08-21-2010 WHITLOCK DENIES DRUG REMARK If Jason Whitlock didn't say he got drunk and high with Sports Editor Mike Fannin, then several listeners must have mis-heard the remark on Friday's diatribe on sports radio. The station that provided the Whitlock rant is not providing the podcast of the first hour of the show where he unloaded on all his former employers. (One might assume KC Star attorneys have stopped the airing of his remarks.) "I did not say (nor have I ever) that I got drunk and high with Mike Fannin. Some people misheard what I said." wrote Whitlock on Twitter (8/21). After all the horrible things he said about Fannin and others at the Star it seems as if the only thing that concerns him is whether he personally admitted smoking dope or not. He accused Fannin of it, but is worried about his reputation? A Web site called SportsGrid weighed in on the issue.
Jason Whitlock
08-20-2010 WHITLOCK'S RANT TOTALLY UNPROFESSIONAL Former Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock went on a rant on a local sports talk station today attacking his former employer that highlighted exactly how unprofessional he has been during his career. Whitlock has parted ways by burning bridges at both sports radio talk stations in Kansas City, ESPN and AOL.com. And now he has totally torched the Star and likely any position with a newspaper in the country during a narcissistic event he dubbed "The Explanation," a takeoff on LeBron James' ill-fated "The Decision." Unfortunately, the event was produced in a high school fashion and callers' voices echoed and eventually calls had to be eliminated completely. Host Nick Wright acted like he was back at Barstow School and was totally intimidated by Whitlock. As referenced here in an earlier story, Whitlock went once again went into a jealous rant against Mitch ("Myth") Albom, Detroit Free Press columnist and author of such famous best-selling books as "Tuesdays With Morrie" and "Have a Little Faith." Albom was recently named the winner of the prestigious "Red Smith" journalism award by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group and promptly viciously attacked in a column by Whitlock. Insiders knew the attack on Albom and the APSE was also a direct slap at Mike Fannin, currently the editor at the Star ---formerly the Star's sports editor--- and Whitlock's boss for 10 years. Fannin had been president of the APSE and was proud of the number of Star employees who had captured APSE awards. It should be noted that Whitlock, who said on the air that he felt in his first three years at the Star "he was as good as any sportswriter in history," never even won the prestigious local "Joe McGuff Journalism" award as the best sports journalist in Kansas City. The award was named after the famed Star sports editor and two of his Star colleagues did win it. Whitlock unloaded on Fannin so inappropriately on the show that at one point he started telling a story about Fannin being drunk and kissing another (male) reporter at a bar after last year's BCS Championship game. The station actually cut him off (likely for legal reasons) and immediately cut to commercials in the middle of his story. When they came back on the air the subject was changed. However, Whitlock had done enough damage even before being cut off. He accused Fannin of having "an inappropriate relationship" with Holly Lawton, who is the Star's sports editor and recently announced she was leaving the paper. He also added Fannin was only interested in establishing a culture of winning awards and not quality journalism (he does not equate quality journalism with award-winning journalism). Whitlock said Lawton never should have been made sports editor and that Derek Samson (who left for the Sporting News and is now with Yahoo! Sports) should have instead been given the job. Whitlock said that after he had written a column May 26 (his last with the Star) he wrote a column about a ticket scandal at the University of Kansas. However, he said, when he mentioned in the column that Yahoo! Sports had broken the story, he was told by Lawton the Star would not credit Yahoo in the story. He said the Star wanted credit for it so it could enter awards competition. Ironically, at the end of his vicious rant against his former co-workers he burst into tears talking about the people in the community who have supported him. It was a fitting conclusion to a truly bizarre event. It was painfully obvious from reports by numerous insiders at the newspaper for years that Jason Whitlock was an ongoing cancer at the Kansas City Star, and he proved it during his radio rant (see Tonyskansascity.com). Although his columns needed extensive editing, he bristled at any changes by his superiors. He was suspended for two weeks for a gay slur that would have resulted in a termination for anyone else at the paper. Any employer who hires him in the future will learn a bitter lesson about professionalism. It is a trait he has avoided his entire career.
(Note: For a superb blow-by-blow discussion of the event check out Greg Hall'saccounton KCConfidential)
08-23-2010 SLANDER PREVENTION "Loved your Whitlock commentary. What a stupid waste of three hours. The "shut down" at 4:15 was classic "slander" prevention. Whitlock's stock dropped about 8 billion points." 08-21-2010 DUKE FRYE UNLOADS "If some of the comments are true and "spot on" as some of the feedback says, why are these writers only willing to attach "anonymous" as a signature?If you support Jason's comments then you should be willing to stand up for the "truth", not just say I'm a former Star employee. "What Jason Whitlock did was unprofessional in any business.It was a self serving, ego-driven rant.But let's not just blame Jason.610 and Metro Sports should be thrown in the stockade for providing three hours for Jason to spout off whatever he wanted on the airwaves.Just because something will attract listeners/viewers doesn't mean it should be aired. You want entertainment like this?Let's just televise all divorce cases in town. "Over a decade ago I told my then partners at 1510/810 that Jason was only concerned about himself and what he could do to make a name for himself.He had no concern in doing a good job for our station.He's consistently proven that over the years. "He's not without talent.He wrote what I think is his best article ever this past week for Fox Sports, but he's a troubled man who is unable to accept his own shortcomings.Quality reporters or commentators have always become memorable names and faces based on their work.Jason has always made a point of trying to attract attention to himself so that he's as much as or more of the story than the subject he's written about." ---Duke Frye ([email protected])
AGREES WITH WHITLOCK "I listened to the whole thing, and I never heard Whitlock say he got drunk or high with Fannin...he said a lot of people are walking around the Star believing they are insulated from layoffs because they have gotten drunk or high with Fannin. "The implication is either that Fannin is their good buddy or a potential blackmail target...But Whitlock never said he was one of the ones getting drunk or high."
EMANCIPATION "Maybe it should have been called "The Emancipation" not "The Explanation". He's free of the shackles of the Star now....and what was the deal with the crying? Royko was spinning in his grave over that."
08-20-2010 RIGHT TONE "You got the right tone......what time is Jason coming over dinner and drinks tonite?"
NEWS COLUMN "If Jason was such a bad writer/cancer why did they give the nonvoter a news column? Doesn't reflect on management?" :)
THE TRUTH "What Whitlock is saying about Fannin and the Star is true and trust me on that one." ---Anonymous
AWARDS "Fannin's boss Mark Zieman is plenty obsessed with winning awards too. This mindset has created a culture at The Star and probably lots of other newspapers in which solid beat reporting takes a backseat to flashy narrative-driven drivel."
SELF-SERVING "Unprofessional was when Jason talked up Fannin to the Big Lead and the LA Times. What he did today was both self-serving and possible self-destructive, but it was also true, so at least he has that going for him."
STAR AWARDS "The Star has been obsessed with awards to the detriment of day to day reporting since at least the Hyatt tragedy. It won a Pulitzer and chased the next one for years. "That came when Zieman ran the projects desk and McGraw/Taylor won a Pulitzer for a dept of agriculture series. Zieman boldly took more credit for it than the reporters and was able to parlay that into the managing editor job, and the Star's obsession with awards grew exponentially in the succeeding years."
CULTURE OF FEAR "I've been critical of Whitlock in the past, but ... Professional or not, his comments today regarding the "culture of fear" at The Star, its "toxic" environment and its "bullying" tactics were spot-on. He also made some legitimate points regarding the problems inherent in having only one major newspaper to speak for a city. -- A former Star editor who must remain anonymous
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