TKC BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! SHOCK!!! INSIDER REVEALS CONFLICTED PLAN FOR THE KANSAS CITY STAR TO ASK MAYOR SLY FOR MORE TAX BREAKS!!!

Today, we realize once again that there are SOME VERY BRILLIANT people reading our humble, jokey and newsie goodness and we thank Kansas City for helping to create this LAST REMAINING LOCAL FREE SPEECH ZONE which is greater than the sum of its parts.

To wit . . .

RIGHT NOW A KICK-ASS TKC TIPSTER REVEALS THE TRAGIC DEAD TREE MEDIA PLOT IN THE WORKS WHICH HOPES TO WIN MORE TAX ABATEMENT AMID A CONFLICTED RELATIONSHIP WITH MAYOR SLY JAMES THAT PRETTY MUCH VIOLATES EVERY JOURNALISTIC STANDARD IN THE BOOK!!!

Kinda like a blogger.

But I digress . . .



The VIVID DESCRIPTION of this big money plot explains and ASKS IMPORTANT QUESTIONS about Kansas City Dead Tree Media coverage amid a faltering bottom line and questionable closeness to a this town's top politico. This is one of the most important perspectives we've published which reveals a great deal of info and demonstrates our blog community looking out for local taxpayers while the dying newspaper struggles to keep their dying biz model afloat.

Here's the word:

Until now secret backroom deal proposed between the Mayor and the STAR

A heads-up on an ongoing and amazing story of backroom deals, greed and political influencing that the STAR has taken great steps to keep very quiet. As you may recall, when the STAR's new plant was built around 10 years ago, they were given a 10 year tax abatement that gave them as much as $13 million in government subsidies. At the time, given the tremendous amount of criticism, they promised they would NOT be back to ask for any more taxpayer funded handouts. Well, that was then, and this is now. Behind the scenes, the STAR's publisher and staff have been secretly meeting with the Mayor's office to orchestrate a deal that would give them an additional 15 new years of taxpayer giveaways that could nearly TRIPLE the total amount of tax dollars they are taking to almost $30 million. Why lobby secretly with the Mayor alone? Because he alone appoints, and controls, the majority of the members of the TIF Commission. A commission that can unilaterally vote to give the STAR the money. Predictably, the Mayor nearly fell over himself to commit the money to the STAR as he saw the opportunity to own them through bought influence.

Clearly, this is a classic journalistic conflict of interest for the STAR's publisher to be negotiating a $20 million dollar gift from the Mayor, all while still very generously covering him. "Covering" him in ways that has reached the level outright advocacy. A few questions: Has the STAR's historic and eye-brow raising puffery for all things Sly in any way been influenced by the knowledge that they were, or would be, lobbying him for the extra $20 million? And that he alone could decide whether they got it? All of this adds important context to Vockrodt's Pitch article where he puzzles over the reasons for the STAR's recent outright and historic campaigning for SLY when he wrote:

"If you want to criticize Sly James, you will have to answer to Yael Abouhalkah"

Also note, that the STAR has already begun to internally game plan for how they will publicly create the appearance of objectivity within their paper. Wait for it........Yael, yes, Yael has been tasked by the publisher with the job of writing pieces that will hypocritically question their TIF, all while the paper accepts the free taxpayer money. Its reminiscent of the members of congress who bi-annually take the stage to criticize their pay raise, all while cashing their checks.

This is very delicate, and potentially damaging, to the reputation and purported independence of the paper of record. Once something like this goes public, it has the potential for long term damage. Below are some interesting and thought provoking excerpts from the STAR's own ethics code published on their website. Is the city or mayor ever a "source"? Of course. If so, would they STAR getting $20 million in taxpayer cash through the Mayor's TIF Commission possibly be considered a business deal or relationship? It would sure seem so, and thus would be BARRED by their very own ethics code. At a minimum, it sure looks bad to the point of near corruption of process. Here's just a few excerpts:

"If we expect readers to view us as credible, then Star editorial employees must aggressively seek and fully report the truth while remaining independent and free from any legitimate suggestion that their independence has been compromised. Refrain from reporting on or making news judgments about organizations that they, or family members, have a significant involvement with.

- Should not enter into a business relationship with a source.

- Should not work on stories about enterprises in which they have a financial interest. Any newsroom staff member, including news editors, with an investment in a business shall not make news decisions involving that business."

Here's what I know. Nobody but this BLOG has the balls to call these people out on their disgusting greed, hypocrisy, and borderline criminal influence peddling. All this while I watch people sleeping under bridges as I go to work every morning. Could that $20 million be put to better use than to line the pockets of the STAR, and buy influence for politicians? The STAR needs to honor its commitment and walk away from their new effort to squeeze more money our of the poor taxpayers of KC. There are more layers to this story, but I will stop here for now . . .
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