The Star praises by name Deb Hermann, Jim Rowland, and Mike Burke for coming to recognize that city-backed bonds had been issued promiscuously under past mayors. In an impressively petty little slight, however, the Star editorial fails to credit--or even mention--Mayor Mark Funkhouser for his principled stand against bond abuse dating back to his initial candidacy.
Indeed, in its logic-twisting conclusion the Star editorial seems to imply that the sudden awakening of these candidates reverses "what’s happened the last few years," presumably under Funkhouser, and promises "a more fiscally responsible city government." And we wonder why the paper is shedding backers faster even than President Mubarak.
I've followed The Kansas City Star for more years than I'm comfortable admitting, but dropped my subscription a couple of years ago. There was no reason to continue. There was little news. And there was lots of subjectivity masquerading as objective reporting.
ReplyDeleteThe newspaper, like the Kansas City civic community it represents, is a leadership vacuum.
In the business world, a manager who is placed in a job he or she doesn't deserve is described as being owned by the company. It's a nicer way to describe a yes man.
Publisher Mark Zieman is the epitomy of the owned manager. He was placed in a position he neither deserved or was qualified for by the previous publisher, Art Brisbane. Brisbane was a prime example of what's wrong with Kansas City's civic leadership: lots of talk about the good of Kansas City as a whole; lots of action to make sure those at the top of the civic dogpile got richer at the expense of the city as a whole.
Brisbane is long gone. But even as a out-of-towner, he conned his owned-publisher Zieman into a scam that resulted in a multi-million-dollar loss for the company.
So here we are. Zieman is beholding to the civic community for a job that he can't handle. The newspaper has not fared well as a result of his inexperience. Hoping for a lifeboat to save a dying enterprise, Zieman is taking orders from the Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Council. And those folks are interested only in generating cash for their best customers - businesses in Johnson County.
This has been long-winded. I apologize. But The Star is what it is primarily to boost the coffers of Overland Park, Lenexa and Olathe. Don't expect objectivity toward a Mayor who has been a voice for financial reason. The newspaper is guilty of some of the most biased journalism this town has seen since the 50s.
It makes me very sad.