Talk to people about Tony Botello, the 36-year-old man-boy behind Kansas City's biggest independent blog, and they inevitably ask some variation of the same question: "Does he really live in his mom's basement?"
Botello makes regular mention of living down there, constructing an image of a lair filled to the ducts with porn and campaign fliers. Readers, though, wonder whether it's just an ode to a blogger stereotype. The answer is a little of both. Botello says he does spend most nights in his mom's basement. But he also thrives on his image as a bottom-feeding outsider, even as that image becomes clouded by his influence.
Also, his parents are divorced. He spends a lot of time at his dad's.
"My dad always has, like, food," Botello says. It's a warm February afternoon. He just arrived at his dad's house from downtown, where he was covering a hearing. I had asked to meet at his mom's, but he refused. "I draw the line at the lair," he said. So instead he invited me to his dad's place, a bright-green two-story on the West Side that's neatly decorated with his father's Chicano art collection. There's a basement, but Botello works in the living room.
Over the past several years, Botello's site, Tony's Kansas City, has evolved into a surprising must-read for journalists, politicos and others in Kansas City's small sphere of civic influence. It also, many in that circle agree, has begun to seep into the homes of everyday Kansas Citians.
But spending an afternoon with Botello feels more like hanging out after school than conferring with a media powerhouse. He wears loose-fitting khakis, skater shoes and a dark thermal. His hair is matted to his head, his usual Chiefs hat taking a rare breather. He offers me a drink from the fridge and laments his dad's recent diet, which he expects will wreak havoc on the usually solid deli selection.
And he talks about chicks.
"She looks exactly like Uma Thurman!" he says. He's waving the business card of a journalist he met at the hearing. "She's 26 — way too young for me," he goes on. "I actually found myself being nice. I catch myself being nice sometimes."
The woman — "Uma Thurman!" "I swear to God!" — mentioned that she's interested in working at a newspaper. This sends Botello into one of his go-to soliloquies, about the dismal future of newspapers. I say something about the waning supply of reporting jobs; he agrees, but with one small caveat.
"If they did it based on a hotness contest, though," he says, trailing off and typing away.
Botello launched Tony's Kansas City in 2005, partly as a way to drum up freelance-writing business, he says. But it quickly became clear that his content — the tone, the trappings, the institutions at which he flung it — wasn't going to get editors lining up at his basement staircase.
"I've slung arrows at every print publication," he says.
He's the child of activists. His parents, who divorced when he was in his 20s, helped found the United Mexican American Students club at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. His mom, Rita Valenciano, once ran for City Council. But though Botello worked some campaigns, he applied his activist spirit to covering Latino politics, as a freelancer for Dos Mundos and Kansas City Hispanic News.
"It was maddening," he says. "I went to all these events — you know, the press conferences — and you're just supposed to smile and accept what they say. ... You're not able to call bullshit on people."
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Fuck that dude. I stumbled on his blog today and had to find out who he was, so thanks to the pitch for this story. I had assumed he was an elderly man, far disconnected from reality. He's more pathetic and out of touch than I had expected.
Quoting Rush Limbaugh in an attempt to make a sound argument is like saying Charlie Sheen is your life coach. Not a good indication one is able to discern capability in an "expert." If you want to argue "merit," don't quote a lying, thieving drug addict.
I do not expect a blogger like Tony to do a bunch of vetting. It is a blog. Not a academic journal. But I get your point.
Thanks for responding to my post.
I'm sure you would rather associate with Tony. He doesn't vet his sources, regularly publishes gossip and passes it off as fact and spend more time hurling insults than actually making cogent arguments.
Tony, my wife and I would love to buy any of those gorgeous ladies with you a drink, or several. Please feel free to pass on my information to them!
You are not living in the 17th century man, what in the world is wrong with you?.
Did you get abused growing up, maybe that is the reason you have so much hate in your heart.
I really feel sorry for you, you need help seriously, and you sir are spot off!
Psst!! Hey buddy...I heard this blogger, Tony Bordello, is running a house of ill-repute on the West side of KC.....check out his website
http://www.tonyskansascity.com...
Whew!! At first I thought this guy (Botello) was Italian. I was relieved to find out that he is Mexican!!
I think you misunderstood anger for ignorance. Even the best and the brightest have a good rant needing to come out once in awhile. I follow the chuckmeister and he's written some essays that would impress you. Moreover, your post, soviet may have been more civil, but it frankly is a bit light on insight. Even in chucks's rant, he shows he has an understanding for the manipulation going on by people of color in America. Not all, he paints with too broad a brush but you don't have to turn over many rocks to find slugs.
His anger was not aimless. It was probably drunken. What's your excuse?
