Media create 'hierarchy of murder'

By Shonna Troph

During an average year, approximately 200 murders are committed in the St. Louis metropolitan area. In 1997, the last year for which records are complete, 153 murders occurred. But, not every murder is covered by the media. This means a kind of "hierarchy of murder" is used in the media's daily reporting. This different treatment of murders has drawn criticism, especially from the African-American community.

"We are particularly aware of violent crimes that involve African Americans," says Alvin A. Reid, news editor of the St. Louis American. "But we don't cover every single murder that occurs-we just can't."

Many of the media view their coverage of murders as complete and fair. But, often the public feels the media overemphasize murders involving blacks and underemphasize victims, especially African-American victims. Some of the public also feels the media have a total disregard for the feelings of the victim's family, whose lives are torn apart by such crimes.

"The media have a much different treatment for black crimes than for white crimes," says James Buford, president of the St. Louis Urban League. "They show absolutely no selectivity when covering murders involving blacks-they just cover them all. But that's not the case when covering crimes with white persons. There is very low coverage of white crimes in the media."

Members of the media adamantly stand behind their reporting of murders. They deny racial prejudice plays any part in their decisions about how murders are covered.

"We just cover murders when there are murders-it's a news story and that is it. We make a point to not include anything racial in the stories unless that is part of the motive. Then we just report on the facts," says Jeff Alan, news director at KDNL (Channel 30).

"We are very sensitive to race issues. Gang-related murders are more common in minority communities. So it may seem like we highlight minority crimes more, but that's just the very nature of those stories."

The media have several factors to consider before deciding to report a murder.

"Every murder is a serious, serious news story that should never be taken lightly by a journalist. It should never be talked away as not newsworthy. However, we must look at several factors when deciding what to cover and what not to cover," says Alan.

The circumstance of the murder is the one aspect that all the media agree is the determining factor of coverage provided.

"The type of murder, the circumstances surrounding the murder, often determine how we cover it," says Steve Perron, a producer at KMOV (Channel 4).

The story must have some appeal or interest to the general audience in order to be considered for publication.

"Some people would have us cover every murder the same. But that isn't realistic," says Phil Gaitens, an assistant managing editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "We have to look at the circumstances of the murder and what is interesting to the public. Murders involving a public place or public figure captures more attention than that of a private individual."

While all murders are horrific, some are markedly different in nature. Murders that include multiple victims or children are perceived to be much more violent than those involving illegal activities or domestic disputes.

"We are less likely to cover a murder involving illegal activities, such as drug dealings, or a classic domestic situation where the members have had an on-going feud, than one involving children or multiple murders," says Perron.

Critics feel the news media take the issue of public interest too far by sensationalizing stories, especially murders.

"Everything is over reported. The media sensationalizes murders without showing any responsibility to the families involved," said Buford. "They really need to stop and think about what they are doing to the families and the community; take responsibility. The sensationalism only damages the communities where the murder took place and perpetuates the stereotype that all blacks are irrational, violent animals who are killing each other. All they care about is ratings and selling their papers."

Industry sources deny using murders to draw the audience's attention. They say they rarely promote murders-unless it is a sensational story. Then they try to keep it low-key and provide only the pertinent information the public needs to know.

"We are very careful so we don't come off looking like we are discriminating against one race or another. We take incredible offense when we see it in other media," says Alan.

Members of the media also report that race is never a factor when determining how to cover a murder.

"Race does not play any part in how we cover a murder. Deciding what coverage to give to any particular murder is rarely a simple decision. There are no firm rules to follow," says Perron.

Members of the African-American media say they do tend to focus more on black crimes than those involving whites.

"Being an African-American paper, we have to focus more on black crimes. We are very selective about the murders we cover," says Reid. "However, we don't give credence to whether a white person killed a black person or vice versa and we try not to make judgments as to whose life is worth more."

Critics have a different view of the media and race issues. They claim the media's treatment of murders in the minority community is blatantly racial. They feel the media purposely places stories in positions to draw attention to them and uses different terminology for blacks than for whites.

"The placement and duration of murders involving blacks is completely different than for whites," says Bufurd. "In newspapers, they seem to place pictures of black victims or suspects where they will draw the most attention. They always include pictures of the black victims and suspect-they hardly ever show a white person's picture. They even use different language when discussing black suspects. They use such things as an 'irrational, out of control' man when describing a black man, but when talking about a white man who committed the same crime he becomes 'misguided or confused.' When covering a murder involving a black person on television, they always place the story, along with pictures, within the first five to 10 minutes of the newscast. Then they go on to repeat the story in every newscast for a couple of days. All of these things show absolutely no respect for the black community."

Members of the black media concede that sometimes coverage isn't as fair as it could be.

"Media outlets feel less responsibility to minorities in general. The St. Louis media, in particular, can be disrespectful at times; even rude and abrasive. It doesn't happen all of the time, but there are instances when it does and it is uncalled for," says Reid.

Another factor used in determining the coverage a murder receives is the other news events that occurred that day.

"We can never look at one murder without looking at other news happenings of the day. These events can never be discounted. We must look at the structure of the entire newscast. This plays a major factor in determining what gets covered and how it's covered," says Perron.

Other factors used to determine the coverage given to a murder are the time of day/year the murder occurs and the resources available to the newsroom.

"The time of day a murder happens or is discovered is an important consideration. There are certain times of the day when we look at everything that is going on and assign reporters to stories," says Perron. "We are more likely to cover a murder if it falls around these times and we have a large pool of reporters to choose from. But if it isn't, we have to look at the resources we have available; what reporters can cover the story and what equipment that we have."

The hierarchy of murder is a real problem for the media and the public. While many issues are taken into account when determining the coverage provided to a murder, a wide gap exists between the two sides as to what is the best way to do it.

"This is a very difficult, complex problem. It is a double-sided sword in some sense. If the media devotes too much time to the white crimes in the suburbs, then the black community says they are being slighted," said Art Silverblatt, professor of media literacy at Webster University. "However, if the media covers black crimes then the black community feels as if the media is once again over-emphasizing black crimes. Every group involved seems to think they are right. It is very difficult to determine who is right or wrong in this situation."

Shonna Troph is a St. Louis free-lance writer.

Viewing executions: Does the public have a right to see?

By Don Corrigan

Should the news media have the right to videotape executions for later broadcast? Should they have the right to carry such events live from the death chamber itself?

Proposals to televise the actual executions of death row inmates have attracted national attention since the 1970s. A dramatic increase in the number of executions in America in the 1990s has only increased the calls for televising the implementation of the ultimate criminal penalty.

Some of those who ardently support capital punishment favor the idea of televised executions for their deterrent effect. They argue that one of the major ration-ales for capital punishment is lost because the deed is done with only a few witnesses present.

In a 1993 SJR survey of Missouri legislators, the majority were opposed to televised executions. Some were opposed because they said death by legal injection is such a humane way to carry out capital punishment, that television coverage would not be particularly dramatic. In other words, it would attract only a small audience and the deterrent effect would be minimal.

In that same SJR survey, other legislators were opposed to televised executions because they said it would prompt unwarranted sympathy for criminals. "I would agree to it only if they also showed the crime committed with a re-enactment," commented one respondent.

Opponents of capital punishment often are in favor the idea of televised executions because they are convinced the cruelty of such TV scenes can only hasten the end of the death sentence as an acceptable form of punishment. They believe the spectacle of live executions will so sicken the American public that there will be an outcry against the use of capital punishment.

Sister Helen Prejean, whose book, "Dead Man Walking," became the inspiration for the Hollywood movie by the same name, is supportive of televised executions. An outspoken opponent of capital punishment, Prejean says she believes the secrecy surrounding executions makes it possible for executions to continue.

Prejean insists that "If executions were made public, the torture and violence would be unmasked, and we would be shamed into abolishing executions." She contends that under our present cloaked methods of punishment, inmates are mere "abstractions of evil" while they sit on death row. As abstractions, Prejean argues, "They can be turned into 'monsters whose lives can be terminated.' "

A high moral thing

News media outlets have been involved in a number of court cases in the effort to secure rights to videotape or televise prison executions. The justification for such rights ultimately is found in an expanded interpretation of First Amendment privilege.

In the 1989 case of Halquist v. Department of Corrections, an independent producer of radio and TV documentaries had been tracking the fate of Washington state death row inmate Charles Campbell. The producer's request for permission to videotape the execution of Campbell was refused by officials in the Department of Corrections and a suit was brought to compel access.

The court ruled there was no general right of access to executions; what's more, the press itself had no recognized right to videotape executions under the relevant state constitution.

The attorney for the producer argued to the court that there was a question of arbitrary discrimination. Members of the press were allowed to view executions for their stories, while videotape was being banned as a storytelling vehicle for documentary reportage. But the court concluded there was a substantive difference between viewing and taping executions, and the state could permit access to viewing while prohibiting access to videotape.

The subsequent case of KQED, Inc. v. Vasquez was more complicated than the Halquist case, but also involved a proposed documentary. A public television documentary about capital punishment would use videotape of the execution of Robert Alton Harris-the first man to be executed in California since 1967.

"If the death penalty is such a high moral thing to do, then we should be able to look at it," declared Diann Rust-Tierney, then-director of the Capital Punishment Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). On April 24, 1992, the ACLU had videotaped the execution of the convicted killer in California under the authorization of Judge Marilyn Hall Patel.

The videotape, the first ever of an execution in America, was put under seal at the federal district court in San Francisco. The ACLU was granted permission to videotape in the first place as part of an evidence-gathering process in a case to demonstrate that the gas chamber is a form of cruel and unusual punishment. News organizations saw this as an opening in a once-closed door, and began clamoring that the videotaping of criminal executions should be a newsgathering right under the First Amendment.

Television station KQED in San Francisco claimed that it had a First Amendment right to videotape and televise executions, including the capital punishment meted out to Harris at San Quentin prison. The court rejected KQED's request, arguing, in part, that such broadcasts could incite prison riots or retaliation against guards.

The 1994 case of Lawson v. Dixon involved popular talk show host Phil Donahue, who was impressed with a made-for-television movie entitled, "Witness To The Execution." The movie was about a pay-per-view TV channel that compensated the state for permitting coverage of executions to hike its audience ratings.

Donahue remarked that he would love to have an execution televised as part of the Donahue Show. "Let's see future bad guys watch these people fry right here on television," Donahue remarked. And Donahue went to work to see if such a televised execution could be arranged.

David Lawson, a convicted murderer, cooperated with Donahue in the effort to get a televised execution on his syndicated TV show. Lawson and Donahue appealed to the court in North Carolina for permission to cover Lawson's execution as an example of the dangers inherent in leading a life of crime.

The court was not sympathetic, despite Donahue's stated intention to inform the public about capital punishment using the medium of television. Lawson's execution was neither televised nor videotaped. The court said the First Amendment did not sanction any right to capture the event of an execution on new media available such as videotape.

News media fascination

Of course, the news media's fascination with the execution of criminals predates the existence of videotape cameras and television transmitters. Tabloid newspaper publisher Bernarr McFadden was constantly in search of execution photos and accounts for his New York Evening Graphic in the rowdy 1920s.

When McFadden was unsuccessful in getting the real thing, he would stage hangings for his photographers in the basement of the newspaper building. At least one reporter almost went to his death with a noose around his neck, when one of McFadden's staged experiments for a phony front-page, execution photograph went awry.

In 1928, reporter Tom Howard attended the execution of Ruth Snyder who was convicted of strangling her husband. Wearing a pair of baggy pants, the reporter for the tabloid New York Daily News concealed a miniature camera strapped to his ankle.

Employing a cable release manipulated from the pocket of his trousers, Howard tripped the shutter of his camera just as more than 2,000 volts sheared through Snyder's quivering body. The surreptitiously photographed electrocution of Snyder meant pay dirt for the paper, as it sold an extra million copies with the front page photo of Snyder.

Of course, tabloid newspaper accounts, as well as the crude photos of the past, pale before the impact of the new technologies of videotape and color television. The debate over the legality and ethical propriety of using these technologies to cover executions is ongoing. It continues in courtrooms, legislatures, newsrooms and at the seminar roundtables in university schools of communication.

Professor George Gerbner, emeritus dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, argues adamantly against any ideas for televising executions, labeling such notions as "outrageous." The supremely private moment of death must outweigh any public right to know, according to Gerbner.

"There are certain moments that should be private, and one of them is dying. And the claim that this helps dramatize the suffering is specious," Gerbner states.

In contrast to Gerbner's viewpoint, two media scholars from the Department of Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky argue quite the opposite. Gregory Widener and Haeryon Kim told a convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) that televising executions was an idea whose time had come.

Widener and Kim said such coverage was especially warranted in view of a public opinion shift in favor of the death penalty to a record 75 to 80 percent level.

"Since capital punishment is done in the name of the people, the people do have a right to know about what is really being done in their name," stated Widener and Kim. "Television will help us to understand the implications of the death penalty better. Yet convincing evidence exists that public executions may bring out the worst in us.

"The possibility of death penalty celebrations and private gatherings is a gruesome thought. However, the 'whole truth' about the death penalty must be available to the public without being de-humanized or sensationalized and without jeopardizing prison security."

Reporters who witness executions find death room process sterile

By Murray Farish

In Owensboro, Ky., in 1936, a 22-year-old black man named Rainey Bethea was convicted of assaulting and murdering a 70-year-old white woman. The sentence was death.

On the appointed day, nearly 20,000 people, most, if not all, white, many still drunk from the "hanging parties" of the night before, shouldered their way into sight of the gallows where Bethea was to be hanged.

"Get him up there!" members of the crowd hollered. "Get him up there where we can see him." Bethea was led to the scaffold. He muttered a silent prayer when asked for his last words. He was bound and hooded. Seconds later, a retired Louisville policeman lowered the trapdoor, sending Bethea to his death with a cheer from the crowd.

Although guards had cordoned off the area around the gallows, the surging mob still managed to tear scraps of Bethea's clothing for souvenirs as his dead body swung beneath the scaffold. Bethea was pronounced dead at 5:44 a.m., Aug. 14, 1936. It was the last public execution in the United States.

Today every state's capital punishment law prohibits public execution. The raging, drunken mob on the town square has been replaced by small, tightly controlled groups in the sanitary environment of the state death chamber. Although the law varies from state to state, these groups are made up of some version of the following: a handful of "reputable citizens" of the state; attorneys for both the state and the condemned prisoner; prison and state officials; family members of the condemned prisoner, and, in some states, members of the victim's families. Almost always, newspaper reporters are part of the mix as well.

Eyes and ears

There are very few people today who have actually witnessed executions. Yet it is in the name of the people of the state-all of the people-that executions are committed. The notion behind media representatives-an uneasy one for some prison officials and legislators-is that reporters are there to tell the people what is being done on their behalf.

"I don't think the general public really understands what happens," said Carolyn Tuft, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "When I wrote my stories, I tried to give the public an idea of what the process was like."

Tuft witnessed the executions, by lethal injection, of Larry Griffin and Robert "Tony" Murray, each of which took place at Potosi Correctional Center in the summer of 1995. Griffin was convicted of killing Quentin Moss in June 1980. Moss was a suspect in the murder of Griffin's brother. Murray was executed for the December 1985 drug-related murders of Jeffery Jackson and Craig Stewart in St. Louis.

