Early Edition

The system has to be fixed

By Ed Bishop

Sean O'Brien, the head of the public defenders office in Kansas City, tells this story: A few years ago, a teenager who had been tried as an adult arrived at one of Missouri's prisons to begin his sentence. He was short, slightly built, 16 years old, and looked even younger. After being processed, a prison guard told him to strip and then proceeded to parade the naked young man down the walkway of a cell block, auctioning him off to the highest bidder. The young man became what prison slang calls a "bitch" for an older, muscular felon, who not only used the teenager sexually himself but also loaned him out to other prisoners in return for cigarettes and drugs.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Rape and murder occur in America's prisons at a staggering rate. Guards are corrupt, contraband drugs are plentiful and an atmosphere of violence and despair gnaws at both officials and prisoners. Almost without exception, everyone in America's prisons is poor and uneducated, including the guards, whose pay is barely above poverty scale. In America's justice system, nobody with means goes to prison.

On top of all this, when trying poor people, prosecutors use every trick in the book-misplacing evidence, misplacing documents, misplacing witnesses. Prosecutors will make shady deals with accomplices to turn state's evidence. They'll mislead juries. They'll intimidate defendants. They'll go for the death penalty every chance they get.

Ambitious folks know that the fastest way up the political ladder is to gain a reputation as a hard-nosed prosecutor. If you want to be the Attorney General of the United States, you better start your career as a Bible-toting, death-demanding prosecutor.

Early last March, I began teaching a course on investigative reporting. I had 10 students. I divided them into two teams of five and assigned each team to a man on death row.

They were shocked at what they found out by talking to the prisoners, other inmates, prison officials, defense attorneys, prosecutors and relatives of the two men. Shocked is too mild. They were horrified. And it wasn't just that they became convinced of the innocence of the two men-Richard Clay and Joe Amrine. They couldn't believe what they discovered about the justice system or about penitentiaries; it couldn't happen, not in America.

The students discovered a huge black hole in our society that is filled with torture, rape, mayhem and murder. A black hole condoned by politicians and ignored by the media. And we call it the Justice System. They were outraged.

I think that if the general public, even the most skeptical, knew what my students now know, most people would be outraged too.

But they don't.

The news media in this country have done a terrible job of covering crime in general and punishment in particular. If any area of our society cries out more for good investigative reporting than the criminal-justice system, I can't think of it. Every few months, you hear of another college journalism class that has helped get someone off death row. Why are overworked and underpaid public defenders and journalism students bringing these issues to light, while major news outlets are not? Folks at local newspapers and TV stations around Missouri should get off their butts and do some digging.

Fortunately for Clay, a federal appeals judge has ruled that he should get a new trial. Clay's appeals lawyer, Jennifer Brewer, was obsessed with his case and wouldn't give up. She was dedicated and tireless. My students helped too. And now Bill Lhotka of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has done a couple of excellent follow-up stories on the Clay case, exposing a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct on the part of Rep. Kenny Hulshof, who was one of the prosecutors at the Clay trial and who had other appeals judges question his prosecutorial conduct.

But Joe Amrine still languishes on death row. He will probably be executed this fall. He is almost certainly not guilty of the murder for which he is to die.His attorney, Sean O'Brien, is still working hard but he knows he is working in the black hole of our society.

Where is the public outrage? Where is the media coverage?

By the way, the students on the Amrine team, long after the semester ended, are still working on his case. They can't stand injustice. You shouldn't either.

Letters

Lack of Imagination

SJR: The cover story of SJR's July/August edition caught my eye at a West End newsstand. The topic: The death of the Sunday St. Louis Post-Dispatch's "Imagine St. Louis" section.

I bought it and brought it home. Then I read it. First with bewilderment, then fascination, and finally with a kind of melancholy that is all too familiar to St. Louisians.

SJR's choice of language, the words its writers used to describe "Imagine St. Louis," its significance and the significance of its demise, was the source of my bewilderment.

Not learned in the vocabulary of journalistic criticism, I had assumed that those engaged in commenting on the quality of what professional writers and editors produce would themselves engage in careful discourse, using nuanced, well-ordered, illuminating words.

Instead, I found: "dumb," "insipid," "shallow," "misleading," "vacuous," "boring," "mindless," "ill-conceived," "elitist," and "good riddance." And that was just on the cover.

I opened the book and found: "dumb" (again), "insurmountable flaws," "elitist" (again), "narrow," "father knows best," "naïve to the point of absurdity," "simplistic," "flaw[ed] from the get go," "idealistic nonsense," "good riddance" (again), "gobbledygook mindset of its mastermind," "self-appointed gurus," "cult-like," "fluff speak," "maddening," "laziest and least interesting ... known to mankind," "hype," "inflated expectations," "egregious," "rambling," "pretentious," "shoddy," "short shrift," "overwrought buzz words," "fundamental frauds" and "fraudulence."

The closing words? "[P]ublic betrayal."

I sought to reconcile SJR's extravagance with the substance of its commentary: Its sources and the actual Imagine St. Louis content analyzed, measured against my own, refreshed recollection of "Imagine St. Louis" as a St. Louis Post-Dispatch subscriber and reader.

The sources? There were three.

•A woman named Rosemary Armao, who is said to be an investigative reporter but we are not told for whom. She had nothing to say about "Imagine St. Louis," at least nothing reported by SJR. But she evidently does have antipathy for what is sometimes called "public" or "civic" journalism.

•A guy from St. Louis named Dale Taylor. He, evidently, wrote a letter to the Post criticizing, as unrealistic, the "Imagine St. Louis" attempt to educate its readers on issues surrounding public subsidy of a new stadium.

SJR doesn't tell us anything else about Taylor, other than that, while "hardly profound," he was "prophetic." Taylor's realized "prophecy," according to SJR, was the inability of "Imagine St. Louis" to single-handedly move new-stadium decision-making out of the "backroom" and into a larger, moreopen public discussion.

•An unnamed Southern Illinois University professor. She (whoever she is) evidently criticized a suggestion, reported in "Imagine St. Louis," that enlisting lay reading tutors may be one community response to illiteracy.

Her sole reported comment: reading tutors are like "candy stripers" called in to "do surgery."

The actual "Imagine St. Louis" content analyzed by SJR? Again, three entries.

•In November 1999, "Imagine St. Louis" considered how the Kiel Opera House might be resurrected and put to its "highest and best use." The principal criticism? Reporting the "glory of yesteryear at the opera house" did not make a sufficiently "strong case" to show why people who live in the suburbs "should care" about the opera house's fate.

•Two weeks later, "Imagine St. Louis" examined the relationship between the "high tech" boom in St. Louis and the availability of local venture capital to entrepreneurs. The criticism here? St. Louis's "Joe Six Packs" aren't interested and, in any case, wouldn't understand the common English word "catalyst," as used in the "Imagine" discussion.

•A March 2000 edition of "Imagine St. Louis" focused on an idea for the creation of a new downtown museum about American character. The problem? Again, the "Average Joe." He doesn't care about museums, says SJR, and, even if he does, one devoted to American character wouldn't inspire him.

These last two examples became of particular interest to me when I logged on to SJR's website. There I found commentary on "Imagine St. Louis" from two years earlier, by the same SJR writer. Then he endorsed as "insightful" the view that "Imagine St. Louis" was part of the movement to "dumb down" the Post. Now he says content goes over the heads of average readers.

The SJR writer's commentary may have been contradictory but his use of invective was not. Then, as now, he used such descriptive terms as: "convoluted," "plenty of hype," "cult-like language," "hype and self-promotion," "cannibalization," "deliciously different in-house puffery," "[j]ettisoning news fare for civic fluff," "total indoctrination and surrender to the "fluffspeak," "at once profound and pathetic," "maddening," "decidedly, if not deliberately, boring," and "a mere sham."

It was at this point that my outlook on SJR's treatment of "Imagine St. Louis" moved from bewilderment to fascination.

Plainly (to me at least) the sources and content SJR cited did not support its immoderate use of invective. The words SJR used seemed so abusive in relation to the evidence presented.

But I wanted to make sure. So I logged on to the Post's website to refresh my recollection of what "Imagine St. Louis" had been covering and how.

The topics?

Job creation strategies in a regional economy ... the relationship of teacher to student and how it affects educational quality ... promoting public safety through DWI enforcement ... racial profiling by law enforcement agencies ... school violence ... the evolution of the Grand Center cultural district ... health care delivery to women ... the consequences of high school drop out rates ... political redistricting ... how the urban environment affects public health ... state transportation policy and how it drives economic development in the local economy ... regional approaches to the health care delivery ... strategies for, and impediments to, retaining talented young adults in St. Louis (brain drain) ... perceived qualities of a strong mayor for St. Louis ... whether being a corporate "headquarters city" does or should affect civic self-image and confidence ... domestic violence ... philanthropic and cultural institutions' role in regional infrastructure ... equity in public school funding ... "bio tech's" potential for growing the local economy ... municipal fragmentation ... public safety and high-speed police chases ... standardized testing in schools ... regional strategies for funding schools, recreation, and waste/water management ... the larger public health implications of dental care being unavailable to low income people ... urban sprawl ... economic opportunity for people with disabilities ... achievement gaps in education ... downtown development ... child abuse ... the long term implications of urban disinvestment ... airport expansion and the regional economy ... child and adult illiteracy ... tobacco and public health ... home rule.

How were these topics reported?

Through news analysis by established beat reporters ... invited commentary by local figures accomplished in their fields-political, academic, religious, private sector, grass roots ... contact information about key decision makers and interest groups (by name, position, address, phone number and, sometimes, e-mail address) who may influence the issue's development or outcome, with a description of what is their interest and influence ... a bibliography of background material with advice on how to obtain it, either through conventional publishers or online ... weekly discussions of issues on television ... hosting public meetings and online discussions ... inviting and publishing commentary through letters and e-mail.

I don't read a newspaper from the standpoint of a person who writes about people who write about people whose actions or inactions affect the community in which my family and I live. But I'm curious enough by nature to be interested in learning what people who do those things have to say about journalistic standards.

I was fascinated to learn that, at least according to the SJR, there is no place in St. Louis's journalistic landscape to report on these topics in the way they were reported by "Imagine St. Louis." Promoting understanding of these issues-health care, culture, education, housing for the poor, self-governance, public safety-in this way is, at once, "dumb" and "elitist," "narrow" and "inflated," "simplistic" and "pretentious," "idealistic" and "insipid," we are told.

Indeed, according to SJR, deviating from the terse, formulaic who, what, when, where and why of what happened yesterday, by suggesting these things might be grist for a larger "conversation" in the community, and then (horrors) actually inviting that conversation is not just an affront to journalism, it is an outrage of a magnitude that compels nothing less than headlong, summary imposition of the journalistic death penalty, followed by a collective spitting (or worse) on the grave.

The truth, of course, is that "Imagine St. Louis," however imperfect it may have been in its conception and in its execution from week to week, was a noble undertaking. It helped people like my family, and me, and people we associate with-people who are less inclined to "sniff" about and more inclined to think, talk, and actually do something about things that are important to our shared community life.

Like many noble St. Louis undertakings, "Imagine St. Louis" fell victim not so much to its imperfections but to the challenge it posed to those in St. Louis who lack and are threatened by imagination.

Eddie Roth

St. Louis lawyer

Naming names

SJR: As a long-time employee of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch I always enjoy reading your publication to keep up with what's going on at the Post.

I found your comments about the new "NewsWatch" section interesting.

You named numerous people involved with the new section, however you failed to include the name of the person responsible for the graphics while reporting "Graphically, the section was fine."

That person was Chris Snider.

I admit I know absolutely nothing about graphics and also admit I don't care to learn about graphics, however I think Chris deserves mention by name.

John Duxbury

Sports Department

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Kicked out

SJR: I would like to raise the question of whether community leaders should be concerned about a recent trend involving reactions to key personnel brought to St. Louis to fill important positions in public life.

One recent example was that Mr. Donald Campbell (sic) whose forced departure as editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is continuing to engender negative backwash in journals like the St. Louis Journalism Review.

Now we also have the case of Mr. Donald Roth who has evidently been forced out as president of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra after only three years here. Again there are indications of bad feelings that were generated both within the orchestra and among groups in the community.

Is this part of a pattern, and if so, what is going on? Why is this selection of public personalities from positions in smaller cities proving less satisfactory than in the past? Both the Post and the symphony are having problems, but it does not appear as though these men are just scapegoats. They seem to have pursued policies which provoked some predictable responses. Was this taken into account by the people who selected them? How similar were the two situations?

Is there one need to cast more widely for parts of the explanantion? Is this pattern possibly indirectly related to the fact that prior to and during this period some of the largest local corporations have been absorbed by companies located in other cities?

Arnold J. Heidenheimer

Political Science Department

Washington University

Changing Times

SJR: After selling the Riverfront Times in 1998, Ray Hartmann, its founder, seldom visited the newsroom, choosing instead to write his commentaries from his homes in University City or Miami Beach, Fla., where he keeps a second residence. Eventually, he stopped dropping by his office altogether. In April, I helped another staff writer push his desk into editor Safir Ahmed's office.

