
At the Star now, the news offerings are so meager that the editorialists have found it necessary to “go rogue” and bring forth facts that no reporter has gotten around to actually writing up as news. You can’t find a single news article even mentioning the proposal, but the editorial page has deemed it important enough to address twice.
When the news division of the paper is so weak that it does not have the resources to cover enough news to keep up with the editorial writers, the newspaper has lost its purpose.
I estimate 3 months after the NYT establishes its presence here that Gray Lady starts scooping the Star at EVERY news worthy story.
Once that occurs the Star will become nothing more than a daily circular…
Nobody reads your diarrhea of a blog anyway, and nobody upon nobody reads the boring-as-shit KC Free Press. Christ, it took ages to see the other half of the article and boy was I disappointed – BECAUSE IT WASN’T WORTH READING EITHER!
Know why, Dan? Because nobody gives a fucking shit about business-as-usual politics.
Buddy -
Glad to have you as a faithful reader. It’s always funny to have people tell me that nobody’s reading, when the stats prove otherwise.
The KC Free Press fixed the problem in a few hours. Stay tuned for more leading edge political commentary!