"When it's time to start the injection, they flick the mini-blinds open," Tuft said. "Then in a few minutes they close them again. The whole process is surreal. The prisoners are sedated, so they lie motionless on the gurney as the drug goes in. The only indication of death is that the prisoner's chest stops moving."

Tuft said the most disturbing aspect of the executions she witnessed was the state's clinical approach to taking a life.

"I've seen people die in a lot of different ways," Tuft said. "And this is a pretty sanitized method of dying. It's so cold, almost like putting an animal to sleep. It makes people more comfortable, I guess, that it appears painless."

Lethal injection has become the most popular method of execution in the 38 states that currently allow capital punishment. It involves administration of a series of drugs, including a fast-acting barbiturate to render the prisoner unconscious, followed by drugs that stop the lungs and heart. Prisoners go to sleep and do not wake up, and death usually occurs within five minutes.

But lethal injection is not the only method of execution on the books. Fourteen states still allow the use of the electric chair, and in four states-Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Nebraska-electrocution is the only method of execution. In Utah, Idaho and Oklahoma, an inmate may choose to be shot. Missouri is one of five states which still has the gas chamber as an option, and as late as 1994, Jack Broom, news columnist of the Seattle Times, witnessed a hanging in Washington state.

"We hadn't had an execution in over 30 years," Broom said. "Then in 1993 Westley Allan Dodd hanged for the murder of three young boys. The next year I covered the execution of Charles Rodman Campbell, who killed two women and a young girl in Snohomish County."

Dodd had requested hanging, but when it came time for Campbell's execution, he had the choice to opt for lethal injection instead. According to Broom, Campbell refused to state a preference, and at that time, hanging was still the primary method in the state of Washington.

"I haven't seen a lethal injection," Broom said, "but from the reports I've read, it would appear that a hanging is a much more dramatic thing to see. Everything about it is different, but you still walk away with a very detached feeling."

After being thoroughly searched a number of times, Broom and the other media witnesses were relieved of their belts, pens, keys, anything that could be used as a weapon. They were all furnished with identical note pads and short, eraserless pencils for making notes during the execution. They were then led to the facility where the hangings took place.

"This facility is not new," Broom said, "so there's not that sanitary atmosphere of the lethal injection chamber. And, of course, you need more room to do a hanging than a lethal injection, so this is essentially a two-story building with a trap door for the inmate to fall through."

Witnesses sit in folding chairs facing a pair of large windows, one on each floor of the facility. The upper window is covered with a gauzy curtain that can be parted for the inmate to speak his final words. Otherwise, it remains closed and the window is backlit, creating a silhouette, so witnesses can see the actions-sliding the hood and the noose over the inmate's head, etc.-but cannot see the executioners' faces.

"Charles Campbell either could not or would not make a last statement," Broom said. "He was sedated and had to be strapped to a board to hold him upright. Then we heard the trap door open and his body, still strapped to the board, was hanging in front of us in the lower window, which did not have any gauze curtain.

"The body hit the end of the rope, and there was a slight bounce, and then there wasn't any movement after that except that the body turned slightly back and forth."

Broom said the moment after the execution his dominant emotion was one of relief.

"Some hangings in past years hadn't gone quite right," Broom said. "I had read an old Times article about a hanging that had ended in a partial decapitation. So I felt a sense of relief that this one didn't end that way, and that we didn't have to see anything too physically grueling."

Broom said he believes that, when witnessing an execution, he is as much a representative of the people as he is a reporter.

"In Washington law, we're there as the eyes and ears of the public in whose authority the case is being carried out," Broom said. "It's the people of the state of Washington who have the authority to take away Charles Campbell's life, not the sheriff or the county prosecutor or anyone else.

"That's why my own opinions or beliefs about the death penalty didn't figure into my report. I wasn't there to gratify or resolve my own curiosity. I was there as a representative of the people of the state of Washington."

Last year, veteran Post reporter Charles Bosworth witnessed the death, by lethal injection, of Lloyd Wayne Hampton. Hampton was a drifter from Memphis, Texas, who had spent nearly half his life in prison by the time he made his way to Troy, Ill., in the winter of 1990.

In February of 1990, police in Troy arrested Hampton on a domestic assault charge. At the time of his arrest, Hampton was driving a car that belonged to Roy E. "Jasper" Pendleton, a retired bank janitor who lived in a motel room in Troy. When police arrived at Pendleton's room, they found the 69-year-old man on his bed, his hands and feet bound together with heavy tape. An eight-inch butcher knife was sticking out of his throat.

Hampton later testified that he had gone to Pendleton's room only to rob him, but then he began to worry about the possibility of Pendleton identifying him. Hampton held Pendleton down on the bed, burned his eyelids with a cigarette, taunted him repeatedly by stabbing around his head with the butcher knife, and finally held his mouth and nose shut to choke him to death. A little while later, Hampton left the motel to have a couple of drinks at a local tavern before being caught by police

"This was a nasty guy," Bosworth said. "He got into Jasper's motel room by asking to use the telephone, then spent the better part of two hours torturing the guy. After he choked him, he cut his forehead and stabbed him in the neck because he wanted to see if a dead man would bleed."

Hampton pleaded guilty and asked for the death penalty, and aside from the automatic appeal that is part of Illinois' capital punishment law, Hampton sought no stay of execution, at least until the fateful day had come. Bosworth was already at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet, Ill., in November 1992, when word came that Hampton had changed his mind.

"He came within hours," Bosworth said. "An estranged sister who had come there to see him convinced him to appeal. Since he had not appealed originally, he was entitled to the full appellate process. Then he lost the first several levels of appeals and decided to give it up again. He, in fact, died on Jan. 21, 1998, just after midnight."

Changing minds

Although Missouri and Illinois both have relatively liberal laws regarding the release of information about executions, not all states cooperate with reporters as well.

In most states, reporters selected for witnessing executions are expected to act as pool reporters or resources for all reporters interested in covering the execution. Most states also severely limit the number of reporters. Radio and television reporters frequently witness executions, but they are at no time permitted to record the proceedings in any way. Pennsylvania is among a handful of states that allow no electronic media personnel at executions at all. In Arkansas, no one can print or publish any detail about an execution; writing anything other than that the criminal died is a violation of state law.

Like Broom, Bosworth and Tuft know that news stories are no place for personal opinions about the death penalty, no matter how well formed those opinions may be after a collective 60-plus years of work among the three of them. But it turns out that each reporter's attitude about the state's right to kill is still evolving even now, in large part because of the information the reporter has gathered while covering death penalty cases.

"I sense a growing ambivalence in my own mind about the death penalty," Bosworth said. "For years and years, I found no hesitation in support for it, and today I still generally support the death penalty, in cases where there is no doubt.

"That being said, I live in Illinois."

In February 1999, Anthony Powell became the 10th Illinois inmate to be released from death row in the past 20 years, a rate of wrongful conviction so high it has caused several state and some national officials to call for a moratorium on executions in Illinois until problems with the system can be addressed.

"It's just terrifying," Bosworth said. "These are, for the most part, cases where police and prosecutors were so convinced of a suspect's guilt that they acted improperly to gain a conviction. Even though they don't face the death penalty, there now seems to be serious doubt about the guilt of Gregory Bowman and Rodney Woidtke, as we reported in the Post. Well, I covered both of those cases from beginning to end, and there seemed to be no doubt. It appeared to me that they had both of these guys dead to rights. Why this keeps happening in Illinois, I just don't know, but it is horrendously troubling to someone who generally supports capital punishment."

Jack Broom began his career feeling fairly certain that, to his mind "the state didn't have the right to take a human life." His attitude started to change when, in 1989, serial killer Ted Bundy admitted to the murders of eight young women in the state of Washington; just two days before his execution in Florida.

Broom covered the Bundy execution from outside the prison in Florida. He noted that Bundy had managed not only to elude capture for the murders in Washington, but also escape from police custody in both Colorado and Utah, before being captured and executed for a string of murders of young women in Florida.

"Bundy was smarter than his keepers," Broom said. "I started to see that a person like that may be regarded as a threat to society as long as he's alive. If that's the case, then perhaps society has the right to protect itself, and does have the right to take away this person's life."

Broom still finds his share of troubles with the way capital punishment is meted out.

"Even if you can allow the state the right to take a life, it seems like deciding whose life to take is one of these things that government just doesn't do very well," Broom said. "You can't look at the murders that have occurred in Washington over the last 10 years and make any kind of logical case as to which got the death penalty and which did not. It is an arbitrary process."

Broom wrote a story in which he analyzed fact patterns in all murder cases since the resumption of executions in Washington in 1993. "There was nothing you could say that made the cases where the death penalty was sought stand out head and shoulders over the others," Broom said.

Carolyn Tuft's opinions have changed as well, but in the exact opposite direction from Broom's.

"I knew people who had been murdered, and I had seen what killers do to their victims," Tuft said. "And I felt that the death penalty was a good thing to keep these people from getting out and doing this again.

"Since that time I've done extensive investigation into the guilt of people convicted of murder and have found it isn't working."

Tuft was one of the authors of the Post's coverage on convicted killers Bowman and Woidtke in Illinois. She says it was her research into these cases, not her experience of witnessing the executions of Griffin and Murray, that changed her mind.

"The execution itself is disturbing only because it's such a clinical way to get rid of someone," Tuft said. "What's more disturbing is the notion that even one person can be executed for a murder they didn't commit. And it has happened."

Tuft said that while the media can help to right these wrongs, as she and her associates are trying to do, the media also plays a role in what she called a "rush to judgment."

"The first thing we have to do is try everything we can to assure that what we print or produce is the truth," Tuft said. "You can't do that if you get in such a hurry that you don't ask questions. The situation in Belleville is a good example. The local newspaper coverage pushed officials to go with a weak case and try for the death penalty. And the threat of the death penalty definitely helped the prosecutors get convictions (of life in prison) on these weak cases."

Murray Farish is a St. Louis free-lance writer.

LETTERS

Inaccurate and unfair coverage of the pope

SJR: How unfortunate the St. Louis Journalism Review chose to present such a shallow analysis of media coverage of the pope's recent visit to St. Louis. SJR normally provides insightful analysis of the local media scene. E.F. Porter's analysis didn't just lack insight. It lacked accuracy, too.

Although Porter correctly interpreted recent Vatican concerns about the United States' military aggression against Iraq, he was out of line in his argument that the reason such concerns were newsworthy had to do with-to paraphrase Porter-the church's 2000-year history of countenancing and encouraging hideous violence. "Is the Vatican... about to engage in an unqualified embrace of the tenets of its founder?" Porter sarcastically asked. "Now that would be a story." This seemingly bigoted statement qualifies as intellectual analysis?

Porter's keen analysis also suggested that the archdiocese arranged for the pope to come to St. Louis "as a deliberate gesture of rebuke" for the Rev. Lawrence Biondi of Saint Louis University. By Porter's logic, the archdiocese solicited more than 16,000 volunteers, raised approximately $5 million, welcomed the president of the United States, Vice President Gore and civil rights leader Rosa Parks and hosted the largest indoor gathering in American history all in an effort to show Biondi a thing or two. I think not.

On the accuracy side, the director of the Holy See Press, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, is not a priest, as Porter indicated. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch did tell us who paid for the miles of orange plastic fence in a Jan. 16 Repps Hudson article. And church law tells us that when priests are present, they are the ordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Others, including lay men and women, may distribute Holy Communion in extraordinary circumstances. Such circumstances include when an insufficient number of priests are present to distribute Holy Communion in a timely manner-a situation that did not exist in America's Center, as Holy Communion was distributed by about 1,000 priests to more than 100,000 people in just more than 20 minutes. Now, that Mr. Porter, would be a story. And indeed it was.

As someone who worked as a communications volunteer during the papal visit, I know how much the Archdiocese of St. Louis is grateful to members of the news media locally for their thorough, fair and accurate coverage of this momentous event in St. Louis history. It's a shame SJR wasn't able to critique the coverage maturely and responsibly.

Michael A. Wild,

St. Louis, Mo.

Thanks for the story

SJR: Thanks for the February article in SJR on Roger Carlson.

When I was deciding what direction my life should go, Roger Carlson was there in a newswriting class at Florissant Valley to rein me in (most of the time) and make me into a reporter.

His instruction was flawless and his example was impeccable. He takes collegiate journalism seriously and so do his students.

When I first met Roger I was 18 years old and wanted nothing more than to spew my opinions all through my copy. Roger made me realize the importance of my role as a journalist and showed me the time and place for opinion. He was stern, but fair, and always pushed for student rights along with the educator's.

I am proud to be a former student and will always consider him to be my life teacher. He is a wonderful man who has blessed all those he worked with.

Roger scared a lot of people into doing their jobs and I can remember a time when he even made me cry. I'm a big guy, and at the time was one of the top editors on the paper. I had overslept on deadline and failed to put the paper to bed properly. I showed up harried and scared and Roger calmly told me to go home. I thought that was the end of my collegiate career, but he never said anything else about it. He knew that my not being a part of the finished product would be more punishment than any lecture or homework assignment would be.

He is a great leader, and he's trained many to follow in his footsteps. He is a great teacher, a great editor, but, most of all, he's a great friend.

Jake Griffin,

Flo Valley graduate 1994,

Editor, The Forum, 1993-1994

OF NOTE

Readership down

In what could be seen as further disconcerting news for print media professionals, more Americans are turning to television news and the Internet as primary information sources, says a recent study released by NFO Research and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.

The survey, conducted in summer 1998, revealed that 84 percent of respondents watch local TV news at least once a day, as compared to 70 percent who read newspapers daily. In addition, 41 percent of Americans indicate they are "actively engaged" with TV, as compared to 22 percent who indicate the same for newspapers. However, when asked what is the most overall influential source for information, Americans still cite interpersonal relationships.

"Word of mouth remains more powerful than any news medium, reaching almost two to five times the level of influence of traditional media," says the report.

These trends compare similarly with previous studies by Nielsen and others that indicate a majority of Americans rely on one-to-one relationships and TV as their primary news sources.

Remember the hubbub about the St. Louis Post-Dispatch going to a Saturday tabloid format because their research showed it appealed better to female readers? Well, one potential positive area in the data for newspapers might be a bit of a concern to the powers-that-be at the Post. The study revealed that when asked to choose one source over all other media, men were more likely to choose the newspaper than women. Women, says the survey, more often choose TV first. Time to rethink that tabloid?

In addition, the NFO research revealed that Internet usage, while still significantly lower than TV, newspapers and radio, is already ahead of magazine use. "Forty percent of Americans have access to the Internet at either their home or office," says the report, "and 34 percent of those people use it at least one hour per week." When asked what kind of activities they would be doing if they weren't net-surfing, respondents indicated, in descending order: watching TV, pursuing relaxation, reading or being engaged in "intimate relations." The last category prompts the question: Were respondents substituting cyber-intimacy for other non-net intimacy? If so, traditional media could be facing a significant audience segment that will have increasingly less time for newspapers and even television.