The move, which occurred late one Friday afternoon, came without explanation. I realize now that I should have recognized the portent of the occasion. Within weeks, I was told to clean out my own desk on a moment's notice. New Times Inc., the owner of the newspaper, had finally decided to put its indelible stamp on the RFT, molding it in the image of the dozen other publications it controls in major cities across the country. The harbingers of this change had already appeared: the redesigned layout, the altered masthead, the tweaking of the smallest of details. I chose to see these alterations merely as window dressing. Call it hubris or blind optimism, but I thought the mission of the newspaper remained the same. I also assumed wrongly that the differences I had with my editors over policy and content would be tolerated because of the passion I showed for my work.

After being fired, I contacted Ed Bishop, editor of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Bishop assigned Alex Posorske, a young reporter, to cover the story of my dismissal. Posorske interviewed me in person and by telephone. During the interviews, I criticized the editorial shift at the RFT. Posorske then called the editors at the RFT for a response. This is standard procedure for all reporters. Reporters at the RFT do it everyday. Nevertheless, when New Times' corporate leadership saw the resulting story, they chose to personally attack Posorske.

In a letter to SJR, Andy Van de Voorde, the executive associate editor of New Times, called Posorske's story "boneheaded" and an "amateurish piece of claptrap." He accused Posorske of being "my best friend" and called him a "home-boy." The New Times spokesman reserved his most vituperative remarks for me, accusing me of performing an enema on myself.

The sarcastic tone of Van de Voorde's missive demonstrates a prevalent attitude at New Times and the RFT, which may be best termed sophomoric. When he wasn't belittling the SJR's reporter or me, Van de Voorde attempted to defend the newspaper's record by bestowing a series of accolades on it.

There is a flaw in his strident defense, however. Van de Voorde is an absentee landlord. He oversees the St. Louis newsroom from Denver, where the New Times' editorial offices are located. Therefore, Van de Voorde has no personal knowledge or understanding of the day-to-day operation of the RFT. To carry out his long-distance duties, he must by necessity rely on information filtered through Roland Klose, the RFT's managing editor. Indeed, the main reason Klose was hired as managing editor at the RFT was to act as the eyes and ears of the new corporate ownership.

However good his intentions, Klose, a former reporter and editor for the Memphis Commercial Appeal and Tampa Tribune, caused discord at the RFT almost immediately. By his own admission, he was unsuited for his job in middle management and was disillusioned with his career. More importantly, though , Klose disagreed with our mutual boss-editor Safir Ahmed.

The house was divided, torn asunder, and the differences between the two editors began having an impact on morale of the staff. Writers became caught in the crossfire. Klose groused to me about Ahmed's work habits, complaining that he rarely arrived in the office before 10 or 11 a.m. But Klose refrained from informing Van de Voorde of Ahmed's AWOL status and the situation festered.

Klose also took great exception to Ahmed's deliberative editing style, which was diametrically opposite of his. Ahmed, to his credit, was meticulous in his edits and would involve the writer in a collaborative process. If he felt substantive changes needed to be made, he would allow the writer to do so. Klose, on the other hand, referred to his own editing technique as "slash and burn." He would cut passages and rewrite paragraphs without the reporter's input and then hand it back to him or her expecting tacit approval. When I objected once, he threatened to kill the story. After Klose finished placing his mark on a piece, reporters would then have to go back and edit their own work to make sure he had not inserted any errors into their copy. After this arduous and redundant task, the story would then go to Ahmed, who would sometimes instruct the reporters to change the story back to the way they had originally written it. It was akin to writing by committee, with each editor trying to validate his role at the writer's expense. Rarely, if ever, did this process improve the writing or reporting.

Despite these internal conflicts, I continued to devote myself to in-depth, investigative journalism- which was what I was hired to do. I tackled complicated public policy issues including environmental issues, tax increment financing, urban sprawl and flood plain development. As recently as last January, I scooped the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a story about air quality problems at a proposed cement kiln in northern Jefferson County.

I had the experience to tackle these complicated stories because I had a good teacher. When Ahmed became editor of the RFT in 1991, I was already a free-lance feature writer for the newspaper. As a former reporter for the Post, Ahmed expected me to write and report on a broader and more serious level. He was the quintessential hard news editor. Ultimately, under his guidance, I won the 1997 award for best investigative reporting from the Missouri Press Association. As recently as April 2000, Van de Voorde himself lauded me for being a finalist in the Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Awards. New Times rewarded me with an $800 bonus. This honor, of course, is conspicuously missing from the list that Van de Voorde submitted to the St. Louis Journalism Review.

Not surprisingly, I wrote the story, which gained national recognition, before Klose ever darkened the door at the RFT. After his arrival, it became more difficult to cover the topics that I had in the past. He expressed total disdain for stories related to dioxin contamination. He also showed little interest in a wide range of other environmental topics. These issues were passe, according to Klose. In short, his abject worldview went beyond the pale of the most jaded editor. He showed contempt for sources, referring to them as snitches, or, in one case, "a lying sack of shit." In the same vein, Klose routinely referred to old people as "geezers."

This is the person to whom I was expected to kowtow.

As for the New Times quota system-journalists shouldn't be required to work piece meal. The measure of your worth can't be quantified by how many words you produce. Besides, nobody at the RFT met the quota last year. It would be arithmetically impossible for all the writers to have met the quota because there was not a big enough news hole to accommodate all the stories. In addition, Van de Voorde is wrong in stating that my output was the lowest on the staff. New Times editors are themselves expected to write for a living, too. In nearly three years' time, Ahmed and Klose have collectively generated a total of only three cover stories. As for my own circumstances, I could have possibly come closer to achieving the quota, if I had written feature stories about high school proms, UFOs or the death of a chimpanzee. But that's not what Ahmed had told me to do-until earlier this year.

During my annual evaluation in January, Ahmed suggested I emulate another RFT writer, who was then profiling a downtown midget. This is the same editor who taught me how to do investigative journalism. At a subsequent staff meeting, Ahmed told everybody present that we were to concentrate on writing "wacky" stories. Contrary to Van de Voorde's allegation, no other adjectives were used to describe the editorial shift. Ahmed-the consummate hard newsman-seemed at a loss to describe the editorial shift in any other way. We were also told that there would be no more than a handful of public policy issues published per year. The corporate hierarchy had handed Ahmed an edict and he was carrying it out without protest. "Gotcha journalism," as Van de Voorde refers to it, has replaced substantive reporting. The targets of the RFT are nowadays more apt to be minor public figures bereft of any power.

New Times was virtually pushing me out the door, but I still didn't know it. Like any other capitalist enterprise, the newspaper trade lives and dies by the bottom line. My employer, a burgeoning chain, had bought three alternative weeklies in as many years, and now the economy was starting to tilt south. Ad lineage was stagnant. The bean counters likely issued a warning. Something had to give, or, more accurately, somebody had to go.

It is disingenuous for Van de Voorde to say that New Times increased the editorial budget by more than 50 percent. Most of that initial increase went to pay the inflated salaries of the top three bosses: Hartmann, Ahmed and Klose. In fact, Klose's job didn't even exist before New Times bought the RFT. Moreover, since being fired, my position hasn't been filled. Essentially, New Times has downsized the RFT and a wage freeze is in effect. The people who remain at the newspaper are being forced to do more work for substandard pay. The majority of those doing the heavy lifting are women. If ever there was a work place in need of a union, it is the RFT. In the last six months, four out of 12 members of the editorial staff have left the paper; a 33 percent turnover. The loss of talent tallies up to more than three decades of experience. The senior writer-the "geezer"-is the only one who didn't go by his own volition.

In July, I went to New Orleans with the intention of attending the Association of Alternative Newspapers' annual conference, but instead found myself dancing in the streets as a part of a jazz funeral of a local R&B singer, who was buried at St. Louis Cemetery #2. That night, I saw Hartmann, the founder of the RFT, at Tipitina's, an uptown club. There was nothing left to say. I moved away from him toward the center of the room and found myself swept away by the funky music of Papa Mali. After I had been fired, I had called the founder of the RFT. Hartmann had expressed his regrets and told me that he most likely would not renew his contract with New Times in November.

The Riverfront Times is dead.

C.D. Stelzer

Second thought

SJR: Read the article in the June St. Louis Journalism Review by Alex Porsorske concerning C.D. Stelzer and the Riverfront Times. It was interesting, but didn't give it much consideration. Then read with surprise Andy Van De Voorde's lengthy rebuttal letter to the SJR. I have to now believe the Porsorske's article and Stelzer's statements must have a lot of truth to them since they got such a "hot" reaction from New Times, Inc.'s top corporate guy for the Midwest.

David E. Cassens

Director of Development

Library and Information Services

Southern Illinois University-

Edwardsville

Off the Record

Greed

Newspaper chains that cut staff and coverage, citing the fact that earnings are falling in a disastrous manner, are merely proving the old saying that figures don't lie but liars figure.

Gannett and Knight-Ridder, one, and two in size, both wept crocodile tears when they described second-quarter earnings as below those of a year ago.

Sounds ominous, but in fact, both chains are making money-lots of money-but simply not enough to satisfy their owners and executives.

They talk about shareholders losing money, but that's just eyewash to cover items like K-R laying off 1,600 people in its chain of 320 papers and takinga one-time charge of $78.5 million to cover severance and such for them. But the chain still showed a profit of $13.4 million for the quarter. Granted, that's a large drop, but there still is no need for a benefit. And, if you ignore that severance payment, profits were at $60.5 million, and don't forget that severance was a one-time charge, not to be repeated in the third quarter.

Gannett, which owns 98 daily newspapers, from USA Today down, earned a profit of $233.5 million-for a single three-month period. Oh, a year ago, the same quarter showed a profit of $265.8 million. Net earnings were down 12 percent, but revenue was up 12 percent.

Meanwhile, Pulitzer, Inc., which owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Suburban Journals, the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, 12 other dailies and 36 weeklies, announced that revenue was up but earnings were down in the same three-month period as compared to last year. Revenue increased 10.8 percent for the quarter, 12.2 percent for the first six months. However, the corporation said that earnings were down from a year ago because of weak advertising, higher newsprint prices and special charges, primarily employee buyouts to reduce the staff.

It must be a tough time to own a newspaper chain.

-Joe Pollack

Picture this!

The continuing struggle over ownership of film footage of sporting events is: is it news and does it belong to the organizations that shoot the film, or is it just pictures and thus belongs to the people in the frames of film or to the organization whose uniforms the people wear?

There was a major battle recently in Oregon, where the University of Oregon claimed that game footage belonged to the school and could be used on television sports shows only in extremely limited amounts. And then, since college greed knows no bounds, the university decided it would choose the reporters who would interview the school's coaches. The school didn't quite get so far as to select the questions, but that probably was next.

When enough news organizations cried "Foul!" and took the time to explain to coaches and athletic directors what the U.S. Constitution was and what it said, the university decided to back off, citing its love for the First Amendment.

-Joe Pollack

Oldies gather

Veterans of the heyday of KXOK radio will descend on St. Louis Sept. 29 for the first-ever KXOK '60s reunion.

A public panel discussion is scheduled at the St. Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive, from 1-3 p.m. There is no admission charge, but the library asks that anyone wishing to attend make reservations by calling (314) 539-0305. There will be a display of KXOK memorabilia from the St. Louis Media Archives at the forum.

KXOK veterans scheduled to participate include Ray Otis, Steven B. Stevens, Robert R. Lynn, Richard Ward Fatherley and Delcia Corlew.

-Lynn Venhaus

House beautiful

Suppose you're Tony Ridder, the CEO of Knight Ridder, and you've had a terrible year, not making quite as much profit as the previous year and being forced to do all sorts of terrible things like laying off people and cutting the salaries of the working stiffs and scrimping and saving in every possible way.

But if you're Tony Ridder, you have to find an outlet somewhere. Sackcloth and ashes just don't do it forever.

So Tony Ridder remodeled and redecorated his California house, to the tune of many, many, many thousands of dollars, with his daughter and son-in-law involved in the process. And you wouldn't want to hide this beautiful light and beautiful remodeling job, especially when there are lots of other newspaper executives to impress, would you?

Check the September issue of House Beautiful, and all will be made clear.

-Joe Pollack

Baring all

Spelling and word usage mistakes continue to plague newspaper writers and editors from one end of the country to the other, and readers continue to pile up hilarious examples that should bring red faces, and maybe corrections, if only someone knew the difference between right and wrong.

Newspapers hate to admit mistakes, even if they do make lists of corrections, and it's difficult to know the exact cause. Perhaps the reporter misspelled the word and the editor failed to correct it. Perhaps the reporter misspelled the word and the editor inserted a different misspelling, compounding the felony. Perhaps the reporter spelled the word correctly and the editor's correction resulted in a misspelled word.

For example, the St. Louis American recently had a front-page headline in which it noted that a new school would "bare" the name of the Rev. Earl Nance.

