Deadspin: The Mysterious Trouble With Jason Whitlock
 

http://deadspin.com/5592824/the-myst...jason-whitlock

Despite the fact that he hasn't published a column since May 26, the KC Star said today via phone that their oversized noisemaker, Jason Whitlock, is still currently on staff. He's just on extended vacation. But, still, something's amiss.

Many media wonks thought that the lack of a Whitlock byline in the paper plus his contribution to The Big Lead napalming the newspaper industry indicated that his days with the Star were numbered. It's a reasonable assumption, I guess, considering how quiet Whitlock's been about his hometown paper on his cantankerous Twitter feed and the fact that there's no indication on the KCStar's website that Captain Oozing Pumpkin is taking an extended furlough.

One thing that is noteworthy about his break is that he's rattled and annoyed at some of the local muckraking going on over at a bottomfeeder site called KC Confidential.com, which published a mock obit for Whitlock's career at The Star today . The site, a collection of current and former KC journalists, have been turning the screws extra hard to Whitlock the last couple weeks. Most likely these are the shadowy figures he's referencing in one of his recent Tweets:

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...ocktwitter.jpg

Let's backtrack: A couple weeks ago, a wild story popped up on KC Confidential written by a man named Greg Hall, a former sports columnist for the Star, who attempted to torpedo Whitlock's Big Lead column about "Myth" Albom because, according to Hall, Jason Whitlock used to pay him to write his columns:

I find it ironic that Jason chooses to blast the very industry that has hidden his secret all these years. Jason paid me in a $200 personal check to write the Texas column. BTW, none of this is news to those in the know at The Star.

Here's where it gets odd: I emailed Jason about this post. A pretty innocent email, in terms of some of our previous interactions, and he did not respond. Instead his lawyer, Kirk May, did.

My firm represents Jason Whitlock and I am writing in response to your July 21, 2010 email to Mr. Whitlock. I am writing to inform you that Mr. Hall's claims are untrue and defamatory. On behalf of Mr. Whitlock, we demand that you and your organization not publish and distribute Mr. Hall's claims. If you and your organization do publish and distribute Mr. Hall's claims, then Mr. Whitlock will take appropriate legal action.
If you are aware of any information that you believe supports Mr. Hall's claims, then please share that with me.

There is nothing about Greg Hall's pretty inflammatory post that can verified. After conversing with Hall via email several times, he had no evidence to support his claims — no personal check, no copies of the original columns he punched-up, just his invisible hand to an imaginary bible in cyberspace. Plus, some of Hall's peers and former co-workers and editors I spoke with stated that Hall was the least trustworthy source of this information — a guy who's had a vendetta for years against Jason and tried to shop this Whitlock-is-a-phony story to other outlets for years to no avail. It was published at the The Platte County Landmark where it was then cease-and-desisted by The Kansas City Star's lawyers soon after it went up. Speaking of which, The KCStar's lawyer, Tim McNamara, also emailed me (without prior contact from me) with a strongly-worded warning about moving forward with the story about Hall's post:

Dear Mr. Daulerio—
I represent The Kansas City Star. Your e-mail directed to Mr. Jason Whitlock earlier today has been brought to my attention along with the defamatory statements of Mr. Greg Hall. Please be advised that Mr. Hall's statements are false and defamatory. Moreover, Mr. Hall has a long history of acting with actual malice toward Mr. Whitlock such that you should know that his statements are not credible. On behalf of The Star, we hereby demand that you and Deadspin.com and those acting in concert with you cease and desist from publishing any such statements by Mr. Hall regarding Mr. Whitlock and/or The Star. We hope that no further legal action will be necessary to protect the interests of Mr. Whitlock and The Star. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you.

I had a couple questions. First, why on earth was there so much email legal melodrama about my pretty simple inquiry over someone else's blog post. Second — does Jason still work at the KCStar?

Mr. Daulerio—I am an attorney for The KC Star and management at The Star and Mr. Whitlock contacted me about this situation so it certainly indicates to me that Mr. Whitlock works there. Jason's personal attorney, Kirk May, contacted you before I did simply because I was out of the office when Star management and Jason first tried to reach me. I have no additional information regarding Mr. Whitlock's employment so if you have any further questions I respectfully suggest you take them up with the Star's editorial management and/or Mr. Whitlock. Thank you.

I contacted Jason again today, to get his answer about the state of his employment with his hometown paper. He (or his attorney) did not respond. But, again, according to the KC Star's sports editor, he is still employed as part of the paper. He's not on contract — he's on staff, they said. I emailed Jason the day after looking into Hall's piece and told him I was moving away from the story because the claims lacked credibility and I wasn't about to light him up based on the claims of a possibly deluded individual. However, I do find it a little surprising that Hall's story is still published on that site, since according to the flurry of attorney emails I received two weeks ago seemed to indicate that even the mere thought of writing about it would be perilous to Deadspin. Fine, but, why?