The survey, conducted by NFO Research of Greenwich, Conn., polled a nationally representative sample of 500 households in July and August 1998.

-Burt St. John

The next step: LPFM

The wave of the future in radio's expansion may not be a wave so much as a ripple. A decision will be made this year by the Federal Communications Commission on whether to expand low-power FM, a system that allows broadcasts to limited geographic areas by stations at the left end of the radio dial.

There are already several low-power stations in existence, including KYMC in West St. Louis County. These are typically non-commercial operations with formats geared to a very small niche audience. They are clustered at the left end of the FM dial, between 88 and 92. These frequencies are set aside specifically for non-commercial use, and many of these frequencies are home to fairly powerful stations licensed to universities.

What the FCC wants to do is open up more slots all over the dial and drop in 20-watt to 100-watt stations. The cost to build one of these stations would be below-sometimes well below-five figures. While their coverage area may be limited, such a station could serve a densely populated urban neighborhood, programming an ethnic format.

Some commercial broadcasters view low-power FM as a threat. They see these small stations siphoning off audiences by giving listeners music or talk they're not getting now. Lower audience numbers, after all, mean a diminished ability to charge high ad rates.

There are many questions still to be answered in the new LPFM movement. What's to stop existing mega-radio companies from snatching up as many low-power frequencies as they can get their hands on? Should these new low-power stations be allowed to sell ads? Should limits be placed on the type of programming these stations can run, or should they be allowed to copy the formats of commercial stations? How will the commission decide which competing applicants should get the frequency assignments?

Before final decisions are made by the FCC, all arguments will be heard. If low-power FM service is expanded, it will certainly mean two things: a further carving of the radio listenership pie, and better service to small, special-interest audiences.

-Frank Absher

Local right-winger named in court decision

Civil libertarians have generally taken a hands-off stance when it comes to government oversight of the Internet. But when hate sites on the Web begin encouraging the murder of doctors who perform abortions, and at least one of those doctors named is actually murdered, it may be time to review what's on the Internet.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) expressed support for a court decision in February in which an Oregon jury awarded pro-choice activists and abortion doctors $107 million. The jury found that the operators of a Website called the Nuremberg Files were inciting violence and murder.

Locally, anti-abortion activist Tim Dreste of Normandy was among the defendants in the case accused of creating "wanted" posters of abortion providers. The jury also linked the defendants to the Web site that listed the name and addresses of doctors referred to as "baby butchers."

Dreste, a hero of the local monthly St. Louis MetroVoice, which bills itself as the area's Christian press, said he will not be intimidated by the jury decision. The 40-year-old Dreste is chaplain for the Missouri militia and was recently elected a vice president of the Republican Party's St. Louis Pachyderms.

-Don Corrigan

St. Louis cable may never be the same

AT&T has a strategy for St. Louis, and if it comes to pass later this year, cable service here is in for some big changes.

Pending approval of AT&T's acquisition of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), major changes will take place in communications services in several major cities, including St. Louis. The TCI brand will disappear, and AT&T will begin marketing bundled services through a single cable to your residence.

Along with an entirely different attitude toward its cable customers, AT&T will offer additional services via the existing cable: local phone service (up to four lines) and all supplemental services like call waiting; caller ID; Internet service; long distance options and wireless phones, with one itemized bill each month. The company will offer service incentives to get as much of your business as it can.

-Frank Absher

Tribute to black radio to air on KDHX

Radio station KDHX, community radio 88.1 FM, will broadcast a special tribute to black radio stations of the 1960s in St. Louis. The program will air on the popular "Blursday" show on Thursday, March 18, 4 to 7 p.m.

John McHenry and Dennis Clancy, the regular hosts of "Blursday," have invited KDHX air personality Tony C. to join them on that day. Tony will lead a round-table discussion among special guests from the former KATZ 1600 AM and KXLW 1320 AM radio station including Lou "Fatha" Thimes, Bernie Hayes, Grace Lowry and current KDHX air personality Gabriel.

The special show, which is part of an irregular feature of "Blursday" called "There Was A Time" produced by Tony C. and KDHX volunteer Charley Taylor, will feature old jingles, old music and old memories from the black radio experience in St. Louis in the 60s. It will also explore more serious issues including the role and influence of KATZ and KXLW during that era.

KYMC makes LPFM work

One of the most important aspects of low-power FM is its contribution to the overall spectrum of offerings on the radio dial. KYMC fills that niche perfectly.

Although it can't be heard by everyone in the Metropolitan St. Louis area, the station has a core of listeners and supporters of its alternative/new rock format. Manager Leslie Slaughter says the signal covers a 25-mile radius from the tower in West County, and there's live programming from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. The rest of the 24-hour broadcast day is automated. The 120-watt station is owned by the YMCA and has been on the air since 1977.

-Frank Absher

MEDIA ON MEDIA

By Frank Absher

Speaking out

It's common knowledge in broadcasting that the "public reactions" to someone's firing are frequently instigated by the person who's been "wronged." But in Boston recently, the public reaction actually had an effect on the outcome. Susan Wornick failed to come to contract terms on her anchor/consumer reporter job with WCVB-TV and the station announced she'd be leaving. When a large number of viewers called the station to voice their disappointment, both parties reconsidered and adjusted their positions. The result: She's staying. (Broadcasting & Cable, Feb. 22)

Cold turkey

The pattern is all too familiar to the all-news networks. The big story is over and viewers are disappearing. After the Senate voted on the charges against President Clinton, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC's ratings fell by 25 to 30 percent. (The New York Times, Feb. 26)

Monkey business

In a move seemingly made for headline writers, KING-TV and KONG-TV in Washington state have reached an agreement to share news operations. Seattle's KING will provide a 10 p.m. news broadcast for KONG in nearby Everett. (Broadcasting & Cable, Feb. 1)

Rising again

Ted Turner has another idea for a network. He wants to start Turner South, a regional cable network for Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and areas of North Carolina. There'll be regional news from CNN, reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show," professional wrestling and sports from the three pro teams Turner owns. (The New York Times, Feb. 25)

Priorities

A Detroit TV station has decided to do something different in an effort to get ratings for its 10 p.m. news. WKBC-TV will dedicate more than half its newscast to sports. The station has broadcast rights for the Pistons, Tigers and Red Wings. (Broadcasting & Cable, Feb. 1)

Latin L.A.

Any radio consultant who thinks all major markets are the same need only look at the latest Arbitron figures for Los Angeles. The top three stations in the fall survey are all Spanish, with a total of more than 17 percent of the listeners. The market has a number of other Spanish stations, bringing the total Spanish share there to 24 percent. (R&R, Jan. 15)

Station shopping

The big guys in cable want to get bigger. USA Networks, owned by Barry Diller, are said to be ready to gobble up four more cable channels: Independent Film Channel, Romance Classics, American Movie Classics and Bravo. USA's corporate umbrella already includes the Sci-Fi Channel, USA and the Home Shopping Channel. (Electronic Media, Feb. 22)

A dog's life

This may be the ultimate test of a non-compete clause. In Kansas City, meteorologist Gary Lezak would often incorporate his dog Windy in his work at WDAF-TV. Now that he's taken a job with competitor KHSB-TV, Lezak has to remain off the air for six months, but KHSB is running promos showing Windy. The lawyers have been called in, but Lezak notes Windy isn't mentioned in his WDAF contract. There's been no comment from the canine. (Broadcasting & Cable, Feb. 22)

Techo news

All the TV networks feed news material to their affiliates via closed-circuits. Now NBC says it will save the stations expense on videotape by offering high-speed video-on-demand to them. The new service would also free up the techs who have to record all the feeds as they come down. All news video will automatically go to a server at each local station and newsies may call up any stories on their computers. (Broadcasting & Cable, Feb. 1)

Super radio

High tech will soon be available for radio fanatics. Command Audio is seeking subscribers at $15 a month for its radio-on-demand services, which should be operational by this autumn in two test markets. Subscribers will receive a special radio that will allow them to call up the most recent broadcast of up to 300 different radio programs. In addition, news will be available from several sources, as will specialized info like traffic reports and weather. (R&R, Jan. 15)

Minority boost

The National Association of Broadcasters is lobbying for stronger requirements regarding the hiring of minority broadcast employees. Last year the Equal Opportunity Employment rules for broadcasters were struck down by a federal court, ending the federal government's ability to force broadcast stations to hire minorities. The NAB wants the Federal Communications Commission to establish some sort of guidelines and penalties, but the group stops short of asking that license renewals take minority hiring levels into account. (Broadcasting & Cable, Feb. 1)

HERE

By Ed Bishop

The pattern almost never varies. Around the time a person convicted of a capital crime is sentenced to death, the news media paint that person in the darkest terms possible. The agonies of the victim's family and friends are aired. The horrible details of the murder are outlined in a way that subtly reassures the public that the crime was an unspeakable, inhuman act, far removed from anything they could be capable of. Then, in the weeks leading up to the execution, the process is reversed. Often the media confer a kind of redneck sainthood on the person about to be executed. Most of what the guy has to say is taken at face value. Remorse or pleas of innocence are made real. The convicted murderer is portrayed as a victim.

This strange reversal actually makes sense. It's not just that the media tell stories in ways easiest to report. It's not just that the media understand the entertainment value of first reporting the guy as a homicidal maniac and then as a real human being about to be taken down a hall, tied to a table and filled with deadly chemicals. The truth is that in the time between the trial and the execution the convicted murderer has, in fact, become a victim.

It seems bizarre that in a country where the vast majority of people don't think much of government, where a growing number of citizens don't trust the state to even educate their children, those same citizens insist that the state kill other citizens. This surreal inconsistency is reflected in the media's reversal of reporting about convicted murderers.

There is a glaring fact that helps explain this reversal, this ambiguity in our feelings about a person being put to death-almost everyone executed in this country is dirt poor. Americans' convoluted, often vicious, attitudes about poor people lay at the heart of the capital-punishment issue.

Think about it. Setting aside the disproportionate number of African Americans who are executed-like with so many class issues in the United States race only muddies the waters-nearly everyone agrees that if a rich person commits the same capital offense as a poor person, the rich person is never put to death and the poor person is often a dead man walking. We know that. But why aren't more people saying, "Whoa, we have to get this thing straightened out before we off another 300 or 400 people?"

I think it's because we don't want to think about class issues-and capital punishment is a class issue.

Just about everything in our society-from the sitcoms we watch to the way we organize our government-is based on the denial of class distinctions. White supremacists would have no appeal if class distinctions were stronger. The Republican Party would be a marginal political force if class distinctions were recognized and the different goals and needs of classes were legitimized. The uncontrollable and ignoble consumerism of America would be lessened if the urge to deny one's class weren't so strong. And the death penalty, as it is now enforced, would be history.

I have no idea why this need to deny class distinctions is so prevalent in the United States. I guess it has something to do with our ideal of equality. I guess it probably has something to do with the Protestant idea that poverty is a kind of sin, the result of laziness, both moral and physical. I don't know.

But I do know that the denial is buried deep in the American psyche and often manifests itself in a kind of hatred for the poor, even a murderous rage against them, no matter how well masked. I also know that our impulse to equality has been manipulated by powerful forces to create inequality. The growing gap between the rich and the rest of us isn't some act of nature. Some folks benefit by denying class distinctions. And some folks benefit by appeasing those folks who benefit.

In 1992, at the height of the presidential campaign, then-candidate Bill Clinton rushed back to Arkansas to sign the death warrant for a guy named Rickey Ray Rector. He was about to be executed even though Rector had suffered severe brain damage in his youth from a botched lobotomy. At the time of the murder and at the time of his execution, Rector was severely retarded. Dozens of organizations, including the Council of Catholic Bishops, had appealed to Clinton to commute Rector's sentence. He didn't. Clinton needed to prove to the country-and to big campaign contributors-that he was not soft on crime.

It took the medical staff more than 50 minutes to find a suitable vein. Rector moaned throughout the ordeal. Finally, he tried to help the staff trying to kill him by finding the vein for them. He eventually died-poor, retarded, confused, a nobody from rural Arkansas.

Even if you believe that some crimes cry out for the harsh justice of capital punishment, you can't believe that the death of Rickey Ray Rector ennobled America or its dream of equality.

THERE

By Charles L. Klotzer

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is one of the few daily U.S. newspapers still owned by local residents or by parties which have supported continued local operation. With the pending divestiture of its broadcast holdings, do the Pulitzers and other key stockholders ultimately plan to sell the newspaper operation as well? Officially, this is denied. The prospectus of the pending merger of Pulitzer's broadcast operations with Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. expressly states that the Pulitzer Company anticipates expanding its news operations by aquisitions of daily and non-daily publications.

The Pulitzer voting stock structure created after the aborted takeover attempt by A. Alfred Taubman in 1986 forecloses any similar move by outsiders unless approved by the principal owners of the Class B Common voting stock, that means Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Michael E. Pulitzer and David E. Moore. Local ownership and involvement should not be sacrificed to the highest bidder.

The Pulitzer Publishing Company, owner of two metropolitan papers, 12 community newspapers, nine network-affiliated television stations and five radio stations, is on the verge of downsizing its operations by spinning off its newspaper operation into a new entity-called "Pulitzer, Inc."-and merging its broadcasting holdings with Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.

Plans for the merger were first announced in May 1998. On March 17 of this year Pulitzer stockholders are invited to approve the deal worth $1.15 billion in stock at a special meeting in New York.

Because 14,443,209 Class B Common Stock shares (94.4 percent) of the company are all held by insiders, that approval is foreordained. (Class B Common Stocks are entitled to 10 votes per share, the Common Stock is entitled to one vote per share. Class B common shares total 15,297,449, while common shares total 7,321,465.)

We are not in a position to evaluate the merits of this transaction. But the 359-page volume published for stockholders explaining the merger includes bits of information, some old and some new, which are of interest to followers of the vicissitudes orchestrated by the Pulitzer clan.

Liberalization of FCC regulations which permitted acquisitions of additional stations and requiring a vastly increased scale of operations and resources which Pulitzer could not provide to its broadcasting operation is given as one of the primary reasons for the divestiture move.

Hearst-Argyle was one of three bidders. Based on evaluations by consultants including Goldman Saches & Co., its offer was considered preferable. Once put into effect, the merger provides that Michael E. Pulitzer and Ken J. Elkins will join the board of directors of Hearst-Argyle.

• • •

Readers of SJR in the late '70s and early '80s will remember the history of the Joint Operating Agency (JOA) and the closure of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. For later arrivals to our fair city, a brief review might place later events in perspective. (Aside from SJR, only The Riverfront Times has reported on the local JOA from time to time).

In 1933, two competing papers in Albuquerque, N.M. formed a third company that handled the printing, circulation, distribution and advertising for both papers and split profits according to a formula. Only in the 1960s did the U.S. Justice department finally challenge these combinations as violations of anti-trust laws. By then, 22 joint operating agreements were in effect. The Justice Department case wound its way through the courts till the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Justice Department challenge. Associate Justice William O. Douglas wrote that the intent of the agreement was "to end any business or commercial competition between the two papers" which resulted in price fixing, profit pooling, and market allocations, all violations of antitrust laws.