And, The New York Times confused the spelling of the name of its own columnist and word maven, William Safire, with the gin and the jewel known as sapphire, though it did run a correction a few days later. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch used both a misspelling and a misplaced definition in a recent story about a neighborhood get-together where one of the neighbors came by to "kibbutz." That's a Hebrew word to define the collective farms on which young Israelis worked and lived in the early days of the nation. The reporter obviously meant "kibitz," or "kibbitz," a Yiddish word that describes a card-game onlooker (or any onlooker) who watches and listenes to the action, occasionally making a good-natured comment.

As far as is known, the Post did not run a correction, probably because Jerry Berger, who knows both words and the difference between them, was on vacation.

-Joe Pollack

Walking papers

A 20-year plus career in the same town is rare, and so was John Larrabee, the likable DJ on KYKY (98.1 FM) who was given his walking papers last month.

Throughout his Y98 tenure, he'd done mid-days and evening drive time, recently paired with Julie Buck. Known for his good humor and friendly demeanor, Larrabee was a comfy fit with the older female demographic but probably not what the Infinity station has in mind to boost its sagging ratings. The music mix has gotten younger, as it tries to grab the all-important 18- to 34-year-old female.

Mid-day iron man Greg Hewitt's been filling in some during the rush hour, and no replacement had been named at press time.

Infinity may have someone new in mid-September. Larrabee came to Y98, then KSLQ, in 1980, after a tenure in the New York market, WXLO (99 FM).

-Lynn Venhaus

Number one

It's a very low-volume chant, but as they walk in and out of their building at Raymond R. Tucker Boulevard and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, you can almost hear St. Louis Post-Dispatch employees muttering, "We're No. 1!"

We are?

Well, yes, in a new survey by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, ranking top-minimum salaries of Newspaper Guild members in a complex formula and published recently in the Guild's newspaper, Post salaries are the best in the nation. The ranking uses a "basic family budget," for a minimum income to support "a safe and decent standard of living." It's roughly twice the poverty level, and includes costs for food, housing, child care, health care, transportation, taxes and "other necessities."

The survey covers 53 newspapers, where salaries were translated into yearly income ($54,808 for Post reporters and photographers), and the chart listed minimum income needed for a family of four (two adults, one working, and two children) and a family of two (one adult, one child). Those figures came to $32,102 and $21,505, respectively. On another list, ranking the salary scale as a percentage of the minimum income needed for a family of four and two, Post reporters earned 171 percent and 255 percent of the necessary amounts, again leading the nation.

The figures provided only a few surprises. The New York Times, whose top scale of $73,675 led the nation, actually provided 156 and 200 percent of minimum family needs, and ranked 13th. Cost of living makes the difference. The Toledo Blade, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Memphis Commercial Appeal rounded out the top five behind the Post.

And there are 18 newspapers whose reporters do not earn at the level needed for a family of four to live in comfort. That group, ranked from the worst to what may only charitably be called the best, includes: the Hour (Norwalk, Conn.), 43 percent; Noticias del Mundo (New York), 50 percent; the Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.), 55 percent; the Observer-Dispatch (Utica, N.Y.), 55 percent; the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Wash.), 71 percent; the Independent (Massilon, Ohio), 81 percent; El Diario-La Prensa (New York), 81 percent; the Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.), 82 percent; the Enterprise (Brockton, Mass.), 84 percent; the Sun (Lowell, Mass.), 85 percent; the Californian (Bakersfield, Calif.), 88 percent; the Standard-Speaker (Hazelton, Pa.), 89 percent; the Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.), 91 percent; the Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.), 94 percent; the Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Calif.), 95 percent; the Daily News (Los Angeles), 97 percent; the Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.), 98 percent; and the Chieftain (Pueblo, Colo.), 99 percent.

-Joe Pollack

Old stadium

There will always be an ad man (or woman). He or she may be right. He or she may be wrong. But that person will be there.

At the end of a Cardinals' game recently, there was a commercial pushing Max and Erma's, the coffee shop at the new Drury Inn on Fourth and Walnut streets, also home to Carmine's Steak House.

The announcer made his pitch for the establishment, then closed by pointing out its address, "right across the street from the old stadium."

Premature? Or does he know something we don't know?

-Joe Pollack

Channels

One night, Channel 11 was best

By Tripp Frohlichstein

Who puts on the best newscast in St. Louis? It really depends on the night. Recently, I watched all the late night newscasts. On one occasion, Channel 5 was the clear winner, providing better coverage, superior production values and a well-rounded choice of stories.

The next time, it was Channel 11-no kidding. They had the most interesting broadcast with the widest range of stories. And, unlike our other local stations, they didn't get bogged down with crime news.

On July 13 (the night Channel 11 excelled), every station began with a different lead story. In other words, each station had a different idea of the most important story of the day. That usually signifies a slow news day.

Channel 5 started with a story of Bridgeton residents complaining about the airport dumping what they said was hazardous material in their community.

Channel 4 launched its newscast with the latest on the Congressman Gary Condit saga. It was the day he took a lie detector test. The station followed it with a John Mills story on lie detectors. It was a good idea but the execution of the story was lacking. It needed more demonstration of the device.

Channel 11 began with an interesting story about how kids are spending less and that was an indication of economic woes. It was effectively handled by Jeff Bernthal.

Channel 2 initiated its 9 p.m. show with the story of Governor Holden signing a bill forbidding same sex marriages in Missouri. It was a solid story but why reporter Victoria Griffin reported live from downtown is beyond me. It was another example of live for live's sake.

Finally, Channel 30 had the weakest lead by far. It started with a story reported by Dawn Kendrick about a dog accused of attacking a boy. The story was that the dog was being returned to the owner.

The boy had not been bitten but neighbors were upset. To his credit, the owner said he was not going to keep the dog in the neighborhood. Where's the story? You tell me.

All of the stations aired between 14 and 19 stories before weather. Some items worth noting:

Channel 4's promotion machine just won't give up. Larry Conners announced, "These are pictures you'll only see on Channel 4."

I think I know why. They were slightly south of worthless. A woman had been arrested after a car chase. But the pictures showed a woman electronically blurred so we couldn't recognize her (she hadn't been formally charged) standing by two policemen, one of whom was also blurred. Then, in the same newscast, an anchor noted "News 4 has learned ... " What they said they learned was on every other station as well. My assumption? They learned it from another station.

Later, they promoted a story about skin damage and the sun. The story was actually shorter than the promo.

Channel 4 also had writing difficulties that night. Reporting on the condition of the child who was badly bitten by a shark the week before, the station told viewers, "An 8-year-old victim of a shark attack is recovering tonight." Well of course he is. He's been recovering for a week. Instead, the station might have brought us up to date on his condition such as, "An 8-year-old victim of a shark attack remains in critical condition tonight."

Jargon was also a problem. In one story, the station noted "the NTSB is investigating." It did not explain what the National Transportation Safety board is. Sure, lots of people know but many don't. In a recent seminar, in order to demonstrate that acronyms can be a problem, I asked the group if they heard the NTSB was investigating a plane crash, would they know what NTSB stood for. About one in four of these executives did not know.

A few minutes later during a story on a puppy mill raid, an anchor noted, "Some are blind and some have mange." What's mange? I had to ask three people.

Stations need to remember they have learned the jargon through repetition while many of us have not.

Channel 4 did, however, handle the announcement of China getting the 2008 Olympics better than the other stations. It had excellent pictures of the Bejing celebrations and good local reaction.

Channel 30 missed the boat reporting on a body found. While the station only told viewers about its recovery, other stations were talking about the arrest of the man accused of killing the person.

The station also showed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaking at an event in St. Louis. Although the station's narration told viewers what he said, why didn't it play some sound from him? After all, how often to Supreme Court Justices speak in St. Louis.

Channel 30 got into the "who cares if it's exclusive" game. Reporter Tara Wall presented a story on China winning the Olympic bid. Dressed in an inappropriately low cut top (maybe it's okay for Jay Leno's show but not the news), she said, "We talked exclusively to Evander Holyfield" and "He told me exclusively ..." So? Should we be impressed? By the way, Holyfield was on the phone.

Channel 11's story mix was superior. Stories ranged from educators meeting in St. Louis to learn how to build the character of our kids to Soulard Bastille Day to the pop art exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum to a new plane delivered to a charitable group. They covered a lot of bases. All of those stories were among several only Channel 11 had. You got a sense that it was really thinking about giving viewers a broader sense of what was going on in the community other than criminal activities (it did carry a few short items on crime but spent little time on them).

Although many of the stories were well reported, not all were.

Victor Ojeda reported on the city's redistricting debate. When he was done, it was even more confusing than before he started. The writing was so perplexing, coupled with the use of only one soundbite from someone (it wasn't clear why he interviewed the person he did), I simply didn't get it.

Channel 5 was nondescript this night. It did devote an unusually long time, three and a half minutes, to its cover story on harness racing. Reporter Vivien Leigh filled the time reasonably well on the story which had to have limited interest. It would have been better at two minutes.

Finally, I feel sorry for the viewers seeking information about a Highway 40 lane closing for construction. One station said that the construction scheduled for the next day would affect only eastbound drivers. Another said only westbound drivers would be affected.

•••

A couple of weather woes to report. Channel 5's John Fuller was in the ozone on July 29 when, on the morning newscast, he told viewers the average high and low for the date were 78 and 58 (it was on the screen too). He didn't even realize what he was saying. That time of year, the average high is around 90 and the low 71. Why he didn't realize his graphic was incorrect and make the change is a mystery.

Fuller's colleague, Mike Roberts, needs to remember that his viewers do not have degrees in meteorology. On two different newscasts in late July, he told viewers that storms had blossomed into a convective complex. Is that like an apartment complex or a convective lens?

Finally, why is the Weather Channel-provided forecast for our area always different on Charter's all-local weather station (Channel 99 in the Kirkwood area) from the local forecast aired on the actual Weather Channel?

•••

Paul Shankmann continues to crank out superior work for KTVI (Channel 2). Take, for example, his delightful piece on Rib America, a downtown event featuring, what else, ribs. But Shankmann took what could have been your typical food feature and made it interesting and funny. His story was his search for the secret of award-winning ribs. With clever narration and cute video (he wrote each secret down in his notebook, getting more and more sauce on his notes as he went); he talked to several rib champions. In the end, we saw him rinsing his notes off in a stream of water. Shankmann remains one of the best feature reporters around.

•••

KMOV (Channel 4) has a good idea in its medical team (using actual area doctors on a regular basis along with the medical reporters) and in the couple segments I have seen, they executed well. Channel 4 has long led the health reporting in the area with Al Wiman. Wiman left his two-decade-plus gig there and will show up this fall on Channel 5. But before he hits the air, Channel 4 unveiled this new (for St. Louis) and quite good approach.

As long as the doctors remember to explain their points in English and not medicalese, Channel 4 may remain one up on Channel 5 when it comes to the health beat.

•••

July's rating numbers are in. Channel 5 stays comfortably on top, especially with gains at 10 p.m. and Channel 2 gains on Channel 4 at 6 p.m. (Channel 2 is also gaining on Channel 4 in the early morning news race). Channel 5's "Show-Me-St. Louis" also wins its 3-3:30 p.m. timeslot.

Those are the headlines from this less important Nielsen ratings period (the key ratings periods, which help determine rates stations charge advertisers are in November, February and May).

Listed on the previous page are the Nielsen ratings/share for stations in July 2001 compared with the previous July for the major daily newscasts. A rating point is equivalent to about 11,200 homes. The share represents the percent of homes watching television at a particular time compared with all homes currently watching any station at that time.

•••

Kudos to Mike Bush who has done a superb job moving from sports to part-time news anchor. Bush now co-anchors the Sunday night news on KSDK (Channel 5) and has shifted gracefully into the role.

Bush is again demonstrating he is multi-talented-as a capable sportscaster, play-by-play announcer and telethon emcee.

Accepting Bush as a news anchor may take some time. Viewers need to remove the sports stereotype. He is clearly more subdued as a news anchor but still adds more pitch and modulation to his reading than most other anchors. This makes him easier to listen to and more effective as a reader. You also get the feeling he understands his copy-that he has taken time to comprehend what he is telling viewers.

In July, Bush admitted he felt awkward with the move (who wouldn't?). But he appears to be having fun. Bush says there's always something happening in news and feels it's fun to be a part of it. Whatever Channel 5 is paying him. Isn't enough? (No, I am not his agent).

•••

Sept. 15 marks the date of the St. Louis/Mid-America Emmy Awards ceremony (sponsored by the local chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) to be held at the Chase Park Plaza. Sally Jessy Raphael will host.

This year, former Channel 5 General Manager Bill Bolster will be given the group's Governors' Award for lifetime achievement. Bolster helped rebuild Channel 5 into the powerhouse station it remains today.

As a critic for the Riverfront Times during the late 1980s, I admired Bolster. He was always available to talk and was also willing not only to acknowledge criticism but take it to heart to and make changes if he felt they would better Channel 5's broadcasts. If he didn't agree, he took his opinions right to me instead of complaining privately.

Congratulations to Bolster. He had a big impact on local television through much of the 1980s. Now chairman and CEO of CNBC International, he deserves his honor.

