Four dailies fight over Edwardsville

By Murray Farish

Edwardsville, Ill., is not like most towns its size. At first glance, Edwardsville gives the impression of being a town that survived-didn't thrive, but survived-the forces that led similar towns to ruin during the last 30 years. The storefronts are more full than empty. People bustle about on business. The cars parked around the courthouse square are late-model and largely upscale. And there's another thing you notice if you spend a moment walking around the courthouse square in Edwardsville-newspaper machines -lots of them.

Four dailies-the Edwardsville Intelligencer, the Alton Telegraph, the Belleville News-Democrat and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch-sell papers here every day. All four have bureau offices on the courthouse square, and they compete intensely for readership. Many of the editors and reporters in the area have put in decades on the Edwardsville beat. One of these reporters, who did not wish to be named, called the situation in Edwardsville "a good, old-fashioned newspaper war."

"You have so many players in there now because it could be a lucrative market, and nobody's tapping it," the reporter said. "Whoever gets this market has an excellent base to radiate in any direction in the county."

The battlefield

Edwardsville's position as Madison County's seat of government helped it survive the turbulent past few decades. Madison County, which includes Alton, Collinsville, Glen Carbon and Wood River, has managed to keep some of the types of industries-manufacturing, refining-that left similar areas high and dry during the '70s, '80s and '90s. The town's civic leaders made some very good decisions at crucial moments, among them luring Southern Illinois University which opened its Edwardsville campus in 1965. But most important for Edwardsville, it is close to St. Louis.

"The quality of life here makes Edwardsville very attractive to families from St. Louis," said Mayor Gary Niebur. "We still hold on to the charm and character of a small town. We have a superb public school system, and several excellent parochial schools.

"And as everything in St. Louis expands west, people there are starting to realize that we're closer to downtown St. Louis than many places in west St. Louis County, and we're a much better value."

The numbers bear out Niebur's words. Madison County is one of the fastest growing areas in Illinois, both in population and income. In 1990, there were 14,000 people in Edwardsville; today there are 22,200. This kind of growth has helped the old businesses survive and adapt and has enticed new companies to relocate there. The dramatic increase in population means a greater number of potential readers and sets the stage for intense competition. But does competition equal a newspaper war?

Bruce Coury is the publisher of the Edwardsville Intelligencer, the town's oldest paper. He said the situation in Edwardsville is nothing new.

"I wouldn't call it a newspaper war," Coury said. "This is business as usual. All of these papers have been publishing here for a long time, and I don't see that changing."

What has changed, according to Coury, is the market. "Before, each paper carved out its own territory," Coury said. "Now, the market is more homogenous, which makes the competition a bit tougher."

It is tempting to call what's happening in Edwardsville "a good, old-fashioned newspaper war"-to someone who's fighting for stories there every day it may certainly seem to be one. There is stiff competition for stories and ad revenues. There are reporters hopping papers. There are even rumors that the Telegraph and the News-Democrat have standing offers to buy the Intelligencer.

But the newspaper war in Edwardsville is not old-fashioned, and in the end, it may not be so good either. The war being fought in Edwardsville, and similar places all over the country, is a war to decide how small-town newspapers will look in the future, what approaches they will take to adapt to changing markets and who wins will decide the kind of news coverage readers in towns like Edwardsville get on the doorstep every morning.

Regionalism vs. localism

"We provide local news coverage," the Intelligencer 's Coury said. "That's what we do. We hardly ever have a national news story on the cover, but if you live or work in Edwardsville and want to know what's going on here, we're where you turn."

It has been a profitable approach. The Intelligencer first went to press in 1862, becoming a daily in 1907. In 1979, the paper was bought by the Hearst chain and is still Hearst's only paper in the bi-state area. Responding to the rumors, George Irish, president of Hearst Newspapers, said that Hearst has no intention of selling the Intelligencer.

"There has been interest expressed in the Intelligencer, as there would be with any good newspaper," Irish said. "But there have been no offers from any of the local papers, and there are certainly no standing offers from anyone." Today, with a daily circulation of more than 7,000 and a payroll of $1.1 million, Coury believes the Intelligencer is on the right track.

"We are the paper of record here," Coury said. "We have an intimate relationship with the people of this community. We live here. We shop here. And despite the competition from outside, our revenues are very good."

But the Intelligencer is feeling the heat from the other papers and from the more regional approach those papers are taking, a strategy that seeks to encompass not just Edwardsville but all of Madison County, the Metro East, St. Louis and the national scene. Even the Intelligencer's editor, Dan Heaton, sees the efficacy of that regional approach.

"The Post-Dispatch has always been the metro paper," Heaton said. "We're offering a little bit of a different package. The majority of new growth in Edwardsville is people moving from St. Louis County-people who are used to getting the Post-Dispatch. One of our efforts is to make these people realize that there is another daily paper here, one that's going to do a better job of covering their children's school district, a better job of covering local politics."

The Post is taking aggressive new steps to adapt its regional strategy to make it more local. On Jan. 11, the Post scrapped its old Illinois edition-which covered all of the Metro East-in favor of a three-zone split. Now, the Post publishes an Alton edition, a St. Clair/Monroe Counties edition and the Madison County edition that readers in Edwardsville receive. Charlie Bosworth, a long-time Post reporter in Illinois, said the split will help both the paper and its readers.

"With the split, we can provide more localized coverage, while still offering readers a broader and deeper range of coverage," Bosworth said.

Bosworth said the influx of new residents into the area has made the regional approach more viable than it was in the past. Before, readers in Edwardsville were less interested in the goings-on in St. Louis, or even in closer towns like Granite City, Glen Carbon or Alton.

"People in the Metro East are more mobile now," Bosworth said. "We're trying to focus on good stories and a broader perspective. This area has a more regional identity, and we're looking for ways to cut across those various geographic boundaries."

Tim Bross, the Post 's Illinois bureau chief, said the split was overdue.

"We see a great opportunity for more readers," Bross said, "and in the past, we haven't gone after them like we should. In a sense, we're catching up to what we've been doing in St. Louis and St. Louis County for a long time. Once you get into better zoning, you can be more responsive to your readers and your advertisers."

The Post has added two reporters in Madison County and two in St. Clair County, and the Post 's Assistant Managing Editor Phil Gaitens said the investment in "going after" the Metro East reader goes farther than just staff increases.

"We did focus groups and a lot of research," Gaitens said. "We've greatly increased the news hole, so there are added production costs as well. We really put some money into this thing, but we have a long way to go in Illinois."

Gaitens said the Post has 14,000 subscribers in the Madison County zone, which includes the towns of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Roxana and Highland, among others. Their "total market coverage" supplement reaches an additional 50,000 readers a week. Bob Wilcox, the Post 's Illinois sales division manager, is sure to mention these numbers when talking to potential advertisers in Edwardsville.

"The strongest area we try to stress is readership and distribution," Wilcox said. "The Intelligencer has strong readership, but not the distribution. They fall short of offering anything beyond the Edwardsville city limits. That's where we can pick up the ball. We try to sell to the business that is looking to expand itself into the whole county area, the whole region."

Wilcox's staff has grown since the split as well. "We added two new members to our sales staff," he said, "and we plan to hire additional salespeople in the next year."

The Telegraph has had its Edwardsville/Glen Carbon edition in place for about three years now, but has been covering the news in the county seat for much longer than that. While the Edwardsville/Glen Carbon edition has a circulation of only 1,400, Bureau Chief Dennis Grubaugh wants the Telegraph to be the Madison County newspaper.

"That would be the strongest possible paper for us," Grubaugh said. "Madison County is a prime area for picking up subscribers, but it's also very competitive. In the last couple of years we've put forth a concerted effort to control this area."

The Journal Register Company is the chain that owns the Telegraph, as well as 23 other dailies around the country, mostly in small-to-medium sized towns where the regional approach is strongly in place. It is interesting to note that what was once the Alton Telegraph is now, simply, the Telegraph. Journal Register routinely drops the city names from all papers it owns in an effort to give those papers a more regional identity.

Grubaugh said the Madison County reader likes the regional approach.

"We've gotten a good response," he said. "You get a good enough story, anybody's going to want to read it. We have four other reporters in the bureau, and we pretty much try to cover everything of interest, from the schools to the courthouse."

It's that staff of reporters and their ability to find and write good stories, that Grubaugh is counting on to give the Telegraph the edge.

"We have a very seasoned staff," Grubaugh said. "I don't think the Intelligencer has quite got the staff they'd want for this kind of competition. They're very young. The Post-Dispatch has been showing an increased amount of interest in this area, which helps to keep us sharp. I don't think Belleville has quite the level of interest that we have in the Edwardsville/Glen Carbon market."

That level of interest, or lack of it, may be evidenced in the fact that repeated attempts to get comment from the News-Democrat for this story met only with broken appointments and unreturned phone calls.

Who will win?

At first, the reader will be the winner in this new-fashioned, ideological newspaper war. As Mayor Niebur said, "For our public to be properly informed, it's a real plus to have all of these outlets. I'm sure we have more news coverage than any other city our size."

While it is certainly a plus for the readers of a city and a region to be well-informed, and to have options for information, there is another side to this healthy and enriching competition.

The obvious reason newspapers want the readers of Edwardsville and Madison County is because of the potential for profits for their companies. Newspapers are a business, and businesses go where the money is. In counties like Madison, though, the question of where the money is is still a fluid one. What if St. Louisans stop moving to Edwardsville and instead move in similar droves to Highland or Roxana or Godfrey?

If the regional approach carries the day in the Metro East, a city like Edwardsville, if it falls on hard times, could see its news relegated to the back pages or not covered at all, while the region's new "lucrative market" reaps the benefits of being the latest place where the money is.

But just like in all good, old-fashioned newspaper wars, it will be the readers who decide.

What the media didn't tell you about the pope's visit

By E.F. Porter

PAPAL PUFFERY: Both locally and nationally, coverage of Pope John Paul II's visit to St. Louis Jan. 26 and Jan. 27, was, in general, an avalanche of fluff. The reason, suggested Peter Steinfels in his estimable weekly religion column in The New York Times, Jan. 23, was that reporters were finding it hard to come up with anything new after the feeding frenzy that accompanied the pope's last visit to the United States less than four years ago, and the orgy of thumb-sucking that marked the 20th anniversary of his pontificate last fall. The remedy, Steinfels submitted, might have been to seize the opportunity to examine the straws of pacifism lately noted in the Vatican winds. Some examples, mostly, according to Steinfels, overlooked by the American press:

• On Dec. 17, Vatican spokes-man Joaquin Navarro-Valls characterized the U.S. attack on Iraq as "aggression"-a term that appears to play on the sharp distinction drawn by the church between a just (morally justifiable) and unjust (sinful) war. The Rev. Navarro-Valls accompanied the pope on his St. Louis visit. Did anyone try to button-hole him on this issue?

• Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of New York, whose pastorate includes Catholic members of the armed forces, and who was visiting troops in the Gulf at the time of the attack on Iraq, issued a letter to Catholic chaplains in which he made prominent mention of the moral obligation of a soldier to disobey an order he knows to be immoral or illegal.

Is the Vatican, which over the past 2,000 years has not only countenanced but often actively encouraged hideous violence and which once maintained an army of its own, about to engage in an unqualified embrace of the tenets of its founder? Now that would be a story.

THREE-HUNDRED GALLON ASPERGILLUM: On the other hand, coverage of the pope's visit was rich in trivia, such as the intelligence, solemnly reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, that tiny Glendale was the only community to station fire apparatus inside the Trans World Dome during the papal appearance. The engine was a 1995 Becker pumper on a Chevy chassis equipped with a booster reel, a generator, a defibrillator and carrying 300 gallons of water, the Post told us.

INVISIBLE GRIDLOCK: The epic traffic jam forecast by city officials and the news media never came. Gary Pohrer, vice president of St. Louis Parking Co., which he says is the city's largest lot operator with 60 percent of the downtown lots and 65 percent of those in the Central West End, said business was so much lower for the two days that he lost money and had to send some of his help home.

"It's been very disappointing," said Pohrer. "We've had three months of planning. ... We got together with competitors and had meetings to help make things run smoothly. We talked about being extra friendly to customers, but we just didn't get the volume."

Other lot operators reported a similar experience. One operator said his 20 downtown lots averaged a little more than one car per lot per day during the papal visit.

So far as we know, the only newsperson to question whether the crowds would be as awesome as forecast was an intelligent reporter on KMOX radio who called Denver to ask about the papal visit there in 1993. The reporter learned that it was no more than you'd expect at a pro football playoff.

GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. DILBERT: All three campuses of St. Louis Community College were shut down for the papal visit and faculty members were told to improve shining hours with: "Reading, planning to improve a process in your department, work on your capital budget ... attending a conference ... committee work, planning teaching activities, grading papers, etc." Nothing said about going to see the pope.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS: The local news media have not told us:

• Was the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, president of St. Louis University, snubbed during the papal visit for his part in selling the university's hospital to Tenet HealthCare over the objections of the archdiocese and the Holy See?

Was Biondi even in town for the festivities? Was the papal visit a deliberate gesture of rebuke thought up by Archbishop Justin Rigali, Biondi's antagonist?

The questions underlying these questions are a bit more complicated. Biondi, as a Jesuit, took a vow of obedience to the pope so one would think that a brief phone call from Rome could have scotched the sale. Was there ever such a call? Or was the sale a decision of the university's predominantly lay board made over Biondi's protest? And if so, why is Biondi now on the Tenet board?

The student journalists at the University News got it right when they editorialized that it was unseemly for two grown men, Biondi and Rigali, both priests, to act like a couple of brats.

• Nor have local organizations told us who picked up the tab for the visit. Who paid the businesses that were ordered shut down for a day or two, and how much? Who paid for the miles of orange plastic fences?

• Who paid the publishers of alternative periodicals, such as Snicker, for the cost of moving their vending boxes away from the route of the papal procession?

• Who in the world published that bizarre four-color insert in the Post on Monday, Jan. 25? Many found its attacks on the Roman Catholic Church unchristian. And who at the Post would accept such advertising? It's not the content-SJR backs the First Amendment to the hilt-but publishing ads without identifying the advertiser that we question. It seems sinister.

• While it is the practice in the St. Louis Archdiocese for nuns and certain lay women to assist in giving communion, there were none at the communion at the Trans World Dome.

PURVEYORS TO HIS HOLINESS: A local ad agency, on learning that the pope would be flying in on TWA, called the airline to find out if any of the food or beverages he might consume were those of any of its clients. The question must have puzzled TWA. What could be the promotional value of a bag of peanuts and a cardboard cup of lukewarm brown water?

The agency was told to call the archdiocese.

A SECRET SERVICE: The backstage meeting between the pope and Mark McGwire was almost not captured on videotape. The meeting was arranged at the last minute and occurred in the basement of Kiel. Secret Service agents weren't at all happy with the last-minute arrangements. After some heated discussions between television producers and public-relations types, permission to tape the event was finally granted under very strict guidelines: Photographers could shoot only the pope and McGwire and absolutely nothing else-not the pope greeting others besides McGwire and not the pope getting into his golf cart. One agent told a KMOV (Channel 4) producer: "You don't shoot this like I tell you, and you're in the hospital to have that camera pulled out of your ass."