In response, the newspaper industry sought relief from Congress and they got it. First called the Failing Newspaper Act (bad PR, later changed to the Newspaper Preservation Act) which permitted JOAs and was signed by President Nixon in 1970. Today, about 15 such JOAs are still operating.

Newspapers, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, failed to publish any information about JOAs. When in the early '70s SJR reported details about the Post's secret agreement with The Herald Company owned by the Newhouse clan, SJR was called by one of the Post editors and rebuked for publishing such lies. The editor was told that all of the information was based on Post Publisher Joseph Pulitzer's testimony in a U.S. Senate Committee hearing of which the editor knew nothing.

Years before the Newspaper Preservation Act was adopted, the Pulitzer Publishing Company entered on March 1, 1961, into an agreement with S.I. Newshouse's Herald Company, owner of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, under which the Post bought the Globe building and printing plant, printing the Globe for a fee, and which required the Globe to stop publishing a Sunday paper eventually. This agreement was updated in 1961 under which The Herald Co. and the Pulitzer Co. would divide profits 30 percent to 70 percent respectively.

In 1975, the secret agreement was again amended providing a 50/50 split up to $4 million with profits exceeding that amount shared 70/30 with Pulitzer receiving the greater amount.

In 1979, the Post and Globe merged advertising, circulation and accounting operations and agreed to split profits 50/50 with the cost of running the "independent" Globe also included in agency expenses.

On Dec. 31, 1983 the Globe ceased publications.

(Several later attempts to continue Globe publication all failed.)

But the cessation of the Globe, curiously, did not invalidate the Post-Herald JOA.

"Following the renegotiation of the St. Louis Agency Agreement at the time of the sale of the Globe-Democrat," states the merger proposal, "the Herald Company retained the contractual right to half the profits or losses . . . of the Post-Dispatch." The Herald Company also shares half the cost of, and shares in a portion of the proceeds from the sale of, capital assets used in the production of the Post. From 1993 through 1997, the Post paid the Herald Company $71,290,000. It appears that the closure of the Globe hasn't hurt the Herald Company too much.

The prospectus confirms, "The current term of the St. Louis Agency Agreement runs through December 31, 2034, following which either party may elect to renew the agreement for successive periods of 30 years each."

In other words, this is a perpetual sharing of profits. We wonder if the 2,300 full-time employees of the Post are aware that half of the profits they generate go out of town?

• • •

Recent personnel changes give the impression that more is happening than merely moving people around or out. It is only an impression, but all point in the same direction. Richard K. Weil Jr., highly respected managing editor, was replaced by a relatively recent arrival; publisher Nicholas V. Penniman IV seems on his way out once various corporate and property changes have taken affect; and the petty refusal to list former editor William Woo on the editorial page masthead as has been the tradition; all seem to conspire to erase the lingering influence of Joseph Pulitzer's leadership. As we said, it is only an impression, but the cadre now running the Post all reflect the impact of new management and Editor Cole Campbell. That's probably the way it should be. Are we nostalgic for the bad old days? Maybe.

EVERYWHERE

Read between the lines

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch needs to learn to read between the lines. The story involving longtime St. Louis broadcast executive Barry Baker that appeared in early February, said Baker "resigned" as CEO-designate of the Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair owns KDNL (Channel 30) and six radio stations in St. Louis.

The Sinclair press release said Baker resigned to "pursue more entreprenurial opportunities." You can read a line like that in many ways. Here are some examples:

The resignation came the same day Sinclair issued an earnings report showing a loss. You could speculate that Baker was ousted because of the bad report. It has happened in other companies.

Sinclair is principally owned and managed by David Smith and his three

brothers. Baker was an outsider, and no matter how you cut it, blood is thicker than water.

Baker wanted Sinclair to continue to expand. In the three years since Baker's River City Broadcasting merged into Sinclair, the company has grown from 29 television stations and 21 radio stations to 63 television stations and about 60 radio stations. That expansion has cost billions of dollars-most of it debt.

And, Wall Street has punished Sinclair for its rapid expansion and less-than-spectacular performance. The stock was approximately $30 a share in mid-1998. It now sells for about half that. When the market "corrected" itself at the end of last summer, the stock fell to $5 a share. And, when Baker resigned, the stock dropped more than $3 in one day.

Baker remains a significant stockholder in Sinclair. He says he's holding onto his shares.

Baker wasn't out of work for long. One week after leaving Sinclair, Baker signed on as president and chief operating officer of USA Networks. The company owns the USA and Sci-Fi cable networks, the Home Shopping Channels, a bunch of television stations around the country and operates the television production and distribution arms of Universal Studios. It also owns Ticketmaster and a number of auction and sales Web sites.

While Baker isn't a hometowner, he spent most of his professional life in St. Louis. The Post's coverage of his movements is deserved, but it should be done with more perspective of the story behind the story.

-Ed Bishop

Public journalism v. Jesse Ventura

Public journalism advocates have insisted for almost a decade now that their efforts to "connect with the public" put them in a better position to know what's on voters' minds.

With public journalism proponent Cole Campbell at the helm of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, we might therefore expect better readings on the mood of the voters as well as better election prognostications in St. Louis.

But now some public journalism practitioners are backing off from their earlier claims of political clairvoyance. Kate Parry, a senior editor at St. Paul Pioneer Press and a public journalism practitioner, recently conceded that the daily was blindsided in the election victory of former pro-wrestler and third-party candidate Jesse Ventura to the governorship of Minnesota.

"Clearly, even after a decade of experience in civic [public] journalism, we aren't as in touch with our readers as we would like to think," declared Parry in the winter issue of the Pew Center's Civic Catalyst.

-Don Corrigan

Well, the last name was the same!

Egg on the face seems like a constant condition for some of our local TV news departments. But in mid-February, KDNL (Channel 30) had enough to scramble eggs for an entire army-and all from one story.

The story was about the Illinois attorney general who has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In telling the story, Channel 30 illustrated it with pictures of an Illinois politican named Ryan. But it was the wrong Ryan.

The video was of Illinois Governor George Ryan, who is not related to the

attorney general.

Many viewers probably weren't aware of the mistake, but the Illinois governor has relatives in the St. Louis area who were surprised and upset by the error.

-Ed Bishop

Making the grade for TV news

St. Louis TV news took a beating in an evaluation study released this year by the Project for Excellence in Journalism underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trust.

Among 20 cities selected for study, St. Louis was at the bottom of the barrel. No station got an A or even a B grade for quality. Channel 4, the only station with rising ratings over a three-year period, was flagged with a big, fat F for it news programs.

Interestingly enough, two stations that merited A+ or A- grades in the survey are WCTV in Tallahassee, Fla., and KARE-TV in St. Paul, Minn. Both of these A-grade television stations have cooperated in Pew Center public journalism projects in their communities.

St. Louis television news managers discount the idea that Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism suffered a conflict of interest because some stations had a Pew connection through public journalism. They expressed grudging respect for the integrity of those conducting the TV news survey. However, they did suggest that the appearance of a conflict of interest could exist, which could mean a less-than-passing grade for Pew.

-Don Corrigan

Lyles departure not a surprise

The story was in Jerry Berger's column on Feb. 16-that KDNL (Channel 30) anchor Leslie Lyles would depart the station in mid-June. Lyles' intentions may have been news to Berger, but not to industry insiders.

Go back one year, when Lyles took her contract negotiations public in Berger's column. The column made it appear that a new and very lucrative contract was signed and sealed. It wasn't, and lengthy negotiations resulted in a short one-year extension for Lyles. That extension expires in mid-June.

Rumors have it that Lyles will return to her hometown of Charleston, S.C.

-Ed Bishop

Can you brand a local television station?

When the Fox network began operations, it encouraged its affiliates around the country to identify themselves as Fox 2 or Fox 32, whatever the station's position on the television dial was.

In a world of increasing competition and fighting the more established networks, the gambit worked for Fox. It helped establish the upstart network and put it on a more level playing field.

As the traditional networks saw their audiences dwindle, they made a decision that if "branding" worked for Fox, it could work for them. So, all over the country local stations began identifying themselves by the network whose programs they carry.

In St. Louis, we see some of that branding. We have Fox 2, WB11 and ABC 30. Up in Chicago, there's CBS 2, NBC 5 and ABC 7.

One problem-the viewers don't get it. If you were to ask the people who answer the phone at these somewhat anonymous television stations, they would tell you that the first thing people ask is something like, "Is this Channel 30" or "Is this KDNL?"

Two St. Louis television stations don't play the game. KMOV (Channel 4) doesn't call itself "CBS 4" and KSDK (Channel 5) has kept its "Newschannel 5" designation, rather than adopt the "NBC 5" moniker.

As the television audience continues to fragment, there is one school of thought that the only way for local television stations to be successful is to be very local with an extremely strong commitment to local news, local issues and developing their own identity. Another school of thought is the path to success is by more closely identifying the station with its network, which supplies a majority of the station's programming.

Branding may work in the really big markets like New York or Chicago where all the stations do it. And it may work for the newer networks which have their own personae to establish. But for the traditional network affiliates in traditional markets like St. Louis, it hasn't caught on yet.

All you have to do is look at the ratings.

-Dave Cohen

Where are the morning drivers?

In what appears to be a significant trend in radio listening habits, St. Louis area residents are apparently expressing their dissatisfaction with what they're hearing in the morning by turning their radios off.

In a comparison to radio listenership in the St. Louis market from 1994 to 1998, SJR found that the number of people listening during the morning drive segment, 6 to 10 a.m., has dropped by about four percent, while midday and afternoon drive have stayed the same or increased slightly. (The year 1994 was chosen because that was the last time Arbitron adjusted the market size, thereby giving a valid population comparison.)

One possible explanation of the drop in what was once the largest listening segment of the day is the plethora of syndicated programs now being offered here by local stations. These shows are produced in a distant city and broadcast live in St. Louis, or, in the case of Steve and D.C. on WKKX, produced locally for syndication. In both cases it's difficult to make the program sound local, although an effort is made with the M.J. and B.J. program on KSLZ. They sit in a radio studio in Tampa, Fla., and send down localized bits based on information sent to them by KSLZ. These are transmitted to the station during music segments, and no effort is made to let listeners know the duo is not in St. Louis.

KSLZ program director Jeff Kapugi isn't exactly high on the results produced by M.J. and B.J. He recently wrote on the Missouri Radio Page, "...right now M.J. and B.J. don't hurt the station (they are No. one, 18 to 24), but they also aren't helping blaze a trail to higher ratings."

In St. Louis, listeners are treated to the following syndicated morning drive shows: Tom Joyner on KATZ, Steve & D.C. on WKKX, Bob & Tom on KSHE, Howard Stern on WXTM, and M.J. and B.J. on KSLZ. These stations have a combined share of 20.2 percent of the 12+ market, meaning the five stations have one-fifth of the listeners.

It's also worth noting that this is the largest combined share these five stations get during the day. Middays they deliver 18.1 and in afternoon drive the total is 19.6. So there is a question of whether the syndication helps or hurts them in the eyes (or ears) of listeners. After all, if syndication brings them their largest share, it's a good thing. Right?

Good or bad, it is a harbinger of what's to come in radio. A station manager can pay less for syndication than what would be demanded by a local talent powerhouse. When you do the math, it's actually better business to pay less for a show and settle for lower ratings. It's when the deflated ratings continue throughout the broadcast day that some managers might be concerned. There's no hard evidence that listeners cease tuning to a station because they are unhappy that morning drive is syndicated, but there is evidence from Arbitron that people turn off their radios rather than listening to the relatively sterile shows from other cities. This drop in total listenership in a specific daypart is something that should concern managers and the industry as a whole.

-Frank Absher

In SJR

10 Years Ago:

• Barry Baker, former general manager of KPLR-TV, announced plans to purchase rival KDNL-TV from Cox Enterprises for $21.5 million. Ted Koplar, who owns KPLR, had fired Baker six months earlier after Baker offered to purchase Koplar's company.

• Alfred Fleishman was honored as the "Media Person of the Year" by the Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis. The public relations pioneer announced he was donating his private papers to the Press Club's St. Louis Media Archives at the downtown public library.

• Joe Buck took a semester's hiatus from studies at Indiana University to serve as play-by-play announcer for the Louisville Redbirds.

5 Years Ago:

• The owner of KFUO-AM & FM lost out on a chance to purchase KSLH from the St. Louis school district because of pending charges by the Federal Communications Commission. The F.C.C. said the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod was lax in its hiring of minorities at its radio properties.

• Lester Graham was hired as news director at KWMU.

• The St. Louis Newspaper Guild organized a rally outside the St. Louis Post-Dispatch building to "educate P-D management." The organization alleged the paper was attacking the guild and was "reducing its commitment to journalism and its readers."

AM/FM

Threat part of contract negotiations

By Larry Hoffman

Rumors and reports circulated throughout the local radio "undernet" of gossip and street talk late last month about whether KMOX personality Charles Brennan was about to exit the station to work a similar time slot at crosstown rival KTRS. Brennan's contract with KMOX ends March 6, nearly three years to the day after the mass defection of personnel from the "Voice of St. Louis" to upstart WIBV. Brennan did not return a call to his station voice mail and sources close to the story supported information contained in an item in Jerry Berger's Feb. 26 column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch which said Brennan was resisting the possible addition of a partner to his show.

If Brennan went to KTRS, most likely the station would realign the mid-morning shift to a full three hours, relieving the morning team of an extra hour they

shouldn't be working anyway. That move may also force another talk-show host who is said to be relocating to St. Louis to work at KTRS, to take the 7 p.m. to midnight shift.

Changes to on-air personnel at KTRS were covered in this column last month. Just after the last issue went to press, mid-morning team Jim and Andee were released and more potential replacements were auditioned. Among those appearing on the station recently were Kevin McCarthy, formerly with KIHT-FM and KLOU-FM, and former KSDK (Channel 5) anchor Rick Edlund. Edlund, who has accepted a generous package from a Detroit TV station beginning this month, handled his radio duties with finesse, offering fascinating interviews such as the one with the secret service agent who drove Pope John Paul II into the TWA Dome.

• • •

KTRS Trivia Show host Dave Strauss threw out an interesting pair of questions on Frank O. Pinion's show the other day. Strauss asked for Paul McCartney's middle name and also the first name of the woman, whose last name was Caldwell, who is George Harrison's sister and used to phone in Beatles updates to KXOK for a short stretch in the mid-60s. Pinion was confident the question would take several callers before anyone knew both answers. To his surprise, the second caller knew that McCartney's middle name is Paul, his first name being James, and that George Harrison's sister is Louise Harrison Caldwell, formerly of Illinois.

• • •

Cher's monster crossover hit "Believe" contains catchy synthesized phrasing which is the modern day, digitized descendant of a yesteryear audio technique called Sonovox. Listeners will remember radio station jingles, KXOK's among them, and commercials which were voiced and sung as if they were being processed through an automobile's horn.

• • •

The Chicago Radio Resource Page on the World Wide Web had two tidbits of local interest as the new month began. First is the ironic designation of former KPNT (105.7 FM/The Point) program director Alex Luke as alternative program director of the year at the prestigious Gavin Awards.

