Summary: Congratulations to Kansas City Star' gossip columnist Hearne Christopher, Jr., for addressing the over-the-top negative media coverage attacking KCMO Mayor Mark Funkhouser and his family.
Sneaking into the Mayor's bathroom and taking a photo of a picture of his family and sending it to the media is the latest example. This is journalism?
Morning talk show host Chris Stigall (KCMO-710) blames the attacks on KCMO political operative Steve Glorioso, who works with former Mayor Kay Barnes. Stigall says Glorioso feeds the news media these items.
In reality, many in the media are simply following the lead of Tony Botello, who operates his own blog (http://tonyskansascity.com/). Tony, whose mother is a Hispanic activist, has a very personal agenda against the Mayor and has attacked him relentlessy since his inauguration. If something negative is reported by the media it becomes ongoing fodder on his blog.
After DeAnn Smith of the Star noted that the Mayor's wife sometimes takes her shoes off in the office, Tony took that bit of information and has run with it nearly every day in stories and photos.
It has now been reported that Dave Helling of the Star was the first to break the "news" of the "controversial" photo in the Mayor's bathroom.
Journalism in Kansas City is officially dead. 01-16-2008
Hearne Christopher Jr. 1/16
Where's the beef?
Another week, more behind-the-scenes dirty tricks aimed at tossing KC Mayor Mark Funkhouser and wife Gloria under the proverbial bus. One wonders what, if anything, some people won't do to try to discredit them.
Take bloggers' claims that Gloria gallivants about City Hall barefoot --- she doesn't. Others have resorted to finding fault with the family's baby pictures. Honest.
"Is it news that a photo collage given to my husband by his daughter that hung in his auditor's office for five years has a naked baby picture in it"? Gloria asks.
"Which is the real news story, that the mayor has a photo collage that includes an unclothed baby butt, or that somebody snuck into the mayor's bathroom and took a cell phone picture of it and pitched it to the media? I mean, where's the integrity? This is like junior-high-school politics." |
