The Pitch vs. The Star vs. BPU: Not so thrilling Threeway

Here is an annony e-mail that came my way with a lot of good links and it's better written then most of the garbage that I turn out so I decided to post it in its entirety since all of the links seem to be somewhat relevant even if all I know about power companies is that they like to raise prices. Read about the most recent feud between the Pitch and the Star and how a local power company is caught (eating) in the middle (which explains the pic in addition to the fact that I'm nasty):

****************

A battle to the death

Those familiar with the long-standing feud between the Kansas City Star and The Pitch Weekly probably won't be surprised with recent coverage of the Kansas City Kansas Board of Public Utilities.

On November 30, The Pitch published an article highlighting some pretty outrageous spending among top officials at the KCK utility. Apparently, it's not too difficult for two people to spend more than $150 on lunch . . . If you're going to the Cigar Box and the Savoy Grill.

But the Pitch running a hatchet job on the BPU is like conservatives bashing the liberal media – nothing new and an all-to-common practice. Animosity between the Pitch and the BPU seems to run high, as evidenced here, here and here.

Not wanting to be left out, on December 10, the Kansas City Star did its own piece on the BPU's high-dollar lunches, but only made a passing reference to the Pitch's article on the same subject. The Star's editorial board even chimed in a few days later about the excessive lunches. Never mind the fact that, had the Pitch never gone to print with their piece, chances are the Star wouldn't have either.

The Pitch stayed on the story, but it appears that it did so for no other reason than to remind readers that it broke the news. An article covering the BPU Ethics Commission on Dec. 14 fired the latest salvo:

"Nobody from the BPU has responded to Price's two-week-old request, even though the documents have already been handed out to the Pitch and, more recently, to other newspapers."

While the spending on the lunches by BPU officials seems excessive, both articles point out that the spending was within spending limits. The real issue might be executives from the KCK-based company spending rate-payer dollars across the state line. Surely there are $20 a plate diners at Outback Steakhouse and Ted's Montana Grill at Village West…

Given the recent revelations about the excessive lunches, the BPU has reduced the rate increase proposed for 2007, from an original 6 percent to 1.96. Is anyone really surprised?

********************

Again, I have no idea who sent this my way BUT I also have no problem believing that The Pitch and The Star are every bit as bad or even worse than businessmen who like expensive lunches.