BIG SCREENING: The atmosphere of cooperation and accommodation which marked the pool-feed arrangement between local television stations fell apart during the youth rally. Personnel of other stations were livid when they saw Channel 4's signal on the jumbotron. Channel 4 was responsible for the youth rally feed, and other stations naturally assumed it had somehow engineered the giant plug. The calls to Channel 4 were frantic.

SMALL IMPIETIES: Sweetmeat, KSHE's emblematic swine, was depicted on a billboard atop the Drury Inn near Union Station with his (or her) arm around the pope ... KPNT disc jockey Traci Wilde on Jan. 6 encouraged listeners to affix "The Point" bumper stickers to the popemobile. The station reportedly received a visit from the Secret Service ...

Displayed on the marquee of Vintage Vinyl, a record store in the University City Loop: "The pope is coming. Look busy."

KDNL anchor Gina Kurre followed up a pre-recorded feature on baking communion wafers with a lament about the way they taste ...

(Editor's note: Some information for this story was provided by Jerry Berger.)

Internal charges of racism sweep Post

By Ellen Harris

An attempt to make the editorial page of theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch reader friendly has not only backfired, it has brought about charges of hypocrisy at the liberal newspaper toward black reporters and toward the city the paper covers.

The Sunday, Jan. 3, editorial section showcased its writers with accompanying photos-every face was white.

These are the folks telling voters to pass a sales tax to aid desegregation, yet no editorial staffer sends his or her children to St. Louis public schools. Some writers, like Editorial Page Editor Christine Bertelson, send their children to elite, expensive private schools.

Just before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, well-respected former editorial writer Bob Joiner yanked off the white gloves of the newspaper's do-as-we-say-not-as-we-do stance toward African Americans. In an internal memo, Joiner called the Jan. 3 story an "insensitive decision ... those who made the decision apparently forgot that appearances matter as much as good intentions ... I can think of no other major daily's editorial page staff having such a dubious distinction ... How can we convince African Americans that we want to increase the social climate if we fail to improve the climate inside this building?"

Many African-American readers are equally unhappy. "I don't know how many e-mails and phone calls we received from blacks who were offended by the Jan. 3 page," says one African-American staffer. "Even those who like the Post were shocked."

Joiner is incredulous that there isn't at least one competent African-American writer who could make it as a Post editorial writer.

Editor Bertelson has asked several black reporters to join her team but they've refused, reporters say. Two sources say Bertelson is looking to fill a slot with "an angry black female."

"She doesn't want an independent human, she wants a thing," says one white reporter angrily. "She plays to a stereotype," comments a black writer.

Bertelson did not return our phone calls.

Little Black Sambo

A total of three black Post reporters and two white reporters joined Bob Joiner in the barrage of internal memos attacking overall treatment of blacks in the newsroom. Several reporters are now referring to this as "a revolt." The problem isn't confined to the editorial page. It's endemic at the Post, say reporters. Black and white reporters say the Post practices both overt and covert racism.

"Blacks are held to a higher standard," explains a white writer. "They're rarely given grace for occasional failure like the favored whites are."

Several memos question whether thePost truly wants diversity. If management fears elevating blacks to high-profile positions will alienate white readers, then "stop wasting people's time with diversity training," one memo says.

"When management and reporters look at black journalists, they see a black person; they don't think, 'We have a good reporter here,'" say both black and white reporters who asked to remain anonymous. "They don't look beyond the color of someone's skin. And they ascribe to a belief that blacks make lesser reporters. Compare that to how white reporters are seen as reporters."

Joiner makes it clear that he is challenging the Post as an institution not as a management team.

(As another example of institutional ignorance, he cites the Post's penchant for throwing public receptions at the Adams Mark Hotel. Even before the Adams Mark lost a multi-million-dollar racial discrimination lawsuit, it was notorious for being rude to black patrons.)

Other reporters, black and white, say the names on the newspaper masthead say it all. They say blacks are considered children of a lesser god in the Post's corporate culture.

"We don't have nearly as many African Americans on staff as we once did," says columnist Greg Freeman. "And because we don't, we appear insensitive to the black community. We shoot ourselves in the foot."

Black legislators have complained there are no black reporters in Jefferson City. "None of us have any burning desire to go there," explains one reporter. "We would if there were a plan to promote us to the Washington Bureau, but no one thinks that far ahead."

One man says in his memo a supervisor about to retire called him "Little Black Sambo" in front of a news supervisor. In most media, calling an African American "Sambo" would be grounds for firing.

Campbell's role

Part of the problem is that staffers of both races were giddy with optimism when Cole Campbell took over as editor in late 1996: As an outsider to the reigning good-ole-boy network, Campbell promised the newsroom would mirror the metro area.

But, in an upcoming report by the National Association of Black Journalists [NABJ] of minorities in the newsroom, the Post ranks poorly. That, says Campbell in his mea culpa memo of Jan. 22, "will compound our already weak profile among African-American journalists ... and make it harder to regroup in our recruiting." Twenty-one percent of Campbell's A-scale hires have been African American, 13 of 61, he says. To date, "people of color" comprise 14.8 percent of the newsroom and 12 percent of the A-scale and guild-exempt jobs.

But, in her memo, one white reporter cites the census by the American Society of Newspaper Editors in which the Post fell to 8.4 percent of its newsroom being minority, as of Jan. 1, 1998. "This is especially distressing when you consider that 42 percent of the newspapers surveyed had NO journalists of color ... mostly small papers ... For us to fall so short is inexcusable."

Campbell points out that Carolyn Kingkade was the only black senior editor when he took over; now Cynthia Todd heads minority recruiting, Andre Jackson is weekend metro editor, Yvonne Samuel is a diversity facilitator and Courtney Barrett is chief of the copy desk. All are African Americans.

Some believe that Campbell is sincere in his efforts to change the face of Post management. The four promotions mentioned above point to that. But others have their doubts.

"Campbell thinks confession equals change," says one white reporter. "But he's made no changes in the atmosphere of the newsroom. It's platitudes, not philosophy here."

"Blacks have no future other than the level where they were hired," a black reporter says in one memo. "Still the most hideous part of this is the process that prevents black folks from being promoted."

Part of the problem, says Freeman, is that there are no African-American "angels" high up to promote and protect black reporters as white "angels" help along other whites. "The Post doesn't have the reputation as a place for blacks to go to climb the ladder. It does not have the reputation as a place to nurture you." At least two white reporters agree with him.

Yet at the same time, Campbell boosted certain blacks such as Samuel because she had "sounded off," say several white reporters. "It's very paternalistic."

Several blacks say they are not impressed with Campbell's use of management psycho babble: "Sometimes I think I'm back in business school, sitting among future management consultant, marketers and investment bankers," reads one memo.

Despite the huge success in book publishing and movies of "cross-over" readers, that is whites who read black authors, the Post has one African-American writer in the much-vaunted features section, and she is on the Saturday tab. There is no regular black magazine writer. While sports has three blacks, it's more the last bastion of the white good-ole-boys.

The whispering campaigns

In his memo, an African-American staffer says that had he ever listened to the whites' critique of himself and other black reporters, he would have believed he was inferior. Then he noted how the same comments were made about his black predecessors and his black colleagues. "The same process chased off reporters before me."

The process: A black is hired and management is high on him or her. Then the reporter shows ambition, asking the same chances his white colleagues receive. "That's when it starts. The rumors and gossip, the exaggeration of their shortcomings, the belittling of their strengths ... the flat out lies that create unfounded fears among the staff that filter to the supervisors who never check what's true," says a memo.

The newcomer's reputation is tattered. Blacks feel they are left at the bottom of the rung.

When one black reporter asked his white colleagues what had happened to other blacks, he was told "Oh, Gerald Boyd wasn't a good writer... George Curry wasn't a good writer... Ken Cooper wasn't a good writer..." Says another of Cooper who won a Pulitzer, "Oh, that's right, it was only for a team report," writes one black in his memo. "It wasn't really his."

One copy editor notes that in nine years correcting he read the work of each and every section. He saw the so-called problem writers as well as the red-hots. He says supervisors resented having to fix black reporters' copy and were pleased to perfect white reporters' copy.

Just the facts, ma'am

Black reporters say the Post is "a non-entity in the black community" which is put off by "so many subtle insults that blacks often find it abhorrent to read on a continuous basis." African Americans perceive the sloppiness and factual errors as signs the Post can't be bothered; black readers know the editors would be fuming if such mistakes were made in articles on Webster Groves or Clayton:

• A graphic stating that the average annual income among Kinloch residents was $40,000 and some people there earned more than $100,000 a year. After a black caught the mistakes, the supervisor "shrugged" and cut the income to above $20,000.

• After calling the Tuskegee Airmen the Tuskegee Experiment, the white editor did not want to correct it.

• A two-parter on the East St. Louis Election Board that failed to include an interview with any East St. Louis commissioner or resident: When a black copy editor questioned the story, his supervisor told him to iron it out with the reporter.

• In a story about a famous black person, the editor spelled the figure's name three different ways and included factual errors about the person.

• A story about a civil rights demonstration told how folks hung out of windows cheering support. The problem was the windows in the building did not open. When told about the mistake, the supervisor said to just go with what the reporter said.

Black reporters also cite as examples of covert racism:

• The photo spread on the Darst-Webbe Project: One staffer wrote, "Every black person I know who read it hated it for its 1950s National Geographic-like treatment of these simple natives whom we as superior beings don't really understand but they seem to lead colorful, marginally interesting lives anyway ... My wife wrote the editor and editorial page editor to complain. Unlike when you write Proctor & Gamble or most any other organization we like to study, neither deemed it worthy to respond to her letter.

"But what the hell, we as an institution know what's best for blacks and working-class whites, don't we?"

Keeping talented blacks

Worse than the numbers is the issue that the Post can't seem to keep many talented black reporters. "Why is it that nearly every black reporter who has left this place has gone on to important positions at other publications?" Joiner asks.

Why did they leave? "This place really could care less about my and other African Americans' views ... Our unspoken motto for blacks seems to be: 'To whom as little as possible is given, even less is expected,'" retorts a black reporter in the volley of memos. He points out that Al Neuharth and Gannett figured out diversity counts without needing angry reporters and editors to teach them.

Meeting with Campbell

Greg Freeman asked Campbell to meet with a group of black reporters and editors and support staff, and they congregated at the editor's house, Jan. 23, for three and a half hours. "We let him understand there were significant concerns," Freeman says. "We let him know it wasn't just Bob Joiner and two others. We made him aware of the frustrations."

Other reporters point out those concerns are beyond race and focus on the Post management style: "If you're friends with an editor, he gives you plum assignments. If not, you're his goat," explained a reporter.

Campbell's response the following Monday, was to write another memo, promising: "By next Monday, I will draw up a plan of attack to move through these and other ideas. We will discuss them, along with reorganization and other newsroom issues, in various staff meetings. Work to set up a dialogue group is already under way." While Campbell did not pass out his plan on Feb. 1, staffers say he's working on it and hope that he follows through.

"Good intentions mean nothing without action," writes a white reporter in her memo. Another white reporter echoes it in hers: Quoting civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hammer, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired ... This kind of hand-wringing has gone on for years. Hold some meetings, make some pronouncements about diversity. And the next time a talented journalist of color chafes ... and moves on ... declare that you feel really bad ... Then hold a few more meetings." Discussion without change. Venting, she calls it. Show Me some action.

The Post has failed at "nurturing" staffers, as Campbell puts it, of all races. Indeed. Many women reporters feel they've been relegated to the margins, some Jews discriminated against and several white males over 40 say they're picked on. But these groups have been ahead at the Post. Nothing will stop internal politics.

"When was the last time someone sat down with you and asked:: What do you want to get out of your career at the Post?" Campbell notes. "How can we help you achieve your goals?"

Maybe free up the editors from Campbell's four-hour weekly lectures on democracy and let them listen to their reporters.

Post shuffles deck-again

By Ellen Harris

As SJR goes to press, the latest announcement in Cole Campbell's continuing reorganization of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was made. In a surprise move, Tuesday, Feb. 2, Deputy Editor Arnie Robbins was named managing editor replacing current Managing Editor Richard K. Weil. Weil will take on the title of executive editor. The new assignments begin Feb. 7.

Robbins will be the fourth managing editor at the Post in the last seven years.

Traditionally, executive editors outrank managing editors. Campbell says both positions will report to him. Weil, well regarded as a newsman, will assume more administrative responsibilities in the newsroom including recruiting and hiring, retention and promotion, performance development, the writing program and staff career plans, Campbell says. Weil will also work with marketing, circulation and advertising.

"I'll be involved in readership research, bringing new reporting techniques in, training," Weil says. "And trying for more diversity in both the newsroom and our top leadership ranks."

Robbins will handle the day to day news coverage. That means he'll work with section teams. Some reporters interpret Campbell's memo as Weil and Robbins switching job functions.

"It's basically true, on face value, that Richard and I are changing roles," said Robbins. "Richard will stay in his office and I'll take another, but keep my desk in the newsroom."

Robbins was executive sports editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, assistant managing editor for features, and he also spent two years as the change editor during massive reorganization at that newspaper.

"I worked on every section of the newspaper," he says. "It was a lot of fun."

Nicholas Penniman, for now, continues as the Post publisher and senior vice president of newspapers for the Pulitzer Corporation. That will change under the upcoming Hearst-Argyle deal, according to documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Bob Woodworth, president and chief executive officer of the new Pulitzer Inc., and Penniman are said to be working out what his position will be with an announcement coming in the next few weeks. The SEC papers say Penniman will become a paid consultant. Penniman now sits on the board of directors and he is a member of the voting trust which includes three Pulitzer family members, two executives in Pulitzer Publishing and Cole Campbell. After the merger, Penniman will leave the trust, say the SEC documents.

LETTERS

I give up-Andrea Murray

SJR: Regarding the Patty Bennett article: By not including former employees (outside of me, Lester and Matthew) or attempting to find her many critics in the industry and the community, the article was complicit in the station's favorite, and by now shop-worn PR strategy-to tell the media that whoever criticizes Patty is the exception to the rule, a disruptive oddity with some hidden personal agenda. The three of us were not contacted to respond to anything station representatives told you (some of which was blatantly untrue.) Nor did much of our own stories make it into the article, while the station was given carte blanche when it came to rebutting and re-interpreting those few remarks that were included. By the exclusion of other critics, we three were made to look as though we were the ONLY critics, while the station produced, by my count, eight people to enumerate Patty's "virtues." They were given more than ample opportunity to spin this story and set the boundaries of the discussion. I promise you, there are scores of former (and current) employees, former underwriters and board members, people all over town (none of whom was apparently contacted by your reporter) who, upon reading your article, immediately thought (perhaps with a nauseated shudder), "My God, it happened again. They managed to manipulate people into believing nothing is really wrong there." And like me, they are baffled and demoralized by the realization that, even when the truth about that place is told, it will never be heard ... thanks to what I, at least, had always regarded as KWMU's transparent and unsophisticated media "management" strategies.

As for Robert Peterson's comments, I only wish it were humanly possible to count the number of times he came into the newsroom complaining about Patty.

