This might be a shocker to Kansas City news readers but take a moment of pause and realize that NOBODY under 30 in Kansas City realizes what this names means.
Then continue . . .
KCUR: Kansas City Star Lays Off Editorial Writer Yael Abouhalkah And Others
As for the implications . . . Is it really "news" that the legacy Dead Tree Media writers are getting picked off in not so grand fashion???
A better perspective from our blog community . . .
"Dead Tree Media laid off the bane of Sam Brownback's existence today, and if you listen closely you can almost hear the cheers in Topeka, Jeff City, and DC from here."
You decide . . .
Yael is going to work for the democrats.
ReplyDelete^^^^^^^^ Wasn't he doing that already?
ReplyDelete37 years and they didn't let him retire on his own terms?
ReplyDeleteWow.
Stupid move. The Star is dead.
ReplyDeleteGoodbye Blue Monday.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy8dUJEOqos
ReplyDeleteGood riddance.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, Yael did more original work in a week than Tony Botello has done in eleven years of blogging.
ReplyDeleteSo, at the very least, he can go to sleep at night with a clear conscience.
He'll land on his feet. No worries.
Original perhaps, but entirely predictable. His point of view can be replaced by a mechanical turk.
DeleteBut Tony Botello still has his blog that you're visiting right now!
ReplyDeleteWhere will Yael go? I think KCUR is full.
"Dead Tree Media laid off the bane of Sam Brownback's existence today, and if you listen closely you can almost hear the cheers in Topeka, Jeff City, and DC from here."
ReplyDeleteI disagree to a point on this. I don't think your hearing cheers from Topeka, Jefferson City and certainly not DC. I honestly doubt politicians care. The cheers you hear are from the last remaining readers and subscribers of The Star that are happy Yeal is finally gone.
For the last four years I guarantee that 80 percent of all his columns were about Brownback. Or they were talking about the joys of raising local taxes. Strange for a guy who lives in MO to care so much about the Gov of KS.
Four years of writing about one topic and obsessing over it. For readers it got old rather quickly.
And the issue was, the Star let him get away with it until now. Yeal would of been fired along time ago if he wrote for even a slightly larger market.
Yeal hasn't earned his pay in four years. Now I guess he'll go home and write a horrible failed blog that won't get 25 percent of the readers Tony's does. But with Yeal's big ego, he will convince people how much of a success it is.
He can go and sell cars while writing his horrible blog. Worked for Herne Christopher.
^^^^ Great comment here.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking this will benefit The Star overall.
Out with the old and in with the news. There was no use sticking with his column after he refused to be part of an open debate on Ruckus.
Given his tenure at The Star, I'd say he probably did ok on a severance package. Not privy to the deets but I would imagine he got upwards of a week for every year he was there. His departure certainly begs the questions, who else of any weight is left at 1729 Grand to pen left leaning missives and do the bidding for Mayor Sly and the toy train streetcar. I'm sure the folks over at the NRA are tickled as well given the number of Twitter attacks Yael levied against 2nd Amendment backers.
ReplyDeleteThe Star is dead. They just run syndicated content. Few local writers.
ReplyDeleteThe Star has been dead for a very long time!!!
ReplyDeleteSo I guess all that sucking up to the Mayor didn't save his job?
ReplyDeleteToo bad, not really.
What are we really missing with Yael's departure here?
ReplyDeleteThe Sam Brownback attacks were getting old. He didn't create a lot of new readers, it seems like he just lived to attack politicians he didn't like and in a really vitriolic manner.
People are talking about the future of journalism here but wouldn't it better to tell employees that they need to add value to their companies? That would be the wisest thing to take from this firing.
Well, FUCK! I just learned how to spell his name.
ReplyDeleteHowever, saying it out loud still sounds like I am hocking up a glob of snot.
a pseudo.
ReplyDeletepeople who still read a newspaper want serious, thoughtful writing.
