To see Whitlock at the center of a storm of a controversy is nothing new; however, the way he got there — courtesy of this tweet about New York Knicks' sensation Jeremy Lin — is a bit disheartening.
Whitlock was never a columnist who chased down stories or even sought to break news. He was part of a generation of sports columnists that managed to blend fandom and critical thinking. Boston had Bill Simmons. Kansas City had Whitlock. And for a time, we were the better for it.
Twitter doesn't come with subtext. It's hard to know what Whitlock was (or was not) thinking. At its worst, the tweet is racist — which is difficult to accept because of Whitlock's propensity to call people out for their own insensitivity. At its best, well, there really is no best. Whitlock's subsequent apology on Sunday in the wake of a wall of criticism will rightly not engender much sympathy for him.
But what should have been a medium built for his louder-than-life personality has instead rapidly torn his hinges off — beginning with his hourlong local radio rant about his parting with the Star. And at age 45, he's gone from cranky to crank. Last year, he dismissed the Yahoo! investigative piece that broke the scandal of Miami boosters and was called out for "having no soul,"
Perhaps a younger, less embittered version of the sports columnist would have thrived in this media climate with immediate access to fans and the chance to cleverly trade barbs with athletes and owners. Instead, his decisions just continue to call into question exactly what it was that I liked about him. When he was on, Jason Whitlock never had to manufacture controversy. It came calling of its own accord. And perhaps that is what is most pathetic about the weekend storm that followed his tweet. It means his heart is no longer in it or, even worse, that we never really knew what was in his heart.
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The opening skit on SNL the other night mentioned Twitlock and the tweet, albeit in a negative manner.
Jason Whitlock's biggest fan is Jason Whitlock himself. I don't believe for a second that he even believes the junk that he prints. He says what he says, he prints what he prints for no other reason than to be controversial. The last line in this article is ALMOST most pertinent. It should read "that HE never really knew what was in his heart..."
B#llsh#t! "At its worst, the tweet is racist — which is difficult to accept because of Whitlock's propensity to call people out for their own insensitivity." It's exactly these sort of people who are racist. The ones always pointing fingers and calling other's racist. I subscribe to the KC Star and Whitlock was a fool and idiot and always pulling race card, glad it bit him back in the @ss.
Decline? It's not a big fall to go from the gutter to the ditch. Whitlock never was that good, he was in the shadow of Joe P while in KC. When he got on the national stage on ESPN he got exposed for being a blowhard race baiter.....Al Sharptongue with a notepad and without the Bouffant
Live by the sword, Die by the sword. But for foxsports.com to give Mr. Whitlock a national platform and not give him any reprimands is a disgrace.
Whitlock was incredibly fun to read back in the day at the Star. And the reactions he drew were also very entertaining. I paticularly enjoyed his take on the Don Imus controversy - where he basically called out the hypocrisy of black people going off on Imus for that when there were tons of famous black people, such as rap artists, who disrespect women all the time. He actually represented KC well when he went on Oprah and attacked both Imus and Sharpton. He was a great columnist then, but I'm afraid that he has gone off the deep end since he left. Sadly, his tweet about Lin is about par for the course in terms of his twitter maturity these days.
I knew he was on the downward side when he became a part of the Kevin Keitzman dog and pony show that supported a petition to have ESPN fire Bob Knight from the big Monday telecasts. I wrote him an email saying that being involved with anything Keitzman does is beneath him. Keitzman was publically humiliated when he made an ass out of himself by presenting the petition to the ESPN and the big 12. Keitzman is a schill and so is Whitlock.
As usual Whitlock the witless.. puts his foot in his big mouth!
I always thought Whitlock was a hack, not to mention a knee-jerk race-baiter. Without editors to cover it up, it's now clear for all to see.
It was especially revealing that, even in his apology, he essentially dismissed Lin as a feelgood story for Asians, missing that fact that people of all colors tend to root for underdogs who overcome adversity through talent and perseverance.
I normally don't watch the NBA until playoffs arrive, but I can't wait till the next televised Knicks game. And watching the team become a cohesive unit when the two stars return will be even more interesting and entertaining -- because it's a great sports story, not because it's a feelgood story about blacks and Asians overcoming racial barriers, which will probably be the subject of Whitlock's next column.
I would always laugh my ass off at the comments his articles used to get. I think Jason's only fan was Jason.
I'm no Hemingway, but I thought his topics always managed to go from something remotely sports related to race and hate.
Who ever it was that started calling him 'Twitlock' is a genius.
I thought he got run out of Kansas City years ago and that I would never have to hear about this loudmouthed racist ever again. Guess I'll have to check out his latest racist rant. Oh, wait, I don't need to read it--all I have to do is think about all of the idiotic racist things he said for years. Wonder why the Kansas City Star never put an end to his dirtiness years ago? Guess they don't know the difference between "controversy" and "talent".
I always thought his sports writing sucked.
He is a racist by his own definition.
whitlock was a lousy journalst from the start most of his articals tired old race card rants...he thought jeff george was gonna be a probowler...what a joke..... goodbye jason kc wont miss you
More casual racism from people who you'd think should know better! Not just racist, but also a penis stereotype! Double bad.
Jason has lost the last vestige of credibility in what was already a crumbling career.
Oh look, here's Jason Whitlock's contact info:
(913) 402-1914
ballstate0@aol.com
11900 Ballentine St,
Overland Park, KS 66213
Whitlock has always been a fair weather reporter. He lacks sense to his arguments. It was only a matter of time. Read past articles. He is hypocritical. He will write an article about 1 thing and 6 months later he contradicts his statements in a new article.
Jason Whitlock was a member of a K.C. Star sports desk
that was second to none,... I remember the year he and Joe started at first I didn't like Jason but over the years he gradually made me realize he was good sports writer I especially liked his harking back to his days at Ball State
and he seemed to be able to identify college players that would succeed at the pro level..and he would always take time to promote Jeff George, remember?...I hope this gets
cleared up
Live by the sword (alluding to racist controversy every one of your articles), Die by the sword (Being found out to be the exact same thing you abhor).
I wonder how far Whitlock could run before collapsing into a sweaty mass of racist puke? Probably not one New York City block.
I don't think he needed to make a apology it was just a joke. America is becoming oversensitive.
Jason Whitlock took a public dump on a hard working athlete who has shown us nothing but drive, grace, and poise. Jeremy Lin is obviously a champion and Mr. Whitlocks' "apology" was unconvincing.
Whitlock was a breath of fresh air when he started, but he got lazy over time. He had about 3 inspired columns per year; the rest were tired race card rehashes and petty personal attacks. He became far more concerned with landing on the national stage than doing a good job at the Star. He epitomizes my least favorite personality type: massive ego coupled with massive insecurity.
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