As I pointed out to your reporter, some real digging was needed here. As it always is when reporting on the official party line and public institutions. It's, to say the least, difficult to find people willing to come forward to discuss KWMU. I told your reporter about the widely recognized fear factor (it was out of my own fear that I did not recount to her some of the more hateful things done to employees there. Now I wish to God I had). The very week I was interviewed, I personally spoke with several former-and a couple of current-employees. All were openly toying with the idea of calling your reporter but admitted they might be too afraid ... and with good reason. There are so many out there. At least some phone calls to such people, even if they were not quoted, would have established our credibility for your reporter.

It's more than fear that keeps people from telling their KWMU stories to the press. When I last spoke with someone who quit the station long before I was hired, I was told not to bother talking to reporters. For reasons that are mysterious to us all, Patty would, the person warned me, somehow manage to spin the story beyond recognition and come out winning, just as she had so many times in the past. But I paid little attention. I suppose on some level I thought would-be whistle-blowers that had gone before us had perhaps not been persistent enough, wily enough, SOMETHING enough to succeed. I thought, truly malevolent people can't succeed for long, can't get away with it undetected. Because after all, justice eventually prevails.

I was wrong.

And I give up.

Andrea Murray

St. Louis needs another daily

SJR: You helped make my week. Between the new SJR and a friend's generous lending of all heretofore issues of Brill's Content, I'm awash in journalistic commentary.

I told Donzie "Drunken Frat Boy" Corrigan to pass along my high praise for this issue's "Here" column ... but upon re-reading it online (my hard copy of SJR is back at the Times) I am astutely noticing an omission, or I am-in fine political style-"misremembering" the facts. I could've sworn you ended your column with a lament to the single-sidedness of daily news in St. Louis. Words to the effect, "We need another daily paper to restore journalism to a city that is no longer witness to its practice."

Whether you said, or suggested such a charge (or whether I created it) I am encouraged, despite the evidence of any rumblings to inspire such a publication. At least there are others out there calling for an alternative.

Is there no one in this town who could be moved to open his coffers in the name of value neutrality ... er ... I mean, objectivity?

When that day comes, I shall stand at the ready, mouse in one hand, pica pole in the other.

Till then, I remain (detached & aloof).

Russ Carr,

WK Times desk jockey

OF NOTE

It's all Greek to me

The new name of the team that once was the Houston Oilers, a proud and original member of the American Football League, will be the Tennessee Titans, after a couple of years as the Nashville-or Tennessee -Oilers, complete with derrick on the helmet.

Now, as the Titans, with a Greek "T" and a mythological tale that reads like sheer nonsense, the Nashvillians, or Tennesseans, recall one of the great newspaper lines of all time, produced by Red Smith, one of the great sports writers of all time.

Many years ago, when the AFL was beginning, it had a New York team owned by sportscaster Harry Wismer. It was called the Titans too.

Like most AFL teams, it didn't draw many people, but it announced large crowds for its home games in the old Polo Grounds.

One day Smith listed the attendance as announced and added, "More than half of them came disguised as empty seats."

Oh, by the way, the person who named the Titans has the kind of memory that code-named American military operation Desert Fox after Nazi general Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox. If only someone had taken the time to check with Harry Levins at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, this embarrassment would have been avoided. Unfortunately, I'm sure that those who do not remember also do not care.

-Joe Pollack

The underbelly of the free

The coverage of business is rarely critical, whether in national or local publications. This also applies to media publications. It is, therefore, refreshing to find exceptions to that rule in the Business News Reporter (BNR), a national journalism review out of Denver. It primarily covers the comings and goings of media personnel, publications and industry happenings.

The January issue highlights the exceptional Time magazine: four-part series on corporate welfare. BNR interviewed reporters James B. Steele ad Donald L. Barlett. Among the findings of the series, "The federal government shells out $125 billion a year in corporate welfare." This costs "the equivalent of nearly two weekly paychecks from every working man and woman in America." It demolishes the illusion that corporate welfare leads to new jobs. In fact, it often leads to lost jobs, and that many companies receive tax abatements at the same time they are polluting the environment.

In another feature in the same issue, Dyan Zaslowsky reviews Thomas F. O'Boyle's book, "At Any Cost: Jack Welch, General Electric and the Pursuit of Profit." This year-to-year effort was pursued despite repeated letters by GE to intimidate Welch. He received at least 10 communications. O'Boyle had covered GE during his 11 years at The Wall Street Journal.

O'Boyle found most troubling, reports the BNR, GE's downsizing of its work force even while making record profits. "There's no attempt to report," O'Boyle told BNR, "they allow comp-anies to put a spin on something. I became very disappointed in the kind of reporting done by my colleagues in the business press. I have no intention of going back into the business press."

O'Boyle is the assistant managing editor for features at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

-Charles L. Klotzer

Wake up de Tocqueville

European journalists have a far more balanced and rational view of the world than Americans do.

In Paris, the conservative Le Figaro repeated the usual French view that the entire presidential impeachment scandal is a symptom of demented American puritanism.

"Wake up, de Tocqueville, they've gone mad!" began a front-page editorial signed by Franz-Olivier Giesbert. "When one observes the depressing spectacle presented by American democracy today, one imagines that the man who talked best about it cannot be feeling very well in his heaven. There is decidedly something rotten in the kingdom of democracy. The American obsession with truth and purity has turned morbid and demanding of psychoanalysis. It is even endangering the whole political system."

-Joe Pollack

L.A. Times dispenses pink slips

The news isn't so sunny in sunny Los Angeles, especially where the Los Angeles Times is concerned. Last month, on orders from Times-Mirror, the parent corporation, some 250 staffers received pink slips. Now, the job cuts go to the "consumer marketing group," whatever that is, with some 380 workers to be dismissed.

For those worried about the fate of the consumer marketing group, well, it will be "folded into" the "advertising marketing department." They're missing tab "A" and slot "C," however. The job cuts also will involve the finance, human resources and administrative service divisions.

Groups. Departments. Divisions. Add a brigade and a corps or two, and the Times will be ready to march off to war.

-Joe Pollack

Latest Arbitron Figures

The Arbitron figures for the St. Louis market's latest radio listening survey are true to form in that they provide the opportunity to make seemingly conflicting statements about how well some stations are doing.

Take the example of two of the talk/information stations, KMOX and KTRS. KMOX can legitimately say it dominates the market with an average quarter hour share of 11.0, which is roughly three times the number of people listening to KTRS. KTRS can say they are on a continuing upward swing, while KMOX is still seeing erosion of its listening audience. KMOX could counter the erosion this quarter is slight (11.2 to 11.0 when compared to a year ago.) KTRS could show their listenership increase is significant (3.4 to 4.0). And so it goes.

Format switches at other stations make it difficult to compare their current listenership with figures from a year ago. The former WALC is now WXTM, with a completely different target audience. KSD-FM has fired its morning man and tweaked its format in an effort to stem the bleeding of audience numbers, and KXOK-FM has wiped out its staff and completely refocused its format.

KLOU, under new ownership, has seen its oldies numbers jump from 3.7 to 4.8. KEZK, also under different ownership from a year ago, is up one point with their same soft rock format, 5.5 to 6.5. WIL, with its new owners and the same format, is off 8.5 to 6.9. KSHE, which has the same owners and format, dropped one point from 4.6 to 3.6, while KATZ-FM, same owners and format, is up 1.8 to 3.7. WKKX, with new owners and the same format, dropped 5.8 to 3.0.

There are four major multi-station players in the St. Louis market. Jacor, with six stations, has a combined audience share of 24.5. CBS (three stations) is second with 22.5; followed by Sinclair (six stations), 21.7; and Emmis (three stations), 10.3.

-Frank Absher

Book Review

"Historical Dictionary of American Radio"

Edited by Donald G. Godfrey

and Frederic A. Leigh

Greenwood Press /$89.50/520 pages

I'd recommend this book just for its introduction. In 12 pages, the editors have put together an excellent, concise history of radio, one of the best I have encountered anywhere. They follow it up with a timeline from 1837 (Morse's patent for the telegraph) through 1997 (FCC approval of satellite radio broadcasting).

But what makes this book the perfect reference is that it doesn't really limit itself to any area of radio. Through the efforts of many professional organizations such as members of the Broadcast Education Association, the editors were able to determine which subjects should be addressed and then call upon experts to provide the material.

The result is an informative, entertaining "dictionary" with listings of information about industry pioneers, stars, trends, formats, programs, scandals and technical aspects. The Historical Dictionary of American Radio is a great source for anyone wanting to know a little bit about almost everything in radio. At the end of most individual entries the authors have listed other sources of information on their respective subjects. If you want to know something, this is an excellent place to start.

-Frank Absher

MEDIA ON MEDIA

By Frank Absher

Simple-minded

Maybe they think there can't be too much of a good thing. NBC has decided to launch a new morning TV show next September to be called "Later Today." The program joins such other imaginatively named programs as "Tonight," "Later," "Late Night" and "Weekend Today." (Electronic Media, Jan. 18)

Aging viewers

The US population is growing older, with the median aging from 34.0 in 1994 to 35.3 in 1998. TN Media has found that the aging is also evident in almost every TV daypart's viewership as well. In prime time, the median ages are: ABC 41.8; CBS 52.2; NBC 42.7. The show with the oldest viewers is "Diagnosis Murder" on CBS at 57.1. And if you think soap operas are the property of bored college kids and high school dropouts, try this. The median age for "The Bold & the Beautiful" on CBS is 56.8. As for the showcase network evening news broadcasts, the median ages are: ABC 56.8; CBS 57.6; NBC 55.6. (Electronic Media, Dec. 14, Jan. 18)

FCC blame

The chairman of the FCC says his agency is partly to blame for the fact that cable companies are gouging their customers. Because of FCC loopholes, average cable rates have increased at four times the rate of inflation in the past two years. Bill Kennard says the best hope for making the cable companies toe the line is the increase of serious competition from DBS (direct broadcast-satellite) companies. (Electronic Media, Jan. 11)

DBS wars

The latest figures from the FCC show two out of every three new "multichannel video customers" are opting for DBS over cable. It will be awhile before DBS mounts a major threat, though. Cable has 85 percent of the market now. And all those statements cable is making about high program costs forcing rate increases don't hold much water. The FCC found 28 percent of the increased income went to programming. (Broadcasting & Cable, Dec. 21)

Starting young

Nickelodeon launches a new digital cable channel for young kids this month. In a joint effort with Children's Television Workshop, "Noggin" will aim educational shows at preschoolers. Meanwhile, PBS, which is also teamed with CTW, plans to start its PBS Kids Channel this fall, but it will only be available to homes with new digital tv receivers. (The New York Times, Jan. 20)

In hand

If you're willing to do a little squinting, you will soon be able to have instant news updates in the palm of your hand. By mid-1999, the Palm VII connected organizer is expected to be on the market for about $800. Another $9.95 monthly charge gives you Palm.Net online service, from which you can get news headlines without needing to find a phone jack. The device's screen size-1/3 that of a desktop-will limit what a user can actually see, so news providers for Palm.Net will utilize a special text-only presentation. (Electronic Media, Jan. 4)

Not real

This may come as a shock, but what you see on television is a distortion of real life. That's the conclusion reached in a study commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild. Women (51 percent of the US population) make up only 37 percent of TV's character population. Latino/Hispanics (11 percent US) are less than three percent. Asians (3.4 percent US) are virtually invisible on TV at 1.3 percent. (Electronic Media, Jan. 4)

Happy campers

The Radio-Television News Directors Foundation says two-thirds of the people they surveyed are happy with the quality of local television news. The study found that, while television has become the primary source for news in this country, 60 percent of the respondents aren't sure how much of what they see can be believed. (Broadcasting & Cable, Dec. 21)

Too far

Officials in Tampa are saying the media in the sunshine state have gone way beyond what would be considered responsible behavior, and there are calls for mandatory restraint of the media in emergencies. The calls stem from a hostage incident last year in which the media phoned the kidnapper while he was barricaded in a gas station with his victim. Some news directors say they can't go along with pre-arranged restraints because it hampers their ability to cover news. The state's legislature will consider a bill that would place a mandatory ban on any medium initiating contact with a suspect during pursuits. (Broadcasting & Cable, Dec. 7)

Wipeout

CBS-owned WBBM-TV in Chicago has wiped out its Saturday morning news broadcasts. A spokesman says no one lost a job in the move, and the station wanted to put more energy into its weekday efforts. (Broadcasting & Cable, Dec. 7)

Organized

Just about every major city has a company like Shadow or Metro providing news, traffic and sports to many of the local broadcast media. These companies are very profitable, in part because they keep their payrolls low. But change may be in the wind. In Chicago, the workers at Shadow have voted to affiliate with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. (Broadcasting & Cable, Dec. 7)

Nag TV

And you thought you'd seen it all. Well, there's more. United Video Satellite Group is about to give us "something completely different"-all horses, all the time. Its 24-hour horse racing channel will be available in eight states next fall. All the states allow betting over the telephone. (Electronic Media, Jan. 11)

HERE

By Ed Bishop

Changes that will ultimately alter the very nature of the Riverfront Times are starting to take place. In mid-January, prominent columnists for the weekly alternative newspaper-Richard Byrne, Jake McCarthy, Jeannette Batz and William Stage-were either let go or reassigned. Executives at New Times, Inc., the new owner of the RFT, have made it clear that they are not interested in opinions, even opinions grounded in sound reporting, and especially not opinions from an ideological point of view.

Even Ray Hartmann, the former owner of the RFT, has been asked to do more reporting for his column. And, speaking of Hartmann's column, no newspaper in the New Times chain is allowed to endorse political candidates.

The new bosses want the RFT to concentrate on hard news and little else. Resources are already being shifted from arts and entertainment coverage, from arts promotion and sponsorship and from the aforementioned columnists to longer hard-news reports.

These news stories will not have the familiar RFT political bent. Under the new philosophy, leftist and progressive groups will be treated like any other sources, not as allies.

The new style won't be cookie-cutter journalism exactly, but it will come close. Managers at New Times have an idea in their heads about what kind of stories they want-a kind of story template-and they're not going to deviate from the template just because the RFT used to have reliable leftist sources and allies.

Apparently RFT stories in the very near future will read like the stories you would find in a mainstream daily on a mainstream daily's good day. And considering the mainstream daily in this town, that shouldn't be too hard to do.

To be fair, though, New Times newspapers have won a lot of journalism awards with their approach. The problem is, is it alternative journalism? The New Times folks say it is. But an alternative to what?

For years a huge argument has raged in the alternative press. A shrinking group of alternative journalists believe their publications should offer a leftist, even socialist alternative to the mainstream, capitalist press. A larger group believes that the word "alternative" refers not to politics, but to a style of journalism called point-of-view journalism. This kind of journalism is an alternative to the mainstream media's so-called "objective" journalism.

If the RFT drops its opinion columns, and, more importantly, its point-of-view, is it still an alternative newspaper? The answer to that question would appear to be no.

But I'll admit the question is pretty esoteric. Who cares if the RFT is a real alternative newspaper? What's really important is how the RFT's core constituency will respond to the changes. My guess is, not well. These folks are already angry about what they feel is their ill-use by the media.

Also, in my opinion, the loss of a media column is a hard blow. First of all, Gail Pennington, the television critic of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is not a media watchdog. So, without Richard Byrne's media column, St. Louis will have no mass-circulation media criticism.

