A prominent Star sportswriter asked my reaction to the hiring of Gary Bedore (late of the Lawrence Journal-World) to cover all things ku basketball and provide even more (if that's possible) recruiting dope and the creation of a ku bball app. I told him that I have for decades bristled at the notion by MU fans that it's the ku Star. I have always staunchly defended the paper, stating that if anyone had a gripe about coverage, it would be K State, and that IMHO the paper was even handed when it came to MU and ku. The one exception, it seemed to me, was coverage of ku basketball recruiting, where there are top of the fold articles whenever any prospect who ever heard from Bill Self blows his nose.
But now, with this hire and the app, I can no longer defend the paper on that count. The sportswriter was VERY unhappy about this turn of events and said it was just a bald-faced money grab and a slap in the face to other area schools..It shattered any remaining notion of evenhandedness. He shared that as something of a sop to MU fans, the Star would now have a student reporter on the MU beat in addition to Tod Palmer (there used to be student reporters all the time back in the day, supplementing the beat writer), and the trio of Sam Mellinger, Vahe Gregorian, and Blair Kerkhoff would be present in Columbia much more often. That part of the deal is welcomed and should have been the case for a long time now. But it doesn't wash away the stench of the Star cozying up to what we all already thought was the sacred cow Now it's also a cash cow.
But now, with this hire and the app, I can no longer defend the paper on that count. The sportswriter was VERY unhappy about this turn of events and said it was just a bald-faced money grab and a slap in the face to other area schools..It shattered any remaining notion of evenhandedness. He shared that as something of a sop to MU fans, the Star would now have a student reporter on the MU beat in addition to Tod Palmer (there used to be student reporters all the time back in the day, supplementing the beat writer), and the trio of Sam Mellinger, Vahe Gregorian, and Blair Kerkhoff would be present in Columbia much more often. That part of the deal is welcomed and should have been the case for a long time now. But it doesn't wash away the stench of the Star cozying up to what we all already thought was the sacred cow Now it's also a cash cow.
