Jerry Heaster, Star's only conservative columnist?

   THE BOTTOM LINE: Kudos to Derek Donovan, the Readers' Representative at the Kansas City Star, for admitting that his newspaper has not given anywhere near balanced coverage to Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline. 
    What seems particularly interesting is that Donovan made it seem as if business columnist Jerry Heaster, who retired from the Star with health problems more than two years ago after a sterling 27-year career, was the designated conservative columnist for the newspaper.
    Kline commented on the Chris Stigall radio talk show on KCMO radio (5/22) that "it was nice that at least one person at the Star recognizes the biased coverage" he has received.
LINK:http://adastrum.kansascity.com/?q=node/229

Piling on Kline? 
    I've heard from several readers in recent days who think The Star is being unfair to Phill Kline after Saturday's Page A-1 story about the Web site standwithtruth.com, which offers to book Kline for speaking engagements.           
    Kline's office declined to comment on his relationship with the site or its administrators. There has been a variety of objections, most not about the story itself, but about several other items in the paper after its publication.    
In particular, Mike Hendricks wrote a sharply critical column on Monday, and the Opinion section ran an anti-Kline Voices comment. Then the editorial board weighed in against Kline Tuesday. 
   And today's Hearne Christopher column quotes local business owner Chris Seferyn equating Kline with Fred Phelps, saying they make area residents look like "a bunch of knuckle draggers." So far, there hasn't been any defense of Kline -- including from his own office -- in The Star.
     Now, Dave Helling showed me the entirety of his e-mail exchange with Kline's spokesman Brian Burgess, and despite standwithtruth.com's claims, Burgess most definitely did not reply to the questions posed. That's exactly what the story says. More may be forthcoming, and The Star should cover it when it happens.
    However, I absolutely agree with readers that it's all but impossible not to get the impression that the paper is piling on here. Part of that is attributable to the fact that different departments operate independently. And the editorial board, Hendricks and Christopher's source are all entitled to their opinions.
    No one person orchestrates all these things to purposely stack the deck. But this is a place where The Star's imbalance in staff commentators -- something I've criticized in the past -- snaps into focus.
   Kline has many vehement defenders, but those voices haven't gotten any time in The Star. (And to be fair, he also has strong detractors in his own party.)
    But especially since the departure of Jerry Heaster, the paper's own columnist lineup leans way too heavily -- and predictably -- to the left. I'm not making any judgments on the question of ownership and money at the Web site.  
    I'm simply pointing out that I understand fully how readers think The Star sometimes isn't fair to Kline, and social conservatives in general.