Secondly, from its most recent incarnation in the 1960s to now, the alternative press has seen one of its major mandates as keeping tabs on the mainstream press. Much of what Americans know about the media-their attitudes and insights about the way stories are reported-was informed by insights from the alternative press.

Safir Ahmed, who remains as editor of the RFT, says the paper will continue to look at the local media, but he hasn't decided how to do it yet exactly. He is adamant, however, that Byrne's column will not return.

RFT readers should hold Ahmed's feet to the fire on his promise to continue to be a media watchdog, no matter how he may decide to do it. In fact, I suspect angry voices about different aspects of the paper's new style of journalism could help shape that style. After all, the RFT is now part of a corporation and we know how sensitive corporate bosses are to bad PR.

And, make no mistake, the RFT is now run by folks in corporate offices in Arizona. The receptionist might still answer the phone with "Hartmann Publishing," but any resemblance between today's RFT and the one Ray Hartmann started more than two decades ago is fading.

THERE

By Charles L. Klotzer

Many journalists, particularly those in the broadcast industry, see it as part of their function to be entertaining. They thank you for welcoming them into your home. They start broadcasts with laughter and end them with a light, jocular touch inviting you again to partake of their sunny disposition. Even print journalists want to be your friend, to be known and to be somehow involved in your life.

That approach is anathematic to Irving Dilliard. I haven't asked him, no need to do so, I know. For decades Irving Dilliard's home has been in Collinsville, far enough from St. Louis to avoid social and political entanglements in St. Louis. He is not only this region's journalistic sage, but he is also the par excellence embodiment of that rare journalist who lets his writings thunder by themselves without having to promote, embellish or make them acceptable, or the need to become involved in the community about which he wrote for years. That aloofness gave him not only credibility, but also the ability to judge fairly without any concern for personal, local interests.

Recently, the City of Collinsville and its library honored Dilliard on his 94th birthday. Collinsville and Dilliard are linked by family history, by a life devoted to enhancing the cultural and historic heritage of that Illinois community largely unknown to St. Louisans. Dilliard was instrumental in helping found Collinsville's library where a whole room is dedicated to Dilliard, his books and memories.

It was 47 years ago when I first met Irving Dilliard, then editor of the editorial page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A couple of weeks earlier, I had received my draft notice, but I enjoyed working at the Troy Tribune in Troy, Ill., with the young, 19-year-old editor Paul Simon (later U.S. Senator) and didn't expect that the Korean War would be as entertaining as working for the muckraking and venturesome Troy Tribune.

Besides, I was just one year short of being exempt from the draft and also had two dependents, my elderly parents. I called my draft board, I believe it was District 12, and its chairman a Mr. Ben C. Finke. (I am talking from memory, but somehow that name seems to be engraved in my mind.) He was most cordial and invited me to visit with him in downtown St. Louis to straighten the matter out. I did. For some reason we started discussing current issues, why I cannot recall. The discussion became agitated and then hot, and when that gentleman asked me whether I have ever licked dust in the gutter, and I wondered about the relevance of his question, he triumphantly told me that he had seen Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt shake the hand of a n..... .

Two weeks after I told him what I thought of his comment (the entire office stopped working), I was in the U.S. Army.

It was then that I contacted Irving Dilliard. I had talked to him, but never met him. Here was a draft board chairman in charge of the lives of young men white and black who was obviously incapable of being fair. I wanted the Post to expose that guy and blow him out of his position. Dilliard felt that the situation would be tainted by my desire to be exempt. He recommended that I see him after my two-year stint.

Next, I visited with Dilliard in the early 60s. Before founding SJR in 1970 with the help of many St. Louis journalists, my wife and I had started FOCUS/Midwest, a magazine dealing with political, social and literary issues which debuted in 1962.

I sought the advice of many in this region and throughout the country with expertise in the topics we planned to cover. Too many to recite here, but among them was Irving Dilliard, who had parted with the Post in a dispute with publisher Joseph Pulitzer II, who was more concerned about the "clear and present danger" of communism and its threat to "overthrow the government at the first opportunity" than Dilliard.

Dilliard spent hours with me in his Collinsville home exploring various possibilities. He immediately agreed to write regularly for FOCUS/Midwest and opened many doors which provided access to writers and advisers. His participation was crucial in providing whatever limited success the magazine enjoyed. (In 1983, FOCUS/Midwest was merged with the St. Louis Journalism Review.)

In any introductory prospectus, Dilliard explained why he supported FOCUS/Midwest. "Our historic revolutionary spirit has too largely given way before an easy conservatism. Even those who look on themselves as progressives tend to be satisfied with past programs that were bold and pioneering in their day, but now fall short of new demands." Dilliard felt, FOCUS/Midwest could introduce new ideas.

In the first article in the first issue of FOCUS/Midwest, Dilliard revealed George Anastaplo's battle to be admitted to the Illinois Bar Association. Anastaplo had refused to answer certain questions of religious and political implication which he felt offended his constitutional rights. (The case worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court which upheld the bar by a 5:4 decision with an impassioned dissent by Justice Hugo L. Black.)

In the second issue, Dilliard explored the state of freedom at midwestern universities. In issue after issue, he challenged readers to join him in reviewing what is right and what is wrong with American democracy.

Reserved, circumspect, erudite, but at heart a revolutionary, he is fighting for new ideas and laboring with the powers of his mind to bring them to life.

This region, this country, is the better for it.

EVERYWHERE

Does Nielsen get it wrong?

It's begun to sound like a broken record. After every sweeps period we hear that fewer people are watching the major television networks. The erosion will certainly continue, even though some network executives don't want to believe it.

Recently they challenged Nielsen numbers that showed a major drop in network viewing by 18-to 34-year-olds in prime time. The network brass challenged the ratings company methodology, saying Nielsen is trying to confuse the facts by throwing in information that's not relevant.

Nielsen says their surveys show an erosion dating back to 1991, and in the first 12 weeks of the new TV season, network prime-time viewership among 18-to 34-year-olds is down seven percent.

Meanwhile, the trade magazine Electronic Media recently published findings of a study showing that people are too busy to spend more time watching TV and a lot of them think the shows are too boring. Many of us, the study found, are so unimpressed with what's available on TV that we're finding other things to do. We catch quick info updates for news, sports, business or weather, all of which are constantly available on cable.

In the survey, 72 percent said they watch less TV because the shows are less entertaining. Fifty-four percent said the shows insult their intelligence. One in four said they're watching significantly less television than they were three years ago.

-Frank Absher

Print gets more response

This is a completely unscientific, unresearched small insight into our culture and the response of the public to various forms of media, things I have experienced.

Something unusual prompted this, something that should offer encouragement to those of you who-like me-write for the printed page. Parade magazine (Aug. 23, 1998) condensed a portion of my new book, "Tapped Out: The Coming World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About It." I expected a trickle (no pun intended) of letters in response. When I've been on national Sunday news shows like "Meet the Press" my experience is that those of us who are guests usually receive 10 to 20 letters. The Parade article produced a flood of mail, more than 2,000 letters. One day alone I received 523 letters. More than two months after the article appeared I was still receiving a few letters each day. We did not keep an accurate count of the phone calls, but they exceeded 100.

What does this mean?

Parade, with 37 million circulation, is not a typical publication. And it is clear that the topic of water generated an unexpected amount of interest, many of the letters coming from water-sensitive states like California and Arizona. But for those who take the time to read and digest an article there is a clearly much greater thought and action stimulation than is true for the ordinary news show on television or radio.

Over the years I have also observed that the printed page is much more likely to bring about television and radio coverage than the other way around, the O.J. Simpson trials being a major exception to the rule. The Parade article generated invitations to appear on radio and television shows. Producers of TV and radio programs read the newspapers and magazines-and maybe an occasional book. Print reporters and editors are not nearly as attentive to television and radio, with the exception of reporters who have that as their beat. So writers of the printed word should not despair. We do have influence.

I also had the experience of being on "Saturday Night Live" (NBC) and then the next morning on "The David Brinkley Show." The entertainment television show started with the announcement, "Our host for this evening-Paul Simon." Then the singer with the same name and I walked out onto the stage, having a brief argument about which one of us should be the host. I lost, of course. (Because I know so little about show business, my wife watched it from home, petrified. It turned out all right.)

When I walked down the street the next day, no one came up and said, "I saw you on 'The David Brinkley Show.'" But a sizable number approached me about "Saturday Night Live" for several days. Ten years later I still occasionally encounter people who mention it. The singer and I did make the wires with the appearance and we had our picture in Newsweek. If you want a wide audience, a program like that of Jay Leno or David Letterman is great for a candidate.

The Sunday morning shows also are the exception to the general rule that television news does not make the printed page. Reaching opinion leaders and policy makers is the great plus of the Sunday shows. "Face the Nation" doesn't reach much of the nation, but it reaches an influential part of it.

What does all this mean?

I will leave it to someone working on a doctorate in journalism to figure it out.

-Paul Simon

Newsletter-not newspaper

The face of the sports page of the future may be peeking around a street corner in Providence, R. I., and it's possible that it can be the tail that drags the dog into a 21st century that will tragically mark the end of newspapers as we know them.

The latest merger of news, circulation and advertising, the sort of thing that makes some so-called "public" journalists absolutely orgasmic, is in the works at the Providence Journal, part of the A.H. Belo chain that also owns the Dallas Morning News.

You may not believe this. Sports reporters from the Journal meet with suburban high school athletic directors and coaches who propose athlete to be interviewed. The reporters write the articles. The athletes sign releases allowing the articles and accompanying photographs. The high school promotes the articles and the newspaper in assemblies, reminding its students about the coming stories. Newsstands, boxes and stores in the neighborhood help in the promotion.

The stories run in zoned editions that go to the various suburbs and small towns around Providence.

The pilot program, featuring baseball and volleyball players last spring, is considered a success; single-copy sales are up seven percent or 250 copies. That program covered the Blackstone Valley area. Woonsocket and Pawtucket are next.

In the future, the chess club, French club, drama club and honor society may take their turns, and if it sells a few more papers, look for the stories to claim space on Page 1.

-Joe Pollack

The cold facts about broadcast success

Maybe local TV producers have a bit of a nasty streak in them. At least that's what some reporters are thinking.

During the January snow and ice storms, there were plenty of outside standups. Reporters and their camera operators could be found in an almost continuous occupancy of the Lafayette, Tamm Avenue and Mississippi overpasses, not to mention standing vigil outside Lambert Airport. The key word here is "outside."

One might argue that these folks are paid the big bucks to go where the news is and report it. But some reporters want to know why they were made to stand out in the storm with their camera operators for the opening tease, then wait while other live reports were being aired from people who were safe and warm inside. In at least one case, the reporter at Lambert had to stand outside the building to do his open and close, but most of the package was shot inside.

The local folks weren't alone. When The Weather Channel sent its reporters to Midwest cities, the staffers were expected to do live updates every half-hour. That meant being on camera at the beginning of the half-hour segment for an establishing shot, then waiting outside until the studio called on them for a report. In some cases, a live report from another city was run before the St. Louis reporter went on the air, causing her to stand outside in the storm for six to seven minutes before going on the air live.

-Frank Absher

RFT deserts AWN

When Ray Hartmann sold the Riverfront Times to the New Times national chain, it was inevitable that the paper would transfer its membership in the Alternative Weekly Network (AWN) to The Ruxton Group. The AWN is a not-for-profit consortium of alternative weeklies. It functions as a sort of media cooperative. Members sell national or regional advertising to appear in AWN-member publications.

The loss of the RFT from the AWN roster worries some local observers who see a blow to alternative media. However, John Morrison, sales director for AWN, says the defection is just a normal part of the weekly marketplace these days. Morrison says AWN has lost some papers due to sales but has gained others. Most recently, City Pages, a Minneapolis weekly, shifted from Ruxton to AWN, he says.

Morrison says AWN has many different kinds of papers in its membership group, not just alternative ones. Readers in St. Louis, he says, are not likely to notice a difference in RFT's advertising content simply because it has shifted to Ruxton. Not that the loss of the RFT doesn't hurt. Morrison says Hartmann's paper was one of AWN's top sellers, luring advertisers such as Bacardi and Anheuser-Busch to the network.

-Dan Hellinger

Caught by the syndicate

If you tuned in to KFNS Wednesday night, Jan. 6, you would have heard a nationally syndicated talk-show host telling callers the national basketball season was down the drain. Had you been at work all day and relied on KFNS to find out what was happening on D-Day for the owners' lock-out, chances are you went to bed thinking there would be no season.

This is because KFNS does not usually carry live programming on weekday evenings. Although the station's website says it carries ESPN's "Game Night" or a live play-by-play, the station often runs, without disclaimer, repeats of another ESPN show, "The Fabulous Sports Babe," a syndicated show out of Chicago. On the week of the strike, broadcaster Bob Page was sitting in for "the Babe." Page kept asking, "Is there gonna be a season?," and offering the opinion that the answer was, "No."

Until 11 p.m. that night KFNS was reporting as its top sports story the, broken leg of an Edmonton Oilers hockey player; meanwhile, the rest of the country was debating the merits of the settlement and speculating on Michael Jordan's future.

KFNS is truly a sports radio wasteland after 9 p.m. when, except on game nights, the station seems to go on autopilot. Friday nights are given over completely to nationally syndicated programs selling tips on the weekend's gambling card. If there are any local commercials, they are likely to be for nudie bars or wonder herbal treatments for prostate problems. Mostly, the station carries public service spots warning parents of dangers of unsupervised use of the Internet and ludicrous anti-marijuana messages rivaling anything from the "reefer madness" 1950s. One ad, aimed at teenage girls, warns smoking marijuana will lead to promiscuous sex that will put health and reputation at risk.

At least listeners get two points of view as the station alternates between promoting sexual vice and abstinence.

-Dan Hellinger

Ups and downs at the Post

While somewhat late, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch excelled in its recent coverage of Monsanto's products and the reaction they harvested both in the U.S. and overseas.

Also deserving kudos was its in-depth coverage of the Rev. Larry Rice, his New Life Evangelistic Center, his TV ministry and his 11 TV and nine radio stations.

On the other hand, a book review of "Citizen Newhouse: Portrait of a Media Merchant" by Carol Felsenthal and reviewed by Steven Weinberg, who is with the University of Missouri School of Journalism, failed to make any mention of Newhouses' continuing involvement with the Post. Dating back to the Joint Operation Agency (JOA) agreement, Newhouse still reaps 50 percent of the profits of the Post well into the next century. If Weinberg didn't know about it, the book editor should have rectified it.

In a two-page, tightly written letter sent late last year, Robert W. Parker, Post retail advertising manager, informed retail advertisers of a $500,000 research project into "consumer research on lifestyles, buying habits, readership and media usage" of the Post's restructuring of its coverage from five to eight zones; of the addition of front-page briefs on communities, a calendar of local events and weekly local sports section featuring high school events; of a new Jefferson County zone; of a new television show, of Postnet, and of many other enhancements. Finally, at the very end, four lines from the end of page two, the real purpose of the letter emerges: the Post 's "most frequently used ad rates will increase between 5.5 and nine percent.

-Charles L. Klotzer

On-line journalists organize

A new organization for journalists active in on-line activities was formed in December in Chicago. Rich Jaro-slovsky, the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, conceived the idea. He contacted colleagues at The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times and a dozen others.