It's ironic because Luke was recently ousted from Chicago's Q-101 after less than two years in that position. The other item relates to the turmoil at the two Chicago CBS/Infinity all-news outlets, WBBM and WMAQ. CBS has called for a consolidation of the stations' operations, which will result in several lost jobs. Former KMOX General Manager Rod Zimmerman is in charge of deciding which chess pieces go where. There was no mention of whether WMAQ would remain in NBC Tower or if WBBM would stay in its long time spot at 630 North McClurg Court.

• • •

Other ironies similar to Alex Luke's Gavin Award appeared in the nominations for the local Air Awards, which will be presented March 4, and will be published in their entirety in next month's issue. The first is former KSD morning talent J.C Corcoran's nomination as best morning drive talent. The second is former KSD production whiz Everett Marshall's pair of nominations for best station event promo.

March of Dimes Communications Director Bridget Westhoff told SJR that this year's awards were judged by radio professionals in the Pittsburgh market.

• • •

Y-98 and Guy Phillips were front and center at the Arena implosion on Feb. 27. Contest winner Debra Wingbermuehle won the distinctive role of plunger operator as she set off charges which leveled the 70-year-old obsolete landmark. Sister station KMOX also carried live audio of the event with Ron Jacober and Randy Karricker providing sound bites of memorable moments from the Arena's long history as a versatile sports venue.

• • •

KMOX Program Director Tom Langmyer told SJR of the upcoming events surrounding Jim White's retirement from the station after 30 years. White's retirement party will be broadcast from 8 p.m. to midnight, April 8, and White will host a few final hours after "Live at Shannon's" on April 9. After he officially leaves the air staff, he'll continue reporting from his boating excursions through the month of October. White may be the only KMOX staffer to serve simultaneously in roles as program director and news director. That occurred in the mid-1970s under the Hyland regime. Langmyer told SJR last month that John Carney is the "heir apparent" to take over White's slot, however nothing definite has been announced as this issue goes to press.

• • •

March 1 marked a changeover date for weather reporting on KMOX, which engaged the services of "The Weather Channel" in place of well-regarded meteorologists Dave Murray and Ben Abell. Program Director Tom Langmyer told SJR that a service upgrade was necessary in order to gain parity with other major market stations which have 24 hour up-to-the-second reports. This is especially important as the severe weather season approaches. Both Murray and Abell performed admirably, however, their services were in effect "borrowed" from other media outlets and there were times of the day which coincided with significant weather events when they were not immediately available to KMOX. The Weather Channel's reports are supplied to KMOX on a barter/cash basis, and in fact will cost somewhat more than continuing with Murray and Abell, who announced a desire to cut back his time last year.

Longtime listeners will remember that KMOX had a "lock" on reports from the National Weather Service for decades, an arrangement that the federal government ended several years ago. National Weather Service meteorologists became local celebrities during that time, among them Harry "Bill" Waldheuser and Bob Bunting.

RADIO HISTORY

Kay Morton was pioneer in St. Louis radio

By Frank Absher

When she began her radio career in 1939, she was known as Jane Foster. That was on WTMV, the progressive little AM station in East St. Louis. By the time she left the broadcasting and free-lance business a couple decades later, Kay Morton was a local celebrity. Now, as Ruth May Markus, she's enjoying retirement in the Metro East. When she reminisces about her broadcast career, she has no trouble holding the attention of her audience.

She joined the WTMV staff immediately after graduating from Washington University. There was no pay, just 25 cents a day to cover her bridge fare from St. Louis to East St. Louis. The studios were in the Broadview Hotel, and the town was bustling. She was given her own program, a half hour women's show five days a week. Of course, she had to line up her own guests and write her own scripts. When she began selling commercials, she was able to generate some income.

"I used to go out to the airport at two in the morning (thank goodness I had tolerant parents), meet people, chat with them, bring them back. We didn't have limos in those days. You picked them up and fetched people, doing it all yourself."

When she moved to WIL in the early 1940s, Markus was given the name Kay Morton by program manager Dave Pasternak. Again, her job was to produce a daily program for women. Again, it was up to her to find guests whose subject matter would be appealing to her audience.

"In October of 1941, I got to interview someone from the cultured pearl industry, and it turned out to be a very interesting Japanese gentleman. He found out I was going to be married the next month and he gave me a beautiful string of pearls which I thoroughly enjoyed, wore on my wedding day walking down the aisle. Less than a month after that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. On Dec. 10, I was visited by the FBI. My pearl expert was one of many Japanese who had gone to radio stations around our country whose towers were on rooftops, and they turned that information over to their government. I still have the pearls."

In 1943, Kay Morton moved from WIL's Melbourne Hotel studios to the Star-Times Building in downtown St. Louis, the home of KXOK's studios. "I worked with Harry Caray there for a while. He and I did a thing about Hollywood and we'd get to giggling so much that they eventually had to reassign us. We had a 10-piece orchestra in the studios at KXOK; Ralph Sutton was a member, Bobby Swain who was a symphony violinist, Orville and William Klein."

In those days, there were engineers who did all the technical work in radio, and the announcers and talent worked out of a separate room. Engineers were also needed every time the station did a remote broadcast. "One of them, Ed Henry, I had to do an interview in a lion's cage with Clyde Beatty. Of course, I was holding a little lion, and poor old Ed Henry just stayed outside and handed me the microphone through the bars. He refused to come inside."

Ruth May Markus has lots of memories. During her work in radio she had the presence of mind to keep an autograph book for all of her guests to sign, and a glance through the yellowed pages yields some familiar names: Fannie Hurst, Sonja Henie, Duncan Hines, Karl Wallenda, Clyde Beatty, Claude Pepper, Cesar Romero and Edith Head.

"I was making $25 a week at WIL and KXOK, but I don't know of anything I would rather have done in life. My being a woman made no difference one way or the other. I think the men I interviewed were a little nicer and maybe even a bit surprised that I knew what was going on."

Prison lawyer represents dead men walking

By Don Corrigan

Missouri has approximately 85 prisoners on death row at the Potosi Correctional Center. Cheryl Rafert knows more than she often wants to about these "dead men walking."

Working out of her small home in Webster Groves, Rafert maintains an unusual law practice devoted entirely to capital cases. Her death row cases come from federal court, state public defender assignments and urgent calls from defendants seeking help.

"I've been to Potosi many, many times meeting with death row inmates. Some of them are nice, some of them are vile and nasty," said Rafert. "On the drive home, I think about how they've been convicted of terrible things-I have seen the gruesome pictures of victims.

"And I ask myself: Why am I doing this?" continued Rafert. "It all comes down to the Constitution and rule of law. I sincerely believe that every person is entitled to equal protection under the law. I've also always felt empathy for the poor. There are no rich people on death row."

Rafert's work has earned her plenty of criticism. Friends ask if she has empathy for the victims. Other lawyers ask her if she has some sort of morbid curiosity in the details of terrible crimes. Relatives ask why she doesn't go into corporate law so she can make some real money.

Those who appreciate what Rafert does have not been silent. She was honored last year at a dinner by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA), which awarded her the prestigious $10,000 Kutak-Dodds Prize for her legal work.

"Death penalty litigation places extraordinary demands on the advocate," observed Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Theodore McMillan in his nomination of Rafert for the prize. "It is literally a matter of life and death.

"Unfortunately, it is little appreciated by most members of the bar and the bench and is certainly not financially rewarding," added McMillan. "Most, if not all, death penalty defendants are unable to afford legal representation, and the rates of compensation for death penalty work are notoriously inadequate."

Rafert is used to living on a modest income. A West Virginia native, Rafert moved with her family to St. Louis when she was in second grade. A youthful marriage ended in divorce and she was left a 20-year-old single mother subsisting on $90 a month in Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

"I can relate to people who are hungry and poor," said Rafert. "I've eaten so many peanut butter sandwiches in my life, I have a hard time looking at it in the store. I know about welfare and food stamps.

"Nobody lives well on welfare. I'm frightened by our current welfare reform. Able-bodied people should have to work, but there has to be jobs for them," said Rafert. "I'm afraid we're going to see more crime and violence when welfare reform cuts these people off-and there's nowhere for them to go."

Undeterred by her own situation with poverty, Rafert worked her way through college and law school, earning a bachelor's degree from St. Louis University in 1979 and her law degree from Washington University in 1982.

While in law school, Rafert clerked part-time for McMillan and represented poor clients in civil matters. After law school, she worked as an assistant special public defender. She represented her first death-row inmate in 1988.

Dead man walking

Like Sister Helen Prejean, who was portrayed by Susan Sarandon in the film "Dead Man Walking," Rafert has worked with inmates in death-row holding cells and followed them to execution.

"I've met Sister Helen and I saw the movie," said Rafert. "The movie was good because it did not preach a side about capital punishment. It just set out the reality of murderers and death row, although the true reality is harsher than Hollywood's portrayal.

"Being with an inmate in his last hours-watching the family say goodbye-there's something surreal about it," said Rafert. "In the holding cell, there's a line that cannot be crossed. It's sort of barbaric that a mother or a father cannot reach out and hold a son who is going to be lost in a matter of an hour or two."

Rafert said that clients frequently ask her to witness their deaths. She said the executions generally go quietly. She recalled the faint smile on one client before he slumped into unconsciousness. A curtain closes quickly on the scene after the lethal injections are administered.

Run through a list of the 90 names of those on death row and Rafert can give details of their cases. She'll note that some are psychotic or delusional. Others border on retardation. Some have suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome from Vietnam War experiences.

"The jurors are not always allowed to hear all the details of their cases," said Rafert. "I feel jurors would not level the ultimate penalty, and in some cases wouldn't convict, if they got all the information. Sometimes judges do not allow all the details. Judges are under great pressure to react in certain ways in capital cases."

"I've become more and more of an opponent of capital punishment because I see the inequities in the system," said Rafert. "The system is loaded against minorities, the mentally disturbed, men and the poor. There are no rich on death row.

"Even the conservative ABA (American Bar Association) has called for a cessation of the death penalty until it can be shown that it is administered fairly and impartially," Rafert noted. "I know it may be hard for some people to believe, but some innocent people are being killed under our system."

Rafert points to a study by Amnesty International that shows the most influential factors in imposing the death penalty in the U.S. are the economic status and race of the victim and the defendant.

Even if the death penalty were administered "fairly," it's doubtful that Rafert would favor its use. She said it is not a deterrent to crime. She said that murder rates over the past decade have increased the most in the states that impose the death penalty.

"Execution is murder. Even the state lists the cause of death after an execution as 'legal homicide,'" said Rafert. "We are the only Western industrial nation to practice capital punishment."

Rafert is fully aware that she is swimming against the tide. Media coverage of grisly crimes has whetted the public's appetite for retribution. Polls show that a lopsided majority of Americans favor capital punishment, up substantially from polls taken 10 or 20 years ago.

"I think people would answer those polls differently, if they could be sure that capital offenders would get life without parole," said Rafert. "I think they would answer differently if they saw how much more money it costs to put people on death row, as opposed to a life sentence in prison."

Rafert is disturbed by what she sees as an increasingly cavalier attitude about the death penalty in this country. She noted stories about the malfunctioning electric chair in Florida, that prompted jokes about "Old Sparky" and suggestions that the chair would prompt murderers to move their killing to other states.

Surprisingly, Rafert is not opposed to televising executions carried out in Missouri, provided they are covered as serious news and not exploited for tabloid television or sensational talk show programs.

"I think the people of this state should see what executions are about," said Rafert. "I think they should know what is being done in their name."

Brown and Doyle discuss changes in radio

By Frank Absher

After working 25 years as a disc jockey in this market, Gary "Records" Brown has a good perspective on the changes that have taken place in the radio business. Jim Doyle has been spinning music for 20 years, with a brief hiatus away from St. Louis. The two met as co-workers at the Communications Fund stations, KADI and KADI-FM. The following material is excerpted from their appearance on the KDHX radio show "On the Record-Candid Conversations On the Media" from Feb. 22.

Brown: In the summer of my senior year in high school I rewound films for KSLH, the school station. And they called me upstairs to the studios to do some character voices, and I fell in love with the business. My first job was in Festus at KJCF.

Doyle: I started in 1976 with Gary, who's my mentor. Originally, I did middays at KADI-FM and that quickly turned into mornings. Talk about the old, naive days of radio. I'd just graduated from college and went out to the Republican Convention in Kansas City working as a gopher for ABC.

Brown: So you never had to go out for booze.

Doyle: Right. I met the people who ran the Communications Fund Kansas City station, KWKI, and the guy offered me a job. I packed up a Volkswagon, and my dog and I got ready to move. I stopped in Indianapolis, thinking "Maybe I better call the guy to see if it's still on." And he said "Oh, by the way, you're going to St. Louis instead."

Brown: It's kind of a disturbing thing to watch what's happening now. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 made it possible for big companies to buy huge groups of stations. Your company [CBS] owns KEZK, KMOX and KYKY, and they had to unload a ton of others because they were over the limit.

Doyle: There's a limit to the percentage of total radio ad dollars in the market. Music played on radio stations today is chosen through heavy research, and announcers have no say in which selections are played or how often they're played.

Everybody's interested in their piece of the pie. They have to super-serve the audience, and they believe that has to be done by finding out exactly what the audience wants and then regurgitating that for them.

Brown: And they do that in an interesting way. They'll get an auditorium full of 100 or so people and play seven seconds of maybe 600 tunes and the people score them on a one-to-five scale.

Doyle: It's definitely taken a lot of fun out of the business. But in defense of the big companies, the way communications is growing, radio almost had to go that route to survive as a real medium. In terms of format for anyone with eclectic taste, radio has boun-daries. The fun radio that we knew many years ago walked out of the picture when Wall Street got involved because Wall Street doesn't do things for the fun of it. They do it for the stockholders.

Activist Margaret Phillips shoots down death penalty

By Ed Bishop

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court found the death penalty as written in various state laws to be "arbitrary and capricious." It therefore found the death penalty to be unconsititutional under the Eighth and 14th Amendments. Executions across the country were stopped.

Shortly after that states began rewriting their capital-crime laws using new high court guidelines and, in 1977, with the execution of Gary Gilmore in Utah, capital punishment was resumed in the United States.

Since Gilmore's death, more than 435 people, including one woman, have been executed in the United States. Forty percent of those executed have been African Americans.

Approximately 90 of the total executions have taken place in Missouri, ranking the state fourth in the number of people executed.

About the same time Gilmore was being put before a firing squad in Utah. Anti-death penalty groups were also forming across the United States. These groups argue that the death penalty remains "arbitrary and capricious." At nearly every execution, a small group of these death-penalty protestors can be found outside prison walls carrying candles and saying prayers. They also talk to the media, lobby legislators and organize interest groups for political action.

Here in St. Louis, the Eastern Missouri Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is headed up by Margaret Phillips. She teaches at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in the criminology department.

Recently Phillips sat down with SJR to discuss the death penalty.

SJR: How is it that such an overwhelming number of people in the United States support the death penalty?

