Off the Couch
“After [dinner at] Gates, Megan and [Bryan] Truta drive Jason [Whitlock] back to his home. Jason exits the car and starts toward his house. Suddenly, he stops, taps on the car and motions for Megan to roll down her window. ‘I’ve got a secret to tell you,’ he says. When Megan obliges, Jason thrusts his ample buttocks through the window, relieves himself of a noisy stream of gas, then walks to his house with a look of satisfaction on his face. Megan, once again Jason’s victim, flips him off and drives away. ‘Farting is very important to me,’ Jason explains. ‘It’s a huge part of my life. I’ve built my entire life around farting.'”
— Brandon Stinett, staff writer, University Daily Kansan
GH: The farting incident is exactly the kind of behavior that has gotten Whitlock in trouble in the past … and has made his legend grow as large as his shadow.
“It has been a problem, and I’ve talked to Jason about it. Even though he does a morning show for a radio station, he’s still a Star employee.”
— Mark Zieman, editor of The Kansas City Star, expressing concern about the time Whitlock spends on his radio show and away from his newspaper column, University Daily Kansan
GH: Whitlock was made for sports talk radio — a medium that embraces both bad grammar and bad hygiene.
“Just how much money Jason has to share remains a mystery. His Mercedes and roomy [$300,000] Overland Park house suggest prosperity. But Jason said only that he would not deny making more than $200,000 a year from The Star.”
— Stinett, University Daily Kansan
GH: In August 1994, Whitlock signed with The Star for $60K. Six months later Zieman called him into his office and ripped up his contract. Whitlock had become so popular so fast in KC that the paper raised his salary to $100K, hoping to keep other newspapers from stealing their prize.
“My goal since getting into this is I want to be known as the premier sports columnist, premier sports journalist personality in the country. I don’t think I’m there yet.”
— Jason Whitlock, University Daily Kansan
GH: But he may be the premier farting journalist in the country.