Jaroslovsky told The New YorK Times that representatives of any on-line news organizations can join. Douglas B. Feaver of washingtonpost.com, said that the group will look at journalistic standards "and how they should be applied and the question of how you maintain peace in the family that has both a business and editorial side."

-Charles L. Klotzer

CHANNELS

TV covered snow/ice storm poorly

By Tripp Frohlichstein

The impeachment dilemma-what to broadcast and what not to broadcast. It surfaced at noon on Jan. 14. The Senate trial of President Bill Clinton began. KDNL (Channel 30) ran no noon news and carried the opening of the trial. KMOV (Channel 4) opted to cancel its noon news and air the trial. KSDK (Channel 5) ran its local news.

The trial was a historic occasion. Should Channel 5 have carried the opening of the trial? I'm going to sit on the fence on this one.

It might be argued that since it was available on other broadcast channels,

Channel 5 was offering an alternative to those who did not care about the impeachment trial.

On the other hand, it also must be asked, given the historic significance of an impeachment trial, whether it was the station's obligation to broadcast at least its beginning?

Sadly, by 1:35 p.m., no broadcast network (locally) was carrying the Senate proceedings. People without cable, therefore, were penalized. On the bright side, there was always KWMU (90.7 FM) radio.

• • •

With 1999 came bad weather, forcing television stations into overdrive. Here is a variety of observations about storm coverage.

• All of the television stations that expanded their storm coverage are to be commended. The weather affects everyone, and the stations demonstrated they understood that during the bad weather we experienced in early January by expanding their broadcasts. Although the skill of some of the reporters covering the effect of the storms on the city varied, every station gets an "A" for effort.

• When it comes to school closing information, give Channel 4 the nod for the best way to do it.

All the stations that ran school closings during the early January snowstorm reduced the size of the program on the air and put the print information on the lower third of the screen.

What made Channel 4 the best is it put three schools on at a time. This helped the list move along quickly so parents could find out if their children's school was closed. However, the station still managed to anger viewers. It dropped the school closings during commercials. The problem was, it didn't stop its computer. I was watching for Kirkwood schools. The "J's" were on when a commercial aired. After the commercial ended, the list was in the "R's." That makes people mad. The station later fixed the problem.

Channel 5 put only two closings on at a time. Not up to Channel 4's numbers but better than the arduous task of watching one school listed at a time as KTVI (Channel 2) and Channel 30 did. And, to Channel 5's credit, it changed the listings rapidly. It's easy to see both closings but then the next listings quickly show up.

Channel 2 did the worst job during the evening of Jan. 3, running the list in a non-alphabetical way (it was fixed by news time). That meant you couldn't even glance away for two seconds or you might miss your school. The station would have been better served to get the listings in alphabetical order before even trying to run it.

Although the station fixed the problem later, my solution (and others said this as well) to the Channel 2 problem was simple-I watched someone else.

• One of our local anchors really doesn't understand transitions very well. After reading a story about delays at Lambert airport due to the snow, she said, "State police, meanwhile, are investigating another Casino bound bus accident in New Jersey." Sure, now there are two related stories.

• Channel 5's Jan. 2, Saturday morning news was a big disappointment. I turned it on to catch the latest in weather, the station ran only a small amount of what was going on at the moment (or had transpired overnight). The majority of the content consisted of stories about the weather that had run the previous day.

While there are many stories you can treat that way, a major weather event is not one of them. Weather conditions changed, but the previous day's stories on preparations for a foot or more of snow didn't change (it had sleeted all night, instead of snowing, resulting in the dire predictions of 12-plus inches of snow being revised downward).

It made me wonder why Channel 5 hadn't geared up to produce all new material for the morning newscasts, which were no doubt more heavily viewed than normal due to viewer interest.

• Why does Channel 2 have to run that video and music during the newscast for a "weather advisory" or even just to start the weather segment? It's overproduction and a waste of a few seconds. Just give the information to us without the hoopla.

• Channel 30 was guilty of misinforming viewers about TWA's cancellations on Jan. 1. Running information on the lower third of the screen, the station informed college-football bowl viewers that two-thirds of all TWA flights were being cancelled. That was wrong. TWA cancelled fewer than 40 flights that day. Station News Director Jeff Alan said the station was told by TWA that operations had to be cut to one-third the normal because the FAA asked the airline to. TWA spokesman Jim Brown says he did not tell Channel 30 the flights were cancelled.

In fact, even Alan thought the information on the air said delayed or cancelled, not just cancelled. Given the fact that getting through to TWA on its 800 number that day was nearly impossible, it was important that all electronic news media made sure their information was current and accurate.

• Channel 30's Andy Banker, who continues to be one of the area's better

television reporters, did a fine job on a story about how ice on the Mississippi was affecting barge traffic along the river. Looking at the Alton Lock and Dam, he talked with a dam operator who explained the situation and how traffic was still getting through. The video support was excellent. The story was relatively brief yet demonstrated that a good reporter can get a lot of interesting information into a limited amount of time. Put another way-good things can come in small packages.

• Channel 2's Rachelle Rowe didn't appear to know what was in her story about salt during an expanded 9 p.m. newscast on Channel 2 Jan. 7. She introduced a pre-recorded sound clip from a Missouri Department of Transportation spokesperson by saying it was running out of salt and was hoping for the delivery of a new supply. The spokesperson, however, said that the salt had already arrived. So much for that set-up.

• "Winter Wx Advisory" was what John Fuller had on the screen on the Jan. 8 noon show. Wx is a term that television stations use as shorthand for

weather. I asked someone if he knew what Wx meant. He didn't. I asked another. He didn't either. Stations need to remember that newsroom jargon does not necessarily translate to the home viewer.

• With all the severe winter weather we had, Channel 5's ad suggesting that in bad weather it provides accurate forecasts got me thinking. All of the stations' major forecasts were wrong at one time or another during early January. While other stations also messed up, Channel 5's promotional claim of accurate forecasts caused me to focus on it. In the first storm, the station predicted more than 12 inches of snow were likely. Although some areas north of St. Louis got the heavy snow, Lambert Field measured only around 8 inches.

The station also did not foresee the three inches that fell Thursday, Jan. 7. The next day, the station predicted one to three inches of snow which did not materialize. On another weekend day, Channel 5 meteorologist Mike Roberts pointed to precipitation on the radar ,noting it looked like it would miss us but he assured us it wouldn't. It missed us. So much for accurate forecasts.

It's not only television people-on an early January day around 8 a.m., KTRS radio's meteorologist Dan O'Connell predicted a high of 16 degrees for that same day while Dave Murray (at roughly the same time) on KMOX radio called for a high of 25. Big difference there. The high that day was exactly 25.

I did make one long-range comparison (the above misses were all very short range) among the stations. On Jan. 7 at 6 p.m., I compared forecasts for the following Sunday, Jan. 10. Channel 2's Dave Murray called for snow and a high of 28. Kent Ehrhardt at Channel 4 predicted possible snow and a high of 32. Channel 5's John Fuller called for light snow and a high of 29. Channel 30 doesn't have a 6 p.m. broadcast but at 10 p.m. it called for clouds with a high of 36 degrees. The Weather Channel called for partly cloudy with a high of 30. Finally, KTRS meteorologist Doug Nelson called for sunny skies with 32 as the high temperature.

On Sunday, the skies were mostly sunny (the National Weather Service reported 78 percent of the day was sunny-it was partly cloudy the rest of the day) with an official high of 29. There was no snow.

• • •

Channel 5's Cindy Preszler was insulting to many viewers the Sunday before the pope arrived. As TV stations continued their all pope, all the time newscasts, Preszler was near the beginning of the 10 p.m. broadcast as she told viewers, "Prayer makes all the difference in the world because, boy, are we going to have good weather" when the pope comes.

Didn't Catholics, and people of all faiths, pray for last summer's hurricanes not to hit and devastate parts of central America? Don't they pray for rain in drought-ravaged areas of Africa where people are starving?

If Preszler meant it to be cute, it did not come out that way. Instead, as one viewer put it, it was nauseating. "Give me a break," complained the viewer.

Ironically, a mere few minutes later, Preszler talked about the fact the forecast might change and not be as nice. She made no mention of the prayers maybe not working after all.

• • •

Donn Johnson has made the transition from television to radio quite well. The former Channel 2 anchor communicates well in his new role on KTRS. Johnson has the gift of gab and knows how to talk with the other radio personalities, and, more importantly, callers to the station. Listening to him interact with listeners recently, Johnson came across as in control, prepared, conversational and opinionated yet willing to listen. Johnson has found his next calling and is doing a swell job. Of course the real test of his ability is what AM/FM columnist Larry Hoffman thinks ...

• • •

Is Channel 5 getting lazy? You might think so watching some of its cover stories. Given the station's commitment to having a cover story every night, it has to fill it with something. But more and more the stories seem to be time fillers as opposed to something special which a cover story, by its name, should be.

In the November SJR, I criticized the story about a youth hostel in the Appalachians for the same reason. It was unrelated to St. Louis and appeared to be a commercial that Channel 5 was fooled into running. The example this time is the Cindy Preszler weather year-end summary. Little information was provided as she narrated the story. Scenes of weather events were shown with simple reminders that the events happened. Few additional facts were given (such as on the devastation in terms of lives and dollars caused by Hurricane Mitch).

The worst part was that there was no local tie-in. What about our weather

extremes and St. Louis' major weather events from 1998?

Instead, we got fed the "easy way to do it" cover story.

That's not to say all cover stories aren't good. Randy Jackson gave viewers a fine story about a 99-year- old pilot flying a TWA DC-10 flight simulator. It was nicely executed.

• • •

It's also lazy when reporters don't complete their stories with some sort of tag (summary) line. Recently, Channel 5 reporter Kelly Jackson (who is by no means the only reporter guilty of this poor technique) presented a story taped in the field. The story ended with a quote from an interviewee and then Jackson saying she was reporting for Channel 5.

Dan Gray then read several more sentences related to the story. Jackson should have given that information. It prevents the abrupt-sounding end to a story.

Reporters need to understand that the pacing of each individual story is important to the overall feel of that story. A summary sentence or two before their signoff usually (unless the interviewee's sound bite is filled with emotion) helps a story "feel" better. It would have helped Kelly Jackson's, that's for sure.

• • •

While television stations often trumpet "you heard it here first folks," the St. Louis Business Journal went almost unrecognized in its exclusive revelation of a major event in the area.

It was February 1998 that the St. Louis Business Journal reported that MasterCard would move into an O'Fallon facility.

It was finally announced in January 1999.

In television, the stations make lots of noise if they reveal something "first" -even if it's by seconds.

Most people I talk to claim that whoever reported what first makes no difference in which newscast they watch. It has much more to do with the anchors than the content (there are exceptions, especially when sleaze content is involved).

It's probably different for readers. People read the St. Louis Post Dispatch or St. Louis Business Journal because it contains the information they want. The news is more important than the presentation.

It's nice to know the St. Louis Business Journal, instead of tooting its own horn, just quietly reported the actual announcement. The St. Louis Business Journal apparently gives its readers credit for their intelligence.

• • •

Much is written about St. Louis media, yet too often, some of the best just keep doing their jobs; doing them superbly in fact, and getting little recognition for it.

One such talent is Channel 5's Deanne Lane. She is so good, she goes almost unnoticed. She has great talent as both an anchor and reporter. She displays competence and knowledge as she smoothly presents stories. Lane clearly seems to understand the stories she reads, adds appropriate inflections and just has a delightful all-around presence. She is a great asset to local news.

So while much is made of the "stars" like Karen Foss, Larry Conners, Dick Ford or Patrick Emory, let's not lose her in the shuffle. The classy Lane maybe, at this point in her career, the best of the bunch.

• • •

While we are recognizing unsung talent, I was watching a Blues game and was reminded of how good Ken Wilson is calling those events. He adds a great deal of excitement to Blues' contest (on both radio and television). You really realize how good he is when he isn't on. Few call hockey games as well as Wilson.

SPORTS/MEDIA

IOC scandal part of sports corruption big picture

By Joe Pollack

Perhaps all the corruption began with Peter Ueberroth, and the fact that the 1984 Olympic games made money and, more important, made Olympic organizers greedy. More logically, the problems of the Olympians are the same ones that have bedeviled men and women since they have been able to walk upright. Modern times and high technology merely made things worse.

Many years ago, the late Phog Allen, long-time basketball coach at Kansas, described-and dismissed-Olympic committee members as "quadrennial international hitchhikers." Allen spoke even before 1981 when Juan Antonio Samaranch was anointed president, with powers far greater than those of an absolute monarch who rules by divine right.

The Olympics, however, are just one example of greed and corruption and money and favors in the sports business, and believe me, all sports are a business of some sort. Little kids who play for prizes, or even for medals, are into the business of sports. If money for uniforms is raised by selling candy to neighbors, relatives and friends, the seller is in business. If money to pay players' salaries is raised by selling beer to strangers, it's the same thing. The difference is only in degree.

Therefore, on one level, why all the flap about Salt Lake City or Sydney or Nagano giving money to International Olympic Committee members, buying votes to be a game host? Is that different from St. Louis and St. Louisans building the world's ugliest stadium and giving millions to Georgia Frontiere to bring the Rams? Or from the mayor of Hartford, Conn., spending millions to build a stadium to attract the New England Patriots?

If the members of the IOC shake hands with palms up-and open-as they are introduced to the representatives of Salt Lake City (using this city as an example), they merely are doing what their predecessors on the committee did, and what they have been advised to do.

"When you get to the bidding city," the retiring, or dying, member tells his successor, "Keep your eyes shut and your hands open. Someone will fill the hands with all sorts of good things."

In many respects, the United States is merely reaping what it has sowed. For more years than we can remember, the nation has solved every problem in a simple manner-throw money at it. Want to keep a country from adopting Communism? Pay it off; just call it aid. Want to make sure your friends get elected? Pay them off; just call it retraining.

The reason for blaming Ueberroth is that once the IOC discovered money could be made with sponsors, or from sponsors, well, the door opened wide and remains that way. And sponsors from Anheuser-Busch to Nike to Dr. Pepper are used to paying for what they want. They boast about how much they spend and what they will get for it. A-B has happily announced the spending of many millions to be the "official beer" of darn near everything. Big deal!

I don't know whether new stadiums or new teams really bring money to a city or whether they just give the head of the Chamber of Commerce or RCGA some extra bragging rights. Economists argue in both directions. But cities pay off NCAA officials to insure being the site for a Final Four, or kowtow to the NFL to be a Super Bowl site. I wonder how much St. Louisans paid under the table-or in the form of gifts-to bring basketball finals here. Or did we just accept a women's tournament in order to get the men, the way we had to buy two packs of Raleigh cigarettes in order to get one of Lucky Strikes during the shortages of World War II?

Payoffs and sub rosa payments have been part of the Olympics since the first laurel wreath was draped upon the first Athenian forehead. Why, then, does everyone jump up and down and scream that the sky is falling when Salt Lake City does it?

Elections are sold to the highest bidder just as paintings are, and influence is sold in the same manner. I guess what is insulting is the way both buyers

and sellers treat us, the ultimate payers, as if we were retarded.

