By Tom Shine
There has been a lot of unhappiness from some Kansas State fans over our hiring of Kellis Robinett to cover the K-State athletics program.
Most of the 30 or so e-mails I have received indicate that fans aren’t upset that Kellis is a graduate of the University of Kansas. That makes sense.
KU has one of the nation’s best journalism schools. Its graduates — just like those from K-State’s journalism program — work at papers all over the country, including The Eagle and The Kansas City Star.
Most of the e-mails aren’t critical of Kellis’ ability, probably because most of them don’t know much about his background. Here’s the condensed version:
After graduating from KU in December 2005, he was hired by the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello to cover Idaho State athletics. He did that for a little more than three years, winning half a dozen regional awards and several national awards for his work.
His sports blog on the Journal’s Web site was chosen the No. 1 College Sports Blog in the country by Blogged.com this year.
So where he went to school is not an issue, and neither are his abilities. What has upset some K-State fans is that Kellis helped run a blog for KU fans called The Jayhawk Lounge.
Nearly all of the e-mails I got and much of the traffic on various online message boards focus on two posts from that blog. Wildcat fans say the posts show that Kellis hates K-State and has attacked coaches and players in the program. They maintain that disqualifies him from covering K-State athletics.
First, Kellis did not write one of the two posts most frequently mentioned. On the other one, I did not find it hateful or mean-spirited as some K-State fans did.
Some bloggers also have picked up this partial sentence, plucked from a column Kellis wrote as a senior at KU: “There’s a lot to hate about Manhattan . . .”
What doesn’t get mentioned is that the column, written four years ago, also compliments K-State, including this: “The tailgating scene for football games is awesome. It doesn’t matter how cold it gets, RV’s and tents always stretch as far as the eye can see.’’
When we interviewed Kellis, we talked with him about his blog. We also reviewed it. We interviewed the folks he worked with in Idaho and the people he covered there. One Idaho State official called him the best beat writer to ever cover the program. Kellis also interviewed with The Star, which shares our K-State coverage.
After those discussions, we thought Kellis could provide objective and in-depth coverage of the K-State program. We still do. We think that will become evident as the season progresses.
We also think our decision to have Kellis live in Manhattan will enhance our coverage. It’s the first time we’ve ever had our K-State beat writer live in Manhattan.
Let me also set the record straight on a couple of inaccuracies that have shown up in the e-mails I have received:
Kellis took his blog down so no one would see it.
We asked Kellis to take the blog down. It was the same request we would make of any new hire for any reporting position at The Eagle. We want our reporters focusing their writing and blogging efforts on behalf of The Eagle and Kansas.com. That’s what we’ve hired them to do.
We’re hiding Kellis from speaking on radio programs.
Actually, we’re having Kellis concentrate on his new job. Like any new reporter, he has a lot of people he needs to meet: players, coaches, administrators. We think his time is best spent networking with them and preparing for the upcoming season. His beat is going to get very busy next week when K-State opens the football season against Massachusetts.
Will he speak on radio shows? Yes, like most of our previous K-State beat writers have.
People in the K-State program won’t work with Kellis.
We’ve had no indication of that in our discussions with K-State officials. The people we have talked to said they look forward to working with Kellis. His initial meetings this week with key K-State officials, including athletic director John Currie, have all been positive.
To read a blog entry on this topic by Kellis Robinett, visit the K-Stated blog.
35 Comments
Kellis predicted that KSU would lose to Montana State last yr. The final score of that game was 65-10 Cats. That alone shows you he knows ZILCH about KState, football, or athletics in general. He said that our coaches lied when they overheard several KU basketball players verablly attack KState player Denis Clemente with racially motivated comments. Now, if he was unbiased, you know as well as I do he wouldn’t have questioned this. Why would the KSU coaches and members of gopowercat.com make this up? They were on the floor (at worst 5 feet from the KU racists) Kellis was not. Kellis has attacked the city of Manhattan, the Powercat logo, Bill Snyder, Frank Martin’s scheduling, etc. There is even pics to show that his wife and he were selling KU cookies. Does this REALLY sound like someone who is unbiased??? Bottomline, his job as a KU blogger FAILED. He was looking for ANY sports writing job he could find, and it happened to be the school he has always bashed, Kansas State. This hiring shows why newspapers such as the Wichita Eagle are out of touch with their readers and why subscriptions are down. Kansas State fans are probably the most passionate fan base in the nation, and we don’t forget things so easily. This was a bad hire. If the tables were turned, and a former KSU blogger was hired to be the beat writer for KU, and made simialr claims against their school, they would not be accepting either of the hire. The Eagle REALLY dropped the ball on this one, thats for sure.
