STAR NEWS GAME FLOPS!!!

The Kansas City Star is in the midst of running yet another series of news stories aimed only at winning awards from fellow dead tree media institutions.

So far the human trafficking series has been an overwhelming failure for Kansas City's so-called paper of record. There has been little reader response, TV news has barely made mention of the stories and as far as I can tell the reports have failed to influence the cultural zeitgeist of this town. Remember, that last year The Star crapped out with a local murder series that didn't really help anything given continually falling ad numbers at The Star and the ongoing local death count. If The Star was really interested in serving mankind, maybe they might want to think about saving paper.

Anyhoo . . . The news series started off on the wrong note by invoking the term "slavery" in order to cynically capture eyeballs. Thankfully, everybody looked past this stunt in much the same way most of us now skip over the daily paper in favor of Iphone apps. In the United States, "Slavery" is understood as a legal institution sanctioned and regulated by the government with a legacy that still haunts us today . . . The Star's lame attempt to use the term for shock value failed because the stories were tragic and sad but didn't represent a systematic use of laws and institutions to uphold wide scale, global oppression that marked the founding of this nation. Human trafficking is illegal and authorities do their best to stop the abuse. The stories of unlucky hookers are tragic but they are people who have fallen through the cracks of the system.

What's even worse is that Star newsies are irresponsibly working to reignite the immigration debate in the context of liberal armchair outcry over the abuse of human trafficking while overlooking the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants who enjoy gainful employment thanks to a fairly open labor market which is only aspect of global capitalism that U.S. politicos have managed not to destroy.

Put simply . . .

THE STAR'S HUMAN TRAFFICKING SERIES IS AN UNMITIGATED DISASTER AND FURTHER EVIDE
NCE THAT PEOPLE DON'T NEED THE DAILY NEWSPAPER TO STAY INFORMED!!!

The cynical news ploy touting liberal hand wringing over immigration and the abuse of hookers represents nothing more than an agenda-driven reporting from daily news elitists. Meanwhile, Kansas City is crying out for more neighborhood, local and investigative content as The Star rehashes worn out Amnesty International talking points.

When soon to be unemployed Star writers ask why they lost their job this series should provide a perfect example as Star newsies lamenting forced prostitution in their pages might want to expand their horizons and consider a voluntary foray into the flesh trade given their current lack of any marketable skill set.