Over the last month or so, I've been told that this person was being polite and that one didn't know there was anything wrong and the other thought this was the usual custom. I've also been told that the money was given to the country's delegates to improve all sports, and that the presence of girls was just to give everything a little gender balance, and that the kid of this rich businessman needed a job and the kid of that one needed a college education and the kid of the other one needed surgery.

Admit you bought the election. Admit you bought the team or the stadium. Don't take me for a fool. Do it, don't apologize for it and go on about your business. If I like what you're making, I may buy it. If I like the sports or the theater you present maybe I'll buy a ticket.

As always, there are humorous spots, often when some Olympic committee person or politician shows a track record of stupidity and corruption but is convinced he or she is bulletproof. Take Deedee Corradini, recently resigned mayor of Salt Lake City, which deals in greed and corruption while the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings in the background. I remember Salt Lake City very well. The Big Red played the 49ers in an exhibition game in 1962. My suite at the Hotel Utah displayed a red sitting room with a white piano. In those days, with the Catholic proscription against meat on Fridays still in force, one of my jobs while serving as advance man was to call the local bishop and request a dispensation so the players could eat meat at a pregame meal.

In exchange, there were tickets for the bishop, though this one declined.

Anyway, when I finished getting clearance for the players, the priest asked if there was anything else he could do for me.

"Well, father," I said, thinking fast and remembering my employers, "our traveling party includes a number of Catholics (two sports writers, a doctor, some assistant coaches and the club owners, to name a few). What about them?"

"Young man," he said, "you give a dispensation to anyone you like."

And that's how Stormy and Bill Bidwill ate steaks and I ate ham in our pregame meal in Salt Lake City.

But back to Deedee the Democrat. When she was first elected in 1992 she was embroiled in the collapse of the Bonneville Pacific Corporation. Several corporate executives went to jail and Deedee, on the board of a related company, agreed to an $800,000 settlement. After her reelection in 1996, it was revealed that she had paid some of the settlement with $231,000 she had solicited from prominent Salt Lakers. Half of the 24 people who gave or lent the money also did business with the city. The district attorney, a friend of hers, decided against filing charges because, he claimed, Utah conflict of interest laws are too vague. When she was not indicted she claimed she was vindicated.

By the way, the D.A. was defeated for reelection last fall and the victor says he will reopen the case.

Don't heap all the blame on the Olympics. There's plenty to go around,

and don't forget that in any competition greed wins.

AM/FM

KTRS folks won't miss Byrne's column

By Larry Hoffman

The new year brought a revamped look to the recently sold Riverfront Times, including the disappearance of regular columnists. Among them, Richard Byrne's media column ended its run, and sources at the RFT told SJR that columns do not fit the new owner's mission and image. Byrne is expected to return in mid-May as a contributing writer, according to Editor Safir Ahmed, but will not specifically be assigned to media as a beat reporter. This is an unfortunate loss because St. Louis already has limited coverage of both print and electronic media. The St. Louis Business Journal and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch do well with industry news, though stories about format and talent changes are rare. Byrne's weekly column provided a place for meaningful, timely coverage of news content, personalities, music formats, station promotions and pranks, and industry trends. Its loss leaves a void readers will feel.

Among those who will not miss Byrne's column are the management and staff at KTRS Radio (550 AM). In his "send-off" column, Byrne skewered the struggling station, cooking up what could be called a "KTRS-ka-bob." He correctly appraised the state of the station as chaotic, especially in light of the

bizarre firing of Diane Raymond after three days on the air during the second

week of January, and the numerous jumbling of on-air talent over the past several weeks. Byrne also took the opportunity to excoriate Frank O. Pinion's successful afternoon show, calling it idiotic and quoting passages from a favorite Czech book in a typical bit of his esoteric but on-target criticism. Frank won't lose any sleep over it, however. Sources close to KTRS told SJR in late 1998 that the show was grossing more than $1 million a year, a deal KTRS management most likely wishes it never made.

• • •

KTRS added former KTVI-TV news reporter/anchor Donn Johnson to its morning drive show on Jan. 4. The show's lineup now includes Johnson, pro football Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorf, Wendy Wiese, Sports Director Jim Holder, Farm Director Dave Schumacher and newsman Jim Bafaro. It's a good mix of very capable people, but if the ratings don't improve (the show was 15th in morning drive 25 to 54 category according to the recently released Fall 98 Arbitrons), it may be the best spot in the market for Don Imus, recently featured on Newsweek's cover for a story on his influential nationally syndicated show and talk radio in general. Imus is presently not carried in St. Louis, having most recently been heard on WIBV-AM (1260 AM) before an ownership change swept him out.

• • •

Other highlights of the just-released Fall 98 Arbitron radio ratings are found

in specific demographics. Audience tastes have changed in St. Louis. Off-color humor is in. WXTM-FM's (104.1 FM) Howard Stern catapulted into the number one spot with 18-to 34-year-old morning listeners. KTRS is 14th with listeners 25 to 54 overall, but in afternoon drive, Frank O. Pinion is third.

In the top five category with listeners 12 and older-after a huge summer book coming off the bat of Mark McGwire, KMOX returns to normal audience levels; still number one with an 11.0 share. Rounding out the top five stations in the 12+ category: WIL-FM took the number two spot with a 6.8 share, followed by KMJM (6.7), KEZK (6.5) and KYKY (5.0).

In morning drive time, KMOX continues to be the most listened to station. KMOX is number one with listeners 12+ with a 13.2 share, followed by WIL (7.1), KMJM (5.5), and KEZK (5.4). With adult listeners 25 to 54, WIL is number one, followed by KMOX and KEZK (sister stations tied for second), and KLOU. WIL leads 25-to 54-year-olds from 6 to 10 a.m.

KXOK-FM (97.1 FM/"The Rock") showed incredible growth with its new classic rock format in the 18 to 34 demographic, moving the station from 14th to third place. As noted above, Howard Stern netted big gains. One year ago, Stern's station was eight in mornings. His number one status primarily erodes KPNT-FM's (105.7 FM/"The Point") audience share.

Other impressive gains were scored in the teens to young adult's demo, 18 to 34, by KSLZ-FM (107.7 FM), up 239 percent in the mornings from a year ago and KXOK-FM with a 142 percent spike since fall 1997. Losers in this category include KSHE-FM (94.7 FM), down 48 percent in the last year, and The Point, down 24 percent during the same measurement period.

• • •

Perennial 50,000 watt Religious-formatted daytimer KXEN-AM (1010 AM) has expanded its broadcast day to offer the first dedicated Hispanic programming in the region. As of the end of December, KXEN extended its broadcast day to midnight, sending a 500 watt directional signal over St. Louis in order to reach an estimated 50,000 Hispanic listeners in the market. The format change occurs at 5 p.m. daily and includes primarily international classic hits (80s & 90s)-popular Hispanic language music. Also featured is world/national news via the Hispanic Satellite Network, with local news delivered by bilingual reporters having been inaugurated with the pope's appearance at Kiel Center on Jan. 26.

KXEN General Manager Dan Allen told SJR that KXEN first went on the air in early 1960 as a 50,000-watt daytimer licensed to St. Louis and Festus and broadcasting from studios in the unincorporated Mitchell, Ill., area. Today, the station is located in a now-incorporated annexed area of Pontoon Beach, Ill. KXEN, which recently upgraded its facilities to digital technology, maintains two directional tower arrays in Illinois, giving the best possible focus on St. Louis.

• • •

Scanning the radio dial during the papal visit yielded a single source for outstanding comprehensive saturation coverage of the event-KMOX. Program Director Tom Langmyer, News Director John Butler and the entire KMOX staff deserve high praise for the quality of the broadcasts during both days of Pope John Paul II's visit.

It was initially surprising that most religious-formatted stations chose not to carry live feeds from either venue. However, limited resources and prior commitments were the most plausible explanation.

• • •

The Feb. 4 issue of Rolling Stone carries a mini-review of its former editor Ben Fong-Torres' recent literary release "The Hits Just Keep On Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio." Reporter Tom Moon in his brief synopsis notes that recognition is given to Todd Storz's role as an "early programming maverick," as well as legendary personalities Alan Freed, Russ Knight, Gary Owens, Casey Kasem and Don Steele.

Reading about this book's release reminded me that Top 40 radio as we knew it is truly gone with the wind. A NPR "Weekend Edition" feature during January focused on the Capstar group of radio stations in Texas and how much of the disc jockey patter was created in a centralized studio and distributed digitally to its similarly formatted stations in markets statewide. The most astounding revelation was the re-use of caller's voices for contests such as the venerable "cash call," where listeners are asked to guess a jackpot by hearing whether previous contestant's guesses were too high or too low. The NPR piece featured actual airchecks of such recycling, noting that original respondents to the contest had no idea their voices were being used in stations all over Texas.

I can remember walking into a cramped temporary studio during the first days of KSLQ in Clayton in September 1972. There I met Program Director Al Casey who told me his air staff was mostly on board, but that he really wanted to be sure he hired the right "nighttime cooker" to go against the jock who held those duties at rival KXOK. Nowadays, that nighttime slot is almost irrelevant with the advent of the Internet, MTV and VH-1, cable and satellite TV and CDs. And the trend is borne out by the automation of evening and overnight music shows on the newly minted MIX format on 93.7 FM (KSD-FM).

Another sign that live DJs broadcasting from one facility are becoming a thing of the past in certain dayparts is the well received "Delilah" show on KEZK-FM (102.5). KEZK/KYKY Program Director Smokey Rivers told SJR: "Delilah's on about 150 markets nationwide and is doing exceedingly well. The show comes from Seattle. We have some custom work parts that we add to the show here in St. Louis to make her sound like a KEZK person versus a generic person. The show is live every night Monday through Friday. There's also a Sunday version which is a 'best-of" from the previous week that we do not run here because we have 'Pillow Talk.' It's a five-hour show in most markets-we opted for three here. We wanted the strength of Delilah on KEZK, but we didn't want to pre-empt our 'Pillow Talk' program with Gary Kolander which has been immensely successful over the years."

Rivers went on to say: "In the beginning, we had mixed reviews from our listeners but now we have an inordinate number of Delilah fans who are coming forward with all sorts of praise for the show. Broadcast Programming (the program supplier) gets a good number of e-mails every week out of the St. Louis market and they're generating about 3,000 phone call attempts to their 800 number every week. So you can imagine-that's pretty big, very big."

The show is worth a listen for fans of the soft rock format.

RADIO HISTORY

By Frank Absher

Robert Hyland, the late general manager of KMOX, was famous for his on-air auditions of talent, bringing people into St. Louis for a one-time shot at membership on his elite staff. History shows he was simply following in the tradition of the station's founders, known as the "Voice of St. Louis, Incorporated."

After putting the station on the air in late 1925, the group of investors held a competition to find their chief announcer. They were riding on a huge wave of public interest in the fledgling station, generated, in part, by vast amounts of coverage given its development by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. This was no coincidence, since the newspaper was one of the "Voice of St. Louis" members. The paper even provided the station with Associated Press dispatches so a regular, nightly news broadcast could be aired.

The 17 local businessmen who formed the Voice of St. Louis, Inc., made up one of the panels that sat in judgement of the candidates for the chief announcer's position. There was also a special committee of monitors listed in one news article about the competition, although no detail was given regarding their identity or function. Candidates were given several opportunities to appear on the station to be heard by the judges and the public.

The winner was George Junkin, an announcer for the S.W. Strauss Company's radio station in Chicago, WSWS. Junkin had been in St. Charles visiting his inlaws during the tests and was invited back to KMOX to be heard again shortly after the judges heard his first effort. His quoted reaction, published in the Globe-Democrat, has all the qualities of a PR man's best efforts: "'I consider KMOX one of the five leading broadcasters in America,' he said following his appointment yesterday. 'Its financial condition, its management, personnel, equipment, facilities and program material place it easily within this group. It has all that is necessary to build into a popular presentation of programs of the air.'" It's notable that his assessment of the station as "one of the five leading broadcasters in America" came after the station had been on the air a mere three months.

His previous employer is quoted in the same article as saying Junkin was "... a reader of unusual ability, a former motion picture actor, and a professional director of theaters." Rounding out a flawless resume, Mr. Junkin was a veteran of the war (World War I) in which he served as a flying instructor, had served on the faculties of three institutions of higher learning and had been a farmer in Colorado.

He and his wife, Martha, moved to St. Louis 13 years after they were married here. Their son, George, Jr., was four years old at the time. The move was a good one professionally for Junkin. Within a year of his appointment as chief announcer, he was elevated to the position of managing director of KMOX and later became secretary of the Voice of St. Louis, Inc.

When deaths hit close to home

By Steve Perron

Here are some stories that were big news in St. Louis recently: • A young woman, admired and respected in her field, is found stabbed to death in her home in a normally safe neighborhood. Police believe she is the victim of a home invasion.

• A famous helicopter pilot known for his daring in time of war and on the job dies in a flying accident.

• A well-known personality dies of a freak injury suffered in an automobile accident only three weeks after her wedding.

• A man and his 14-year-old son die in a house fire after the teenage victim manages to shout a life-saving warning to his mother.

These stories all hit very close to home. In every case, the victims were very well liked colleagues-Felicia Gayle, a newspaper reporter; Allen Barklage, a helicopter traffic reporter; Mary Phelan, a television anchor and radio announcer; and Stan Rice, a veteran television news photographer and his son Clayton.

These stories were gut-wrenching for St. Louis journalists who had to deal with their own grief while reporting the stories of their friends' and colleagues' deaths for their readers, listeners and viewers.

These were people we knew, in some cases for many years. We knew their families. "We" were the "next door neighbors" and the "coworkers" so often sought out by reporters for reaction and sound bites. It was a painful switching of roles. But, in each case, the terrible experience could also offer lessons on how to conduct oneself when covering similar stories involving strangers.

Lesson 1: Respect the victim.

Newsrooms are notorious hotbeds for gallows humor. But, there were certainly no jokes made in any of these cases. There would be no fun with an off-color story slug, no crowding around a video monitor to view a particularly gruesome scene or passing around an unusually gory police report. And there never should be, regardless of who the victim or victims are.

Lesson 2: Respect the victim's privacy.

To the best of my recollection, none of the four stories cited at the beginning of this article included the standard "body bag" shots which are normal in television news reports. This may very well be because they were not there to be aired. But it might serve us well to reflect on how we would have felt if we did see that video on the air. How much more would it have hurt, knowing who it was on the gurney? If we had the video, would we have used it? If the answer is "no," then why should we use such video in any case?

And if a 911 recording was available recounting the last moments of our coworker's life, would we air it? Let's ask that question the next time such an opportunity presents itself, especially when we know that airing such a recording does absolutely nothing to advance the story.

Lesson 3: Respect the victim's families.

Reporters have terrible reputations for being vultures, especially television reporters. How many movies have you seen where the reporter shoves a mike and camera in the face of a person who has just suffered a great loss to ask, "How do you feel?" Well, it's not really like that. But there are occasional lapses of judgment made in the heat of competition.

Reporters in the field and staffers in the newsroom need to know when to stay away. Also, they need to remember they are just one of many reporters who may knock on the door or call on the phone.

This is not to say family members should never be contacted. Many times such contact is proper and can produce powerful interviews which elevate an average story to a great story. But if a person says "no," and makes it clear he or she does not want to be bothered, then they should be left alone.