Phillips: There's a Norwegian criminologist named Nils Christie who argues that it isn't, as many Western Europeans think, that Americans are so barbaric and bloodthirsty. It is that our political discourse gives us no other vocabulary for expressing support and sympathy for victims and concern for public safety. Politicians have made the issue into who can claim to be for public safety by saying, "Look at how many people I've executed," or "I'm tougher on crime than my opponent." The vocabulary for expressing more complex notions isn't used.

SJR: Polls show that Americans believe that if you don't execute capital criminals you would be eliminating an important deterrent.

Phillips: That's part of this very limited political discourse-you're either for victims, in which case you want to punish the bad guys, or you're on the side of the bad guys. But that's not really the issue. There are some polls that show that if a series of options are presented, the numbers change dramatically. Especially if part of the question leaves no doubt that the criminal will spend the rest of his or her life in prison.

SJR: Are you saying the reaction to Gov. Mel Carnahan recently commuting the Darryl Mease death sentence is a simplistic reaction?

Phillips: Absolutely. Let me give you an example: I was asked to give my comment on that situation by a reporter who asked insightful, appropriate questions. I talked about victims' issues and the public safety issue. But, when his report aired, it was framed as if I were supporting the murderer and others were supporting the victims. That's how it came across-not quite as crudely as I've stated it, but that was the upshot. To the uncritical viewer, I could have easily come across as supporting criminals.

SJR: If politicians have narrowed the debate over the death penalty to a discourse that is unintelligibly simplistic, do you believe it's the media's responsibility to widen the debate?

Phillips: I can't tell you how many reporters have acknowledged the limitations of their medium-shake their heads at how simplistic coverage of this issue has been-try their best to gain depth. But it's difficult for them, especially when their bosses cut and paste and edit into what are, as we see, simplistic reports. I have to acknowledge, though, the difficulty in covering the death penalty. Obviously, if you have 30 seconds to cover an execution on the evening news or a limited amount of space in the newspaper, there is only so much you can say. The desire to give all sides of the issue means that even that time and space is subdivided. Also I think a lot of issues, like the death penalty, are often articulated by non-professionals in the media. In other words, we don't have the resources or the skills to get our word out in a way that prevents oversimplification. I keep hearing this term "public journalism," although I still don't know what it means. But it seems to me that if public journalism has any meaning it ought to include reaching out to people who have something to say but may not have the most professional way of saying it. The fact that someone is inarticulate doesn't mean their viewpoint is worthless.

SJR: The murder rate in the United States is dropping. Some would argue that's because of capital punishment...

Phillips: There are no reliable studies that show any deterrent effect. Obviously, if you lock up everybody there's going to be fewer people out there to commit murder. Besides, very, very few people who have killed someone ever get executed. The numbers are so small that the statistical evidence just isn't there that capital punishment is a deterrent.

SJR: What about the argument that capital punishment saves the tax payer money? Most people don't want to pay to keep some guy who has committed murder living with three square meals a day, a roof over his head, a TV in his cell, for the rest of his life.

Phillips: On the surface, that seems like a good argument-assuming that life in prison is easy-and no one I know who has been in prison agrees with that. But, in fact, studies in other states suggest that it's actually more expensive to enforce the death penalty. That seems counter intuitive, I know. And I'm not sure of the methodology of the studies. But studies, like the one recently in New York state, show that to be the case.

SJR: How about the argument that the families of victims need executions to find closure, that only the death penalty can give the families of victims and society a sense of justice?

Phillips: That's an important argument. What the victims have suffered is often pushed aside. One of our arguments is that with the death penalty the murderer gets all the attention. The victims are used at the convenience of the prosecutor and then pushed aside. The victims' movement has sort of nibbled away at that. But some of the victims have said that although they really thought the execution was going to make them feel better-it didn't. In fact, it is starting to be recognized that it takes a long time before the victim's family feels healing. You can't bring back the person who was killed. Execution doesn't do that.

SJR: What about the more simple idea of justice-that they took a life and they owe a life?

Phillips: That may be the most powerful argument for the death penalty. It depends on your notion of justice. If justice means the criminal should suffer the equivalent of the crime he committed-you killed, therefore you must be killed-then we seem to be arguing that a rapist must be raped. So equivalence is the key word here. But isn't imprisonment the same as death?

SJR: If we eliminate the ideas that the death penalty is a deterrent, that it's not more expensive and that it isn't justice, we're left with the idea that capital punishment is simply revenge. You could argue that revenge is our society's truest motivation for the death penalty.

Phillips: I'm not sure that revenge is always an ugly thing. I'm not so sure that the need for revenge and the need for justice is truly separate. I think what comes across as revenge is an understandable expression of frustration when nothing else seems to bring a sense of justice. Now, I'm not talking about a lynch-mob kind of revenge. I'm talking about the emotions of people who have lost someone. They see the offender as not taking responsibility, and they're frustrated. The proponents of Resorted Justice-a victims' rights group that comes from a different perspective-many of them argue that our entire criminal-justice system is set up to prevent people from taking real responsibility for their actions. After all, if you put somebody on death row and they're convinced they got a raw deal, they don't have any energy left to start feeling remorse. So the only way to get offenders to really take responsibility is not to just make them passively suffer a punishment, but to actively look to remorse and taking responsibility. Now you say these murderers never will do that. But there was man on death row who committed suicide a year or two ago because he was so consumed by remorse. He wanted to contact the families of his victims but that's illegal, that can't happen for other kinds of reasons. But he was distraught by the fact that he couldn't contact them. That's an example of how some would very well react if it weren't for the death penalty consuming their thoughts.

SJR: What do you think are the best arguments against the death penalty? Are they related to this idea of healing?

Phillips: Absolutely, I think so. And I think there's something else-that the society we live in shapes the way we react to things. Maybe that's too obvious to even bother saying. But we argue that when the state kills, we as a society are sending a message that the best way to deal with problems and problem-people is to kill someone.

SJR: How about the argument of unequal justice? If you look at the statistics, about 40 percent of people who are executed are African Americans.

Phillips: That's right. You could argue that they committed a disproportionate amount of the murders. But, if you look at the race of the victims, very rarely does a white person get executed for killing a black person, but very often a black person is executed for killing a white person. So, we're really looking at a different set of values for human beings based on race, based on the way juries, prosecutors and judges see race. Prosecutors are the ones who decide whether to go for the death penalty and prosecutors always look to see if they have a case they can win. If the person being tried has resources, financial and otherwise, the prosecutors are going to go for an easier request-they're not going to ask for the death penalty.

SJR: Are you saying that a rich person who commits the same crime as a poor person will not be prosecuted in the same way?

Phillips: A good example is the O.J. Simpson case. Without passing judgment on his guilt or innocence, still the crime was horrible, heinous, and the prosecutors never asked for the death penalty. They knew that was not winnable.

SJR: Does this idea that innocent people are being executed really hold water? I mean, are there any hard statistics?

Phillips: There are studies nationwide that show that approximately 50 people who were executed in this century didn't commit the crime. There are other cases where there was doubt, but no one ever pushed it after the execution, so it was never proven. We have some cases like that here in Missouri. For instance, Larry Griffin was executed in 1995 for the murder of a 19-year-old drug dealer. Larry Griffin had a record and this drug dealer had earlier murdered Griffin's brother. So it looked easy, right? These people were up to no good anyway. They were poor, they were black. Griffin had a motive. What could be easier? Plus, there was a person who testified against him. It was a person who shared his jail cell. But as the date for Griffin's execution came close, this person who had testified against him confessed that he had been lying. It was one of these cases where he got a sweet deal for testifying. The courts refused to hear his confession. And the courts refused to acknowledge that others who had confessed to the murder and been convicted and named other participants, had not named Griffin. He was executed anyway.

SJR: Do you think that if the majority of Missourians knew that Griffin was innocent they would react by saying, "This in intolerable, we can't allow this." Or do you think a majority of Missourians would say that's the price we pay for justice, that justice is not perfect, and, in the long run, some innocent people will suffer but we have to have the death penalty to save ourselves from murderous criminals?

Phillips: I think if most Missourians saw people on death row not as an abstraction but as someone's son or brother or father, I think they would be horrified of executions. It's thinking of people as abstractions that allows us to kill them. But people seem to want a scapegoat, especially if the person has a criminal record or they're a different race or if they're from a different class and their behavior seems troublesome and bizarre. If they see people as being different, it's easier to see them as an abstraction. And criminologists have noticed a recent trend where people are saying that instead of an individual paying the penalty for doing something wrong, they are looking at it as an aggregate. Criminologists have labeled it the "actuarial approach." A lot of court decisions, a lot of policy decisions that might seem brutal, now begin to make sense under the "actuarial approach." For example, it used to be that bail had to do with the person's likelihood of showing up for trial, it was judged on an individual basis, but now the courts have ruled that the possibility of future criminal acts could be considered for setting bail. The guy hasn't even been convicted of a crime yet, and still the justice system will not allow bail. This is part of the thinking that the individual is less important than the safety of all of us. Now safety is important. We all want our communities to be safe. But, in this way of thinking, it becomes easier to see people as members of a dangerous class.

SJR: Do you think the media have played into this seeing criminals as abstractions.

Phillips: Sometimes. It varies. When something usual happens like what's happened in Illinois where so many people have been found not to be guilty of capital crimes-that they simply didn't do it-that causes everybody to step back and take a second look. I think reporters do that as well as everybody else.

SJR: There seems to be an extreme resistence by appellate judges to issue writs for new trials. Of course, they don't want to go back and revisit every case. But do you believe, as I do, that they are also protecting prosecutors and policemen? Did you think there is a widespread feeling in the criminal-justice system that they must protect themselves even if it means killing an innocent man?

Phillips: I believe that, if that's true, it would be very much in accordance with human nature. It would also be another illustration of this actuarial-justice approach, where the point is to keep control of what is seen to be a dangerous population. There seems to be a widespread feeling that even if these people aren't good for this crime, they guarantee that the person is good for some crime. That's the kind of thinking... I mean, what has happened to our presumption of innocence? We pride ourselves as Americans as being individualistic. We use the language of individualism, but we apply very different standards to the death penalty.

Cruel and unusual punishment

By Holly Rauch

On May 3, 1995, Missouri officials had a difficult time killing convicted murderer Emmitt Foster.

For 30 agonizing minutes, Foster lay on the death gurney strapped so tightly that the poisonous chemicals could not flow. At first no one realized what was happening. Then they couldn't figure out what was wrong. The curtains were quickly closed to block the view of the witnesses. Finally, the medical staff figured it out, the straps were loosened and Foster was pronounced dead seven minutes later.

Emmitt Foster is not the only person who has suffered the misfortunes of a botched execution. Since 1983, there have been more than 20 documented cases of botched executions.

In 1983 in Alabama, John Evans was executed in an electric chair, but not before receiving three jolts of electricity that stretched out for more than 14 minutes. After the first jolt of electricity was administered, sparks and flames shot out from an electrode connected to Evan's leg while smoke seeped out from under Evan's hood. But Evans was still alive. Despite pleas from Evans' lawyer, he received a third and final round of electricity, which finally killed him.

In 1990 in Virginia, the scene of Wilbert Lee Evens' execution by electric chair resembled a scene in a sci-fi horror flick, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. During Evens' electrocution, blood dripped out of the right side of his hood, soaking his shirt. An autopsy report concluded the blood resulted from high blood pressure brought on by the electrocution.

The method of lethal injection has had its share of problems too. The most common problems with lethal injection result from mishaps with inmates' veins or allergic reactions to the chemicals used. Some inmates have even had to help prison workers find decent veins on their own bodies.

In Indiana in 1996, it took Tommie Smith an hour and 20 minutes to die after having an angina-catheter inserted into his heart because a "good" vein could not be found in his arm. Authorities said Smith was conscious during the procedure.

In Arkansas in 1992, the medical staff took 50 minutes to find a suitable vein in Rickey Ray Rector. Witnesses were not allowed to watch the scene, but they could hear Rector moaning throughout the ordeal. Finally, Rector, who was severely retarded after brain damage from a lobotomy in his youth, tried to help the medical team find a vein.

During other executions, needles have popped out, spraying lethal chemicals across the room. Last April in Texas, during the execution of Joseph Cannon, a vein collapsed and the needle popped out. Cannon said, "It's come undone." The curtains were closed at that point, but reopened 15 minutes later after the needle was replaced.

In Mississippi in 1983, Jimmy Lee Gray's execution in the gas chamber did not go as planned. Eight minutes after the gas was released, Gray began gasping, scaring witnesses. The witness room was cleared immediately. Gray was then executed without witnesses present and against his lawyer's protest.

Editor's note: Some information in this article was provided by Michael L. Radelet of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Holly Rauch is a St. Louis free-lance writer.

Dangers of genetic engineering not covered here

By Peter Downs

Just how risky is plant genetic engineering? As St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Bill Lambrecht's articles showed, people around the world argue that question, but not in St. Louis.

Perhaps transfixed by the possibility that St. Louis could become the capital of a worldwide industry, the local news media have ignored the recent spate of scientific papers showing unexpected problems with genetic engineering. Instead, they tended to go along with Monsanto's spin on the question.

Monsanto spokesman Phillip Angell (Post-Dispatch, 1/13/99) and Hoover Institute fellow Henry Miller (Post-Dispatch, 12/29/98) both said the thousands of safe field trials (25,000, according to Angell; 6,000, according to Miller) with genetically engineered plants mean that there is no need for current regulations.

In St. Louis, if not elsewhere, problem experiences with genetic engineering get brushed out of sight.

Orley (Chip) Taylor, an entomologist at the University of Kansas, raised the alarm about a sharp reduction in the number of Monarch butterflies in areas where farmers are planting Monsanto's Roundup Ready corn and soybeans. The Roundup Ready technology allows farmers to use more herbicide, and use it later in the season. As a result, they kill the milkweed that used to grow around the edge of fields.

Milkweed is the major food source for Monarchs, and approximately 50 percent of Monarch butterflies spend part of their life in the Midwest, the strongest market for Roundup Ready soybeans.

Is the disappearance of Monarch butterflies an "adverse effect," to use Miller's phrase? Taylor thinks so. Then again, it wasn't discovered in a field trial, but in real life.

The scientific literature contains many such reports of genetic engineering giving rise to unexpected problems.

One seemed to confirm that the worst nightmares about genetic engineering could come true.

In 1992, scientists at Oregon State University, working under a contract with the federal EPA, began tests on a genetically engineered bacterium called klepsiella planticola. The promise of the altered k. planticola was as a pollution fighter. Instead of burning the crop residue in their fields, farmers could harvest that waste and, by adding planticola, get an alcohol fuel for their machinery and a fertilizer for their fields.

The OSU scientists ran a series of tests in the laboratory and found something wrong. It was so serious that the EPA decided the bacterium could not be released into the environment.

Michael Holmes, the chief investigator, found the bacteria didn't die as it was supposed to when the fertilizer product was spread on soil. Klepsiella thrived, competing equally with naturally occurring microorganisms. Even worse, once in the soil, it continued to convert any carbon material it could find to ethanol, feeding the growth of harmful microbes that killed every wheat seedling planted in the contaminated soil. An article about the incident appeared in the January 1999 peer-reviewed journal Applied Soil Ecology.

