OTC: Jason Goes Whitlock On Newspapers’ False Integrity / Back Atcha, Pork Chop
“In the 4+ years of this website’s history, we’ve interviewed columnist Jason Whitlock twice. After the first one, he lost his job on the Sports Reporters. So when he announced on twitter today he felt like dropping a nuclear journalism bomb, we were more than happy to offer him a platform.”
TheBigLead.com
GH: Jason Whitlock is not your every-day kinda newspaper man. He doesn’t just move to the sound of a different drummer. He dances heavily on the reps of any and all he cares to scorch to the bombastic beat of Tech N9ne. Mitch Albom has long been a target for Whitlock, who watched Albom gain great fame as a sportswriter in Detroit while JW toiled at his craft as a fledgling writer in little Ann Arbor. Whitlock told me long ago that Albom’s tact was to scare up a couple of kids from the hood to write a feel-good story about and then claim his annual newspaper awards. Whitlock despises newspaper awards. After Albom was recently bestowed what could be considered the Heisman of sports writing, Whitlock went off. Read on for some of Whit’s takes on the newspaper industry and what is killing it – and why Whitlock is not the white knight of journalism he portrays himself to be. But you knew that.
“We keep selling the copout excuse that the economy is the reason (the newspaper business) is failing. Or that young people are too stupid to realize how good we are. It’s all bullshit.”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: One thing I enjoyed about Whitlock’s column on TheBigLead.com is the fact he was allowed to use the word bullshit, unlike his Kansas City Star column, where the word “suck” is still edited out of quotes and copy. Talk about bullshit.
“We refused to change. We didn’t make room for Bill Simmons. We remained beholden to an APSE contest that in no way takes into account context, impact, relevancy, traction or innovation.”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: When reading Whitlock’s rants, please remember this is not some disgruntled ex-newspaper wretch. This is the highest paid writer in the history of the Kansas City Star who, at least prior to this post, was still very employed at my favorite newspaper.
“That approach is fine and dandy when there’s no competition and local newspapers printed money. You can ignore your readers and put out content targeted at contest judges when there’s no place else for readers to go.”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: Whitlock hates the emphasis The Star puts on winning awards – and for good reason. Newspaper and writing awards are typically judged by mutually stuffy, overpaid and underexposed men and women who make their living putting together newspapers that they hope other editors and writers will love. It is why Whitlock has little respect for JoPo. Add 100 pounds to Mitch Albom, remove all but three of his hairs and you have JoPo staring you in the face with a bland, formulaic, rags-to-riches story about Buck O’Neill or Priest Holmes playing checkers (twice).
“We now have to survive on creativity, original ideas and innovation. Television, YouTube, laptops, blogs, Twitter and cell phones have made narrative sports writing less valuable.”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: I disagree on this point. I believe television, YouTube, blogs, Twitter and cell phones have heightened the need for excellent narrative sports writing – the kind I expect from my daily newspaper. Twitter is great for getting me instant info on almost any subject but it doesn’t tell me the story. The same can be said of other quick-hit mediums. There will always be a need for great writing. At least I hope that appetite is never satiated.
“Excuse the arrogance, but the idiots running APSE should’ve invited me, Bill Simmons, Adrian Wojnarowski, Will Leitch, Dan Wetzel, Mike Florio, Dan LeBatard and TJ Simers to pontificate about the stupidity of newspapers. (I didn’t check with any of these people about writing this. They’re just a few of the many people in the business with the balls to do things differently. They might disagree with everything I’ve written here.)”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: Another reason Whit isn’t too keen on the APSE and their awards is that he hasn’t won many…or any. That said, he wins where it counts in the great capitalistic United States of America – he gets paid, handsomely.
“If you’re looking for clues why the newspaper industry is in credibility, relevancy and grassroots-traction free-fall, behold the level of head-in-sand denial necessary for APSE to provide Albom a grand platform to preach journalism ethics and vision.”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: Albom wrote a bogus story in 2005 that was proved to be a complete fabrication. He was suspended, investigated and found to be less than pure when it comes to writing original material. Whitlock should know better than to go here. He and I have a long past and he too is guilty of publishing parts of almost entire columns in The Kansas City Star that were written by me, but contained his byline. This is not an accusation. This is simply true. Jason has denied it for years but if he wants to come clean today, I think that would be a good way for him to move forward in his new role as journalism ethics marauder.