You are complete moron, and your misspelled rant proves just as much. Furthermore, your aimless anger is quite revealing; you are a sad man, and you need to go back to school or seek therapy. If you lack the ability to do either, then please take a plastic bag, tie it around your head real tight, and BREATHE DEEPLY.
Who do you trust more?
Tony, the KC Star or the JOCO Sun?
I personally would rather read what Tony has to say.
He is real, can be trusted and appears about as unbiased as you can get.
He has always been nice to me.
Thomas Scherer,
Candidate, United States Congress
What a whiney little ASS SISSY your punk ass is!!!!!! Stop hatin Sis-ass! Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine, whine, WHINE! Dammmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Chuck, you read my mind! Diversity only means special privileges without merits. We should have never given women the right to vote, because the women are the ones who started this shit about restitution for specific races who may or may not have been unlawfully treated way back in the day. Equal rights, c'mon, we all know it's coming when a black man will have his way just because he's black, no matter what.
Rush said it best when giving examples of how racist the blacks really are, in saying that 96% of the black population gave their vote to obummer. I'm sure that based on merit though, right?
Chuck, your profanity was spot on.
Tony is the Pope of Diversity. I like the blog- but fuck Tony and Diversity---
Diversity- and the culture of diversity, which is heralded, and sacrosacnt incessantly on every goddamn fuckin stupid ass News TV show you turn on---IS THE DEATH OF AMERICA AS WE KNOW IT.
FUCK not knowing the ENGLISH language if yo live here. FUCK special exceptions for a Burka if your a Muslim.--Fuck YOU--I gotta see your fucking face on your goddamn drivers license moron. Fuck all this diversity African American You Owe Me Money because my ancestors were slaves. Hey FUCKHEAD, tell that to the fuckin Cubans in Fla, or the Irish all over the US--or the fuckin Serbs, or the fuckin Russians. or how about you fuckin quit whining like the pussys you are-------and WORK for a living like the rest of the fuckin UNIVERSE!!
How about the part where---just a dumb fuckin white boy---out of a job---has gotta give African Americans (I am so fuckin sick of the whole ----I AM SO SPECIAL - CALL ME AFRICAN AMERICAN--fuckin bullshit---hey fuck you-- call me NORWEGIAN AMERICAN or I will sue for some free money!!
DIVERSITY IS THE DEATH OF AMERICA!!!
A whole fucking month for African Americans???
How bout a whole fucking month for Italians? or the FUCKING ENGLISH!!---who really amde this country!!
Disgusting freebee fucks, who want shit for free.
FUCK DIVERSITY!!
Tony does in no way pretend to be anything other than what he is----a total racist, who velieves in the social, economic, (at some point) military and political DESTRUCTION OF WHITE EUROPEAN AMERICA.
Just letting you dumbfucks know---pay attention.
FUCK DIVERSITY!!
Seems like this guy works pretty damn hard. But I guess the idea of working for anything other than an "honest" paycheck and your boring family is anathema to you. How dare he make sacrifices to do something he's passionate about! Loser!
WTF?!???, I remember when a guy living in his parents' basement was considered a loser! Here's an idea. Why not write about those who work for a living to make an honest paycheck, raise a family and do good for their community. This might be considered somewhat boring for some of you at The Pitch, but hey.....it's about time the working class receive some attention.
He might be a sexist asshole, but he has more respect for and interest in local filmmaking and photography than any other publication in this town. Those are some of the things he's overwhelmingly positive about - kind of like how Alex loved Beethoven.
I love to read Tony's blog! He says what people in the media can't without getting fired or losing an advertiser. Keep up the good work Tony you are appreciated for your work and you must be making an impact.You are trully free, keep calling them out Tony!
Botello's blog is a good quick aggregation of news even if he relentlessly criticizes the actual reporters without whose stories he'd have nothing to publish. And it's a fun place to read snarky comments and watch other practioneers in the blogging community congratulate or criticize one another, as seen in the other comments here.
What's sad, though, is that part of the article that reports on the little band of "politicos, consultants, and civic leaders" who are drawn to TKC so they can hope to find the latest gossip and dirt on themselves and others in their tiny band of what passes for political and civic leadership in KCMO. Isn't that exactly the problem with the city? A little band of insiders fighting among themselves and dividing up the decreasing pie and ignoring, scaring, or tricking the voters as mush a s possible to keep the status quo rolling?
This little grooup may be having fun, but it's sure at many other people's expense. Maybe that can change on election day.
Oh shit, I am relieved!! The name Botello really threw me. At first I was going to write after reading this article that I was ashamed to be Italian like this guy, but later in the article i found out that he just a Mexican!! Thank God!!
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