Holmes' supervisor, Elaine Ingham, explained in a personal interview why the EPA had to block the release of the altered bacterium. "Extrapolating from our results, if klepsiella were released into the wild, it could eventually spread around the world and kill every food plant except rice," which is protected by the water that floods rice fields. Ingham is widely considered one of this country's leading experts on soil microbes.

The nightmarish potential of genetically engineered klepsiella was discovered in the laboratory, not the field, but Ingham said that is no reason to take comfort in U.S. regulations. Most genetically engineered organisms do not undergo such scrutiny before they are released in the wild, she said. She cites an EPA experiment in 1989 as a case in point.

In Louisiana, the EPA released an engineered version of bradyrhizobium, a microbe that helps soybeans fix nitrogen in soil. That microbe is possibly the most studied of soil organisms. Researchers thought they knew what it would do, and how to destroy it when they finished the test. They were wrong.

Instead of improving soil fertility, the organism decreased it, said Ingham. When the researchers tried to destroy it by burning all the plants and plowing the field, it spread, and it is spreading still.

Ingham said the genetically modified microbes she is familiar with fall into one of two categories: useless or dangerous. The useless ones are those that die in the soil like they are supposed to. The trouble is they die without accomplishing the tasks for which they were designed. Any farmer who spends money on those microbes "is wasting his money," she said. The dangerous ones are the ones that survive in soil, because each of those was harmful in a way the genetic engineers did not foresee.

In another instance, reported in the journal Advances in Applied Microbiology, a bacterium engineered to consume herbicide residues unexpectedly produced its own toxin that wiped out soil fungi responsible for sustaining soil fertility.

Contrary to Angell and Miller, Ingham argued that current EPA regulation of genetic engineering is far too lax. The EPA relies too much on the conclusions of genetic engineers, she said. The problem is that genetic engineers "simply do not know how to evaluate the environmental effects of their products," because they haven't the training to do so, she said.

Arnold Foudin, assistant director science services and biotechnology at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, disagreed. He said certain plants and characteristics have been engineered so many times "we know what to expect," and that is why the department no longer regulates them closely. Microorganisms, however, "still must go through a full permitting process."

An article in the Washington Post last fall suggested that genetic engineers may lack more than training for evaluating the environmental effects of their products. Staff writer Rick Weiss reported that genetic engineers are unconcerned by the possibility that their products may cause the extinction of some microbial, insect and bird species. According to Weiss, genetic engineers believed that other species would take the place of any that they eradicate.

Michael Fly, director of the sustainable program of the Rural Advancement Fund International, likened the debate over regulation of genetic engineering to the debate over regulation of nuclear power. "The question is who has responsibility for dealing with cleanup and other problems down the line," he said. "It is assumed that we as citizens will benefit from the positive side, and we will pay for the downside," he said. "I don't remember agreeing to that deal, and I'm sure a lot of other people don't remember doing so either."

The banner of "safe field trials" also obscures the effect of genetically engineered foods on human health.

The common assumption is that the effect will be beneficial. One trendy news topic during the past year was the potential for genetic engineers to create new foods with medicinal properties, called "nutraceuticals."

In the real world, however, gene engineers created a yeast 30 times as toxic as its natural forebear, as reported in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology.

And while many people wait for healthier foods through gene manipulation, there already has been at least one recorded instance when genetic engineering brought about death and disease.

According to microbiologist John Fagan, a professor at Maharishi University, the deadly incident involved the dietary supplement tryptophan. The Japanese company Showa Denko engineered bacteria to produce tryptophan in larger quantities than is normal.

In 1988, Showa Denko began shipping tryptophan produced by engineered bacteria to the American market. "According to U.S. law, Showa Denko was allowed to sell the tryptophan produced in genetically engineered bacteria without safety testing because they and other companies had been selling tryptophan produced in non-genetically engineered bacteria for years without ill effects," said Fagan. "It was considered that the method of production (whether via natural or genetically engineered bacteria) was immaterial." In short, the engineered product was assumed to be the same as the natural one.

Within a few months, doctors noticed an outbreak of a new disease, called eosinophilia myalgia syndrome or EMS. Symptoms included muscle pain, "paralysis and neurological problems, painful swelling and cracking of the skin, heart problems, memory and cognitive deficits, headaches, extreme light sensitivity, fatigue, and heart problems," said Fagan.

Several more months of investigating the cause of the disease led researchers to Showa Denko's tryptophan. By that time, "it had caused the deaths of 37 people and disabled more than 1500," he said. But then again, those ill effects were not found in a field trial.

Last year, more studies raised questions about the safety of foods from genetically engineered plants.

In Scotland, Arpad Pusztai found that when rats were fed a variety of genetically engineered potatoes the inserted insecticide retarded their organ development and suppressed their immune systems. Pusztai worked for the Rowlett Research Institute. His research was part of a program to identify genes that would convey insect resistance to crop plants.

Discussing his results on Granada TV's "World in Action" program, Pusztai, who supports genetic engineering to improve agriculture, said he would not eat such potatoes without additional safety tests.

Forty-eight hours later, he was forced out of his job and declared incompetent by his bosses.

Yet, on February 12, a committee of 20 toxicologists, genetic engineers and medical doctors which reviewed the data announced that Pusztai's conclusions were valid. They recommended that genetically engineered plants be regulated like pharmaceuticals and tested for safety on a case by case basis.

Professor Maaten J. Chrispeels, a biologist at the University of California-San Diego, said that not only were Pusztai's conclusions valid, but additional experiments have supported them. Chrispeels, who also thinks genetic engineering can benefit agriculture, called Pusztai "a voice of reason" who was only calling for more research.

A Monsanto spokesman told the magazine New Scientist that Pusztai's findings were no surprise, since the protein he inserted for insect resistance is known to be toxic. Monsanto, said the spokesman, had no plans to insert such natural insecticides into food plants.

Meanwhile, scientists at the State Institute for Quality Control of Agricultural Products in Wageningen, The Netherlands, found that DNA lingers in the human intestine and that genetically modified bacteria can transfer their antibiotic-resistance genes to bacteria in the gut.

That finding raises questions about the safety of one of the basic techniques of genetic engineering, the insertion of antibiotic resistance into genetically engineered plants as a marker for identifying them later.

The call for more study and regulation that has followed such reports may be especially troublesome for genetic engineering companies given the results of other experiments. Scientists at Ohio State University, for example, found that wild relatives of plants engineered to withstand herbicides can pick up the resistance much more quickly than was previously thought, and that they are just as sturdy as the wild varieties.

The conventional wisdom was that the genes inserted into designer plants could not move easily to wild plants, and if they did so, the resultant plants would be weaker than their natural relatives and unable to compete for living space.

Another study, by University of Chicago biologist Joy Bergelson and published in the journal Nature, showed wild plants picking up genes from designer plants 20 times faster than they acquired genes from other wild plants.

That brings into question the financial feasibility of many genetic engineering projects. By some estimates, it could take as little as five or 10 years for an engineered trait to spread to wild relatives-weeds. Monsanto made note of that research when it petitioned the USDA to require that farmers who plant genetically engineered seed reserve at least 50 percent of their acreage for non-engineered seed, so as to retard any movement of inserted genes into the wild.

Companies such as Monsanto, DuPont and Novartis could have little time to recoup their investment and make a profit. By their own admission, the cost of developing viable plants from genetic engineering is an extraordinarily expensive. The science is not precise and most material developed is discarded, said Foudin.

Complying with regulations is an expensive process. The companies claim that tightening regulations could well hinder the development of genetically engineered crops by making it unprofitable. This time, they might be telling the truth, in the colloquial sense.

SPORTS/MEDIA

Athletes want reporters on team

By Joe Pollack

Killing the sports-writing messenger is a popular hobby for athletes, and since most athletes are bigger, stronger and younger than most sports writers, there are some risks in the writing profession. Things may have changed a little, but I can remember Mondays after Football Cardinals' losses when a conversation in my office went like this, and you can guess the relationship between the speakers:

"I'm going to kill that blankety-blank son of a blankety-blank blankety-blank. How can he write such stupid stuff. Is he really that stupid?"

"What happened?"

"He said I fumbled twice and dropped three passes."

"Didn't you? Didn't 50,000 people and a few more on television see you?"

"Well, yes, but that doesn't make any difference, and he shouldn't be writing that stuff. Whose side is he on-and whose side are you on? He's still a stupid blankety-blank."

Coaches and management often echo the us-against-them theme, usually in the next-day depression of a losing game. But not always. I can remember coaches and management folks coming into my office and asking what we could "do" with the late Rich Koster, whose St. Louis Globe-Democrat stories could be scathing, and often were, especially after stupid losses. My advice was effective and simple, all in one word.

"Win," I would say.

The fact that athletes, and sometimes owners, think that newspapers should be an arm of the team causes many problems. Too often St. Louis writers protect and guard a player until he is traded or retired, and then they lower the boom. The other side of that coin is an inability for the writer to get any information from the player. Sometimes it's important. Often it's unnoticed. How many people recall that the Cardinals' Ray Lankford spent much of 1998 not talking to the Post's Rick Hummel? Does anyone care? What difference does it make?

Besides, the cliched pap that spills from players' mouths after games is always the same. Ron Shelton, the writer of "Bull Durham," was 100 percent accurate when he had players advising other players how to handle the press.

The whole 'whose side are you on?" nonsense came up again recently in, of all places, Vanity Fair, and written by Steve Friedman, one-time editor of St. Louis magazine and now a New York-based free-lance writer. Friedman did a piece on Pete Weber, and part of the local bowling community was ... well, it was "shocked, shocked," as Queen Victoria might have said.

No one questioned the accuracy of Friedman's story, which began, in eye-catching fashion, to wit: "'I am not a dick,' says the greatest bowler in the history of bowling."

Personally, I question Friedman's statement on Weber's ability. He's very

good, and he has won more than $2 million throwing bowling balls since he turned pro in 1977-peanuts in terms of what other pro athletes earn-but the term "greatest" wears large shoes, and I don't think Pete can fill them.

Pete Weber is a man who has had his share of problems. They began, of course, with the fact that he is the son of Dick Weber, and the kid grew up too soon in the world of bowling alleys, where bars and other distractions are all too available.

Friedman's story is often sympathetic toward Weber, but it points out his problems and his shortcomings, and the fact that his constant questioning of authority in terms of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) has made him a man often fined or suspended or both for violating tournament rules. Still, Weber draws fans and television audiences with his high scores and his low boiling point, and the PBA doesn't know whether to root for him and money or to root against him for propriety.

Friedman caught a lot of flak for the piece, with Weber's mother writing a long and nasty letter to the magazine, and local bowlers talking a lot. I don't recall seeing anything about the article, or about Weber, in the Post, but the newspaper seems to consider bowling a very minor sport, worth a paragraph or two a week. Making professional sports take a back seat to high school sports is the sort of thing the Post is doing these days, and bowling is one of the lesser professional sports.

Friedman's piece is a splendid look at Pete Weber, warts and all, and it's the sort of sports journalism-or any journalism-that the Post should look to. But it's full of the bad language which Weber and all professional athletes use, and one local bowling writer shook his head sadly when he talked about the story and said he wished Friedman hadn't told it so straight.

Friedman himself reported that he'd been trying to sell the story to a national publication for about a decade, and that he though Weber had been extremely frank and forthcoming about his life, discussing both the high and the low spots. Friedman also said that Weber did not want to be portrayed strictly as a drunk, and Friedman doesn't emphasize that point as much as he might have, but he told me that some of Weber's friends are worried about his abuse of alcohol.

Apparently, Weber and the messenger still live, but it's the kind of story, and the kind of writing, that should appear in the hometown paper from time to time.

• • •

Job changes just go with the territory, it seems. A new club owner means a new general manager. A new general manager means a new head coach or manager. A new chancellor means a new athletic director, as former Big Red quarterback Jim Hart discovered recently. He's been the athletic director at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, his alma mater, but he's leaving that post for the far more ephemeral jobs of fund-raising and friend-making, working in the chancellor's office with Jo Ann Argersinger, who came to SIU six months ago. She's now in a change-making mood, and I don't mean two fives for a 10.

Hart isn't alone. John Jackson, the provost, and Tom Britton, acting vice chancellor for academic affairs, also have new jobs, Jackson as a political science teacher and Britton in an administrative position in the law school. Interestingly, Argersinger said the decisions by Jackson and Britton to step aside were theirs, which means, by subtraction, that Hart's decision was made by the new chancellor.

Hart, a strong-armed quarterback with a succession of weak teams, never got the credit he deserved, though leadership did not seem to be his strong suit. An undrafted free agent, he had to replace Charley Johnson on short notice. If he, as well as Johnson, had been surrounded with better supporting players, they would have received enough of the recognition that should have gone their way.

Hart will be an ambassador for the entire campus, hand-shaking and visiting with alumni and other potential donors. I wish him the good fortune he

deserves, but a picture in the Carbondale newspaper, the Southern Illinoisan, said it all and then some. The chancellor is speaking to a battery of microphones. Hart, somber and silver-haired, stands next to her, looking for all the world like a kid called to the principal's office for an infraction that is sure to cause much furor when he gets home that afternoon.

Post-Dispatch wrong: Ashcroft did cater to racists

By Don Corrigan

When John Hickey read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial of Feb. 3 chiding the senatorial campaign committee of Gov. Mel Carnahan for "playing in the gutter with its smear" against Sen. John Ashcroft, Hickey nearly fell out of his chair.

The editorial declared that the Democrats were attempting to smear Ashcroft with "guilt by association" in a press release. The release suggested that Ashcroft may well be the "white supremacist's presidential choice" in the 2000 U.S. Senate contest, based on the support he is being given by Gordon Baum, head of the Council of Conservative Christians (CCC).

Ashcroft has demanded an apology from Carnahan based on the recent campaign literature and the governor's reference to Ashcroft as an "extremist." The governor has refused to apologize.

John Hickey of the non-profit, non-partisan Missouri Citizen Education Fund (MCEF) believes the Post editorial flies in the face of the reality of Ashcroft's recent actions as a potential GOP nominee for president in 2000. Hickey says the Post editorial was dead wrong. He says Carnahan's labeling of Ashcroft as an "extremist" is much closer to the mark.

Hickey cites pro-Confederate comments made by Ashcroft in the 1998 issue of the magazine Southern Partisan. In the issue, Ashcroft praises the pro-slavery leaders of the South, men who tore America apart in their bid to maintain a separate heritage.

In the interview, Ashcroft made this comment about Confederate leaders who fought to preserve, in part, the cruel legacy of slavery:

"You've [the magazine] got a heritage of doing that, of defending patriots like Lee, Jackson and Davis. Traditionalists must do more. I've got to do more," said Ashcroft. "We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect, or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda."

When asked about Missouri's position in the Civil War, Ashcroft responded: "Well, you know, I was down in Texas the other day, and someone asked 'Where was Missouri in the Civil War?' I said 'Frankly, it was in Texas.' After Fort Sumter, the legislature seceded, and they were run out when federal troops came in and they set up a government in exile down in Texas."