Nonsense.

Its Whitlock? Who cares?

And where's Mellinger? He hasn't written in two weeks.

What the hell's going on in the Star sports department?

If multiple people say Hall is untrustworthy then he probably is.

Also, this is a dumb question:
Dumb enough in fact that I think it's just trying to stir up shit.

I enjoy reading Greg Hall's stuff, but he's made a "career" out of doing nothing more than making fun of local media people. I wouldn't necessarily believe anything he says.

Nationally known sports writer...when he writes people read and talk. No matter how much guys like you don't understand or hate it.

Yea, that KCConfidential piece was strange. He came off like a woman.

Fair enough, but I dont see everyone just begging around the nation for him to come out and write more, do you?

Everyone is trying to figure out why he is not writing. Thats pretty impressive in and of itself for a sports writer in Kansas City.

LMAO

Very true.

Now if we could just get Babb and Teicher to take an "extended vacation."

The lack of Whitlock articles has meant there is a lack of... "Man, I don't ususally agree with Whitlock but this is a really good read" posts 1,000 fold.

Chiefs Planet - We Hate Everything

Not everything, just people that are piss-poor at their jobs, that happened to be involved with my favorite football team.

The only people that think Teicher and Babb do a good job are those that have never read a sports section outside of the Star.

Well, you posted in a thread about him, so i would say you do a little at least.

What's probably going on is the Star is telling its more higher paid writers to take a hike for X amount of months to save money. The newspaper industry has been dying for a long time and the Star itself has been losing its ass financially well before this so-called recession.

**** you, Herm!!!

LMAO

Its the same with everything in KC sports media. "KK sucks, Nick Wright sucks, Babb sucks, Teicher sucks, Whitlock sucks," on and on and on. The only KC sports media person who got any love was Posnanski, and he left to write for SI.

If it was up to CP members, no one would cover the Chiefs, because no one would be worthy of it.


But I guess its the way of the internet - the tough guy hipster who has nothing but criticism for anything not accepted by other tough guy internet hipsters.

If Jason did leave the Star, he already works for Fox Sports, so couldn't he easily do local pieces for Fox Sports KC?

WHITLOCK AND ATHAN, TOGETHER AT LAST

Yea, message board culture is hilarious. The guys who called into sports radio shows are as bad as it gets though.

Could that be because KC sports media DOES suck, other than JoPo?

It has nothing to do with the internet. Hell, I've met Teicher in person, and held a 5 minute conversation with him watching a camp practice at River Falls.

When he had to ask ME who a particular player (camp body) was, it told me everything I needed to know about the guy.

Read some work by other NFL beat writers, and listen to radio shows in different markets, and you'll see why people think KC media sucks.

I'll ask you, Zach, since I don't expect to have this question taken seriously by Sedated:

Who in the KC radio or print media would you consider good at their jobs in comparison to their counterparts in other cities?

If you don't read/listen much out of town, feel free to just respond with who you think does a good job.

Print media is dying everywhere, so that's not exactly fair. On the radio, Petro really is pretty decent. Yeah, he's a True Fan when it comes to the Chiefs, but his baseball analysis is generally solid.

You know who was a very, very good football writer for the Star?

Ivan Carter.

Reading Carter's work was a pleasure. Reading Liz Merrill, Teicher and Babb was/is like reading Highlights For Kids.

Here is my point more so...I will switch it up a bit.

My answer? It doesn't matter. It really doesn't.

Every fan of every team thinks their beat guys are hacks...seriously...every hardcore sports fan thinks that [blank] associated with their organization is the absolute worst. I am not ripping on anyone I am just pointing out what I think is really obvious is sports and message board culture.

The skill or lack of skill real or perceived matters little. Familiarity breeds contempt.

In my opinion the absolute best sports writer I read regularly is Dave Matter at the Columbia Tribune who covers Mizzou football. I remember feeling like coverage in STL was a little week anytime I have taken in info over there.

Here is the tough thing with NFL writers. WTF are they gonna tell Chiefs Planet folks? If they report the facts then they are called bland and boring. If they go beyond the facts then they are trying to stir up drama. It is really a no win situation.

Print media is dying, but the same work is available on the internets. Makes it even easier to compare writers.

And really, Soren "Matt Cassel is a Top 8 QB" Petro?

ROFL

Part of being a good writer/radio host is being objective. Calling the good, good and calling the bad, bad.

JMO, but I don't think there's been true objectivity in KC sports media since Carter and JoPo.

Disagree with "every fan of every team thinks their beat guys are hacks."

You'd be hard pressed to find someone who considered Ivan Carter a "hack."