“Associated Press Sports Editors, the political, ass-kissing organization that pretends to be sports writing’s selfless guardian, built King Myth Albom’s throne, celebrating his money-quote-filled narrative schmaltz year after year with enough plaques to build an ark.”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: The pieces I wrote for Whitlock didn’t contain an ounce of schmaltz. Most were funny, witty items for his Sunday NFL picks columns and another column on the evils of Texas and their fans. As they say, you can look it up.
“When I took a job in 1992 at the Ann Arbor News, I had a front-row seat during King Myth Albom’s glory years. … Feel-good narrative fiction bullshit was Albom’s money-maker long before he published Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven.”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: I too had a front-row seat for Whitlock’s glory years at The Star – when he was the fresh new voice on the sports scene and the sportswriter’s name on everyone’s lips. We were friends then. But he went on his morning radio show in 2001 and misrepresented a story I wrote regarding some local high school football players and their bitterness with the recruiting process. He almost destroyed some relationships I had with some area coaches and athletes I greatly respect. Almost. I then went public with Whitlock paying me to write for him and his Kansas City Star column. I told my editor at The Pitch and The Star’s editor, Mark Zieman, was made aware of it. The Pitch refused to pursue the story and Zieman had The Star’s lawyers issue a Cease and Desist notice to The Platte County Landmark, where I did publish the story. Only Ivan Foley and The Landmark had the guts and integrity to believe me and stand behind me.
“It’s called denial, a mental state newspaper leadership lives in while the industry many of us love burns. The people running APSE know this. But they’re not going to admit their mistake because then they would have to admit that their organization and annual contest are bullshit, too.”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: While Jason is calling bullshit on the APSE, I believe it is time for him to call bullshit on himself and come clean. It’s called denial, Jason.
“APSE propping Albom up is one more sign that newspaper leadership is both clueless and unwilling to dismantle systems put in place to reward butt-kissing climbers. At a time when it’s embarrassingly obvious we should’ve adopted new content approaches 15 years ago, APSE, by defiantly recognizing Albom, is stating ‘we did nothing wrong.’ ”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: 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.
“The newspaper industry is being driven by fear. The market place of ideas has disappeared. There are no jobs. People have mortgages to pay and kids in need of daycare or college. Everyone just tries to avoid conflict and avoid the next round of layoffs. Fear and ass-kissing won’t save newspapers.”
Jason Whitlock, TheBigLead.com
GH: Talk is cheap, Whit. Time to come clean and admit you’re no better than Myth Albom.
Greghall24@yahoo.com and Twitter / greghall24
July 20th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
The APSE awards are a bunch of crap, and no paper tries harder and more desperately to win those awards than the Kansas City Star. They hire writers who care about nothing more than going for APSE awards. Part of the culture in that sports department is the pursuit of these awards, which in the end mean very little when sizing up the quality of job someone does.
I’ve never understood the obsession the Star has with the APSE awards, which starts with Mike Fannin and trickles down to every writer on that staff. I’m serious–they are obsessed with this mission.
Whitlock laid it all out there honestly. This post, coupled with the fact that he hasn’t written a Star column in two months, leads me to believe he has one foot out the door there.
Greg, I believe your Texas column story 100 percent. Good luck getting anyone else to publicly back you up, though.
July 21st, 2010 at 12:27 am
This is good journalism. The new “informed elite” will know where to look for the right information… and in this era… will be forced to also participate. The “letter to the editor” is dead. There will be opinion leaders, contributors, and followers. There will always be a place for talented and informed opinion leaders, thus… the blogosphere is in its infancy. Talent will still win out. Keep after it Hearne.
July 21st, 2010 at 4:44 am
Meows all around.
I like JoPo’s work. Yeah, you might know the story but he tells it so well.
Whitlock apparently gets people to talk to him. I’m not sure he’s always the reliable filter of what is said but he seems to have clout.
You, Greg, I like for the quality of your snark. Snark is like a wah-wah pedal; there needs to be technique. You usually have it.