In terms of St. Louis nominations, my unofficial count gives Channel 4 a total of 42 nominations, Channel 5 has 29 nominations and Channel 2 has 25 nominations. Then, a big gap. KPLR (Channel 11) has five nominations while Channel 9 and KDNL (Channel 30) have four each. Kansas City stations grabbed 54 nominations. Other cities, government organizations and private companies took 57 nominations.

A reminder that the number of nominations and/or winning Emmy awards is not necessarily a reflection of how good a station is or how well it does in the ratings. It can also relate to how many entries were submitted, who judged the entries, when they were judged (morning, night, weekends) and the mood of the judges.

A couple of surprises. Mike Bush was not nominated for best sportscaster this year nor was Karen Foss as best anchor. The least surprising nomination is Dave Murray, nominated for the umpteenth time.

One other Emmy note. A true highlight of each year's ceremony has been the Blooper Tapes. This year they are in doubt because stations aren't forthcoming with new funnies.

C'mon folks. Lighten up. This is funny stuff and, instead of embarrassing, should remind people that even TV people are human. If TV stations can't laugh at themselves ...

Media/Politics

Post missed big story-big time

By Terry Jones

On June 27, the Clayton, Maplewood, and Richmond Heights City Councils each passed resolutions instructing their city managers to explore how the three suburban municipalities could cooperate better. No option, including a merger, is to be left off the table.

What was the media reaction? Front-page stories by the locals, the West End-Clayton Word and the Citizen Journal.. No surprise there since this has very direct implications for their readers.

But the St. Louis Business Journal also gave it prominent billing, making it one of its four front page items in the July 6-12 edition. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial page followed on July 19, with supportive comments.

The cleverly titled "Claywood Heights" item concluded that "this is an experiment that deserves great care and attention, and a lot of imitation."

So what play did this story get in the Post's news coverage? Front page?

No. Metro lead? No. Next day? No. Anything in the main edition? No. Instead, 15 days later on July 12, there was a 593-word article in the West Post zone section.

It was another example of the Post's practice of downplaying policy news from outside the central city. If it happens in the burbs, it belongs in the zones. Even though reporters like Phil Sutin, who wrote the July 12 piece, know this material quite well, the paper's preoccupation with the City of St. Louis pushes such items to the periphery.

No matter that this was a classic man-bites-dog story with significant regional implications. Instead of having governmental cooperation proposed top-down by well-intentioned civic elites, complete with implied criticisms about the parochialism of those leading suburban municipalities, here was a cooperative initiative put forward by the local elected officials themselves. That alone merited coverage.

Add to it the potential ripple effect-if these three municipalities can talk about working together, it provides political cover for others to imitate them-and you have the possibility of altering governmental arrangements in St. Louis County.

Contrast this with all the attention given the city's Board of Aldermen redistricting. Even before Alderman Irene Smith's antics putting the urination pot back into the aldermanic chambers made this topic a circus, between May 13 and July 18 the Post had seven news stories, one Jo Mannies column, and one editorial on the proposed plan.

During the same period, by comparison, there was essentially nothing written about the Missouri state legislative redistricting commission's deliberations, even though they have more implications for the entire region and, arguably, even for the city itself.

It would be difficult to justify this extensive coverage even if the city's redistricting debate had major public policy or political power implications. The proposed plan, which shifts one ward from North St. Louis to South St. Louis, has much more to do with personalities, however, than it does with racial political balance or public policy priorities.

Instead, it is payback time for Alderman Sharon Tyus, the current legislator from the ward headed south, and she is not at all happy about being the victim.

The new south ward will still have a majority black population, albeit by a smaller margin, carrying with it the strong possibility that, after one or two elections, the black-white representation on the board will remain the same. Even if the reconstructed ward has a white alderman, he or she will need to pay close attention to African-American constituent interests in order to stay in office, meaning the legislative voting record would differ little from that of a black representative.

Instead of placing all this in context, however, the Post has allowed Tyus's provocative rhetoric not only to influence how the story is framed, enabling her to transform a struggle about her personal political fortunes into an alleged fight for racial justice, but by giving the matter so much prominence, has encouraged its readers to conclude that the city's Board of Aldermen redistricting is a major controversy when, in fact, it is a minor sidebar.

With these two situations, as well as with others, the Post still acts as if the city remains the dominant center of the region's universe, that its municipal government merits attention throughout the metropolitan area while other local jurisdictions have their business relegated to the zones. The consequence is often skewed coverage, downplaying fundamental events and upgrading trivial happenings.

Radio History

Jack Carney goes in Hall of Fame

By Frank Absher

Late in the evening of Saturday, Nov. 3, the name of the late Jack Carney of KMOX will be added to the Hall of Fame at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. He'll join fellow KMOX folk Jack Buck and the late Harry Caray. But unlike that sports duo, Carney is known primarily for his work as a host on KMOX.

John Francis Carney, Jr., was born in Omaha in 1932 and came to St. Louis to work as a disc jockey at WIL from 1958 to 1960. He had been in radio since 1951, having started at Tucumcari, NM. His resume, like many successful deejays, read like a Greyhound bus schedule: Clovis, N.M.; Paris, Texas; Dallas; Phoenix; Galveston, Texas; Milwaukee; Atlanta and Boston. Rock and roll was really coming into its own, and upstart WIL made a run for the music audience owned by KXOK. Carney, along with Gary Owens, Bob Osborne, Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy and others, managed to catapult their station to the top. But then, logical fate intervened, and all the announcers were hired away by bigger stations.

Jack Carney went to WABC in New York, arguably the biggest station in the country. He walked away from the job and its salary of $2,000 a week after only six months, saying he didn't want to be known for selling pimple cream to kids. He was about 30-years-old. After some wandering and soul-searching, followed by a stint at KSFO in San Francisco, he came back to St. Louis and joined KMOX in 1971. His shift was the mid-morning show previously hosted by Jack Buck.

To say that he was successful here is a gross understatement. Jack Carney owned an audience at KMOX, which was a tribute not only to his exceptional creativity and talent, but also to his intelligent approach to the job, which involved surrounding himself with talented, intelligent support people. Clarence Nieder (engineer), Frank Pawlowski (producer) and Katie Slade (personal secretary) helped Carney make his show into what is now known as "appointment broadcasting," that is, a program people will arrange their schedules to listen to.

The program seemed to be unplanned, which was part of Carney's genius. There were semi-regular features like "Percy Dovebreath," "As Your Stomach Turns," "Stairway to Stardom," "Polka Time," and advice from Miss Blue, who was the station's cleaning lady. There were sports reports from "young, handsome Gary Bender" and "young Bobby Costas" and regular visits from newsman Rex Davis and sports announcer Bob Starr. Carney once admitted to a magazine reporter that he was at his best when he could bounce comments off others. A couple of KMOX folk tried to hitch their wagons to Carney, but he deftly sapped the air from their sails.

Arbitron documented Carney's span of influence at his peak: in any average quarter hour he had more than 100,000 listeners. No station in St. Louis comes close to that in any day or part today.

Just how good was he? Here are some educated opinions:

Eric Mink (then St. Louis Post-Dispatch radio/tv critic): "Jack Carney was without question the ultimate on-air pitchman. Selling refrigerators to Eskimos would have been as easy for Carney as inhaling...The effectiveness of Carney's commercials was due to his mastery at weaving them into the fabric of his program. The two elements were so intimately intertwined that often it was impossible to tell where the program stopped and the commercial began."

Dan Ingram (disc jockey WIL and WABC): "When we worked together at WIL, Jack had the uncanny ability to ad lib a spot and make an essay out of it. I've never known anyone else who could do it. His talent was unique, his humor uplifting and inspiring. Jack was wild, fun, wonderful to know and incredibly talented."

Robert Hyland (KMOX general manager) "He was a giant in the industry. There will never be another. He had a unique style that will never be duplicated. He was one of the greatest communicators that I have ever seen."

In the early '80s, Jack Carney was paid an annual salary of $400,000, and that amount was greatly supplemented by extra fees paid for him to do sponsors' commercials live.

There were times when Carney was difficult to work with or difficult to be around. Most people understood. He was an absolute perfectionist when it came to his on-air product and he had no patience with the person who didn't produce. Friends said he settled down and became more focused after his marriage to third wife Jody, but as it is with most ultra-creative people, life with Jack Carney was a roller coaster of energy and emotion.

Jack Carney died while training for scuba diving Nov. 27, 1984. He was 52 years old.

AM/FM

Radio news is failing

By Lynn Venhaus

With the exception of KMOX (1120 AM), sharp radio news departments staffed by veteran professionals, for the most part, appear to be a thing of the past, disappearing almost as fast as carbon paper and manual typewriters.

While the quality of electronic journalism has been in serious decline in St. Louis for the past several years, it has never been more apparent than recently, with changes at KTRS (550 AM), WIL (92.3FM) and KLOU (103.3FM).

And it's not for lack of talent in the region. Blame it on the desire of many corporate honchos to do news on the cheap-the old 'save a buck' by slashing news personnel or giving up on news entirely. As a former radio newswriter myself, I believe this does not serve the listener well.

Take, for instance, beleaguered KTRS, which started out committed to news five years ago, lost its way after veteran news director Joan Beuckmann retired last summer, then tried to regain some ground but wound up floundering yet again, with layoffs, lack of direction, low morale and more personnel moves.

Inexcusable is the common practice of recording newscasts for later broadcasts. Are listeners aware of this sham? If they hadn't already caught on, some astute observers sure were in for a big surprise one Sunday afternoon this summer. At 1:05 p.m. on July 22, a KTRS announcer said it was hot with sunny skies, when in reality, it was raining downtown, enough to delay the Cardinals ballgame. He didn't mention a current temperature.

A former newsroom employee said, "They've always had a habit of recording newscasts, especially on weekends."

For a time during weekday evening newcasts up until midnight, anchors-who didn't stay past 8 p.m.-would record the 9, 10, 11 and 12 news, leaving out the time and current weather conditions.

The errors, often committed by young inexperienced staffers, make one wince. Earlier this summer, the KTRS announcer called the city fire chief "Shepard George" instead of "Sherman George."

More than a year ago, KLOU gave up local newscasts in favor of remote broadcasts out of Cincinnati, handled by WLW staffers. Mispronounced words, flat-out errors ("Bellevue" instead of "Belleville") and stupid story selections marred these segments. The station advertised that it was the only FM station with 24-hour coverage but it neglected to mention it was five hours away. Well, I guess the rationale was that it could rip and read as well as anyone in St. Louis.

Recently, the arrogant news guys in Cincy were fired in favor of a guy from Des Moines who, on a good day, sounds like Ted Baxter reading the news for WJM on the "Mary Tyler Moore Show." It is unbelievably pathetic for a major market station to have that caliber of morning news, and the morning show appears to be frustrated by it, as are callers. Surely Clear Channel can do better.

Now WIL has dismantled what was once a newsroom people could point to with pride. Monica Adams, who is the station's news director (as well as WRTH's) and handles the morning show duties with Dave and Elaine, said the program director decided on the changes.

Longtime staffer Randy Caldwell and Frank Ladd were both re-assigned to Metro Networks, which they have both always worked for, but they were just contracted out at the time for WIL, Adams said. Bonneville owns WIL, and none of its other FM stations has a news presence here.

Metro Networks, owned by Westwood One, supplies regional, state and national news in markets throughout the country, including stations here.

Obviously, news is still important at KMOX. "We're almost the voice of record for St. Louis," said John Butler, KMOX news director for the past six years. "Infinity is committed to a news product. You maintain credibility with coverage."

The KMOX news department has 16, including anchors and street reporters. "If anything, we've increased our news staff. We utilize more people. Everybody that touches news contributes to the product. They're required to do stories, anchors as well. Jaco cranks out two stories a day."

KMOX also has a bureau in Jefferson City, which has been manned by Phil Brooks for the past 20 years, and also a bureau in Springfield, Ill. "We have to cover both sides of the river."

Because of urban sprawl, KMOX now covers St. Charles and Jefferson counties, expanding their territory, which is the biggest challenge, Butler said. "The size of our coverage area has increased. We've gone from covering St. Louis and the east side to covering St. Charles, Franklin County, Jefferson County, Wildwood. Wildwood has 30,000 people now."

The newsroom is a 24-hour operation, Butler said.

Information, whether it's programming or news product, is the primary focus of "Total Information AM" and "Total Information PM." But even at KMOX, names can get mangled, too.

In a mid-July interview with Geneva Overholser, McGraw Millhaven kept calling her Geneva "Overholtzer." He made this reference at least four times in promos and when he introduced her. No one made an effort to correct him, although Carol Daniel did pronounce her name correctly at the end of the interview. Everyone expects better of KMOX-it has the higher standard to meet.

That said, KMOX won six Missouri Broadcasters' Awards as well as the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for "Governor's Plane Crash" in the spot news-large market division. It also won for regional newscast, spot news and continuing coverage. The work on the story when then-Gov. Mel Carnahan's plane went down in October was peerless.

KMOX has the reputation and the audience. Those who want to compete against the Mighty Mox have to build a news image, but if they're going to use inept talent-out-of-towners, no less-they can't gain an audience's trust.

