Kansas City Star Headline Claims Johnson County Sheriff 'Lied' Amid Campaign 2024

Context . . .

In this history of this bloggy dump we've only called one local politico "corrupt" — That was former Mayor Funky and we'll do the same if any other elected official allows their spouse to prance around the office barefoot. 

Back to the Golden Ghetto . . .

KANSAS CITY STAR NEWS HEADLINE REPORTING JOCO SHERIFF "LIED" IS A BIG DEAL BEYOND ELECTION POLITICS!!!

Why???

News headlines aren't supposed to offer a subjective appraisal. That's for op/ed . . . Which is actually more powerful and persuasive when done properly.

However . . .

For years The Star has denied mixing editorial and reporting.

But here we are . . .

There is no official action against the Sheriff or any formal charge that he has "lied" about his investigations. The accusation that he "lied" is merely part of a tense election campaign but reported via the headline as fact.

We're not defending the guy . . . TKC has no stake in the outcome of the JoCo Sheriff's contest. 

Actually, we kinda think the Sheriff was bullied into staking his campaign on election interference when, in fact, rising property crime around burgeoning mega-apartment-complexes (i.e. housing projects) is what's moving the dial amongst most astute JoCo voters. 

However . . .

What's important for us is that we're seeing the Kansas City Star abandon every one of its "journalistic" principals that haven't served to increase subscriptions or advertising. 

And so, here are the basics of their report . . .

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden is continuing a long-running elections investigation that has produced no criminal charges.

“As we stand here today, we had a search warrant in hand and had talked with the district attorney and we were working on getting the documents needed when they decided in a hurry to destroy the records,” (Sheriff) Hayden, who is running for reelection, said at the event at Johnson County Republican Party headquarters, according to reporting by the Shawnee Mission Post. But Melody Webb, a spokeswoman with the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office, said the office is “unaware of any search warrant being submitted to a judge for review.”

That’s despite Hayden having roughly three months to do so, after county officials in late November warned him they would move forward with the ballot destruction to comply with state law. The county’s top attorney shortly after asked Hayden if he planned to obtain a warrant.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

JoCo Sheriff Hayden lied about having warrant to seize old ballots for election probe

"Sheriff Hayden has run his re-election campaign on election fraud, and to not act when he could finally prove himself correct is very odd," said Hayden's Republican primary opponent Doug Bedford.