This is the equivalent to McClatchy hiring a CEO who recently took down his blog on the futility of print media. He may or may not do his job well, but he has been put in a situation where he has no chance to succeed. If you actually care about this individual, you would put him in charge of high school field hockey, and hire someone who does not have the baggage. ( by the way- you are delusional if you actually think his past wont effect his access to the coaches and players)
He may think that there’s a lot to hate about Manhattan, but at least he likes the tailgating. Kellis, you’re hired!
The top of this post says “By Tom Shine”.
The bottom says “By Michael Roehrman”.
Wild.
With all due respect, Tom, I don’t think I’m going to hire you as my defense lawyer.
It was a wrongheaded hire for several reasons, most notably because Kellis has demonstrated no particular skill with the language in his previous stops.
The Eagle hired a part-time blogger with a history of blasting his new beat when there were more qualified candidates available.
It’s an indefensible hire. Embarrassing to say the least. One more shovelful of dirt on the Eagle’s coffin, and proof positive they simply lucked out when hiring Jeffrey Martin.
Nice try Tom. The real issue here is that you and your sports editor either are clueless about the passion of K-Staters or you just are incompetent. Considering the near collapse of your newspaper and parent company I’m going with the latter. You and your kind are hopelessly out of touch with your readers and it shows through the constantly declining circulation of your paper. We dropped our subscription a couple of months ago because of the decline of the size and quality of the paper despite the rising cost of subscribing. Your inability to keep a quality writer like Jeff Martin and the hiring of the current KSU beat writer only solidifies my belief that we made a good choice. Good luck at your next position as I doubt your current one will be around much longer.
Hindsight is 20/20, but due to the knowledge of the Jayhawk Lounge blog (sp?), it MIGHT have been a good idea to have Kellis at least acknowledge it when introducing himself earlier in the week. Along with stating his accomplishments, intentions & goals. Of course, you guys gained a lot of pub by it, which hopefully was not the intention when hiring him to cover K-State.
The guy is taking a huge leap moving with his wife to Manhattan. It’s a special place and I’m sure he will grow fond of it.
Seems like he is very passionate about his profession and hopefully things work out for him. If he’s everything he was in Idaho, I hope you guys don’t let him get away.
Madcat,
This post and the one on K-Stated are appearing in Friday’s print edition. My name is on both posts as I took what’s running in the paper and posted them online.
Michael
booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
run that in your paper
Epic Fail!
All credibility has been shattered. A no go….and a no read.
So you ask him to take down a blog that he rarely posted in and 5 other guys mostly contributed to? Why not hand it off to one of them?
Good god you are stupid.
Please re-consider. If you didn’t convince the K-State base that this was a good idea within the first 5 days, it will NEVER happen.
Please reassign Kellis before he wastes all that money moving to Manhattan only to get eaten up.
Too late? You should reimburse him.
Let me set the record straight:
This hiring move shows how out of touch you guys in the print media really are. When your newspaper dies, or staff is cut and you are included, please think back to this hiring as a good indication of “what went wrong”.
I’m calling the Eagle to cancel my subscription today.
I think this whole situation is showing just how bad the print media industry is struggling. In a terrible economy, they couldn’t get any credible applicants for this position? I know it is a low-paying position in a dying industry…but c’mon.
P.S. I now officially hate you too, Kellis,
-Love, Mom
Kellis may very well be a talented journalist, but he will never be successful covering KSU athletics. You see, some jobs just aren’t a ‘good fit’…no matter what skills you bring to the table. This is one such instance.
KSU fans are a tight-knit community. We are passionate about our college. We love our college, and we love our town. We love our fans, and our coaches. When someone puts down our college or our town, we don’t want them to end up covering our athletics. Crazy, huh?
The Eagle and Star can do what they want, but this hire did absolutely nothing to gain any credibility with KSU fans. There are (and have been for quite some time) much better sources for KSU athletic news.
The Titanic continues to sink…
There’s a lot to hate about Manhattan.
Exceptions:
- The tailgating scene.
- My slick new job with the out of touch Eagle.
Everything else stinks.
Absolutely stupid hire. Awards or not, the guy has a history of bashing the school. But let’s not kick a dead horse. I’m sure he’ll do fine…..right?
There are a myriad of issues here.
First, you had an easy home run and whiffed terribly. Your priority should have been hiring Austin Meek from TCJ. He has established connections at the program and would have hit the ground running.