Sports/Media

It's OK in Gregorian's hands

By Joe Pollack

One of the riskiest things a newspaper editor can do is to tell a reporter, "This is a good idea for a story. When you write it, make it long enough to cover all the details. Don't be afraid of a little length."

A phrase like that is like introducing a vampire to Gwyneth Paltrow's neck, offering an oil well to a Bush or a beer to a Busch. Reporters become absolutely orgasmic when told to write at length. After all, every story a reporter comes up with is the best story ever, and it deserves to be told in minuscule detail, and if the world comes to an end, well, it's just a sidebar, or put it in the overset and run it tomorrow.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch seems to be taking that chance in recent months, and while the result often is sob stories that become floods of tears, or an opportunity for ninnies to turn boring short stories into extremely boring long stories, it sometimes turns up winners. Post editor Ellen Soeteber seems to have the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff (and unlike many newspaper management types, she seems to keep the wheat), which means that the better writers will have more opportunity to do good work. If justice prevails, the lesser writers will have less.

Through the years, the opportunity to write long stories for the Post has been given almost exclusively to members of the Washington bureau. Things may now be changing, perhaps led by the sports department, where a pair of recent articles by Vahe Gregorian have provided excellent insight into Tony La Russa and Gary Pinkel. Gregorian is a sports department bright spot. His writing shows a fine command of the entire English language, not just the sports phrases, and he seems willing to challenge the people he writes about. Thankfully, he is almost as complex a person as La Russa, which enabled him to penetrate more deeply than most into the Cardinals' manager, who often is like the Kremlin as described by Sir Winston Churchill, "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

La Russa obviously is a man of parts-an egotist; a great strategist who, like others of that ilk, tends to over-manage; a man who knows and understands his baseball history and tradition, and his players; and who is involved in culture beyond the white lines. It would be nice to have him here as a year-round resident because I'm sure he would be a delightful addition to the mix. I've watched La Russa at work and, while I don't always agree with him, I admire his managerial skill. His approach and personality are vastly different from Whitey Herzog and Joe Torre, who differed from one another, but they all know how to win games.

Pinkel, the new head football coach at Mizzou, is a different story, and trying to read between the lines, I don't think Gregorian likes him as much as he likes La Russa. I worry about people who are wound as tightly as Pinkel, people who have no life outside their jobs, who are so single-minded they use phrases like, "Kiss the women and children good-bye. We're off to war." Good grief, this is football, this is a game, this is for fun. His need to micro-manage may be his Achilles heel, because if things go wrong and he is faced with a situation he cannot control, well, it may get ugly out there.

Like practically all football coaches, Pinkel is a control freak, and most sports writers (when I was one, it was all sports writers) are freer spirits, more laid-back individuals than those they write about, or else they just could not survive the beat. The change among football coaches began somewhere in the mid-1960s, while I worked in the National Football League.

When I started with the Big Red, during the '61 season, even though we weren't always a very good football team, we had fun. We saw the sights when we traveled. We ate well, we talked a lot, we all told stories. Pop Ivy, Wally Lemm and Charlie Winner, the first coaches I worked with, all were living interesting lives and could talk about them. Ivy, an Oklahoman, had coached in Canada; Lemm had had a long small-college career and was a well-read, highly literate man; Winner had been in the Air Force during World War II, was shot down and spent more than a year as a prisoner of war in Germany. All were men who understood that there was a world outside of football.

Vince Lombardi began the change, and in St. Louis, Bob Hollway's arrival made me realize pro football was not where I wanted to spend another 30 years. With Pete Rozelle pushing for uniformity-all socks in the NFL had to be the same length-teams from top to bottom were affected. The story will make an interesting thesis some day, perhaps even a readable book.

And interestingly, after an entire history of college coaches "graduated" like their players and moved on to the NFL, the one-way highway is turning into a two-way street. Professional coaches are starting to return to the college ranks from whence they came. Al Groh went from the Jets to the University of Virginia, Pete Carroll from the Patriots to Southern Cal, Joe Walton from the Jets to little Robert Morris College.

Thomas George of The New York Times wrote a fascinating piece on it recently, and he thinks that the need for total control is the reason. The pro coach has a general manager to contend with, and an owner, and some of his assistants have voices, and so do the players. On the college level, the coach is king, dictator and ultimate czar. No one speaks without his permission. He is more important, and more powerful, than the president of the college because of his efforts raise more money, and if push comes to shove, the coach is the winner. Of course, this is predicated upon winning, but that's true for any coach at any level.

As usual, I digress. This began with a discussion of longer stories in the Post. A recent Sunday showed only five stories on Page 1A, all jumping inside the section. That probably caused former Managing Editor David Lipman's neck to turn bright red. He insisted on 10 stories, and not all of them jumped. Type was smaller in those days, and pictures were, too, and columns were narrower. But Karen Branch-Brioso had an excellent story on unsolved-and probably uninvestigated-murders in Honduras, and Bob Duffy's tale of the revival of Adams School is the sort of thing that may keep the candles of hope and optimism burning in the city.

Baseball fans were frustrated in the lack of coverage of division-leading Houston. One picture may be worth a thousand words, but I'd rather have seen a thousand more words on the Cardinals, Cubs and Astros than a game photo and a pile of coverage on the Little League championship. And we all survived into Monday even though somehow, someone forgot to write about the need for a new stadium, or a new airport, or a bailout for the St. Louis Symphony.

Media/Law

The privilege of reporting

By Ken Jones

Reporters looking for a primer on defamation law should take a look at a recent 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion focusing on the "fair report" privilege in Missouri.

In Kenney v. Scripps Howard Broadcasting Co., the 8th Circuit reviewed the case of a grandmother who sued a Kansas City television station following its report on a missing child case.

Carolyn Kenney is the mother of Chris Kenney and the grandmother of Lauren Kenney. Chris was never married to Lauren's mother, and the two were fighting about custody.

Over a Labor Day weekend, the grandmother and father took Lauren to the Lake of the Ozarks, intending to bring her back for a custody hearing on Tuesday.

When the girl was not returned during the weekend, the mother reported her missing or kidnapped. The police issued a pick-up order and a missing person report, which said the girl was thought to be kidnapped by a parent or relative and was last seen with the grandmother.

And according to a police investigative report, the father told the mother he had the girl and would return her at the custody hearing, but would not disclose her whereabouts in the meantime.

The mother then called KSHB (Channel 41), the Kansas City Scripps-Howard affiliate. The station reviewed police records in the case and broadcast the following story: "Police are on the lookout for a 16-month-old girl who may have been abducted by a parent or relative. Sixteen-month-old Lauren Kenney is pictured here with her mother. The child was last seen Friday afternoon when she left her house with her paternal grandmother Carolyn Kenney. Family members believe the girl's father and grandmother are now with her at an unknown location."

During the story a photo of the grandmother was shown.

Because of the story, the grandmother sued Scripps-Howard for defamation.

The 8th Circuit threw out the case because of the protection given to the press when reporting on "legislative, judicial or executive proceedings," known as the "fair report privilege."

The privilege has been described as follows: "The publication of defamatory matter concerning another in a report of an official action or proceeding or of a meeting open to the public that deals with a matter of public concern is privileged if the report is accurate and complete or a fair abridgment of the occurrences reported."

The court said the privilege "is limited to those matters of public concern which are stated in a report of an official action or proceeding or a meeting open to the public"-such as this case, which involved the "welfare and possible abduction of a child."

The issues in the case boiled down to one question-whether the broadcast was a "fair and accurate report of the police reports produced by the Kansas City Police Department."

Parsing the broadcast, the 8th Circuit concluded that it was fair and accurate. Police were in fact "on the lookout" for the child and believed she was abducted by a parent or relative, as the report said.

The police report also stated that the girl was last seen with the grandmother and that the girl's mother believed she was with the grandmother and father at an unknown location.

As a result, "the broadcast was at least a fair abridgement of the information contained in the official police documents produced regarding" the girl, the court said, affirming the dismissal of the defamation case.

Having found that the broadcast accurately summarized police reports and that the fair report privilege applied, the court said it was irrelevant whether the facts reported in the broadcast were actually true.

The case provides a good summary of the fair report privilege and the elements that must be established for it to apply.

First, the report must concern "legislative, judicial or executive proceedings"-in other words, it must involve a function of the government. In this case, the police reports could be classified as an executive proceeding. (It wasn't really a judicial proceeding since the courts were not yet involved.)

Also, there must be a "report of official action or proceeding or of a meeting open to the public." Here, the police report obviously concerned an official action of the department.

Finally, a "matter of public concern" must be involved. As the 8th Circuit pointed out, a potential child abduction is a matter of public concern.

If these three elements are fulfilled, then the reporter or media company is protected from a lawsuit-even if the material is defamatory. The only exception is malice-if the reporter knew the report to be untrue and wrote the story anyway in order to injure the person involved.

The value of the fair report privilege is shown by a companion case that had a considerably different outcome.

Besides filing suit against Channel 41, the grandmother also sued Wal-Mart for defamation over a missing-child bulletin that was posted in Kansas City area stores. The grandmother claimed the bulletin remained up at least a week after the store was told the girl was not missing.

A jury agreed with the grandmother, and awarded her $425,000. That verdict is now on appeal.

Newsrooms and barrooms

The beerhall putsch and other stories

By Don Corrigan

Throughout the ragged history of American journalism, wherever a thriving newsroom has been located, a drinking establishment with reasonable odds for prosperity has been found in close proximity.

The house of journalism has never been too far from the house of brew. The intimate relationship between journalists and their drinking holes has been documented in books, feature films, videos and now DVDs.

In recent times, PR functionaries of newspaper chains have tried to downplay the marriage of scribes and suds as more mythology than reality. But they cannot easily dismiss the hard evidence of past and present-it's more than 90 proof.

Frederick G. Bonfils and Henry H. Tammen hatched their yellow sheet, the Denver Post, in a barroom. The drinking bouts of William Randolph Hearst's reporters are legendary-and documented. In the recently departed 20th Century, drinking and journalism have been linked from the early days of the Front Page to the malty, end-of-the-millennium tales of New York imbibers Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill.

A recent survey of newsrooms in Missouri and Illinois reveals that quaffing mead is still a prerequisite for many in the organized writing trade. And the barroom down the street from the newsroom is still a vital locus where important reportorial business gets done.

The downtown bar, neighborhood tavern or boozy grill-where the newsies hang out-is still a place where reporters blow off steam after a day of coping with inept or tyrannical editors; it's where reporters conspire with each other on the next city hall investigation; it's where reporters scoop up exclusives from leaky lawyers and pandering politicians.

•••

Grizzled reporters from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch frequently gather at the Missouri Grill, across Tucker Boulevard from the paper's downtown offices. The Grill has been known as a hangout for the veterans-such well-known Post reporters as Bill McClellan, John McGuire, Carolyn Tuft, Tim O'Neil and Harry Levins.

Post staffers utilize the frothy services of Maggie O'Brien's Ltd. on Market Street for more formal occasions-such as "send-offs" for reporters leaving to go to work at the Chicago Tribune or dailies on the East Coast. For the younger set of Post reporters, who are looking for something less gritty than the Grill, the St. Louis Brewery and Tap Room has become a place to grab a Kolsch or a Wheat Ale.

During the recent reign of now-departed editor Cole Campbell, the Missouri Grill was the place where Post reporters bitched to each other about the new-fangled "newsroom culture" that Campbell tried to impose on them. A devout apostle of public journalism, Campbell turned the newsroom upside down with his new blueprint for how journalism should be done.

Campbell consigned the concept of general assignment reporter to the trash heap of journalism history. He put reporters on "teams" directed by "team leaders" instead of editors. He told team leaders they needed to remap the "civic swamp," instead of relying on tried and true sources. He made everyone "reapply" for their jobs and made subsequent re-assignments that defied reason.

All of this chaos led to many hours of crying and commiseration among Posties gathered at the Missouri Grill. And it eventually led to the beer-hall putsch that played a major role in Campbell's departure from the paper in April of last year. Reporters met with Post publisher Terry Egger at the Grill and made it clear that a bad situation was going to get worse, if Campbell stayed-there would be more departures of talented reporters and editors from the paper.

It was pointed out that the paper had already lost 19 veteran reporters and other staffers in the previous year-and-one-half under Campbell. Not too long after the emotional outpouring in the Missouri Grill, Campbell, with Egger at his side in the Post newsroom, announced his resignation. The beer-hall putsch was complete.

•••

The Stagger Inn in Edwardsville, Ill., can make no claim as the site of a newsroom revolution or editorial coup d'etat. The Stagger Inn is a friendly, "howdy, how ya' doin?'" kind of place that has been home to journalists who cover the East Side for a number of different area dailies. It's a place where small town barristers mix it up with rural folks who still sport mud on their boots.

Of course, the crowd from the Edwardsville Intelligencer has a place in its collective heart for Laurie's as well. Laurie's Place on Main Street is a favorite spot for draught beer and hamburgers. Bill Tucker, Roy Gilmore, Jonathan Hall and Billy Yarbrough are all part of the Intelligencer journalistic fraternity that pledges loyalty to Laurie's.