My two other teams, the Cardinals and Blues, also have tremendous writers following the teams, IMO.

I think you're reaching a bit, but I do appreciate your response.

Whitlock is. He just pisses off the true fans too much.

Posnanski is not objective. Anything but.

Stomach stapled.

Yeah, after some thought on it, I stand corrected.

I was going to say if anyone listens to many markets outside of KC, you would realize how bad we have it. Outside of a very select few, our print and radio personalities aren't very good. With that said, we have had some good ones through the years in both print and radio... we just normally didn't realize it until they were gone.

Hearne: The sound of my sphincter exhausting gas.

When he does lay the hammer down, though, it's generally a sure sign that someone, anyone, needs to be fired.

I was wondering whatever happened to him and why he hasn't written an article since the KU ticket scandal.

I don't find that true with Los Angeles sports writers that cover the Lakers, Kings, Dodgers and Angels.

I think that most New Yorkers are happy with the beat writers that cover the Jets, Mets, Yankees, etc.

The KC sports writers DO and have for the most part, SUCK. Going back to the 70's even, the local media was awful. Teicher is complete and utter crap and Kent Babb commonly makes mistakes on Twitter and even in The Star.

Ivan Carter was the best KC beat person I can remember and he left for DC.

I'm betting they don't hate him there.

7/29/2010
STORY UPDATE:
KC STAR ANNOUNCES LAWTON RESIGNATION
We have been informed by a source at the Kansas City Star that the newspaper has officially announced the resignation of Holly Lawton as Sports Editor.
She denied her resignation had anything to do with a perceived conflict with Jason Whitlock.
"Nope, not at all," she told Bottom Line.


Read here: http://www.bottomlinecom.com/kcnews/...kvslawton.html



http://forums.ronin-studios.com/imag...-tapedshut.gif


===============================

08-02-2010
LAWTON RESPONDS TO WHITLOCK ISSUES
Outgoing Kansas City Star Sports Editor Holly Lawton has responded to Bottom Line Communications regarding stories about the editing of Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock's columns and any perceived animosity between the two of them that may have led to her sudden resignation:


"No offense intended, but I haven't been reading the local blog coverage of my eventual departure from The Star, and as I now understand it, Bottom Line contains references to Jason's columns requiring a heavy hand of editing or being completely written or rewritten by others.

"As all of Jason’s editors, past and present, can attest: Jason’s column is his alone. Everyone gets edited occasionally, but what you see in the paper is his writing, his ideas and his voice. He has become one of America’s best columnists on his own merits. No other staff "insiders" could speak to this.
"Finally, the conversation about any perceived personal battle between Jason and me is also utterly ridiculous.


This email may be posted. Thanks.


Holly Lawton

http://www.bottomlinecom.com/kcnews/...nresponds.html

i heard jason shitcrock ran off to a cornholing festival with buck and two donkey fans

Quality posting goin on ITT

billay, you're bleating about tweeting?

He failed his fitness test...

KC Confidential has good writers, some of them have worked for the Star before the layoffs started getting handed out. Brian McTavish is a good friend of mine, and is a hell of a good entertainment writer.

I don't know if Greg Hall is making up his claim that he ghost wrote for Fatlock, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I think Fatlock's wanted to be Stephen A. Smith, although he claims Mike Royko is his model.

He'll end up in a bigger market, which is fine. The Star is better off hiring a younger, hungrier writer. We've had some good ones over the years, time to make a change, bring in some new guys.

When I say "hungrier" I don't mean food. I mean to work and make a name for himself.

No offense intended towards Kansas City because I love the city and the people...but for beat writers...guys/gals who are trying to climb the food chain, the good ones probably aren't going to be around very long once the bigger markets come calling. Guys like Teicher are well-meaning but just not of the high caliber that larger market beat writers are.

I am missing Whitlock something fierce.

Come back, Big Sexy. :(

Heheh, I don't know that I'd put it that way, but I agree with the sentiment. The Star's sports page seems pretty (ahem) vanilla these days.

The guy can be annoying, but he's always interesting and entertaining. If he left, it'd be a crushing blow to the Star.

We need a "who really gives a flying ****?" tag for threads like this one.

Greg Hall is 100 times more enjoyable to read than Whitlock

I used to work for Greg Hall (for free), writing a "San Diego" version of his OTC columns. He was always very cool in my dealings with him. He likes stirring things up even more than Jason Whitlock, but he is honest and takes journalism seriously.

Oh, and he used to be a regular poster on CP.

Greg Hall is defending Mitch Albom. Clearly he's not right in the head.

I wondered how long it would be before his name came up. He left for the Redskins, correct?

Right area wrong team...Ivan writes for The Washington Post, but he covers the Washington Wizards. I think Ivan was the last NBA reporter The Star had.