July 21st, 2010 at 5:38 am
Jip is right, on both counts of his lede. I believe the drive for awards does nothing to enhance good journalism, and has led to the fluffing of news (as well to many high-profile cases of fabrication from such stalwarts of the industry as the New York Times and Washington Post). During my long career in radio and newspapers, I’ve always felt my best work was that which prompted response from my audience or readers, not impressed some assistant editor in Nashville (the type who do the awards judging), which is why I rarely submit entries unless pushed to do so by management. I guess some need the affirmation of peers to feel better about what they do, while others want something to bally-hoo about themselves or their company, but it’s pretty much bullshit. The subjectiveness of the judging process, along with the disconnect of the judging criteria to the mission of the news organization from which entries are submitted, make it an empty exercise in journalistic masturbation. I can’t say it isn’t gratifying to be recognized — the human ego being what it is — but it has always been devoid of any real meaning for me.
Whitlock’s enmity toward Albom, though, is petty — and grounded in nothing more than envy (unlike Greg’s view toward Whitlock, which is grounded in personal experience). Albom, like JoPo, is a skilled writer who wastes that ability on feel-good crap instead of using it to actually explore substantive issues in sports. There is a place for good feature writing, of course, but that’s not necessarily the best journalism — although the awards count would suggest it is. What I’ve always found more interesting as a reader — and considered more fun as a writer — is to employ feature writing elements to event write-ups. All games, even a meaningless Week 10 high school football contest between two losing teams with no playoff hopes, have a story line — and its the exposition of that which can make a narrative compelling. (BTW, this was a lesson learned from the late Howard Cosell, who has never been given sufficient credit for this contribution to sports journalism; yes, he had a massive, unconstrained ego and became an insufferable sourpuss late in his career, but he raised the standards considerable in sports journalism for both broadcast and print media.)
July 21st, 2010 at 6:06 am
Whit’s rant assumes that we readers are mindless drones that believe every drop of ink that is pressed to the dead tree. Please. Yeah, Albom’s columns may have been smaltz, but, you know what, they were great reads. You know what else, I, and probably many others, didn’t believe every single word of them. We just liked reading them. Guess what, we read the paper to stay informed, yes, but we also have to like reading it.
Whitlock’s never going to get it.
If you’ve ever been the subject of a story, you know that it’s nice to be interviewed. Then, you read the story and your thought is “wow, that sounds way more interesting than what actually happened.” It’s called…writing.
Sure the APSE awards are BS. So what? So are the NATAS awards in TV News. Some station in KC will pull down 7 Emmys and four of them are in bizarre categories that had two other entries, like “Best children’s program with a religious twist”.
Get over it, Whitlock.
July 21st, 2010 at 7:54 am
The parallels between the music industry and the newspaper world are uncanny. Both are essentially having their money stream re-routed by the internet. People go for music where the talent presents itself instead of the CD aisle, and the same goes for the news and information market. Needless to say, that’s why I go here for GH’s work and wouldn’t know where to find Whitlock or JoPo’s work.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:01 am
[...] themes. Good stuff. With that in my head in recent days, it was fun to read this last night and this early this [...]
July 21st, 2010 at 9:04 am
It’s truly amazing that Jason has been able to sustain his career without you writing for him anymore Greg. Your talents took you to the Platte County Landmark (and fired from The Star).
Jason’s talents (or ghost-writers, as you suggest) took him to ESPN, Foxsports.com and Oprah.
Gee, whom should we believe?
______________________________________
HC: Get a clue, Fake Name Dude. Greg left the Star for a radio gig, he was not fired. In fact, the sports editor that took Dale Bye’s place wrote a tribute/thank-you item about Greg when he left, pledging to replace his column in kind. They never did.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:07 am
it’s weird to me to read jason ripping albom for his schtick when whitlock has for years used the time honored schtick of taking on the biggest names in town and trying to start a war with them. straight out of the new york post sportswriter’s manual.
whitlock’s industry financial analysis is way off base. almost every metro newspaper in the country has higher readership today than it has ever had. readership isn’t the problem. the reason there are less jobs and less profits is because the reduction in barriers to entry has fostered more competition and made it impossible to sell the historical volume of subscriptions and ads at the kind of rates newspapers used to be able to demand.
you can put your employment ads or auto ads on line for a small fraction of the cost of a newspaper ad and get a very good return per dollar spent. that isn’t going to change because sports writers adopt a different method of drawing readers.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:38 am
whitlock…shut up. The checks keep coming in the
mail.