"It's really more of a sports bar than anything else," explained Yarbrough, who notes that the video golf and video poker are popular games at Laurie's. "The bar attracts a lot of college athletes. It's a real good place to pick up on the local sports scene. I've gotten a few good stories out of it," Yarbrough noted.

•••

Reporters and photographers from southern Illinois with the Benton Evening News find solace at the infamous Hey Carl's, a.k.a. Oye Carlo's, in the 100 block of Railroad Street. The atmosphere in Hey Carl's can vary between comfortably quiet to low-life noisy, but the summer sausage with cheese and crackers and the hot wings keep the press coming back.

Diana Wilson of the Evening News reports that journalists can relax at Hey Carl's with video games and pool, while a juke box full of Willie Nelson and Billie Joel lends a musical accompaniment. The most frequent visitors to Hey Carl's, besides the journalists, are strangely dressed people who refer to themselves as golfers.

"What I find amusing about Hey Carl's is how the manager of the bar doesn't offer me a free drink, ever, even though my sports photos adorn the walls of the establishment," Wilson complained.

•••

Staffers at the Olney Daily Mail in Olney, Ill., have a total of three bars to choose from when they feel the need to imbibe-and two of them are located right across Main Street from the doors of the newspaper.

"The Red Door is directly across the street from us and is known for its red door," Daily Mail reporter Brian Rosener elaborated. "The Fireside is located near the Olney Fire Department. The third bar, Papa Mike's, is the place we hang out, but none of the bars are open on Sunday.

"Papa Mike's is the place we go to welcome new reporters and send off the ones leaving the paper," added Rosener. "But, if the truth be known, most of us get our stuff from the drive-up window of the B&L Package Store on Main Street and we go back to our apartments and drink."

•••

The LaSalle News Tribune is nestled in an old Illinois River town, which was once a hotbed of bars and gambling. In the 1930s and '40s, city slickers from Chicago came down to the LaSalle-Peru area for weekends of partying and debauchery. When the News Tribune took a stand against such sinful ways by urban invaders in the Illinois River Valley, the paper was firebombed.

"LaSalle is still loaded with bars where our reporters go to blow off steam," said Tom Collins of the News Tribune. "Machelle's Backstreet is a favorite for its good beer selection, beautiful antique bar and good juke box. It's also a favorite of the karaoke crowd. I try to get out of there before any of our reporters or editors start singing."

Collins said Machelle's Backstreet is not a place to meet with sources or to plot out stories. And the food is nothing to write home about. Collins does make mention of the popcorn.

"There's lots of hot popcorn at Machelle's and it's free," said Collins. "Free. That's the most important thing to a beginning reporter."

•••

More than 300 miles southwest of LaSalle, Ill., is another river town, Cape Girardeau, Mo., on the banks of the Mississippi. Folks working at Cape's Southeast Missourian can find a number of exotic bars for relaxation on both sides of the river. However, the Bel Air Grill on South Spanish Street seems to be the favorite of the Missourian crew.

There were great fears among the loyal clientele that such specialties as fried dill pickles and Jamaican jerk chicken might disappear from the Bel Air Grill when long-time owner, "The Rock," recently sold the bar to some young whipper-snapper. Those fears have since been quelled.

"The Bel Air Grill has been our place since I've worked here, which is since 1994," managing editor Heidi Hall testified. "It can get a little out of control. There was a drunk woman one time who was talked into removing her shirt while standing on a table. She was surrounded by reporters and photographers, which was a mistake because I think she ended up on the Internet."

Hall is joined at the Bel Air Grill by Missourian staffers Marc Powers, statehouse bureau; Jeff Breer, sports editor; and Marty Mishow, sports columnist. Hall lamented that not as many reporters head to the bars after work as in the past.

"There's just not as many," she noted. "And the reporters from all the different outlets have aged, and they're not as excited about going to bars. Also, reporters aren't as willing to make journalism a career for their whole lives, so they have less reason to blow off steam and to turn to booze."

•••

Matt Milner, editor of the Boonville Daily News, complains that there just

isn't enough choice in drinking establishments in this small central Missouri town. Boonville tops out at just more than 8,000 people-and that's only if you include the local prison population.

When staffers do seek out a good local watering hole, likely as not it's going to be The Stein House, which is reasonably quiet, sports only, one television set bar which offers reasonably priced pasta dishes and salads to go along with the brewskies.

"The Stein House is the bar we are most likely to stop by," declared Milner. "It serves more often as a restaurant than a bar, though the selection is very good. The popularity of the establishment is rebounding since the former owners, who attempted to control our content, sold out."

Like managing editor Heidi Hall of the Southeast Missourian in Cape Girardeau, Boonville's Milner said he's a little sorry that the tradition of reporters meeting in bars seems to be on the wane. Nevertheless, Milner noted that the image of the hard-drinking reporter among the general public is far from dead.

"The most likely expert on this subject, a former editor, has been gone from our staff for a few years," observed Milner. "While our staff is not comprised of non-drinkers, we don't frequent bars with anything near the regularity of some past staffs."

•••

In Jesse James' country in western Missouri, The Brown Bear Tavern is the place to go to get a snootful and to watch reporters on their less-than-best behavior. Scott Pummel of the St. Joseph News-Press describes it as a serious drinking establishment, since there is no food available to temper the alcohol.

Pummel, who has been frequenting the tavern with other News-Press staffers since he came to the St. Joe newspaper in the early 1990s, has acquired a number of war stories from his times at The Brown Bear.

Pummel recalls a general election night three years ago when the news staff was stressed from covering a number of close state races. Add to the day's election coverage, a factory fire, a stabbing/murder in midtown, and a crash at the local airport-and the newsroom's resources were taxed beyond limit.

After what everyone thought was the final, midnight deadline, most of the reporters and editors retired to The Brown Bear-leaving a lone copy editor to send the pages back to the press.

"The discussion turned to the evening's excitement as soon as the bartender delivered the first beers," recalled Pummel. "And one reporter mentioned how sad it was that both the people in the plane crash died so tragically. Everyone else put their beers down and the conversation stopped.

"One editor-who happened to have a most impressive temper-asked what the reporter meant. That's because the reporters assigned to the story hadn't been able to confirm that the pilot and his wife had been killed. They didn't even have their names yet," continued Pummel.

"The reporter at the bar explained that he had coincidentally talked to the airport manager at city hall during election coverage, and the airport manager told him that both people were already dead and confirmed their names, hometown and other vital details," Pummel noted.

According to Pummel, this reporter had incorrectly assumed that these details were made available to the reporters handling the story, so he didn't mention it to anyone else in the newsroom.

"A great deal of cursing and yelling ensued, some drinks spilled and several cell phones lit up," recalled Pummel. "The last deadline had to be held, everyone rushed back to the office, the front page was reformatted, the stories about the crash rewritten, press deadlines were blown, papers delivered late. But the information was delivered the next day." n

(SJR's Don Corrigan is completing a book on newsrooms and barrooms based on a survey of newspaper editors and reporters across the country. This article is based on some of his research conducted with bi-state daily newspapers.)

Funny stories among journalists are plentiful

Originally published in the Belleville News-Democrat and published here with permission.

By Wally Spiers

Journalism professors send out surveys occasionally to try and find something to write about.

I recently got a survey from a professor in San Francisco asking me about being a columnist.

I quit on that one when I got to the question that asked about columnists who kept their columns going even when they no longer had anything fresh or interesting to say.

Anyway, I received another one lately from Don Corrigan, professor of media communications at Webster University in Webster Groves, Mo.

Corrigan's survey is about the bars and taverns "where newspaper reporters are known to gather after work to review stories, to hatch investigations, to discuss office politics and to just generally blow off steam," he writes.

So I called him to find out more. He said he is looking for war stories, funny stuff that people have done and said while getting together to relax in bars and taverns.

"It's not a study of alcohol and the journalism profession," he said. "It's a light entertainment book."

The only really good bar story I know is from when the St. Louis Globe-Democrat finally folded for good. Television reporters headed to bars to interview some of the casualties.

I watched on television as a laid-off worker ran up to television reporter Laurie Waters and kissed her on the cheek while she was broadcasting live.

He looked pretty mellow for someone who had just lost his job. She didn't look in any way amused.

Anyway, there isn't much that we would talk about in a bar that we don't say in the newsroom, anyway.

We feel perfectly free to blow off steam, hatch investigations and discuss office politics right where we work.

And the phone conversations you overhear at our place sometimes are pretty funny.

For example, a reporter several years ago, was talking to a reluctant source on the phone. "Could you please let me finish asking the question before you don't answer it?" he said.

Corrigan said he has just sent out the surveys to newspapers all over the country.

"I didn't put a deadline on them," he said. "That probably was a mistake. But I'm hoping, eventually, to get some funny stories."

Wally Spiers is a columnist for the Belleville News-Democrat.

What's in a name?

Local media struggle with naming Spangler

By Alex Posorske

Like sharks smelling blood in the water, the St. Louis media were all over the developments in the Arlin Henderson case as they unfolded at the end of July and beginning of August.

Henderson, 11-years-old when he disappeared in 1991, had vanished without a trace in the summer of 1991 after bicycling away from his home in Lincoln County, Mo.

On Wednesday, July 25, a vigil, with some media coverage, was held marking the 10-year anniversary of the disappearance. By that weekend Lincoln County police had apparently received enough of a tip to start digging up an area near Henderson's former home, looking for a body.

On July 30, Lincoln County authorities held a press conference to announce that they had two suspects, one of whom was identified as 29-year-old George Gibson.

The other suspect, a 23-year-old, was not identified by authorities because he was 13 years old at the time of the alleged murder. Under current Missouri law a juvenile could be tried as an adult for murder. However, in 1991, when Henderson disappeared, that law was not in effect.

That meant that first of all, the 13-year-old would not serve any prison time since juvenile law in 1991 called for him, if convicted of murder, to be released at age 21. Also, the authorities were not going officially to give the name of the 13-year-old because of the law.

But in Lincoln County there was a fair amount of talk amongst friends and such. Pretty soon it was known in some circles that the name of the 23-year-old suspect was Joshua Spangler. Accordingly, every news organization in the area soon knew Spangler's name from Henderson family members (who were kept informed by the police), Spangler friends and even, on an unofficial basis, the police themselves.

So-if you know full well the law regarding juveniles in 1991 and without any truly official confirmation-do you identify Joshua Spangler by name?

It depends on whom you ask.

KTVI (Channel 2) was the first to identify Spangler by name, around July 31. That was followed by KMOV (Channel 4) on Aug. 1, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Aug. 2.

Meanwhile KSDK (Channel 5), KPLR (Channel 11) and KDNL (Channel 30), along with the Associated Press, all held off naming Spangler at all, or at least waited until his name had been published or broadcast numerous times and he was preparing to face a court hearing in the middle of the month.

Everyone interviewed was fairly confident they had done the right thing. Jeff Allen, news director at Channel 30, said his department felt Spangler's name did not contribute anything to the overall story.

"It didn't add or detract from the value of the story. Using the name would not have furthered our story at all," he said.

Allen said he paid close attention to the traditional standpoint of never identifying a juvenile, even if that juvenile is now 23, because he

felt the name would not add anything to the story.

Channel 11 News Director Sheldon Lipson echoed Allen's position on the issue of naming juveniles.

"It was a conscious decision (to not name Spangler)," Lipson said. "Because the court was treating it like he was a juvenile, we felt we had to ethically abide by that sort of thing."

Channel 5 News Director Mike Shipley said his station had a general policy of not naming suspects before they are officially charged, which Spangler was not for several weeks.

"It was admittedly cutting hairs, but we made (the decision not to name Spangler) in the interests of taking the high road and in keeping with our station's policy, as opposed to taking the low road just because the other stations (Channels 2 and 4) were doing it," he said.

But Channel 2 News Director Brad Remington scoffs at the idea that his station was taking the low road, saying that discussions in his newsroom did not raise any reason not to name Spangler.

"Here is somebody at age 23 who's a confessed killer and he's going to walk away Scot-free. The public has a right to know who the person is," he said, adding that the main people who did not want Spangler named were Spangler himself and the Lincoln County sheriff's office-neither of which struck him as especially convincing requests not to air the name.

"It is our job in the media, hell it's our duty, to question authority, to question the status quo," Remington said of the sheriff's request.

Remington also noted that the custom of not naming juveniles comes from an era when, as he put it, juvenile offenders were more likely to be 15-year-old car thieves than 13-year-old murderers.

At the Post, Managing Editor Arnie Robbins said one of the main motivating factors for his paper's decision to publish the name was the fact that Spangler is no longer a juvenile.

"Basically our view was that he's a young man now," Robbins said. "He is, in fact, 23."

Post Metro Editor Kathy Best added that many people in the Lincoln County community already seemed to be aware that Spangler was the 23-year-old suspect.

"Law enforcement, people in the community (they) were using the name," she said. "It didn't seem like there was any reason not to use it. He had confessed and was preparing to plead guilty."

Best noted that the Post waited until it had three sources, including one friend of Spangler's, Cara Williams, going on the record, before publishing Spangler's name.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press took a different approach, said Jim Slater, the correspondent in charge of the St. Louis office. The AP did not use Spangler's name until Aug. 15, during his hearing, and even then merely noted that other media organizations had identified Spangler and that his attorney would not

confirm it.

