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Summary:  The Kansas City Chiefs' Bob Moore demanded a correction from Hearne Christopher for not contacting them prior to running an item quoting Kevin Kietzman of WHB 810 saying the Chiefs had pulled a reporter's credentials.  KK now says he was reporting on second-hand information, but HC doesn't take responsibility for running the item.

    Corrections in a newspaper are a funny thing. Some reporters are willing to make them in order to get the facts correct.  Other reporters do their level best to try and avoid making corrections because they feel it reflects poorly on them.  In fact, very often reporters can lose their jobs for having to run too many corrections.

    Below is Hearne Christopher's most recent column (7/5) attempting to correct the record on an item he ran.  In it he points out that Kevin Kietzman providing him with wrong information.  However, HC never admits that he should have contacted the Chiefs to get the team's side of the story on the issue (BLC exclusive below):

From Hearne Christopher column (7/5)

Hold it right there

Concerning WHB 810 AM host Kevin Kietzman’s contention that if radio reporters had been rude to Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt (instead of Royals owner David Glass) at a press conference and had had their credentials revoked, fans wouldn’t have blinked…

The idea being the Chiefs are wildly popular and the Royals and Glass just the opposite.

That may or may not be the case, says Chiefs spokesman Bob Moore.

However Kietzman was wrong when he said that the Chiefs yanked a reporter’s press credentials two years ago for cheering in the press box, Moore says. Never happened.

“We never pulled anybody’s credentials for cheering in the press box,” Moore says. “The rules of the press box are clear — there’s no cheering — that’s the standard rule in the NFL. And sometimes with non-media people, that will happen, but it’s no big deal.”

Kietzman concedes that he had heard of the credentials being pulled from other media members but did not witness the alleged defrocking or know who it was.

There are ways to get one’s press pass revoked at Arrowhead: Misrepresent your position or affiliation; lend your credentials to someone else; or merely take in the games sans any reporting or broadcasting, Moore says.

“In the old days people would come to the press box because they wanted to eat a meal or hang out,” he says. “I don’t think the fans really care.”
 

    BLC Exclusive (6/29):

    Bob Moore, the Kansas City Chiefs' top PR official, in an exclusive interview, says he is very upset with Hearne Christopher of the Kansas City Star for not contacting the team prior to running erroneous comments by Kevin Kietzman of WHB-810.  He has asked Christopher to correct the item.

    "In my 18 years we have never pulled the credentials of any reporter," says Moore.  "In fact, if someone did cheer in the press box we would simply tell them not to.  

    "I'm not sure how someone (Kietzman) who hasn't covered the team since when he worked for WDAF-TV would even know what we have done in the press box," he added.

    Moore said some issues have arisen over the years with media people giving their credentials to friends.  Or sometimes it has been found folks with credentials were not really "working" media who actually interviewed players and did regular stories.  The late Tom Leathers fell into that category.

    However, Moore emphasized that legitimate media representatives have never had their media credentials taken away by the Kansas City Chiefs.  [email protected]