Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Kevin Kietzman, of Sports Radio 810 WHB

We're going away from baseball for the first time because the situation simply demands it.

For much of last week, Kietzman dedicated a great deal of time on his afternoon radio show to a story no one else in the local media cared about. He kept trying to get at the incident in the University of Kansas' football program that instigated the recent internal investigation and resulted in several relatively minor NCAA violations being self-reported, along with a few minor self-imposed sanctions.

Kietzman wanted more. He wanted to know what triggered the investigation in the first place, even though the initial questionable activity was later proven not to be a violation, which the NCAA had already announced. Kietzman, in his own words, went to lengths he's never gone to before in his career, writing a letter to the government of the state of Kansas, citing open meetings laws in an attempt to dig up the details on the incident. He stated plainly on his show that whatever the incident was, it must be embarrassing to the university for them not to disclose it, and went on to imply several times that it could involve, in his words, "academic fraud" or "embezzlement".

All of it turned out to be a big fat nothing, the incident being nothing but the result of some coaches meeting where they are drilled on NCAA regulations. Nothing sinister or embarrassing about it, but Keitzman pursued it with extraordinary zeal. Why?

Here's the motivation he never bothered to disclaim on his show; Keiztman is a K-State grad, and, at least at one time, was a K-State football season ticket holder. He therefore has a personal interest in embarrassing KU's football program, which now regularly lands top in-state prospects that K-State seeks. On top of that, Keitzman is part owner of a radio station that serves as an affiliate for K-State football broadcasts, so he's also got a financial interest is seeing KU football embarrassed. K-State football is helped by embarrassments to KU's program, and a strong K-State program helps line Kietzman's pockets.

To practice what I preach, I'm a KU alum and football season ticket holder. I suspect that Kietzman's old journalism instructors would have wanted him to make a similar disclaimer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No doubt. I don't often agree with KU fans but Kietzman is the trashiest sports radio personality in Kansas City hands down. He's a sensationalist that tries to create controversy where there is none.

Not only does he do that but he has made some really nasty remarks that were completely uncalled for. I remember him attacking Katie Horner's hair do because she interrupted his golf game with a severe storm warning.

Today he was attacking Chase Daniel's family after the Alamo Bowl just because he didn't like the way they looked on tv. Then,, of course he blamed it on the media for showing them on television too much. Talk about sad. The guy has no class or knowledge of sports. Plain and simple.

Sherron "Elevator" Collins said...

kU grad....lol! doucher.