Whitlock, who left Kansas City last summer in either a blaze of glory or a tragic, self-indulgent implosion, depending on whether you like him or not, took to his Fox Sports column yesterday to personally attack Yahoo! Sports writer Charles Robinson. Yahoo! recently published a massive story Robinson wrote about former University of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro's claims that he gave Hurricane players all kinds of improper benefits, including paying for sexual favors, giving players cash, and taking players for rides on his yacht. Shapiro is in prison for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme.
Robinson spent 11 months researching the story, which included more than 100 hours of jailhouse interviews with Shapiro. Robinson called dozens of players Shapiro claimed to have assisted. He tracked down a forest's worth of documents and receipts, and he even got some players to admit receiving cash or perks from Shapiro. He systematically outlined the benefits that each accused player allegedly received from Shaprio, and Yahoo! broke the player profiles into separate Web pages, like this one for current K-State player Arthur Brown (he transferred from Miami).
But all that wasn't good enough for Whitlock. He wrote, "The Yahoo! story was written to generate carnage the same way James O’Keefe’s ACORN video was produced to destroy that organization." And he contended that the impressive documentation Robinson put together isn't a sign of a well-researched investigation that will bring serious changes to Miami athletics. Nah, it's just an indication of a hack trying to justify 11 months of work. From his column:
Shapiro is a poisonous tree. You can’t trust his fruit. You can’t disguise his poison with stats — 11 months, 100 hours of jailhouse interviews, 21 human sources, including nine former Miami football players, 1,000 pictures, 20,000 financial documents, 5,000 pages of cellphone records, a $1.6 million yacht, $80,000 in receipts at nightclubs, 72 players with possible NCAA violations and nearly 100 interviews.The stats reveal Robinson’s desperation. For nearly a year, he turned over his life to a congenital liar, and there was no way he was walking away with a simple story: A Miami con man fooled most of Florida, including the Miami athletic department, and took Miami athletes to expensive dinners, popular South Beach nightspots, gave them access to the private parties he threw for himself, friends and professional athletes and steered Vince Wilfork to a sports agency. That’s a good story. But it doesn’t make you the toast of American sports journalism.
Whitlock goes on to say that it's clear Robinson's reporting can't be trusted because he didn't find any evidence of drug use. He wrote, "One word is missing from the Yahoo! story: Drugs. You can’t tell this story accurately, honestly or credibly without addressing the drug issue. Drugs would raise legitimate questions about the nature of Shapiro’s relationships with the handful of anonymous sources backing (and/or refuting) Shapiro’s claims. Drugs would tell us a lot about Nevin Shapiro. But the Yahoo! story would leave you to believe Shapiro operated in America’s Cocaine Capital, allegedly arranged strippers and hookers for seemingly half of The U, spent his nights in VIP areas at nightclubs and strip clubs partying with 20-somethings, and no one smoked a joint, snorted coke, popped X, swallowed OxyContin or even took Advil."
So, there you have it. Documentation proves Robinson is merely justifying writing the story, and the lack of a drug-related subplot shows that he didn't do his job.
Robinson went on Nick Wright's radio show yesterday hoping to confront Whitlock about his claims, but Whitlock wouldn't play ball. At least the interview allowed Robinson, who sounded exasperated and confused about why Whitlock is attacking him, to make his case for his reporting, his refusal to speculate on athletes' drug use, and how he got the documents. Guess what. Shapiro didn't hand them over. It's worth listening to.
Meanwhile, the NCAA seems to think Robinson's reporting is sound. They've suspended eight Miami football players.
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Jason Whitlock was never a reporter or journalist. He was an opinion writer. That means he never had to back up his writing with facts. They were just his skewed ideas.
I seldom give praise to Yahoo for 'news' but I read the article in question and it smacks of good old fashioned journalism. Of course Jason Half-Whitlock doesn't understand it. He's a blogger not a journalist. He never was a journalist and he never will be. He attacks what he doesn't understand.
Free gasoline everybody!! All you have to do is start a small fire and Jason Whitlock will come running with a couple of gallons to put it out. Inflame, Inflame, Inflame. That is the only journalism he knows how to do. I, too, am from Kansas City and I'm glad he's gone.
LW 3:09
Makes some good points, but I listened to the interview yesterday and there is way too much information, including Govt documents, interviews with officials, 1st hand witness et al, to dismiss this story, because it is not 100% vetted with EVERY source.
The U is up to its neck in chicanery and malfeasance by NCAA standards.
My opinion of the NCAA is pretty negative, but if in fact, Division 1 colleges are NOT supposed to cheat, and all play by the same rules, then the U is gettin strapped to the gurney sometime soon.