Lesson 4: Every case is "tragic"... to someone.

Not every murder, not every untimely death receives news coverage. But once the decision is made to cover a story, the reporter, photographer, editor and producer should assume that, in most cases, the victim is leaving behind family and friends who consider his or her death a tragic loss, regardless of the circumstances of the death.

Lesson 5: Remember how it feels.

This is the "common sense" lesson, the "umbrella" which encompasses all of the above. Journalists need only remember how they felt when they lost a loved one, friend or coworker, when asked to cover a story involving a painful loss for a stranger. Do that and we should be able to report the story thoroughly, fairly and with the proper sensitivity.=

National story ignored by local media

By Benjamin Israel

Anyone who relies on the local media for his news has missed the local angle on a festering national story-the ties between Republican leaders and the Council of Conservative Citizens.

People as diverse as syndicated columnist Molly Ivins and Republican National Chairman Jim Nicholson have denounced the council as racist.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) have spoken to its conferences.

Gordon Baum, chief executive officer of the Council of Conservative Citizens, lives in Bridgeton, and its website lists its headquarters as a post office box in Kirkwood.

But none of the local TV news stations, nor the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, have even mentioned that the controversial organization is apparently headquartered here, let alone done any investigative reporting.

Baum has been active in St. Louis-area politics for years-working on George Wallace's presidential campaigns, and as a paid organizer for the Citizens Council.

Back in 1985 when he was field organizer for the Citizens Council, the group hosted picnics that displayed flags with the words "States Rights"

and "Racial Integrity," according to pictures in its paper, the Citizens Informer. Local politicians ranging from Richard Gephardt to Gene McNary to Mel Hancock came to those picnics. The Citizens Informer is now the official publication of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

Readers of The New York Times saw Baum's photograph in its Jan.14 issue standing with Lott and two leaders of the Mississippi Council of Conservative Citizens. Readers of the Washington Post were treated to an in-depth profile of Baum on Jan. 17, datelined Bridgeton, which writer Michael Powell described as a "working-class suburb of the faded Midwestern city of St. Louis."

Baum is easy to reach. He has a listed telephone number and a three-hour radio show he co-hosts with former St. Louis Board of Education member Earl P. Holt III at 8 p.m. Fridays on WGNU. Holt is active in the Council of Conservative Citizens as well.

Baum likes to talk.

He threatened to sue if called a racist. Told that The New York Times referred to the council as "Pro-White," Baum said, "I can live with that."

Judge for yourself.

"We've never taken a position on inter-racial marriage. We're opposed to busing and affirmative action," Baum said. "We're not a hate group. We're not a white-supremacist group."

Asked about remarks he made on his radio show Jan. 15 that seemed to say that the United States should cut off immigration because it may become a country where whites are in the minority, he said that's not quite what he said. He said that the world is filled with racial strife, and said he wants to avoid the same fate here.

"We as a group want this to remain a predominantly European country," Baum said. "There ought to be a major national discussion of what's in store for us."

On that same show, Baum corrected a caller who asked for his comment about the St. Louis Board of Education's plan to recruit teachers in South Africa. The caller called it a plan to "bring Zulu warriors" here to teach. Baum said that the Zulus were allied with the Afrikaaners, and so the plan was really one to bring "Communists from the ANC" here to teach.

Baum also said that little did civil rights supporters know that by creating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, that they would really be celebrating the morally superior Robert E. Lee's birthday this year.

The group's web site-www. cofcc.org-contains long articles denouncing King, including this line, "He's also got his own boulevard in the bad section of every town in America." The web site also includes long articles about "Southern Values" that denounce abolitionists and their modern-day descendants, and praising the Confederacy in what it calls the "War of Northern Aggression." "We're the ones that have kept the Confederate flag flying over the state capitol in South Carolina."

Until recently, the web site featured an article about Bill Clinton that said, "Given what has come out in the press about Mr. Clinton's alleged genital preferences and his apparent belief that oral sex is not sex, one wonders if perhaps Mr. Clinton isn't America's first liberal black president."

Baum believes the Republicans need people like him, but they weaken the party when they reach out to non-white voters. "If they don't want the angry white voters, that's media terminology, if they don't want the Wallace/Reagan Democrats, tell us. They're going to lose what strength they have. We can vote for Perot or Ventura."

As to what the council is currently doing in St. Louis, besides its radio show and a local web site, Baum said it was working to end busing and to pass the concealed weapons carrying proposition on the April ballot. The latter, Baum is quick to point out, isn't racial.

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

Grass root ideas wither in St. Louis political weather

By Dennis Judd

The interminable fight over the Kiel Opera House seems strange and perverse. Perhaps better than any recent controversy, the struggle over whether to reopen Kiel-one of the most significant opera houses ever built in the United States-reveals one of the reasons St. Louis remains a leading example of urban failure.

St. Louis's civic elites have always circled the wagons when confronted with a challenge to their hegemony. Perhaps for this reason the city has rarely been in tune with the times. St. Louis long ago turned its back on the river as a centerpiece of renewal, making it one of the few waterfront cities in the country to do so. Now its civic leadership seems ready to kill any project that it cannot control.

Who runs St. Louis?

That's what the Kiel controversy is about.

Around the country

Even the most casual urban tourist of the 1990s cannot fail to notice the signs of downtown revival in cities from coast to coast. In the space of just three decades-and much less in some cities-bedraggled downtown streets inherited from a vanishing industrial era have given way to places to play. Since the mid-1970s, cities have renovated their waterfronts by razing abandoned docks and warehouses and replacing them with shopping, recreational and condominium facilities. They have engaged in a virtual arms race to build convention centers, festival malls and sports stadiums. They have planned and subsidized cultural, arts and entertainment districts. And they have built connective tissues of walkways and bikeways, vest-pocket parks and plazas, pedestrian malls and light-rail systems to knit together this new infrastructure into spaces capable of nurturing a vital urban culture and street life.

Obviously the construction of a space for urban culture does not guarantee that anything will happen in it. But cities have not been content to leave it to the marketplace to decide. Over the past decade they have promoted and invested heavily in performance in its many guises-the staging of festivals and parades, the return to the street of pushcarts, musicians, make-up artists, jugglers, acrobats and other accoutrements of street theater. The infrastructure for performance-museums, performance halls, restaurants and bars-all have begun to cluster together, and have been matched with a revival of local opera, theater companies and local musical talent. These and other elements of high and low culture define the essence and identity of cities in the 1990s. The storied past, when it still reverberates, does so because its architectural and character supply a setting for a newly constructed urban culture. Urban culture as a unique and sometimes exotic product has become an engine of local economic growth, as avidly consumed as cars, homes and the other material manifestations of middle-class life.

For better or worse, in the public imagination and in media images the absence of a vital culture and street life has become more important for defining a failing city in the 1990s than slums, poverty and crime. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, every one of the nation's 50 largest cities is providing support for the arts. From the biggest cities (New York) to the smallest (Riverhead, a hamlet outside New York) from the most blighted (Detroit and Newark) to the already prosperous (Denver and San Francisco), culture has become the nation's leading-edge formula for urban revival.

Almost but ...

In the early 1990s, it seemed possible that St. Louis might become a leading player in this national revitalization movement. On Aug. 29, 1991, The New York Times highlighted St. Louis's old theater district at Grand Center and called it "a new Lincoln Center." With the St. Louis Symphony at Powell Hall; concerts at the Sheldon; musicals, plays and national touring events at the Fox; and with local theater at the Grandel Theatre, Grand Center seemed poised to become a fully-fledged arts district. It has never quite happened-although the individual venues are busy, the critical mass of restaurants, lounges and the other businesses necessary to sustain an active street life never arrived.

Grand Center remained separated from a downtown that continued to languish. Reopening the Kiel for operas and other performances would seem to be a no-brainer. It is close enough to the Grand Center to create synergy with it. It could even anchor an enlarged arts district, helping to link Grand Center to the downtown. The Edison Warehouse, located close to the Kiel, will soon be renovated into condominiums, a hotel, restaurants and shops. Developers have shown a lot of interest in the Washington Avenue loft district. The idea that the opera house could become a centerpiece of a growing interest in downtown has not made its renovation a sure thing, however. Far from it. It has become a battleground.

A bad deal for the city

The St. Louis Municipal Auditorium, later named the Kiel Opera House and Auditorium, opened on April 14, 1934. It was a much-heralded, state-of-the art building, constructed in the midst of the Great Depression, at a time when city after city invested in all-purpose municipal auditoriums capable of handling conventions, trade shows and large performances. The opera house, where the St. Louis Symphony played from 1934 to 1968, has more than 3,500 seats and is flanked on each side by four smaller theaters of about 700 seats each. A maze of offices, prop rooms and dressing rooms runs beneath the opera house, along with a space-the Kiel Club-for receptions and dining. Though the spaces around the opera house continued to be used, the opera house held its last event in 1990. Used for decades for conventions and exhibitions, rock concerts, wrestling matches and graduation ceremonies, the auditorium was replaced in 1994 by the Kiel Center, built at a cost of $170 million, as a home for the St. Louis Blues. Basically as an afterthought the St. Louis University Billikens were also given space in the center, in exchange for a rental fee.

The Kiel Center Partners, Inc., was originally organized by 22 members of Civic Progress to build a house for the Blues (the group has since renamed itself Clark Enterprises, and currently has 20 members). The partners succeeded in cutting themselves a sweet deal with the city for the rights to build and manage the Kiel Center (the agreement was actually signed by the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission and the city's Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority). Although the St. Louis Board of Aldermen was apparently ignorant of many of its key provisions when the deal was signed in 1994, the agreement placed limits on the city's ability to market the new convention center and stadium, reserving for the Kiel first dibs on all sporting events requiring at least 21,000 seats and conventions requiring less than 60,000 square feet.

The city also committed itself to making $35 million in capital improvements for site preparation and construction of a parking garage.

Finally, and ultimately of great consequence, the city handed over to the Kiel partners exclusive control over the use and future plans for redevelopment of the Kiel arena. Whoever represented the city at this poker table folded without even looking at the cards.

As little more than a symbolic gesture (or, more accurately, as an afterthought), the Kiel partners agreed to spend up to $2.5 million to "repair" the opera house. For several years the controversy over the Kiel has focused mainly on allegations that the Kiel partners have reneged on their promise. Since 1994, the Riverfront Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch have repeatedly castigated the Kiel partners and Civic Progress over the issue. The pressure for reopening the Kiel seems to be building. In January 1996, the board of aldermen passed a resolution asking Comptroller Darlene Green to pursue action to reopen the opera house. Later the same year, in October, the board passed another resolution, this time asking Green to report on her progress. Green has consistently made comments supporting the idea of reopening the Kiel, but seems to have taken different positions about what should go into it. Lately, it is said, she has been favoring the idea of a satellite museum of the Smithsonian, though at other times she has said she also is considering restoring it for performances.

Last year, St. Louis Clarence Mayor Harmon suggested that the city would explore the possibility of legal action against the partners, but since then little has been heard about it. There is good reason for the mayor to proceed cautiously. Though a lawyer hired by the Post expressed the view that the language of the Kiel Center agreement obligates the partners to fully renovate the Kiel, in fact, in 1994, the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority signed a certificate of completion, which might carry considerable weight in a court of law. Thus, despite the apparent support for the opera house, it remains shuttered, perhaps a typical case of St. Louis political gridlock.

Ed Golterman's proposal

Last August, Ed Golterman stepped into the breach, claiming that he could save everybody a lot of trouble if the city would allow his Kiel Performing Arts, Inc. to assume the opera house lease. He could, he said, make the opera house into a money-making venture that would cost the city not one dime.

Golterman estimates that a full renovation would cost about $20 million, with possibly $12 million more needed if it is necessary to make the structure earthquake-proof. A bond issue of $50 million would cover both the costs of renovation and the first years of start-up. He has even promised to give the city 20 percent of the annual operating income for the first five years. For a change, the city would actually be making, rather than paying, money for a new project.

According to Golterman, the economic spin-offs would be sizable as well. He estimates that $12 million in union crafts salaries would be generated over the 18-month construction period. After it opened, the opera house and other venues would employ upwards of 200 people and it would bring thousands of people into downtown each year.

Energized by his vision of what the opera house could do for St. Louis, Golterman became a one-man band, calling politicians and people in the arts community and asking (or, some say, demanding) support. His zealous approach flagrantly violated a well-established code of conduct in St. Louis. Rather than going hat-in-hand to Civic Progress, he organized a citizens' group and sponsored a street demonstration downtown.

About 40 people attended on a sunny Sunday afternoon-hardly an auspicious beginning. He started showing up for various functions wearing a sandwich board festooned with photographs of the historic era opera house and of events once held there. On Halloween, he won a prize for his costume at the annual Headache Ball. Some people regarded him as a somewhat comic figure, well-meaning but single-minded, even obsessed, about his cause.

But he hasn't gone away. Indeed, he seems to be gaining momentum and picking up support week by week. On Dec. 8, a group of both local backers and out-of-town supporters recruited by Golterman toured the opera house. Letters to the editor of the Post have come in a steady stream, and the Post has covered his proposals in detail and sympathetically.

On Dec. 30, Windows on Washington held a "Re-Open the Kiel Opera House" fundraiser, sponsored by St. Louis CORE and Intermission magazine. An impressive line-up of musical performers entertained a packed room, and Golterman showed his own considerable singing talent. Golterman's crusade began to look very much like a citizens' movement instead of a one-man band.

Some of the people attending the Windows on Washington event carried genuine credentials as arts entrepreneurs, giving muscle to what might otherwise have appeared to be a mere social occasion. The occasion demonstrated that there was substance to Golterman's claim that his proposal was serious and substantial. He has lined up Palm Capital of Boca Raton, Fla., to market an estimated $50 million in bonds, if the city will agree to approve a tax-free municipal bond issue. Ray Shepardson, who has renovated several theaters (including the much-publicized Alan Theatre in Cleveland) and who was the first general manager of St. Louis's Fox Theatre, has agreed to manage the renovation and get the opera house up and running. John Kinnamon, producer and owner of the Burn Brae Dinner Theatre in Burtonsville, Md., and who Golterman claims is the biggest producer of dinner theater in the country, has agreed to use some of the space in the Kiel for dinner theater, make the Kiel Club into a lounge and help book productions. Tom Kline, owner of Windows on Washington, says he plans to open a Windows on Kiel. Steve Schankman, co-president of Contemporary Productions, has offered to book productions into the Kiel (it is interesting that Shepardson and Schankman proposed to reopen the opera house several years ago, but the idea was vetoed by the Kiel partners). Golterman also talks of putting in children's theater, a jazz and blues museum and of providing space for cultural educational programs and exhibits.

Who is Ed Golterman?