"We don't generally use the name of a suspect if the police don't give it (officially)," Slater said. "We don't rely on unnamed sources. Once he pleaded guilty we felt that it took a different dynamic. We're a little more conservative than some media."

Of course, the question of who is right and who is wrong in this judgment call is not an easy one to sort out, as seen by the widely varying views on the case.

Former Post Reader's Advocate and Webster University Journalism Professor Jim Fox thought that Spangler's name should not have been used and applauded the stations that did not use it.

"I think initially he should have been protected," Fox said. "What's it going to do to his life? Is it going to damage him beyond repair?"

At the same time, Fox acknowledged that it would have been next to impossible to keep Spangler's name out of the press.

"From a practical standpoint, I don't think there was any way to keep this guy's name (confidential).

Somebody was going to talk," Fox said.

John Pauly, chairperson of the communication department at St. Louis University, said he agreed somewhat with publishing the name.

"The protection (of juvenile confidentiality) is afforded to people at the moment they're imagined to be vulnerable," he said. "If the person is 23 now the reason for that protection is somewhat evaporated."

Pauly also agreed with Remington's position that the nature of a juvenile has changed over the years.

"Sometimes I think some of the rules we have are used to defend certain myths we have about the world," he said, referring to a common myth that children are always good and innocent. "We protect ourselves from having certain kinds of discussions by just not having the discussions."

Pauly said his hope for this case would be what happens in various area newsrooms after everything is wrapped up.

"If the case ends up starting a discussion of who children are and how do we treat children in relation

to adults, then that would be a good outcome," he said.

And perhaps that will be one result of the Joshua Spangler issue.

Or perhaps not. When the Post's Best was asked for her feelings on Pauly's thoughts she had a simple reply:

"I think I'll leave the philosophical discussions to the folks who do it."

Commentary

Post reports murders out of context

By Chris Brown

One persistent temptation of the daily news reporter is that of writing to a script, resorting to a pre-established explanation of events, one which overwhelms rather than illuminates the facts.

Such scripts exert a particularly powerful pull when it comes to politically charged subject matter, as was made plain in a recent above-the-fold page one article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that attempted to explain a string of spousal murders in St. Louis this summer.

In the July 18 article, "Abusive men can look like model husbands, most doting fathers," Post reporter Bill Smith wrote that the St. Louis area had recently "been rocked by a series of chilling slayings with actual or suspected ties to domestic abuse."

But a review of the Post's own reporting of the three cases shows, and interviews with the police in each case confirms, that there is no evidence of a domestic-abuse history in two of the three cases, and only marginal evidence of what could be termed abuse in the third.

The three cases involved a St. Charles County man, Christopher Kapeller, charged with arranging the killing of his estranged wife; a St. Louis man, Matthew Toland Sr., who killed his son and his son's mother before killing himself; and David F. MacFarland, who killed his wife in a St. Charles bakery before killing himself.

In his article, Smith firmly anchors the murders in the category of domestic abuse, using quotations from experts to instruct readers about the motives of habitual abusers, the tendency of abuse to escalate over time, the need of abusers to exert control in areas both large and small, the fears that keep victims trapped in place, and so forth.

According to Post Metro Editor Kathy Best, the purpose of the article was to provide readers with "insight and context" into the murders, two of which had occurred in the previous two weeks.

"The story was designed to help people make sense of these terrible events," said Best. "And we wanted to shed light on the broader issue of abusive spouses."

In light of that remark, it's no surprise that Best defended the use of the term "abuse" in connection with the murders.

"In our view, the murders themselves were examples of domestic abuse," said Best.

At one level, of course, it is difficult to disagree. What could be more "abusive" than murder? But the term "abuse" has acquired a specific meaning in recent years that ill fits the known facts of the cases that Smith was trying to explain. Abuse describes more than isolated acts; rather, it designates a syndrome and implies a way of understanding violent domestic relationships.

If Smith and Best were unaware of the nuances, they need only have paid closer attention to the insights offered by their own experts.

As the article shows, the term brings with it a linked series of associations. According to two experts cited in the article, Nancy Kelley of Phoenix Crisis Center and Joan Di Pretore of RAVEN, the dominant motive of abusers is the need for power and control. Abuse often takes place over a long period of time, agree Kelley, Di Pretore, and Irma Jenkins of Fortress Outreach. Abuse often escalates in intensity, say these experts and an unnamed victim of domestic abuse. Abuse is often hidden from sight, and the couple is often perceived by outsiders as happy and the man as admirable, say Kelley and Dr. Mindy Mechanic of UMSL. Women who stay in abusive relationships do so because they are afraid, and they often need to be convinced that they have no obligation to protect their abuser, says Jenkins. Women often need encouragement and help to leave their abuser, say Jenkins and the unnamed victim.

But there is no evidence anywhere-not in Smith's article, not in the Post's previous reporting on the cases, nor in the police investigations of the cases-that any of this applies to the recent murders.

Indeed, it is striking that none of the experts addresses the facts of the cases directly. None even attempts to take on what is most disturbing about the murders, the sudden eruption of violence where there had been no violence before. None assesses the salient differences among the cases, in which one was allegedly a killing-for-hire with a money motive, another a murder-suicide pure and simple, the third a murder-suicide in which a child was killed. None addresses the question of whether the men had pre-existing mental health problems.

None suggests that we don't know enough to explain these murders.

But then again, there was no reason for the experts to deviate from their standard script-they weren't asked to. As Smith explained, "I didn't see any need to ask them if these cases were cases of abuse. These women were murdered. I don't see how you could doubt that these are examples of abuse."

Smith's article fails for important reasons: he pigeonholes the cases while ignoring the facts, and misuses his experts.

But the essential failure goes deeper. Smith helps the reader avoid confronting what is truly disturbing about these murders, the sudden eruption of violence out of relationships that previously, so far as we know, had not been touched by violence.

The facts give us no reason to think that these relationships were so very different from our own. But Smith's article restores the balance, gives us back our assurance that these things happen to other people in other relationships.

Chris Brown is a St. Louis free-lance writer.

Commentary

Condit failed media trainer's test

By Tripp Frohlichstein

As a professional media trainer, I watched with great interest as the Gary Condit interview with Connie Chung began. It took only a few moments to realize Condit was going to blow his opportunity to recover his reputation and put much of the Chandra Levy case behind him.

Prior to his interview, it was clear the best course of action for him to take would be to answer questions directly, tell the truth, apologize to the appropriate parties and show his concern for his missing girlfriend.

Prior to the interview, I believed Gary Condit had nothing to do with

Levy's disappearance.

Now, I am not so sure. He did not appear to tell the truth; he did not answer questions directly; he did not apologize, and he showed concern for himself, not Levy.

Did he have to reveal sordid details? No. He could have simply admitted to a relationship and not gone into such things as how often they had sex.

That, people would have understood. But he wouldn't even go that far.

In terms of his performance, he was clearly scripted at times. It didn't take long for anyone to realize Condit had been married 34 years and made mistakes.

He appeared to suggest everyone around him was lying and only he was telling the truth.

There were inconsistencies as well. At one point in the interview, he revealed he knew Levy would take a four-day train trip from Washington D.C. to California. Later, he said he called her two days later and left a message on her phone because he was worried. But if he knew she was taking a four-day train trip, why did he make that call and leave a message? Where's Lieutenant Colombo when we need him?

Gary Condit had a media trainer, Marina Ein. Either she gave him lousy advice for which she deserves any loss of business she gets after this fiasco or he didn't listen to a word she said.

A few years ago, Gary Condit publicly suggested Clinton reveal all of the details of his intern relationship. Too bad for Condit his philosophy is "do as I say, not as I do."

As for Connie Chung, the reporter whose career was set back significantly in the mid-1990s when she revealed "off-the-record" information from then house majority leader Newt Gingrich's mom (Chung asked "just between you and me" what does Newt think of Hillary Clinton-his mom whispered back, "she's a bitch.") and then took a too-tough approach covering the Oklahoma City bombing, this was her time for a comeback.

Chung was persistent in her pursuit of answers. Although there were other issues she might have pressed (such as why the long silence) and inconsistencies she might have questioned (more on why he tossed a watchbox in a trashcan blocks from his apartment just before it was searched), her overall performance was good.

One theory on why Chung was chosen was that she and husband Maury Povich were friends with Condit's lawyer. Perhaps they expected easier treatment.

It was reported Chung said she was surprised by Condit's lack of candor and that forced her to change her planned questioning. If so, she did well. She was strong enough to not let Condit get away with vagaries yet not so strong that the public would think she badgered him.

City officials pull info from website

By Benjamin Israel

On July 11, weeks after the Soulard Homeowners' Association website posted messages opposing the use of public funds for building a new baseball stadium, Ed Rhode, Mayor Francis Slay's press secretary, ordered them removed.

"They were running a campaign on a city-taxpayer-paid program," Rhode said. "They have a right to express their opinion, but not on a city website. They were asking people to contribute money and sign a petition."

Websurfers viewing the Soulard home page (http://stlouis.missouri.org/soulard) before July 11 would have found icons to click on about produce at

Soulard Market, about how the neighborhood fixed itself up and about the Coalition Against Public Funding for Stadiums. When they clicked on the last icon, they would have found a statement from the Libertarian Party opposing public funding for the stadium, a statement against the stadium subsidy from Jeanette Mott-Oxford and Michael Chance, a list of groups belonging to the Coalition, articles from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Southwest City Journal about the coalition and its plans, and advice about contacting elected officials.

Soulard webmaster Clark Rowley said the marketing committee of the homeowners' association runs the website. Three of the committee's four members informally decided to run the material on its website, Rowley said.

"What galls me is giving all this money to rich people," Rowley said, about the plan to subsidize a new baseball stadium.

At the time, the coalition was circulating a petition in the city to put to a November vote an ordinance that would prohibit the use of city tax money for building a sports facility without first putting it to a vote of the people. The coalition has since passed the deadline without getting enough signatures and has announced a new petition drive to put the proposed ordinance on the ballot at a later, undetermined date.

Rowley said Sonya Pelli, program manager of CIN, called him and told his answering machine that she was sorry but Rhode ordered her to remove all the ballpark material from the site.

"When I checked the site, it was gone," Rowley said in an e-mail. "She asked that I call her, which I did. We had a wonderful conversation. I admire her and her efforts very much."

The Soulard website is part of the St. Louis Community Information Network or St. Louis CIN. The 7-year-old operation combines city government and neighborhood websites. Funded mostly by state-government and Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants, CIN gives neighborhood organizations dial-up access to the web, e-mail and webpages and provides training and support to them.

CIN policy, according to its website, explicitly prohibits its use for illegal activities, for commercial purposes and for obscenity and pornography.

The website states that the CIN is "intended only for nonspecific, informational purposes, uses and applications," and adds a disclaimer that CIN is not responsible for the content's accuracy.

Click on the neighborhoods section at the CIN website (http://stlouis.missouri.org/) and you'll find a map of St. Louis divided into 79 neighborhoods. Click on a neighborhood and in most cases, you'll find a brief description of the neighborhood written by a city official and links to community businesses, churches and schools.

A minority of neighborhoods have their own webmasters with elaborate pages about community activities, copies of newsletters and pictures. As of Aug. 24, at least two other websites advocated political positions.

The Downtown St. Louis website had an icon for advocacy where it lists its legislative priorities for the last session of the Missouri General Assembly.

The Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council website displayed a plea for letters to elected officials and the BiState Development Agency to demand that a portion of the planned MetroLink line along Forest Park Parkway be built underground.

Rhode said that he does not monitor the CIN network, but ordered the content removed from the Soulard site after a complaint from a city resident. When told of the content on the Skinker DeBaliviere and Downtown web sites, he said he would look into them.

Pelli said the incident happened because the network serves both the government and the community, and "it was just the time the missions of the CIN came in conflict with itself ... It's not to be used for partisan purposes, but it is for a dialogue relating to community issues."

She said she would like a group of community leaders to come together to "fine tune our acceptable-use policy."

Benjamin Israel is a St. Louis free-lance writer.

Commentary

Homogenizing the news

By David Cohen

The old saying goes: don't believe everything you read in the newspaper. And it likely rings more true today than ever in the past. As media companies expand their holdings, editorial independence and journalistic integrity head for the endangered species list.

One of the big issues facing the Federal Communications Commission is whether or not they should further ease restrictions on how many radio and television stations that can be commonly owned. Not that long ago, one company could own seven AM, seven FM and seven television stations.

Companies couldn't own radio stations in the same market they owned a television station, and there were restrictions limiting owners to one of each type in individual markets. For example, CBS could own KMOX and an FM station, but could not own another AM station or a television station in St. Louis (after it sold the then-grandfathered KMOX-TV).

In the past 20 years, these rules have been greatly relaxed so that one company can own radio stations attracting half the audience in a market, and two television stations in the same city. An outsider might say, "Wow," but the mega-corporations that have taken over the broadcast industry want to end all further restrictions limiting common ownership, and newspaper companies are pushing to end the ban on rules prohibiting them from owning broadcast properties in the markets in which they own newspapers.