Whitlock's motives for anything he publishes, it seems to me, always feel as though there is an agenda which relates to race, or his persecution complex.
His self immolation on departure of KC was a hell of a hoot and I enjoyed it thouroughly.
Even if you don't like the guy, his takes are interesting.
I wish he would come back and embarrass himself some more, its entertaining.
Everyl now an again, he would make ya think.
Take off the "I Hate the U" glasses for a few minutes and actually look at Robinson's so-called evidence. You will see it is flimsy at best. Most of it is credit card receipts, Shapiro's word and phone records during the last couple years. None of the credit card receipts say who was at each dinner, only Shapiro's word. He had fancy dinners almost daily with investors. The phone records only show the numbers dialed or texted, not the actual converstaion or text. It shows he has contact with a lot of current NFL players that were also his investors and who lost a lot of money in his scheme!
Most of what Robinson wrote cannot be backed up with facts. He claimed almost $3 million was given to Miami players....well out of 12 out of the 72 received in total $4000. So where is the $3 million?
To me what made Robinson's story weak and proof he is looking for sensationalism is the abortion story. Did you actually read it or are you just going with the headlines? The story is a stripper told Shapiro she was pregnant and a football player was the father. So Shapiro gave the stripper $500 to make the issue go away! He says the football player probably would have been dumb and would have wanted to keep the baby so he did it without the football player's knowledge.
Wow there are so many issues with this! 1 - what stripper has unprotected sex with a stranger? 2 - who knows if she was even pregnant? 3 - was the football player even the father? 4 - the player still doesn't even know about this - so how's it his benefit? 5 - Why would Robinson put it in his story if it isn't to sensationalize it? There is no evidence! The player knows nothing about it! Shapiro wouldn't even name the player. Facts people!
Some of the players named the evidence was "I saw him in a club". Seriously! I'm not making this up. Yahoo started editing some of that when they were getting questioned, but it's still flimsy.
The pictures don't even match the captions. One claims to be the Fiesta Bowl, the canes wore Green, not Orange as shown in the picture. Another has a Nebraska player in the picture on the infamous boat, who has already come out and said that picture was taken after he and his teammate were in the NFL. He had never been to Miami prior to that.
The picture of him running out of the tunnel....guess what, the U auctions that off....the guy had the winning bid! Anyone can do that! The pictures with the players, again so what. Big college football fans have pictures with players. You see one and you ask to take a picture. Autographs or jerseys, again, so what! Any of us can buy those from the schools or ask a player for a free autograph if we see them. That's not evidence.
Did stuff happen, I'm sure some stuff did, it happens at every school, but not to the extent Robinson described. That's Whitlocks point. The story isn't factual and Yahoo! was schemed by a pathological liar with little to no evidence to back it up.
Jason Whitlock is just mad BECAUSE someone actually did the research, gathered the facts, and wrote a story using the information they gathered. Unlike Mr. Whitlock, who's time in Kansas City was spent reporting about rumors, speculations, innuendos, sensationalizing petty 3rd hand comments while adding his own slanted opinion, which Jason has never been short of, or too shy to speak to whoever would listen.
Jason its time to step aside and let REAL reporters report. Time for you to step aside and quit trying to keep your name in the fore by trying to be significant while reporting old news. Time to step aside and let your un-original, Rush Limbaugh-ish rants and reporting style sit on the shelf and gather dust.
Retire, write a book, or just leave. Would do the country a service to have one less egomaniac shoved down our throats. By the way Jason, you still talking to that imaginary Doctor friend of yours ?
Whitlock is just angry he could not find evidence of white players getting paid more than the african american players. If it does not smack of racism or he cannot slant a story to include racist behavior it is not a story. I even read the KCStar sports page now that he is gone and am happy I do not read the Fox Networks sports site.
Whitlock is a negative, obese, racist, POS. He has been canned from every job he's ever had. Does anybody give a sh*t what he says? Does anybody respect him? The answer is no, he's a complete joke of a journalist and even more, an embarrassment of a human being.
Whitlock criticizes someone else's journalism with what can only be described as non-journalism.
Glad that Whitlock is out of KC and strutting his pseudo journalism elsewhere. I was so happy to see him stop writing in my paper the KCStar.
Oh, poor Jason...what else can he say to get some publicity? Judging from the photo shot of him shown here, his mind is not on anything resembling reporting.
Whitlock is just upset that Robinson used actual journalism research tactics to create an article that's worth reading on a media outlet he doesn't work for. Whitlock can't judge anybody's reporting - he doesn't do any himself. He just gives opinions after stories have already broken.
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