I personally think whitlock has done an incredible job of selling “himself”.
He’s an average writer but he’s got to be the
most qouted…remembered….most read…most
cussed at…most visible writer ever at the
star.
Nationally, he took his column and got on oprah..
made national headlines…wrote about race
and sports. He got cited by every sports fan in
this town continuously. He was on everybodys
“to read” list. His pieces werent great but he
got you into his weband you read every one of
his columns.
Give this guy a ton of credit. An overweight…
uneducated…selfish…egotistical writer with
very little talent turned himself into a
national celebrity and it all came from his
position at the kc star.
Good for him. He’s done fantastic. He’s survived. He made big money and created a
aura about himself. He’s controversial…he’s
out there…but he’s also lasted when other
untalented writers like hearne got washed away
in the industry tsunami.
Give this guy credit…lots of it. He took a
small column in a small town newspaper and
used that as a springboard to national fame.
Love him..hate him…he’s done an incredible
job of making himself famous on a national
level. He sold himself…and if I’m correct theres not one other journalist at the star
EVER WHO GOT THE PUBLICITY/FAME/MONEY/
APPEAL/ THAT JASON GOT. HE’S A HUGE SUCCESS
AND GIVE THIS GUY CREDIT…HELL…HE WAS ON
OPRAH…WHILE THE REST OF THE STARS FORMER
PEOPLE EITHER DISAPPEARED OR GOT LOST IN
DOING OTHER THINGS.
JASON…YOU’VE DONE WELL.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:46 am
GOOD LUCK HALL…writing for the platte
county landmark? hardly qualifies as a
column.
I’ve really never seen any original writing
from you about any sports subject.
You’d probably be good…but wisecracking other
more successful peoples qoutes hardly qualifies
as writing. Try some original pieces and let
your journalistic prowess show. You do have some
funny items but all this OTC stuff hardly makes
you a journalist.
I would love to read some original stuff of
yours. I still think you could bolt this
site and begin your own and get lots of
readers.
July 21st, 2010 at 10:01 am
While I have no dog in this hunt, I’m surprised that no one remembers what Albom wrote when the Cardinals and The Royals met in the WS of 1985. He was none too kind about either city, I’ll just leave it at that. That was long ago but I’ll never ever read anything Albom has to say. Arrogant prick.
July 21st, 2010 at 11:28 am
It’s good to see Hall discuss in pretty good detail his problems with Whitlock. Now if you’d only do the same with KK the world would be a better place. The Pitch has around 100 of Greg’s colunms in their archives
Greg, how much would you charge Pork Chop now for borrowing a few words?
July 21st, 2010 at 12:03 pm
My wife wanted me read a couple of Albom’s books. That says all you need to know.
July 21st, 2010 at 12:49 pm
I believe you GH, but…..Just to play devil’s advocate, why should we believe you? After all, you TOOK the $200 to write the column, right? What does that say about your cred? I mean what makes you any better if you willingly took part in authoring a piece you knew to be bogus?
I don’t doubt any of your story GH, just curious to hear your feedback.
Albom/JoPo, hate those types…they really are just writing for the awards. Can’t take another JoPo ‘this is the Royals’ year’ article, Buck O’Neill piece or sob story. Enough.
_______________________________
HC: I was at the Star and familiar with Whitlock’s indiscretion with Greg’s work at the time. Greg did not sell his writing to Whitlock, he shared something he was planning on submitting for a freelance column to the sports section and was startled to see it appear in print in a special section for the Big 12 tourney. When he called Whitlock to complain, Whitlock allegedly said something like, “Sorry, man – it was just too good.” Then he sent Greg a check.
_____________________________________________________
GH: This is one of the reason my editor at The Pitch balked on the story. She felt I looked just as guilty as JW for taking his money to write a piece that would appear under his byline. I argued that all I was doing was what most writers want to do — get paid for what they write. It didn’t matter to me that Whit was taking credit for it. As a commercial writer, I wrote stuff all the time that appeared without any attribution.
BTW; I didn’t bring this up again to solicit support for my side of the story. People will believe what they will. I know what happened as does JW. That will suffice for now.
July 21st, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Greg’s talents were so well-respected that when he was fired from his radio gig we had to snap him up at the PC Landmark. In fact, we got into a huge bidding war with the Star.