^^^ I don't think that handful of people will support a big business like The Star. They're going to have to sell more promotional articles.
ReplyDeleteWhile I have often disagreed with Yael, I have to wonder how much institutional memory is now left at The Star. When Yael began covering City Hall, I doubted he knew who Bartle Hall was named after. But, he did his homework and learned a thing or two about local government -- which is a complex, multilayered system.
ReplyDeleteYael was often unfairly tarred as "liberal" by folks who do not realize that our political discourse has shifted so far to the right that views held by moderate Republicans of the 1960s -- or even by the mature Barry Goldwater -- are now considered left-wing. (Goldwater, like Ayn Rand, was pro-choice. Obamacare is just Romneycare -- a 1990s product of the conservative Heritage Foundation. Cap and Trade is a REPUBLICAN idea as an alternative to a carbon tax. Etc.).
While half the time I would happily have strangled him, I doubt we will get better. And, it would be terribly sad if this were just a Koch-inspired purge over Brownback.
^^^^ Absolutely agree here, What the star did wrong was not train new columnists and have new voices ready to take that role. With this firing it seems like they have NOTHING new to offer readers in terms of commentary and are just taking away more knowledge from their content.
ReplyDeleteA courageous, good-government critic, he was not.
ReplyDeleteGreat news except I wont be satisfied until Lynn Horsley and Glenn Rice are gone, too.
ReplyDeletewill they be able to throw the other deadweight overboard too, or are they in protected status?
ReplyDeletestarting over would be the way to go.
4:42, only a dyed in the wool liberal Democrat could charge that the political discourse has drifted to the right. The Democratic Party has drifted so far left that no politician with centrist views could possibly run for national office. The days of Harry Truman, JFK and even Bill Clinton have given way to Bernie Sanders and Hillary. THe struggle against totalitarianins is gone, replaced by devoted allegiance to far left, freedom hating groups like Occupy, Move and BLM. BTW, be careful when you open your closet door, one of the Koch brothers may be hiding in there to get you!
ReplyDelete^^^ Agree with Bob.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will say this,
If Mary Sanchez is staying, then I'm still not reading.
I also agree with Bob.
ReplyDeleteKC Star Buzzfeed?
ReplyDeleteThat's what's next. You asked for it.
Hooray!
ReplyDeleteYael was a fan of the streetcar wasn't he?
ReplyDeleteit was his fault for not working to be more objective and getting more supporters. Seems like he tried to please his corporate masters but they are always ungrateful.
ReplyDeleteis tony in negotiations?
ReplyDeleteKUKU will probably hire him as a low paid junk professor
ReplyDeleteto replace needs-muscle?
ReplyDeletePhil is right about institutional knowledge. Any new columnist will not know what's going on. Such a shame.
ReplyDeleteHere are, excluding his obsession with Brownback, his headlines over the last few months.
ReplyDeleteYael T. Abouhalkah
Show us the IRS audit letter, Donald Trump
Donald Trump refuses to release his income tax returns. That reprehensible stance upsets MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, and when I supported O’Donnell, that tweet went viral, bringing in responses from across the nation.
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Yael T. Abouhalkah
Jason Kander joins Missouri politicians who are clinging to their guns
Jason Kander released a political ad Thursday showing he can put together a rifle while blindfolded. That just makes the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, opposing Roy Blunt, part of the political crowd that’s pandering to Missouri voters.
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Yael T. Abouhalkah
Mayor Sly James’ ‘double down on stupid’ tweet angers Missouri’s gun lovers
Kansas City Mayor Sly James angered some Missouri lawmakers and gun lovers on Tuesday when he tweeted his opposition to a bill that would allow people to carry guns with no permits or training.
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Yael T. Abouhalkah
Kris Kobach’s new humiliating defeat a victory for Kansas voters
Secretary of State Kris Kobach has lost yet another legal battle in his bid to make it more difficult to vote in Kansas. That’s good news for voters. As long as Kobach keeps losing in court, voters will stay winning.
