Media Monster

The Jason Whitlock-Mike Fannin-KC Star Plot Thickens (UPDATE)

Well, this mess over at the Kansas City Star doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon, unfortunately. First came Jason Whitlock’s initial accusations against Star editor Mike Fannin. Then, KC Confidential’s Hearne Christopher – another ex-Star staffer – came in with some Fannin-wary words of his own.

UPDATE: We checked in with the Wyandotte County district court ourselves to independently verify the Fannin talk. They indeed found a DUI conviction against a Michael C. Fannin (whose birthdate matched that of the Tony’s-Kansas-City-posted mug shot) from 2006 in Wyandotte County.

They also said their records noted it was Fannin’s second such conviction (which Christopher’s report also said), but that the first likely occurred in another jurisdiction, as they didn’t have a record of it. We’ll see where all this goes from here.

The rest of the original post is below.

And now, Christopher’s back for more Fannin-questioning, and another KC-area blog, Tony’s Kansas City, is in on the action. Both posts involve the rather ugly area of DUIs, and both paint Fannin as having major troubles with them.

Both posts cite Wyandotte County (KS) records, with Tony’s Kansas City posting Fannin’s purported mug shot, and Christopher reporting that this mug shot was indeed for a DUI arrest. We’re currently in contact with Wyandotte County’s district court, in order to check on this information for ourselves, and when we hear more, we’ll update this post.

SportsGrid has also contacted Mike Fannin, but unsurprisingly, we have not heard back.

Really, this whole situation is unfortunate. Christopher at least had good things to say about his working relationship with Fannin back when they were colleagues at the Star, but the glee that Tony’s Kansas City showed was almost Mariotti arrest-esque.

The Big Lead likened Tony’s Kansas City’s and KC Confidential’s latest posts to “sharks in the Kansas City waters” who can “smell Mike Fannin’s blood.” We won’t argue with that characterization, and it’s why this controversy looks like it’s not going away anytime soon.

It’s old media against new media, current KC Star employees vs. former staffers. In Whitlock’s case, there’s clear resentment…and if the latest Fannin news is true, they’ve got ammo. This probably will not end well, and it’s a shame.

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