Silliness, thy name is Whitlock…
Following a 12-week standoff with the Kansas City Star, newly dispensed with sports scribe Jason Whitlock is borrowing a page from LeBron James recent ESPN reality show, “The Decision.” The difference being that instead of a worldwide audience on a major cable channel, W has gone begging on Twitter for local media to cough up enough cash pay to buy his mom for a plane ticket to fly in and host the show on a local radio and limited access cable.
“New demand,” he Tweeted earlier today.
Stevo
The best way for JW to generate more media inteerest in his freak show is to threaten to stand outside their studios wearing only a thong and a BBQ sauce mustache if they don’t.
Why just the very fleeting notion of that has my breakfast starting to rebel…
MoCrash
Yet another reason why I’ll pass on Twitter.
bschloz
“Plus $100 in Harrahs casino chips 4 her.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l91ISfcuzDw&feature=related
Good Luck to JW..I’ve moved on. Not sure if Joe Mcguff could save the daily
jojo
7 straight stories on jason whitlock…isnt
that a bit too muchj about a former star
reporter? Copme on…why not more glazer
blogs…he’s become the most popular guy on here.
Whitlock is old hat…old news…old story…
lets move on…would rather read about glazer
and where all the hotties are in kc or
even read tony tear down another great person
in our city…
hearne…your blog is getting stale…are there
no other people to jump on in this town?
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HC: Jojo my man, this is a right-now, breaking story. W only hit the skids yesterday for crying out loud and now the world awaits him telling his side of the story. Local radio stations are bidding/vying to get the broadcast rights to it. Feel free to feel disinterested if you will but this is news that others do find interesting and that we will continue to cover. Sorry, Old Boy.
jt
While I agree, somewhat, with jojo in that this story seems to have taken on a somewhat of personal element on this blog, it’s been interesting following this story. I think other columnists who put them out there on the Internet and make themselves available to followers must be wary watching this saga unfold.
Whitlock who seems to be somewhat savy with social media, didn’t seem to know what to do when the story became about him. He let others like bottomline and kcconfidential tell his story and now seems almost lost trying to get his version of the story out there.
I’m not sure if this lastest venture is a good idea or not. I’m leaning to not as I think too much time has passed and this seems to be a bit over the top.
Burman Dinstow
Jason seems to be having good fun with this. I take that as a good sign that he has a sane perspective on this and is comfortable with his decisions. If he’s not taking it so solemnly, I don’t think Hearne needs to have such a “how dare he?” tone about it.
I took the comment about “810 not stepping up” to be a playful poke at his former BFFs at WHB and not a serious negotiating ploy. Did anybody think KK would allow the station to give money to Jason for this?
Greg
If you couldn’t tell that all those tweets were jokes then you haven’t read Whitlock as much as you claim.
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HC: When did I ever claim I read whitlock very much? Uh, nowhere. The point being it’s not whether I could tell or not, or whomever could tell. If somebody has to stop, go back and explain that he’s joking, it’s n-o-t f-u-n-n-y. That’s what I said, wild man.
Rick
Yet another reason why Jason is a joke. Good reporters and writers never make the story be about them.
Burman Dinstow
to rick…Whitlock is not and was not a reporter. He was a columnist, and the difference between a columnist and a reporter is that a columnist gives us great heaps of personality along with his/her opinions. That’s why they become such lighting rods. So not only is it in Whitlock’s nature to make the story about himself, it’s really part of the job description.
smartman
He’s just signed a deal to be Gabourey Sidibe’s body double in the sequel, Two Precious.
Jim Fitzpatrick
To bschloz and B-man: The mention of Joe McGuff (bschloz) and columnists injecting personality into their work (B-man) is interesting. McGuff, of course, injected personality in a totally different way than Jason, because his personality was the polar opposite of Jason’s. And, yet, now, 18 years after McGuff’s retirement and four years after his death, almost everyone who knew him and remembers him still speaks of him with great reverence and respect. Do you think we will be remembering Jason — Mr. Big Splash — that way, for years to come?
Burman Dinstow
Fitz, I don’t think Jason was going for reverence and respect. He was going for a smart-alecky Mike Royko vibe. Don’t think he really came close, but that has been his vision.
I can’t speak to the early years of Joe Mcguff, and my understanding is that he gets credit for bringing some of the major league sports teams to town, but the last several years of his columns were really phoned in and bland, coasting on the respect he had accumulated over his career. That mantle of respect was why he was appointed editor of the newspaper (as opposed to anybody thinking he was especially well-qualified).
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HC: I don’t disagree with Burman
rick
the above rick is not the original Rick. i want to hear the whitlock interview and have no problem with him being the story. the impact he has had on KC sports has been huge.