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Yael T. Abouhalkah
Colin Kaepernick’s three big national anthem victories
National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to not stand during the National Anthem has sparked plenty of informative and emotionally charged writing about patriotism and the anthem. It also has spurred positive contributions for social issues. This has been a teachable last few weeks for Americans — all without costing any lives.
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Yael T. Abouhalkah
Kris Kobach’s latest nonsense on Donald Trump’s Mexico border wall
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach put on his best smug smile Thursday and told reporters that U.S. taxpayers should shell out to build Donald Trump’s proposed border wall between America and Mexico if that country won’t pay for it. But Kobach didn’t lay out a reasonable plan to finance the inane project.
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This “journalist” was a garden variety, low fruit picking, modestly qualified (Compared to Jenee and Lewis) Liberal shill for Liberal causes his entire career
Sure Yael was a big streetcar supporter. His HUGE BAGS of STREETCAR MONEY, all clearly marked
ReplyDelete$$ STREETCAR MONEY $$
will let him retire like A KING!!! Because we ALL KNOW people at THE STAR are bought off by SLY AND THE DECEITFUL SCOUNDRELS AT CITY HALL!!! THEY DICTATE THE STAR'S COVERAGE TO THE LETTER!!! "HELLO THIS IS MAYOR JAMES WITH MY DAILY REQUEST FOR POSITIVE NEWS COVERAGE," he'll call and say!!
Maybe you will have time to have lunch with me now that you have been expunged? Just ask Tony... He will be more than happy to help you set this up! Goodbye and good riddance Yael, i dont hate to see you go nor is your being kicked the curb mourned by the many former staffers you managed to throw in front of the bus before it became your turn.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am not unhappy to see you pushed out, I wistfully remember you when your column meant something and you were the Lion of the Press. Drown in h-ll you compromised, phony, feckless turncoat. You used to be someone... now all you are is a laugh line at a fundraiser for the street car :(
ReplyDelete"If a tree fell in the forest, would anyone hear it?"
ReplyDeleteIntelligent newspaper readers have been abused by what they've been offered in this town. Consequently, the newspaper doesn't have a lot of goodwill among the community of its readers.
ReplyDeleteNew editorialists and reporters need to be held to a standard of manifest good faith and professionalism. They need to convey to readers that they accept that their job is to inform other smart people for the commonweal.
Watch for Yael to appear next at the Shawnee Mission Post
ReplyDeleteYael's Shawnee? LOL!
DeleteI hope Narly Snatcheeze is packing ur her desk trinkets. Wow what great news that would be.
ReplyDelete"and when the smoke cleared, only Bloody Mary Sanchez stood standing."
ReplyDeleteYael will be at the Pitch with Barb.
ReplyDeleteFAILED ABRACADABRA.
ReplyDelete"how much institutional memory" NO one needs it if you can't keep up with the progress in our nation. You can't keep ahead of the changes in TRANSPORTATION - like self driving electric cars that will deliver themselves to your door every morning for the daily commute. Yael was told about the early tests that took place and he kept pushing the TOOT TOOT instead. NOT journalism Not reporting on alternatives --just filling newsprint space with your provincial opinions. Hope he finds a place that "needs" his form of boosterism.
ReplyDeleteYael needs to write a "tell all" on the KC Star.
ReplyDeleteThe Star is so left wing you couldn't wrap a whole chicken in it.
ReplyDeleteWhen Rita dies, Tony, we'll start a blog and celebrate that.
ReplyDelete^^That's mean, asshole.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think of a it as a new opportunity.
ReplyDeleteLet's look and see what he does with it. Will he rise to the occasion or just fall back into the same stuff that got him fired. Good luck to Yael!
Sam is a good man.
ReplyDeleteWho the fuck reads that rag one more liberal media outlet goin bye bye
ReplyDelete