According to Hickey of MCEF, Ashcroft's support of Jefferson Davis, and his identification of Missouri with pro-Confederate secessionists, "shows Ashcroft's willingness to pander to racist elements of our society." Hickey said Ashcroft obviously cozied up to the pro-Confederate readership of Southern Partisan in an effort to win support from fringe constituencies in the South for his presidential bid.

"We've brought Senator Ashcroft's comments to the attention of the African-American press in town, and they've taken note and are asking for answers from him," said Hickey. "But we're mystified by the lack of interest in this material by the Post. We don't get it. It's disappointing.

"The thing that really gets to us is that Ashcroft made a calculated effort to cultivate the racist right with some of his actions in his presidential bid," added Hickey. "It's precisely for this reason that he has found support from someone like Gordon Baum."

Hickey said the Post should have the acumen to realize that Baum's support of Ashcroft is neither coincidental nor serendipitous association. He said he was totally flabbergasted at the Post editorial taking Ashcroft off the hook, while shaking a finger at Carnahan.

Baum's CCC organization has been the subject of unflattering stories on National Public Radio and The New York Times, both of which have traced the group's segregationist, anti-immigrant roots. The CCC Website denounces abolitionists and their modern-day descendants, and praises the Confederacy in what CCC calls the "War of Northern Aggression."

Baum, of St. Louis, worked on the late George Wallace's presidential campaigns and as a paid organizer for the former Citizens Council, a group espousing "racial integrity." The new Council of Conservative Christians, an avowedly "pro-white" organization, has been denounced as "racist" by people as diverse as syndicated columnist Molly Ivins and GOP National Chairman Jim Nicholson (see SJR's February issue).

Hickey says the local news media should be explaining why Ashcroft has the support of people like Baum, rather than absolving him of the actions that attract such support.

"It's outrageous that Ashcroft tried to appeal to the radical right in the South, but then he comes back to Missouri and tries to position himself as a centrist," said Hickey. "Politicians should have to pay a price when they cater to extremist elements. They should not be allowed to cover their tracks by the major news media."

REPORTERS' RESOURCE GUIDE

Childhood Development/ Education

Brenda Fyfe, Ed.D.

Professor Webster University Learning and Communications Dept., School of Education.

For an interview or additional information, call Polly

Harbaugh (314) 968-6954.

Specialty: Early childhood development, early childhood education, school, parent and community relations, action research.

Government/Health Policy

James M. Brasfield, Ph.D.

Chairperson and professor Webster University

Management Dept., School of Business and Technology

For an interview or additional information, call Polly

Harbaugh (314) 968-6954.

Specialty: Local government, health policy issues, Medicare, Medicaid

Health Care

Bret Berigan

Christian Hospital

Paul F. Detrick Building,

Suite 1134

11133 Dunn Rd.

St. Louis, MO 63136

(314) 653-5304

Specialty: The source for expert comment on health care, medical and wellness issues in north St. Louis County.

Bob Davidson

Shriners Hospital for Children

2001 S. Lindbergh Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63131-3597

(314) 872-7837

Specialty: Sources on topics including pediatric prosthetic limbs, bone diseases, burn prevention/ treatment, lawnmower safety. Facility provides top-quality care free of charge.

Kim Groneck

St. Louis Children's Hospital

600 S. Taylor Ave., Suite 202

St. Louis, MO 63110

(314) 286-0416

Specialty: For expert resources on children's health issues, wellness topics and parenting issues. Affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine.

Kim Kitson

Barnes-Jewish Hospital

600 S. Taylor Ave., Suite 202

St. Louis, MO 63110

(314) 286-0301

Specialty: For expert resources on medical technology, health care issues and general health and wellness. Affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine.

Nancy Litzau

Alzheimer's Association

9374 Olive Blvd.

St. Louis, MO 63132

1-800-980-9080

Specialty: The association is the primary resource on Alzheimer's Disease in the St. Louis area through family services, education, public policy and research.

Carol Rosse

SSM St. Mary's Health Center

6420 Clayton Rd.

Richmond Heights, MO 63117

(314) 768-8085

Specialty: Major tertiary hospital affiliated with St. Louis University Medical School. Comprehensive obstetrics and cardiology services, including high-risk obstetrics and open-heart surgery.

Tina Scruggs-Poston

SSM St. Joseph Hospital

of Kirkwood

525 Couch Ave.

Kirkwood, MO 63114

(314) 966-1666

For information or to schedule an interview with physicians or staff, contact Tina Scruggs-Poston.

Rob Shelton

Alton Memorial Hospital

One Memorial Drive

Alton, Ill. 62002

(618) 463-7305

Specialty: Alton Memorial Hospital is a 222-bed, full-service community hospital serving the Alton, Ill., and surrounding communities since 1937.

Stephanie Stemmler

BJC Health System

4444 Forest Park Ave.

St. Louis, MO 63110

(314) 286-2047

Specialty: For expert comment on trends and issues affecting the health care industry, including community health, international health care and business matters.

Jeffrey Waldman

Missouri Baptist

Medical Center

999 Executive Parkway,

Suite 201

St. Louis, MO 63141

(314) 996-8927

Specialty: The source in west St. Louis County for expert comment on health care issues, medical matters and wellness programs.

Health Education

Sheila Davis

Saint Louis Effort for AIDS

1425 Hampton Ave.

St. Louis, MO 63139

(314) 645-6451, ext. 244

Specialty: Commenting on issues surrounding HIV and AIDS including treatment, prevention, infection statistics and legislative issues. City's leading AIDS service organization.

St. Louis Help

Herpes Hotline:

(314) 781-7200

Genital Warts Helpline:

(314) 989-3199

Specialty: Providing information and emotional support concerning herpes, condyloma, genital warts and HPV to the bi-state region for 17 years.

Health Issues

Greg Jinkerson

American Heartland Hospice

7555 S. Lindbergh

St. Louis, MO 63125

(314) 894-8189

Specialty: Issues of death and dying, respecting advance directives and patient choice, family dynamics and closure, role of narcotics and proper symptom relief, alternatives to Kevorkian, physician fears of over-medicating.

Media/Cultural Diversity

Linda Holtzman, M.A.

Chairperson and associate professor Webster University Communication and Journalism Dept., School of Communication

For an interview or additional information, call Polly Harbaugh (314) 968-6954.

Specialty: Cultural diversity, media stereotypes and images, media research, race relations.

Information Age

Bruce Umbaugh, Ph.D.

Assistant professor Webster University Philosophy Dept., College of Arts and Sciences

For an interview or additional information, call Polly Harbaugh (314) 968-6954.

Specialty: The information age, cyberspace, computers and censorship, telecommunications, computers in education, computers in society, the Internet, computers and privacy.

Theater/Arts Education

Peter Sargent, M.F.A.

Dean and professor Webster University College of Fine Arts

For an interview or additional information, call Polly Harbaugh (314) 968-6954.

Specialty: Arts management, arts in education, theater, professional training for theater.

Wellness

Patrick Stack, D. Min., LMFT, LPC, NCC

Director of Webster University Counseling/Life Development

For an interview

or additional information, call Polly Harbaugh

(314) 968-6954.

Specialty: Alcohol education, substance education, marriage and family therapy, wellness topics.

PEOPLE

MEDIA

KMOX-AM

Don Pollnow has been appointed sports account executive. Most recently, he worked as general sales manager of the Zimmer Radio Group in Joplin, MO where he oversaw four stations. Pollnow began his radio career in 1992 at KMGA in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he advanced from account manager to general sales manager. He moved on to KSYG-FM in Little Rock, Arkansas then the Renda Broadcasting Group in Tulsa before joining Zimmer in 1997.

Patrick Elsner has been promoted to sports marketing manager. Previously he worked as a sports account executive since joining the station in July of 1996.

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Robert C. Woodworth has been named president and chief executive of Pulitzer, Inc., a subsidiary of Pulitzer Publishing Co. (Pulitzer Inc. will become the company which operates the newspaper publishing following the spin-off of the broadcasting properties.) Woodworth was previously vice president, newspapers, at Knight Ridder, Inc. with responsibility for newspapers in Kansas City, St. Paul, Fort Worth and other cities. Before that he worked for Capital Cities/ABC, most recently as publisher of The Kansas City Star.

Richard K. Weil Jr., managing editor, was moved to the new position of executive editor with responsibility for administration, recruitment and hiring and readership research.

Arnie Robbins, a deputy editor, was appointed managing editor with responsibility of the daily news operations. He joined the Post in May 1997 as director of staff and organizational development. Robbins came from the Minneapolis Star Tribune where he was a change editor. Before that he was assistant managing editor/features and earlier executive sports editor.

Mark G. Contreras was hired as senior vice president of Pulitzer Community Newspapers. He worked with the new Pulitzer president Woodworth at the Knight-Ridder chain as publisher and president of The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

SUBURBAN JOURNALS

Scott Wright has joined the Journals as advertising director. Most recently he worked for the Ottaway Newspapers of Campbell Hall, N.Y. as corporate advertising director of 19 daily newspapers. Before that he spent five years at Scripps Howard Newspapers with the Evansville (Ind.) Courier.

AD/PR

ADAMSON

Adamson Advertising, Inc. has added a fourth partner, restructured responsibilities and changed its name. It has dropped "Advertising" to become "Adamson."

The company has named Alan Epstein a fourth partner/executive vice president. He joined the agency in 1997. Previously, Epstein was a managing partner at Kupper Parker Advertising.

Adamson has restructured its management team as follows: Richard Rubenstein, partner/chairman/chief executive officer; Norman Berger, partner/president; Jefferson Miller, partner/executive vice president; and Epstein, partner/executive vice president.

Kim Boyer has been promoted to senior vice president/director of account management; Scott Dieckgraefe to senior vice president/director of media services; Mark Bretz to vice president/director of public relations; and Melanie Kachevas to director of operations.

Jeff Rule has been appointed director of production services, and Erin Conroy has been named public relations account executive.

ATKINSON GROUP, INC.

Dianne Eultgen has been promoted to senior graphic artist, Elaine Hollen to senior account executive, Mike Molloy to associate creative director, Martha Sloboda to account executive, and Genna Trammel to assistant production manager.

BUCK CONSULTANTS

Eric Hutchins has been promoted to associate communications consultant. Shean Benson joined as a graphic designer.

CREATIVE PRODUCERS GROUP

Michael Hunter has been named senior account executive. He will develop and service corporate accounts.

D'ARCY MASIUS BENTON & BOWLES

Molly Sims, a vice president/account director, has been promoted to senior vice president/group account director.

Bill Miller and John McDermott has been promoted to senior vice president/group account director and group creative director, respectively.

Glenn D. Sundin, a vice president/account director, has been elected a senior vice president of the advertising agency.

DRONE & MUELLER AND ASSOCIATES

Tom Neth has joined the agency as an internet support specialist.

FALK HARRISON CREATIVE

Bill Goodin has been named media director.

FIRST FINANCIAL PLANNERS

Dan Ashdown has been named senior vice president/CIO of information services. He is a former director of operations for MD Consult LLC, an Internet-based medical information service.

THE GLENNON CO.

Annette McCall has been promoted to junior media buyer. The following have joined the company; Dave Wells, senior account manager; Christine Corrigan Mendez, account manager; Christopher Ashley, art director; Dolores Gelbach, senior media buyer; Jonathon Fore, art director; Christine Schroer, art director; Sharon Kaiser, production manager; and Penny Samargian, accounting clerk.

KELLER & ASSOCIATES

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Melanie Drysdale has been appointed account assistant. Stephanie Jones has joined the agency as an intern for the spring semester.

KUPPER PARKER COMMUNICATIONS INC.

Doug Moore has joined as an account executive and Jesse Lenhoff as an account coordinator.

SALSMAN LUNDGREN

PUBLIC RELATIONS, INC.

Beth Richard has been named an account executive.

THE STANDING PARTNERSHIP

Denise Bentele Heintz has been named vice president of account services; Tammy Stankey, account manager; Beth Champlin, account coordinator; and Dan Jenkins has been promoted to senior account executive.

THE VANDIVER GROUP

Traci Haynes has joined the agency as an account team member.

AGENCY NEWS

BILLBOARD SYSTEMS

Billboard Systems, a new company, founded by Betty Kelly Day, will provide outdoor advertising and placement servicing for agencies and direct clients. Previously, Kelly Day was affiliated with Outdoor Systems (formerly Gannett Outdoor) for 11 years.

GRANDONE HAUSER, INC

The agency has been awarded two new contracts by GHB Publishers, L.L.C. and Gateway FUTUREKIDS.

GHB Publishers, L.L.C. a St. Louis-based publishing company, has retained the firm to promote a new series of books profiling well-known sports figures. The first four books in the Sports Snaps series are written by Jeff Gordon, sportswriter for the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

The firm has been awarded a new contract with Reliant Energy, formerly Houston Industries, Inc., a diversified international energy services company based in Houston, Texas.

KELLER & ASSOCIATES PUBLIC RELATIONS

The agency has added the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association's Historic Shaw Art Fair, the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO) and the Justine Petersen Housing & Reinvestment Corporation to its list of clients.

KOCHAN & COMPANY

Senoret Chemical, manufacturer and distributor, has selected the company as agency-of-record to develop new packaging and implement a national trade media communications campaign.

The agency has been selected by The Belle of Sioux City Casino in Iowa to provide marketing and advertising services. The Belle of Sioux City is an Argosy Gaming Company.

St. Louis' PBS Television Station KETC (Channel 9) has retained Kochan's services to create and produce radio spots to promote Channel 9 and to communicate KETC Pledge Drives, programming, and special events.

AWARDS

FINAN PUBLISHING CO.

Thomas J. Finan, IV, president, has been named Webster Groves Citizen of the Year by the Webster Groves Chamber of Commerce.

FALK HARRISON CREATIVE

The 1997 annual report of Argosy Gaming Company, designed and written by the agency has earned the Platinum Award presented by The Gaming Industry. The report also received a Gold Award as best in its category of small-cap companies with casino revenues under $350 million, and a second-place Silver Award in a new category recognizing graphic design.

Illinois campaign data available on web site

The Center for Responsive Politics and other organizations provide state and federal campaign data for many states. While no data for Missouri is available so far, a new site for Illinois, known as "Open Secrets Illinois" has been added (www.opensecrets.org/il). The site is a joint effort of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform and the Center.

DEADLINE

n The National Federation of Press Women, St. Louis (MO) Chapter, will host the state convention of Missouri Press Women April 23-24. Winners of the annual competition for both professionals and students in communications will be announced at a luncheon at the St. Louis Junior League on Sat. April 24. For more information call Pamela Walter: 725-5332 or George L. Stemmler: 862-1733.

n Opponents of the death penalty have organized a "March in March," on Sat. March 6, 1999 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Jefferson City. For more information call 314-962-4937 or email: [email protected].

n The St. Louis Artists' Guild will sponsor an evening of casino games and fun "Luck of the Draw" on Sat., March 20, 7 to 10 p.m. at Two Oak Knoll in Clayton. $35 includes finger foods and drinks.