With Greg on board, our subscriptions jumped from 1,000 to 1,200. Well worth the $20/column we paid him.
___
GH: The real Ivan Foley asked me to post his following comment to make sure no one mistakes this poser as The Landmark editor. I was just impressed that Ivan is getting some run. Is Fake Ivan next on Twitter?
Foley: “I went to kcconfidential and noticed in the comments section somebody has written a post using my name. Of course the post is bullshit, not written by me. Don’t know what you guys want to do about it, if anything, but I’d hate for people to think I actually wrote that bullshit post.”
July 21st, 2010 at 1:36 pm
“…I’m surprised that no one remembers what Albom wrote when the Cardinals and The Royals met in the WS of 1985. He was none too kind about either city, I’ll just leave it at that.”
Randy, I was in Detroit and remember the column. It was very dismissive of the cities and the money quote was how that World Series was dull compared to Detroit-San Diego. That is being a total homer and showing an east coast snobbery which Mitch the Bitch continues to practice today. Albom is an arrogance, condescending jerk. True story I worked with him as an intern at a Detroit radio station in ‘88 and he wouldn’t give anyone the time of day that wasn’t “important”. Remember also how he fawned over the Fab Five back in ‘93, and we know how corrupt they were. Mitch Albom is the problem with journalism today, and thankfully we don’t have to read his garbage here in Kansas City.
July 21st, 2010 at 2:24 pm
love it….gonna go make a snarky comment on whit’s twitter. will report back if he does.
July 21st, 2010 at 4:08 pm
I remember reading an obscure anonymous, and overly wordy, writer for GH’s old Sportswaves.com website, who went by the moniker Soylent Green, once do a column shining some local recognition on Maurice Greene the at the time fastest man in the world who was getting absolutely no local attention for being a local who did really good. Magically, Whitlock’s very next column took the exact same angle. And I don’t think he paid that writer anything.
July 21st, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I slink around in the Underworld trying to find ugly dirt on everyone. Greg Hall is one of those guys that seems to always have a clean ass. People say he’s a great guy or they say he is an ass hole. The guys who hate him don’t have any legitimate juice on him. Saying a guy is a loser isn’t enough, there has to be real examples, victims, ugly pictures or videos and at least one exwife or girl friend that can tell you how he beat them. Technically, awards and trophies count for something. Just for the record, the KC Star has repeatedly said that Greg left their company to pursue other interest. People who love sports want to read about it so hurry up and give us some more!
July 21st, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Soylent Green. Nice PT. I remember that guy. A little wordy if I recall.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:56 pm
I’ve long been a big fan of your work, Greg (and always will be), but not this column, particularly. OK, so you and Whitlock have your issues. Go cage match it or something instead of boring the hell out of me. Can’t recall the last time I cut out of one of your posts in mid-flight.
July 21st, 2010 at 11:20 pm
We should stop pretending that sportswriting is some sort of sacred profession. People like JoPo and Mitch Album are popular because they deliver what people want. Jason Witlock does the same thing- he is always there to be the devil’s advocate- and is always one of the first people called by Fox when they need a black face to badmouth black people.
As for Mr. Hall, I don’t really see how being paid to ghost-write a story is on the level of fabricating stories like Mitch did.
I also learned back in high school never to trust the KC Star- back when Jeni Carlson (I’m a man, I’m 40) was badmouthing my football team and fabricating post-game quotes when she was working the Johnson County HS sports beat.
I just don’t know who to root for, the glurgy feel good sportswriters, the egotistical Star writers or the bitter downsized Star writers on this website.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:46 am
Oh Whitlock paid Greg for a story…Hadn’t heard that before Greg….Jesus how many tags did you need to put before you can take some of your own advice and LET IT GO….1 question, how would you react if KK or Petro did a piece like this or was on 810 talking about this and was using every shot they had to talk about themselves. Hypocrite Greg, it’s getting old
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:51 pm
What MoCrash said …
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:41 pm
So according to Deadspin you just have an axe to grind and have been shopping this story for years with no takers. They refer to you as someone with dubious credentials. Response?
http://deadspin.com/5592824/the-mysterious-trouble-with-jason-whitlock
I’ll bet you’re getting a ton of email from lawyers right about now. How about posting some of it and let us read?