Second, many of us feel it was a mistake to lose Jeffrey Martin. I wonder if any of you really took the time to observe his writing or work ethic. Too many writers at the Star/Eagle simply regurgitate sound bites. Jeff actually got off his fanny to understand and deciminate what was going on and why. His insight on Michael Beasley and family was some of the best work from a member of your staff. Unfortunately, much of it remained in the background. Austin’s reporting improved greatly because Jeff set the bar so high.
Third, very few of us care that Kellis is a graduate of the University of Kansas. Our problem is that he’s a glorified forum poster. If Kellis was the professional that he aspires towards, he would have had the sense to know that he was narrowing his options by putting his name on the bile he was distributing. A candidates history may matter little to the Eagle, but anybody with a minute understanding of their customer base would know that there would be great risks involved.
Fourth, your sister publication has poisoned the relationship already with the KSU fanbase. It was their decision to farm out the KSU beat to the Eagle. Pretty much telling all that they felt stories regarding KSU are not worth their resources. When the number 1 recruit in the nation arrived in Manhattan with nothing but the clothes on his back, we were blessed with a hard hitting story about Cole Aldrich and his television. When Jason Whitlock tried to assassinate the character of Beasley, the Smith Family, and Frank Martin’s program; we wondered why somebody at the editors desk would not ask for proof of the accusations.
There is a double standard at the Star and it’s not an issue for them. The nice thing is that they drove a lot of traffic to the Eagle from the KC metro area. You should have recognised this as an assett and done your due dilegence to protect the interests of your employer. You would have not even entertained the thought of sending a blogger from KSU or MU to cover KU for the Star. But somehow it did not occur that it would be an issue for your K-State readers.
As for Kellis, I wish him the best and do not blame him for trying to move up in his profession. I’m sure that the good folks directly connected to the KSU program will treat him with nothing but respect. But he will not gain the insight your readers expect because the periphery has closed it’s doors. In the current media climate where the company line is distributed, discussed, and dismissed immediately, you cannot exist repeating old news.
Thank you for your time.
Anyone who would predict KSU to lose to Montana State hasn’t the slightest clue, and shouldn’t be covering KSU. He’s obvious got a bad case of the cocky KU’s.
Say what you want to defend Kellis, now that no-writing J-Mart is gone, there is absolutely no contest: the Topeka Capital Journal’s Austin Meeks is the only the KSU journalist/blogger worth reading outside of gopowercat.com.
Let me recommend http://www.cjonline.com to all K-Staters. Austin Meeks writes a great blog and reports regularly on the Cats without any cocky KU brain dead bias.
Tom, let’s recognize this hire for what it is – an colossal blunder by a staff that is running out the string at a failing company. With that I will thank you in advance for the schadenfreude with respect to the Eagle’s inevitable demise and wish you good day.
Too busy networking to go on a radio show for 20 minutes to address this firestorm? He only contributed a little bit to the blog that you made him delete?
Not sure about everyone else, but I believe you.
I’m curious if there is any precedence to this at the Eagle. When has the hire of a sports journalist been so controversial, that the public outcry justifies a response from the publication? And why do you continue to refuse to listen to your readers? We are your clients – treat us as such! I don’t buy the “wait and see how he does” argument. The fact that the newspaper is now the news story makes this is huge failure on the Eagle’s part. The Arrogance of the powers that be is preventing the Eagle from doing the right thing and hiring someone else.
The fact that you do not recognize the stupidity of hiring a KU appologist/KSU hater to write for KSU proves you are not qualified for your job. Count me as a former reader.
I think you are still missing the obvious problem here, fans and Eagle staff. Kstate fans are obviously upset with how they are constantly snubbed, and ripped in the local media. The Star fires our beat writer, and doesn’t hire a new one; then Jmart leaves, and you have the arrogance to hire someone with the background of Kellis? I’m sure he’s a great writer, and completely deserves to cover sports for a major newspaper, but it is a slap in the face to all of us that you would put him on our beat with his obvious bias. I find it hard to believe that this wasn’t done intentionally. There had to be someone competent that you could have hired besides him.
Gameday Preview: Kansas State at Kansas
January 13, 2009 at 6:23 p01 | In Kansas basketball | Leave a Comment
Tags: Allen Fieldhouse, Gameday, Kansas, Kansas State, preview
The Kansas Jayhawks are giving seven points to Kansas State today, and I must say that number sounds low. Really low.
