News Deadspin: The Mysterious Trouble With Jason Whitlock - Page 3

|Zach| · 08-02-2010, 03:22 PM

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:

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?

**DeezNutz** · 08-02-2010, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

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?

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.

Posnanski is not objective. Anything but.

Boon · 08-02-2010, 05:02 PM

Stomach stapled.

**OnTheWarpath15** · 08-02-2010, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Posnanski is not objective. Anything but.

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

ChiefMojo · 08-02-2010, 05:11 PM

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.

Extra Point · 08-02-2010, 05:12 PM

Hearne: The sound of my sphincter exhausting gas.

**DeezNutz** · 08-02-2010, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

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

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

CoMoChief · 08-02-2010, 05:23 PM

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

**DaneMcCloud** · 08-02-2010, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by |Zach|

Every fan of every team thinks their beat guys are hacks...

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.

**Dylan** · 08-02-2010, 05:48 PM

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

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

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

sandynme · 08-02-2010, 06:15 PM

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

BryanBusby · 08-02-2010, 06:48 PM

Quality posting goin on ITT

WilliamTheIrish · 08-02-2010, 06:58 PM

billay, you're bleating about tweeting?

**bevischief** · 08-02-2010, 07:04 PM

He failed his fitness test...

**gblowfish** · 08-02-2010, 08:30 PM

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.

**gblowfish** · 08-02-2010, 08:34 PM

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

08-02-2010, 03:22 PM
\|Zach\| For The Glory Of The City Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $3016768	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: 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?
Posts: 54,737

08-02-2010, 05:02 PM	#32
Boon a.k.a. Lenny Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Smack dab in the middle Casino cash: $9637069	Stomach stapled.
Posts: 1,919

08-02-2010, 05:11 PM	#34
ChiefMojo Happy, Happy, Happy!!! Join Date: Jan 2009 Casino cash: $10004935	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.
Posts: 2,283

08-02-2010, 05:12 PM	#35
Extra Point MVP Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Prairie Village, KS Casino cash: $10004900	Hearne: The sound of my sphincter exhausting gas. __________________ "Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits." --Satchel Paige
Posts: 7,845

08-02-2010, 05:23 PM	#37
CoMoChief Mahomes Dynasty Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Parts Unknown Casino cash: $7672254	I was wondering whatever happened to him and why he hasn't written an article since the KU ticket scandal.
Posts: 39,245

08-02-2010, 05:48 PM	#39
Dylan The Lede Join Date: Aug 2007 Casino cash: $10016591	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 =============================== 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 __________________
Posts: 33,643

08-02-2010, 06:15 PM	#40
sandynme Banned Join Date: Apr 2010 Casino cash: $10004900	i heard jason shitcrock ran off to a cornholing festival with buck and two donkey fans
Posts: 80

08-02-2010, 06:48 PM	#41
BryanBusby In Search of a Life Join Date: Mar 2006 Casino cash: $3159900 VARSITY	Quality posting goin on ITT
Posts: 22,637

08-02-2010, 06:58 PM	#42
WilliamTheIrish Champion Golfer Of The Year Join Date: Aug 2001 Casino cash: $2570607	billay, you're bleating about tweeting?
Posts: 35,755

08-02-2010, 07:04 PM	#43
bevischief .... Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Somewhere Kansas Casino cash: $7729352 VARSITY	He failed his fitness test...
Posts: 27,771

08-02-2010, 08:30 PM	#44
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $16886178 VARSITY	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.
Posts: 41,016

08-02-2010, 08:34 PM	#45
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $16886178 VARSITY	When I say "hungrier" I don't mean food. I mean to work and make a name for himself.
Posts: 41,016