Off the Couch
“It’s making me sick that anyone would take an opposite position [to WHB] just because they are in competition with someone. The Kansas City Star blew it. …I could be a cub reporter, an intern, and know that this is a gargantuan story. So what does The Star do? They bury it because we [broke the story].”
— Kevin Kietzman, complaining that KMBZ and The Kansas City Star underreported his interview with David Glass, 810 AM
“What we would say to Kevin [Kietzman] is, ‘Good job getting David Glass on your show.’ But believe me when I say this: What Kevin did [Wednesday] afternoon had zero effect on what we wrote or how we positioned the story in the paper [Thursday]. I certainly don’t think we buried it by running it on A-1.”
— Mike Fannin, sports editor of The Star, when asked what he thought of Kietzman’s criticism of the paper’s front-page coverage.
“We have a competing radio station that has the owner of the Royals on it, trying, begging him to say he is not interested in building a downtown baseball stadium. This is an absolute joke. You have people in the media trying to talk him out of it because they heard it on this radio station first. Don’t take the other side of it because you got your ass kicked.”
— Kietzman, leveling his criticism at KMBZ’s Fortune & Rose, who interviewed Glass the day after Kietzman, 810 AM
GH: Who was begging Glass to answer questions in a prearranged manner?
“It’s sort of part of the job description to ask the question instead of just delivering the conclusion.”
— Jim Rose, after Glass thanked him and Fortune for clarifying his stance on the downtown ballpark issue, 980 AM
“I think we have to sit down and talk about anything. I think we have a responsibility to listen to [a proposal to build a new downtown ballpark].”
— David Glass, 810 AM
GH: Not quite goose bump material, is it?
“Now, do we need a new arena downtown? That’s a totally different subject. Let’s pick out a central location and get that done!”
— John Bondon, chairman of Jackson County Sports Complex Authority, 980 AM