Coming off a forgettable defeat at Michigan State, Kansas is going to be sky high to start conference play against its cross-state rivals at 7 tonight at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks also play much, much better at home than they do on the road, and I’m expecting them to blowout the visiting Wildcats by 15-20 points.
At least, they had better win by that comfortable margin.
This is the type of game Kansas needs to excel in. We all realize that the Jayhawks are not yet ready to play top-notch competition on the road, but they are more than capable of beating mid-level conference opponents at home.
That’s all K-State is: Mid-level.
I was in attendence at Bramlage Coliseum when Kansas State pounded Idaho State two weeks ago, and I was impressed by their athleticism. The Wildcats use it to their advantage against low-majors and mid-majors at home, especially on defense. They smother suspect ball-handlers and score all over them in transition.
But against high-major and elite opponents on the road, they are hopeless.
They are not well coached and they are not good shooters. Without Michael Beasley or Bill Walker, the KSU media guide cover was only a jersey. They have no standout players.
Because of that, K-State has lost two of its three true road games to Iowa and Oregon — it won at Cleveland State — and also lost in Las Vegas to Kentucky. None are strong teams.
The Wildcats are also coming off a double-digit home loss to Oklahoma.
That means Kansas should be in a position to throw an early knockout punch tonight.
I hope it’s a right cross.
Will you confirm Kellis did not write this? thanks it will help him, many are upset
Ha ha! Your medium is dying!
Really, Tom?!?! Do you really think that all K-State fans, Alums, etc. are just a bunch of uneducated hicks that you can snow with a mountain of bullshit?
I’m appalled that you have the audacity to assume that we don’t have internet access, nor the skills to use the web to find virtually all that you say to not just be falsifications, but outright bold-faced lies in most cases.
This might possibly be the worst hire I’ve ever encountered in for any position in any industry.
Congrats on a monumental mistake… I guess.
“…I did not find it hateful or mean-spirited as some K-State fans did.”
Are you more concerned about your own opinion or that of K-State fans? You don’t have to answer. It’s obvious.
The fact that someone has to write an article justifying the hire of an athletics blogger shows that something is screwed up.
You print media dinosaurs just don’t get it.
Any bias, real or perceived, will be pounced on. Don’t subject Kellis to this. Re-assign him, and use his talents on something else.
“A lot of unhappiness from *some* Kansas state fans”
You hire a writer who you also want to blog on the website. The same “some” Kansas State fans you are trying to blog for are the same Kansas Sate fans that are unhappy with the hire.
“Most of the 30 or so e-mails”
Hmmm…I detect a sly wink towards you thinking that e-mails are not as important as the old geezer who pens out a letter to the editor on dead tree. Again, you are out of touch. You should take the blog comments a little more seriously.
Then you go into your own reasons why Kellis is legit. NONE OF THAT MATTERS. If a guy says that there “is a lot to hate about Manhattan”, it really doesn’t matter what other nice things are included in the article to try to sugar coat it.
You are catering to the internet readers, who have already found their sources, and made up their minds. You are too late.
Why would you have Kellis move to Manhattan, when he obviously has a lot to hate about it? Won’t that impede his job?
Did I mention I canceled my subscription today?
You honestly attempt to make every new reporter take down any blog that they’ve done in the past? I find that incredibly hard to believe.
Also, chosen #1 by blogged.com? Never even heard of it. You reporting this as some kind of achievement to have a blog that had only received 6,000 page views in its entire lifespan chosen as #1 in anything by such a random website, shows exactly how out of touch with the Internet you are.
Good luck to you. As long as this joke is on staff, I’m done with your website and your organization.
More proof this guys should leave, he doesn’t like In-N-Out!
http://www.pocatelloshops.com/new_blogs/kellis/?p=2518
Well, that’s the least of his problems.
K-State fans aren’t looking for someone to fill them with purple koolaid (something KU fans say we Kstater need) but we just prefer having a drink and not having too choke down red and blue feathers with it. To prove your you are taking lessons from your big sister KU Star. Why would I want a KU commerical on my Eagle K-State sports page? Thanks for making it easier to tell you curriculation dept. I’m using my subscription money to pay for my KSUFAN.com and powercat.com subscription.
Would it make all you K-State people happy if he promised not to use big words or compound sentences?
insidertoday is a terrorist with a limited vocabulary
Kellis’ didn’t just go to school at KU. He spent days camped out in line attempting to get KU basketball tickets. This is the measure of a relentless, dedicated jayhawk. And Kstaters will NEVER have any part of it!