Why is the KC Star afraid of a little bird?

A very wise politician once told me, “You’ll know when your opponent thinks you might win when they start attacking you by name.”

I wonder if that works with blogs and newspapers too? If so, then the Kansas City Star is scared, very scared.

For the past few days, Dave Helling has been writing hastily on the KC Star’s Prime Buzz (here and here) criticizing the Kansas Meadowlark, a one man research machine that puts out more original reporting than all of the full time paid staff of Prime Buzz combined.

Why would a Star staffer choose to challenge the state bird? Because the state bird has the facts…and he isn’t afraid to use them to expose the Star’s one sided agenda.

The first post from Helling was quite interesting, at first heaping flattery on the Meadowlark but then abruptly criticizing the author for not reporting on KCNewsWatch, a Missouri corp that just recently formed and has been critical of the Star’s reporting of Johnson County DA Phill Kline.

Why would the largest paper in town criticize a one man team for not reporting the stories they think ought to be reported? Is it because his criticism is finally finding a soft spot? Is it because the facts are finally getting to the Star’s readers and they’re letting the Star know they’re not happy?

Nobody but the Star’s staff really knows, but isn’t it fun to speculate?

The flattery is a sad attempt by Helling to cover up the real purpose of the post, to try and discredit the Meadowlark’s work, which is not only well research and factual, but impeccably written.

Unfortunately for the Star, all you really have to do is ask yourself, “Did a full time reporter really just criticize a part-time blogger (who does more original reporting than the Star’s staffers) for not investigating a group they don’t like? Is this the pot calling the kettle black? How many years has the Star had to investigate the many elections that George Tiller and ProKanDo have bought and now that they’re in the cross hairs, NOW they decide this stuff ought to be researched?

The Star should know better than anyone that investigating campaign finance reports and incorporation documents takes not only time but in many instances extreme amounts of money. Shouldn’t it then be the responsibility of professional news people, who have the resources and time, to tackle this work? Why is the Star trying to deflect attention away from their inability to track Kansas political money by criticizing an amazing one man show?

I’ll give the Star this much, they definitely understand politics. If you haven’t done your job…deflect, deflect, deflect.