The concerns that have been expressed against further loosening of the ownership rules have centered on the declining number of "voices" in the community and fears of corporate censorship tearing down the walls separating the news and business sides of these operations. After all, do we really think that a company cares as much about its lowest-ranked radio station as it does about its highest-ranked one?

My concern is skewed somewhat the other way, that is, can we trust the accuracy of a story written in a publication owned by one entertainment and media conglomerate that deals with a product offered by another entertainment and media conglomerate?

For example, Time Magazine, part of AOL Time-Warner, a company that includes the film company Warner Brothers and the CNN and WB Networks, publishes a review of a film made by Disney. Can a reader consider the Time review credible in a world where Disney and Warner Brothers viciously compete for the entertainment dollar?

Or look at the New York Post. It is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which also owns the 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, the Fox Network, Fox Sports, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team and the upstart Fox News Channel on cable. So when the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes a story about CNN, chances are it will portray the AOL Time-Warner news network in the worst light possible.

Turn on "Entertainment Tonight." This program has been on the air for more than 20 years. It is produced and owned by Paramount Pictures.

Paramount, in turn, is owned by Viacom, which owns CBS, the UPN network, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET (to name just a few of its holdings) and at one time owned KMOV (Channel 4). Will ET favor Paramount's pictures? Will it be more critical of films made by Universal or Sony or MGM?

The question is one of journalistic integrity. Can readers and viewers establish and maintain a level of confidence in what they hear, read and see? Is it trusted content?

In SJR

10 Years Ago:

• Riverfront Times media critic Richard Byrne left St. Louis for an international teaching position in Czechoslovakia.

• Former KWMU announcer Winifred Sullivan filed an affirmative action suit against the station alleging General Manager Patricia Wente had systematically eliminated blacks from the staff.

• Both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Belleville's News-Democrat raised their daily newsstand and vendor prices to 50 cents.

5 Years Ago:

• Cole Campbell was named editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

• Kevin Horrigan, a program host on WIBV, refused to run a commercial on his show for Pro-Pomix, a medicine claiming to promote prostate health.

• KTVI (Channel 2) was among 10 TV stations purchased by Rupert Murdoch.

Late Edition

The St. Louis Jewish Light deserves independence

By Charles L. Klotzer

It is a given that an institution which finances an activity will want to control how its funds are being spent. That is a very legitimate expectation. Particularly, expenditures for educational and promotional material which reflect the very image of an institution will be shepherded by those in charge.

The institutional prerogatives, however, should not apply if that subsidized activity is a publication meant to serve an audience larger and much more diverse than its sponsor and which claims to be independent.

The indefinite border between journalism and promotion is being eroded not only by the mass media (who hasn't heard TV news broadcasters both locally and nationally unashamedly push network programs which have not even a pretense of news content) but also by an institutional culture which cleverly exploits the prestige of journalistic endeavors by sponsoring publications which primarily advocate partisan goals.

It takes a mature and broad-minded organization to avoid such pitfalls. It is easier for those whose core beliefs include participatory democracy, the output of which may or may not coincide with an organization's own interests.

A comparison

Two examples come to mind: The St. Louis Journalism Review (SJR) and the St. Louis Jewish Light.

•While SJR has some income from subscriptions and advertising, it is heavily subsidized by Webster University since 1996. As a subsidiary, SJR is wholly owned by the University but with provisions which establish an independent board of directors with a majority of non-Webster persons from the media. That provision assures the independence of SJR. Indeed, not once have University executives made editorial comments or even hinted at editorial changes.

The Light has always been financed and controlled by the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, an umbrella organization sponsoring welfare, educational and fundraising activities on behalf of the Jewish community for domestic as well as international causes. As a crucial campaign vehicle, the Light was for years an integral part of the Federation. Some years ago, in 1963, thanks to efforts of some community leaders, a separate board of trustees was appointed (of course, by the Federation) to manage the Light.

An initial step

That was a crucial and welcome step, transitional in our view, to impart a measure of independence to the paper. Financing continued to be provided by the Federation. Actually, the funds were payments for fundraising ads in the paper. The allocation of such ad dollars determines how well the Light is doing financially. As far as I know, the budget for the Light has never been made public, although as a not-for-profit activity of a charitable organization they should be available.

Obviously, the Light Board of Trustees is not really independent. In a recent controversy affecting the Light personnel, the Board was told to accept Federation recommendations or the paper would be shut down. Such a policy, irrespective of the merits of the recommendations, should be abandoned and should be unacceptable to the Board and to the Jewish community of St. Louis.

A fundamental flaw

Beyond the immediate problems of financing, personnel, redesign and restructuring, it is necessary for community leaders to address the fundamental flaw in the current Light setup: the paper's dependence on one sponsor who has a separate agenda than that of the community at large but which controls, directly or indirectly, contents.

Before exploring alternatives of establishing an independent financial and editorial operation, the questions should be answered why the Light should be "independent."

In addition to the established journalistic precepts which rule in a democratic society, the specific elements which comprise Jewish communal life are diverse, complex, often contradictory, and can never be adequately represented by a one-sided, straightjacketed publication which avoids any analysis or evaluations of communal assets and programs. Moreover, the Federation itself depends upon the support of numerous religious and secular groups and individuals covering a wide array of views. In return for that popular support, the Federation should meet the diverse interests of its supporters by having the Light represent and report on many views not just those in line with Federation policies.

Some financing suggestions

How then can the Light be reorganized as an independent operation?

The following suggestions, I am confident, can be replaced by many other, better ideas. All that is attempted here is to open the discussion, promote community awareness and let the ultimate solution emerge from community input. (It is quite possible that the community doesn't really care, in that case my apologies for taking up your time.)

First to the financing.

A questionnaire should be included in the Light or, better yet, circulated independently, asking members of the Jewish community one question: Do they prefer to continue the present arrangement by which the Light is subsidized by the Federation or would they prefer one or more of the following arrangements:

a. A part of their contribution to the Federation, say $50, would automatically and irrevocably be assigned to an independently administered Light Fund;

b. An effort will be made to establish an independent endowment Fund;

c. Ask secular and religious Jewish organizations, agencies and other bodies to make voluntary contributions on the basis of their membership and in return allocate space-clearly identified- for their announcements;

d. Contact independent Jewish publishers in other cities to expand into the St. Louis region with a degree of financial support as outlined above.

We do not recommend the creation of a competing Jewish publication. The community is not strong enough to support two publications and in many ways the Light has served, as best as it could, the community for many decades and deserves to be boosted not diminished.

Editorial integrity required

The question of editorial independence may be more difficult to resolve than the question of financial support. The Jewish community is not organically organized, has no elected representatives, has no religious or secular leaders universally recognized, and some of its bodies officially representing Jewish "points of view" actually depend more on volunteers who happen to attend some meeting rather than representing a consensus of the community at large.

Because the Light is a "publicly" and not a "privately" published paper, the Board should represent the public. One could ask any group which considers itself and is accepted as "Jewish" and favors the establishment of an independent publication to send representatives to a founding conference which can elect a Board. The task of the Board would be to assure independence by electing a publisher and editor.

Another approach would be to ask anyone willing to serve on such a Board to submit their resumes which would all be published as an insert in the Light with readers asked to vote for their preferences.

Cumberson? Of course. But the requirements of a free press never come easy or cheap. This effort will require considerable resources, time, and most important, the dedication to want it to succeed.

Only the Jewish Federation has the means to accomplish this task.

How accurate is the '10 most censored stories' project?

Were the 10 best censored stories really censored?

Former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, now the director of the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University (SIU), Carbondale, recently told SJR of attempts to stop the killings in Rwanda in 1994. Those events were cited as one of the 10 most censored stories.

An SIU symposium to explore steps to prevent future genocides invited General Romeo Dallaire of the Canadian Defense Ministry to speak at the event. He was in charge of UN troops in Rwanda. When the Ministry learned that reporters would be present, they did not want him to speak. "Defense departments are all the same everywhere." comments Simon.

As reported at the symposium:

In April of 1994, reports came out of Rwanda about ethnic killings on a large scale. Then-Senator Paul Simon and Senator James Jeffords, with six co-sponsors, introduced a resolution calling on the United Nations and the United States to do what could be done to stop the slaughter. When the situation worsened, they phoned General Dallaire, in charge of a small contingent of 500 UN troops in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. He told the Senators that if he could get 5,000 to 8,000 troops quickly, he could stop the killings. Tragically, no action was taken.

Only later, after 800,000 were killed did the world take a limited interest. Ultimately, the toll rose to 900,000.

When the resolution was ignored, they hand-delivered a letter to the White House and the State Department urging immediate action. Again nothing was done because, Simon was told, "We don't feel there is a base of public support for taking action in Africa."

Public support can be created by the President or by the media. Both failed. It certainly was one of the most underreported stories.

Soeteber to address St. Louis Press Club

Ellen Soeteber, editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, will discuss "Creating Meaningful Journalism for St. Louis" at the Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis on Thursday, Sept. 13 at noon at the Radisson Hotel, 200 N. Fourth. To make reservations, call 314-241-NEWS by Monday, Sept. 10. Cost is $18 for members, $20 for guests.

People

Media

All Star Radio Networks

Michael Grafman, has been hired as chief operating officer.

KSDK (Channel 5)

Kurt Warner, the Rams quarterback, will again join the station for his second season of analysis. He will provide insider reports, from preseason games, throughout the season and into the playoffs.

KWMU

Debra Blackwell has been hired as traffic director.

Pulitzer, Inc.

Alan G. Silverglat has been appointed senior vice president - finance. Formerly corporate vice president/treasurer at Knight Ridder, Inc., he replaces Ronald H. Ridgway, who is retiring at the end of September but will continue to serve on the Pulitzer, Inc. Board of Directors. Robert C. Woodworth, president and chief executive officer, said, "Alan couples extensive financial expertise with a deep knowledge of the newspaper business. I have known Alan since we worked together at Knight Ridder, and his abilities and experience make him an excellent addition to our management team."

Commenting on Ridgway's retirement, Woodworth said, "Ron Ridgway has been with Pulitzer for 31 years and has served as Pulitzer's chief financial officer since 1979. Ron's knowledge, modesty and candor have earned him deep respect both inside and outside Pulitzer, and he has been a terrific partner for me since I came to Pulitzer in 1999."

St. Louis Business Journal

Angela Mueller has been named section editor. She has been a reporter and previously served as a co-editor of Fast Forward magazine. She will continue to oversee the Fast Forward pages in the Business Journal in addition to the sections, reports the St. Louis Business Journal. Prior to joining Fast Forward, Mueller was a reporter for the Telegraph in Alton. She is a graduate of Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C.

Ad/PR

Adamson, Inc.

Dave Gutting has joined the agency as vice president/advertising account supervisor, Robin List as print and project manager, Barb Montanye as senior art director, Cherie Burroughs and Kevin King as copywriters and Jo McDonald as an administrative assistant.

The Houser Group

Laura Leckrone, senior account executive, has been invited to serve on the Board of Directors of Riverbend Head Start & Family Services. She has been with The Hauser Group since 1997.

Image Works Public Relations

Cary Goldwasser has been hired as promotions manager and director of new business development. Jennifer Anderson was named promotions and administrative coordinator for the company's new event marketing division.

Join Falk Harrison Creative

Richard Roden joined the firm as art director and Amanda Mace as assistant art director. Jason Larch has joined as an account representative. Prior to joining the firm, Roden served as a designer with ProWolfe Partners and as an art director with KPC, both in St. Louis. Most recently, Larch was director of business planning and development at Big Fish Communications in Boston.

Kochan & Company Advertising

David Nelson has joined its creative department as art director. Previously, he worked for Rodgers Townsend, Glennon, and Kupper Parker Communications.

Touchwood, Inc.

Matt Davis has been named director of business development. Prior to joining the agency, Davis was employed by information technology consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Phoenix Networks. He also was owner of M&M Office Products

The Vandiver Group

Darren A. Owens and Fabienne Knecht have joined the agency as interns.

Ad/PR Awards

Creative Producers Group

The agency won two Axiem Awards(tm) for excellence in video production. A video for IBM in the Corporate category and a travel video promoting tourism in Kansas City won silver honors. The videos also won awards in the International Cinema in Industry Competition.

Falk Harrison Creative

The agency won three awards in the 2001 International ARC Awards competition. The 2000 Sprint Corporation annual report won a gold award in its telecommunications industry category, the Argosy Gaming Company 2000 annual report earned a gold award in the gaming category and the 2000 annual report of Sabre Holdings Corporation received a bronze award in the information services category.

The Vandiver Group

The agency has been recognized by the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW). It won a national honorable mention for its design of a press kit for Saint Louis Effort For AIDS. The agency won first place in the Missouri competition, which earned it a spot in the national competition.

Agencies

Kochan & Company

Red Lion Beef Corporation, parent company of Lion's Choice Restaurants, has chosen the agency to provide advertising services. Candice Yagmin will be the account executive. Kochan & Company's client roster includes The Alton Belle Casino, Raging Rivers WaterPark, St. Louis Science Center, HealthLink and The Pasta House Company.