The response to the announcement that I was planning on dropping the "Kansas City News" portion of the site has been absolutely overwhelming and a bit humbling. I have posted most of the comments and have honored other requests for anonymity. Many folks have also called.Read through the comments he received and you get an idea how respected his work is.
I must admit that I am now wavering on my decision. The original decision was made after I received a particularly nasty note from a Star staffer that I had considered a friend. I hope his note was simply a reaction to all the stress at the paper these days.
I've come to realize that no other site has the media connections to print a list of laid-off Kansas City Star employees. No other site does radio ratings or gives a crap about local TV happenings.
Media people---and many other people---genuinely care about what is happening in the local media these days.
I'm going to take a break for awhile and then make a final decision on the direction of this site. No matter what the final decision is I truly want to thank all my loyal readers for their honest feedback. It means more than you know. ---John Landsberg
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15 comments:
Pretty stupid if you ask me.
If his business (how he lives) is by "selling" stories/companies, etc to the Star and other area Media outlets, you would think that he would be as he says it "biting the hand that feeds me".
Now if he gets paid enough from posting layoff lists more power to him.
You would think he would just pass the info along to a place like here, or create another site for KC News and run it at arms length from his actual business.
I am sure doing something sneaky as you suggest would be the first thing that comes to mind for most in the PR/Media/newsprint arena. That is what is stupid to me.
The KC Star's influence is in rapid decline and they will continue to attempt intimidation until the end. It is all they know. On the other hand standing against them and offering the truth in spite of those threats will pay dividends in the long term.
Next to money, ethics are the Star's biggest enemy. There is no better way to position yourself as their replacement than by offering what they refuse to tell. Wouldn't that be a hoot to see the Star sold to a local group at auction with John as the new publisher. hahaha!
5:50 must be a member of The Star's management team where a business has no intrinsic purpose aside from making money. Never mind that what Mr. Landsberg has done has great value in the community. Never mind that what he has done has earned him the respect of people across political ideologies. Never mind that people trust what Mr. Landsberg puts up on his website as being accurate and that they will forgive him on those occasions when he makes an error.
How much would those characteristics be worth to The Star right now? How many jobs would have been saved if The Star could lay claim to being honored and respected? Where are the letters poring in to The Star saying "please save this feature because it's valuable to our community"?
The Star can't even claim to be honored on one side of the political equation, because ultimately it is a whore for the establishment and only secondarily does its politics (which it also abuses) come into play.
The bottom line (not a pun) is that what Mr. Landsberg has as a result of "biting the hand that feeds me" is the respect for his integrity from all but the sleaziest members of our community. Unfortunately, they tend to be the managers of many of our media outlets, including The Star, and that in a nutshell is why they are no longer held with the same high esteem Mr. Landsberg is.
I agree with 6:58, The Star would be a far different institution with Mr. Landsberg at the helm, and many of the journalists who were on his last list would still be employed.
You guys are missing the point.
He said he couldn't continue to do it because it was hurting his business. I think he is providing a valuable service and want him to continue doing it.
But if his excuse is biting the hand that feeds you, then there are ways around it.
I can't tell if you guys are stupid or not. I think you are saying you want him to continue doing it job be damned. I want him to continue doing it and keep his job.
The problem is that it appears that Mr. Landsberg brings a unique skill set to the table that no one else in the Kansas City blogging community possesses. Those include many of the non-financial characteristics that Mr./Ms./it 5:50 feels are stupid.
The good news is that folks like Mr. Landsberg tend to be motivated by things beyond their own existence and so one can hope that his work will continue.
I have a KC Blog folder that has links to:
Bottom Line Communications
The Henry Wiggen Blog [Evaluating]The Source
Tony Kansas City
Will Not Be Televised
An enjoyable read at these sites will give me the KC news I am interested in, not a bunch trumped up stories to fill space. The lame KC Star Griefers, wail we will miss the school board meeting news etc, but what good is an entirely pro-school board report, or a slanted view of city politics and events? When a smidgen of honesty and integrity returns to the KC Red Star, there might be a slim chance for returned readership, but I doubt it. Also, the remaining opinion columnists are beyond liberal, they stink! IMO.
I would contend that reverse discrimination has reared its ugly head in the choice of victims. Thus far the only people dumped out of editorial area are Trudy Hurley, Steve Winn and Laura Scott, all long time employees of that department and all are white.
Certainly one could argue that Laura Scott was completely useless, a horrible writer and as interesting as watching paint dry, but hey, they still have Lewis Diuguid.
Hurley was a very good executive assistant, and Winn was a highly qualified editor who read opinions with the objectivity of a computer spell checker.
If anyone knows of anyone I've missed, I'd love to know.
‘The Source’ is often humorous, “Barbara Shelly wondering around the office asking if anyone has seen her stapler.’ That is funny.
Excerpts:
There is a reason that major companies fire people on Fridays. There is also a reason they announce who is leaving at the same time- instead of announcing the number of positions to quit.
Is it just us or does Mark Zieman bear a striking resemblance to Bill Lumbergh as a manager? It won’t be long before we hear about [Barbara Shelly wondering around the office asking if anyone has seen her stapler.]
http://thesource.typepad.com/thesource/
Mr. Landsberg might have been setup by his so-called KC Star friend. The one that just couldn’t wait to send him erroneous news when they know he blogs. ZeeClod may have gotten wind of that friendship.
Intimidation is the name of the game in KC politics. Send in a few clown attorneys, threaten a few law suits? It worked for Barry didn’t it? Mr. Landsberg just needs to keep track if his friend gets fired, or is rewarded for a job well done.
Bottom Line is back! hahaha! Take that Scar Vermin!
Wonderful news for the Kansas City community. Thank you Mr. Landsberg for reconsidering.
KC is so lucky to have talented bloggers covering their news fairly. The Democrats don’t want that of course. When the KC Scar became a leftist mouthpiece, the writing was on the wall. Honestly, how Rhonda Lokeman was allowed to write in any capacity is a real mystery. Affirmative Action can only take you so far, she apparently wasn’t journalism material in the first place. Her DUI answered a lot of questions, ZeeClown answers the rest.
Honestly, how Rhonda Lokeman was allowed to write in any capacity is a real mystery.
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Come on, there is no mystery to it and never was. Affirmative Action hire from the first minute. She was never even a reporter for a day. Just like Jason Whitlock. Not even one ounce of qualification aside from the special people points. Well, except for her talented three wheeled balancing act while sipping white whine.
Rhonda Lokeman and Michelle Obama are cut from the same cloth. That whole affirmative action education because they were discriminated against,just reinforced white hatred year after year. Michelle sat listening to Rev. ‘Wrong’ all those years, was still another reinforcement reason for her white racism. The fact that she allowed her children to hear that claptrap indicates an indoctrination beyond recovery to me. Rhonda often wrote words of hatred for white people.
Racism is alive and well, and the NAA(W)P gains importance as the need for government intervention for fairness against white discrimination grows.
Thank you Mr. Diuguid, but have you looked in the mirror lately?
"Racism is alive and well, and the NAA(W)P gains importance as the need for government intervention for fairness against white discrimination grows."
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