Are Golterman's plans practical, or are they merely a mirage billowing up from the fantasies of a man driven to live up to a family opera tradition? In a profile distributed by Golterman, he describes his grandfather, Guy Golterman, as "the father of Grand Opera in St. Louis from 1910 to 1940." The blurb goes on to say that between 1910 and 1917, Guy Golterman brought a series of major opera performances to St. Louis, with performances by the greats-Caruso, Farrar, Tetrazzini, Ruffo, Campanini, and more. In 1917, Golterman and the Grand Opera committee inaugurated the new outdoor municipal theater (the Muny) in Forest Park with a week-long performance of "Aida," and Pagliacci came later the same summer. After a few years away from the city, he returned and organized three seasons of opera at the Muny in 1924, 1925 and 1926, again with a line-up of international stars. His production of "Aida" dedicated the Kiel Opera House in 1934. Through his St. Louis Grand Opera Company, he produced major opera all through the 1930s, productions featuring the greatest stars of the time-Lily Pons, Giovanni Martinelli, Maria Jeritza, Kirsten Flagstad among them.

Ed Golterman's mother was a grand opera singer, continuing her career after marriage by appearing with the St. Louis Light Opera Guild in the 1940s and getting parts with opera companies touring through St. Louis. Golterman says the first thing he remembers as a child is opera-and the St. Louis sports scene: "I grew up enmeshed in those worlds."

He attended St. Louis University High School and sang for years in the St. Louis Cathedral Choir. "All I remember is music at home, music at the Kiel." Though it is not the source of his livelihood, Golterman's love affair with music is still very apparent. In his bio statement he refers to himself as a concert and show baritone. He sang the national anthem for the Blues for 16 seasons, and continues to sing it on various occasions.

Some who encounter Golterman could be excused for thinking that he is a zealot when it comes to the opera house. This would be hard to dispute. He has, after all, taken 11 months off from his professional life and business so that he can devote himself fully to the cause. He has spent eight years in radio and television as a newscaster, sportscaster, reporter and writer/producer, but for the last 25 years he has written and produced training films and videos on worker safety, hazardous materials, emergency response, and on AIDS education in the schools. His corporate clients have included Monsanto; Solutia, Inc. (a spin-off of Monsanto); Shell Oil Company; Anheuser-Busch, and the Missouri Lutheran Synod. To put a hold on all this to reopen the opera house-does this make him a nut, or a dedicated public servant working without pay?

Can Golterman's proposal work?

Critics say that Golterman's proposals, or for that matter, any proposals for reopening the opera house, are economically unrealistic. Last July, a consultant working for the Urban Land Institute (which was, in turn, hired by Downtown Now) issued a report recommending that the opera house not be reopened as a performing arts venue. The ULI said that a reopened opera house would compete with the Fox Theatre and with a $50-million performing arts center being planned on the UMSL campus. It recommended instead that the Kiel be turned into a museum. Later, some civic leaders proposed that the Kiel be torn down and turned into a parking garage (for the chief benefit, no doubt, of the Kiel Center).

More recently, on Dec. 10, St. Louis 2004 released a report (the St. Louis Cultural Assessment Study) admitting that the reaction to the ULI study had been controversial, but then going on to say that "the Kiel is too large" in its present configuration. The study stated that 18 performing arts facilities of various sizes were being planned in the St. Louis area, leading to the conclusion that there would not be enough demand for a renovated opera house. On Jan. 19, Mark Sauer, the president of the Kiel Center and the St. Louis Blues, when asked by a Post reporter about Golterman's plans, was quoted as saying, "There's not a molecule of substance in it."

The politics

Whether it is financially feasible to reopen the opera house would seem to be an empirical question. Obviously the answer is relevant. A plausible argument can be made that the capital costs and debt service would be too high, that operating costs would be excessive and that demand would be insufficient, especially considering the competition from the Fox and other venues. Especially with the weight of so much authority behind them, it is hard to rebut such assertions. Skeptics within the arts community ought not to be dismissed lightly; they do, after all, speak from hard experience. They know how hard it is to make any venue turn a profit, how difficult it is to schedule a steady flow of performances and how long it often takes to attract audiences to a new location. According to an arts administrator, the 470-seat Grandel Theatre, opened in 1992, took five years to build up a full schedule, and it still operates at a loss of about $100,000 per year.

Palm Capital, the Boca Raton firm that says it will market bonds to finance the renovation of the Kiel, has not actually conducted the research yet to show that the opera house can operate as a successful commercial venture. Evan Schwartzfarb, Palm Capital's president, says that he is confident that the numbers will add up at the end of the day. He points out that the multiple venues supporting the opera house make it an unusual structure, one that can support a variety of mutually supporting activities. Every new use in the building, he points out, will require very little added capital. When previous studies are mentioned, he points out that none of those studies has been based upon any actual economic analysis. They talk about population shifts and the number of performing arts venues in the St. Louis area, the perceptions of civic and political elites and members of the arts community-but do not present data on the probable uses of the Kiel and an estimated demand for those uses, or the revenues and costs of particular uses. He says that that's the kind of analysis that Palm Capital would do before trying to market bonds to investors. The bottom line remains: No one can be sure whether the Kiel Opera House can be made into a successful commercial venture.

Turf battles

As shown so amply by recent events, St. Louis's civic elites have not been notoriously conservative about fiscal matters, at least when the public purse is involved. It made sure the Kiel Center would work even if that meant taking business away from the stadium and the convention center, and even if it meant the Arena could never be reopened. Perhaps it would be superfluous, in this context, to mention the prodigious amount of public money involved in persuading the Rams to move to St. Louis. If Civic Progress wanted to reopen the opera house, it would not be deterred by arguments about such mundane matters as whether the facility would pay for itself. It would, if it wished, arrange the finances and, if necessary, persuade the city to provide subsidies. Its opposition to reopening the Kiel is not related, mainly, to fiscal concerns, but to turf.

From the very beginning and long before Ed Golterman showed up, the Kiel partners evinced an obvious indifference and/or hostility to the opera house. When they reached their agreement with the city to build the Kiel Center, the opera house was an afterthought worthy of just a few lines in a long document. After the agreement was reached, indifference seemed to turn to hostility. Golterman says he was told that the roof of the opera house was left open to the weather for 15 months during the Center's construction, and that 40 dressing rooms were demolished. The reason for the Kiel partners' attitude is not difficult to fathom. Representing their views, perhaps, the ULI's consultant concluded that night-time events at the opera house would compete with uses of the Kiel Center, making access and parking a significant problem. That was a principal reason the ULI report recommended that a museum, with day-time uses, be put into the building.

Other players in this controversy are motivated by their own turf concerns. On many occasions Leon Strauss, president of Fox Associates, has said if the opera house opens, he will close the Fox. The fear of competition has also colored the views of arts administrators and others connected to the Grand Center. Grand Center has attracted $100 million in investment over the past decade or so, but it has still not been able to create a critical mass of activities sufficient to sustain a vibrant street life. Even after several years the Grand Center has not exactly transmogrified into a busy arts district. People drive to Powell Hall, the Fox, the Grandel, or the Sheldon, park their cars and attend an event, and then go home or somewhere outside the district for a nightcap. Grand Center has become not so much an arts district as a collection of arts venues. This gives people identified with it all the more reason to be concerned about competition from outside the district (though, curiously, UMSL's facility seems to be exempted from this concern).

The desire to protect turf is driving most of the opposition to Golterman's plan to reopen the opera house. But the most significant turf battle is not over money or the spatial location of performing arts. It is over political power.

The truly important question involving the Kiel is: Who runs St. Louis? St. Louis's civic elite does not intend to allow an interloper-sponsoring demonstrations, fundraisers, and wearing a sandwich board, for God's sake-to come into this town and challenge their authority to make the big decisions downtown.

It ought to be said that if eccentricity disqualified anyone from participating in the civic life of St. Louis, there would scarcely be a soul left to attend the charity balls or become eligible for the annual Citizen-of-the-Year awards. Anyway, a healthy dose of eccentricity, especially if laced with a bit of tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation, would open up the city's politics to let some new light shine in. Remember the famous poster, a view from behind of a man holding his raincoat open to a statue, with the caption, "Open Yourself to Art" That was Neil Goldschmidt, then the mayor of Portland, Ore. St. Louis is starved for just this kind of irreverence, and it surely won't come from Civic Progress.

If Ed Golterman succeeds, he will not help revive urban culture in St. Louis and help revitalize a sagging downtown, but he may take accomplish something equally important and enduring; he may be show how a tired and anachronistic civic elite can be challenged. It would be refreshing if a citizens' movement were to succeed in challenging St. Louis's power structure. This would be the first time in memory that a major project has been undertaken in downtown despite opposition from Civic Progress. A reopened Kiel Opera House would be a major event signaling that St. Louis intends to join the rest of the nation's cities in using culture to revive downtown. Perhaps of more enduring value. However, reopening the Kiel might revitalize the politics of the city. St. Louis is overdue for a changing of the guard.

Where are these black journalists now?

"The word nationally on the Post now in journalistic circles," reads one memo currently circulating at the city's only daily, is "the Post-Dispatch is a great place to be from."

Here is a list of former Post reporters who are black and their new positions:

• Leslie Allen, business copy editor, Philadelphia Inquirer.

• Jabari Asim, assistant book editor, Washington Post.

• Gerald Boyd, assistant managing editor, The New York Times.

• Ken Cooper won a Pulitzer at the Boston Globe; he's now India bureau chief, Washington Post.

• George Curry, editor, Emerge magazine.

• Jim Ellis, an editor, Business Week.

• Sheila Rule, The New York Times, where she formerly reported in the London Bureau.

• Ann Scales, reporter covering the president in the Washington bureau of the Boston Globe. She begged the Post to send her to the nation's capital but they refused.

-Ellen Harris

College journalism hero faces difficult future

By Don Corrigan

As student newspaper adviser to the Forum, the student publication of St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, Roger Carlson has been a defender of the rights of the college press for more than two decades.

He has butted heads with faculty, deans and college presidents on more than a few occasions over the ink spilled by aspiring Woodwards and Bernsteins.

Most recently, Carlson caught some flak for front page stories about the infamous "Southside Rapist." Student editors found out that the prime suspect, wanted for a series of rapes and vicious assaults, had been a student on the North County community college campus.

"The Forum ran the story about [Dennis] Rabbitt's time at Flo, with a picture of him, on the front page of the paper," noted Carlson. "Some faculty and others on campus told me that that was wrong: We were hurting the image of the college and engaging in sensationalism.

"The story about the 'Southside Rapist' is a sensational story, but it is not engaging in sensationalism to run the story. There is a difference," explained Carlson. "With everything that's going on in the news media today, people no longer can tell the difference. But students have the right to know if somebody they were sitting next to in class is accused of rape and assault."

Like most college newspaper advisers, Carlson has his share of war stories about those who've taken aim at him over ink spilled by his student reporters. He said there's a certain level of frustration on every campus in America among those who would like to see more "public relations" and less "dirty laundry" in the student press.

"With colleges, we advisers are of them, but we are not a part of them," said Carlson. "There are always going to be colleagues who won't talk to us because they're afraid it will end up in the student paper. And then there are those who talk to us precisely because they want to see what they're telling you in the student paper."

Carlson said he refuses to be used as a conduit for certain kinds of stories that some people want to dump on the student press. At the same time, he will help students with investigations of nefarious activities on campus, if the fervor for the stories originates with the students.

"We advisers have to walk a fine, narrow line. We have a loyalty to the colleges that we work for, but we also have a loyalty to something we teach our students-free expression," said Carlson.

Walk a fine line

Carlson has managed to walk that "fine, narrow line" with grace and aplomb-at least in the eyes of those in the world of college newspaper advising. The Missouri College Media Association (MCMA) has recognized Carlson with both the Newspaper Adviser of the Year Award and the Meritorious Service Award.

In 1995, the national College Media Association (CMA) presented Carlson with its Distinguished Two-Year Newspaper Adviser Award in Washington, D.C. In 1996, Carlson received the coveted Gold Key from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at the Princeton Club in New York City.

The awards really don't tell the story, though. College newspaper advisers like P.C. Thomas of State Fair Community College in Sedalia or Roy Keller of Southeast Missouri State University or Avis Meyer of St. Louis University or Chad Stebbins of Missouri Southern State College in Joplin can tell you best why Carlson has been so admired as a mentor to students of journalism.

For years, the Missouri advisers have seen Carlson driving vans full of student reporters to journalism competitions around the state. Carlson has been with them to share in their victories and to commiserate with them when their stories and columns fall short in the judging of collegiate journalism excellence.

"Roger's commitment to high standards in student journalism led him to seek an affiliation of the state's college newspapers with the Missouri Press Association almost two decades ago," said Thomas. "He worked tirelessly to cement that relationship and to make sure campus journalism thrives in this state."

According to Stebbins, Carlson has fought all kinds of odds to keep a quality student newspaper operating at the community college in Florissant. He said Carlson also has worked hard to see that journalism students in the state's college and small university programs get some needed recognition for their efforts.

"Roger has been our 'rock' at the Missouri College Media Association. We've always been able to count on his support and guidance," said Stebbins. "He also puts a lot of energy into his students to help them produce one of the best community college papers in the country."

The challenge ahead

While Carlson has managed to prevail through the skirmishes and occasional sieges that come with college newspaper advising, he is now in the fight of his life. It's a war that he knows he is likely to lose.

In 1990, Carlson was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy (MD), a group of inherited diseases that attack and destroy the muscles. Carlson said that there are 43 different kinds of MD and he is coping with two of them.

"I have had every possible legal treatment for MD to deal with my situation and, to this point, none of them have worked," said Carlson. "These treatments are just to deal with the symptoms, there is no cure for MD."

Carlson said it was a relief to start using an electric wheelchair three years ago after his legs became too weak. His situation has worsened in recent months with the deterioration of his hand muscles. Carlson compares his situation with that of celebrity actor Christopher Reeves, who was paralyzed in a horse riding accident.

"Reeves didn't know he was going to end up in a wheelchair. I did. That's an advantage I had," said Carlson. "But Reeves can now adjust to his situation. I can't. I have to be adjusting all the time, because my condition is constantly changing."

Carlson said this spring semester will be his last advising the Forum and working with the newspaper's student reporters. He said lecturing and working with students sap what little strength he has left. He said it hurts that he can no longer use a chalk board to record and highlight a young journalist's good idea in class.

"I don't want to die with my boots on," said Carlson. "I want to know when to hang it up. But I'm not a whiner. I have a problem with people who get something like I have and they just stop everything and start feeling sorry for themselves."

After Carlson leaves the student newsroom at Florissant for the last time as adviser, he hopes to do more for MDA, the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has already been helping MDA for a number of years with publication projects.

"I have been active with MDA on the annual telethon and with the newsletter," said Carlson. "I help with the MDA summer camp and I hope to keep doing that. The MDA people have been very good to me, and you've just got to give something back."

Observing journalism

Carlson started his journalism career as a copy editor for the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch and as a U.S. Air Force information officer from 1968 through 1973. He then went to work for the Green Bay (Wisc.) Daily News until 1975, when a friend working at Flo Valley, Jim Porchey, asked him to come to teach.

"I only planned to teach for a couple of years. My plan was to get a reporting job in a larger market, and teaching would get me to a larger market," Carlson recalled.

Carlson got his teaching job in the mass communications department at the community college, and he also landed a part-time job as a reporter and copy editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

After two years of working both jobs, Carlson said he decided he had to make a choice whether to work for the Post or in academia. Carlson said he surprised himself and chose the mission of mentoring students in journalism.

"I've never regretted that choice," said Carlson. "If I were an editor now, there would be one Roger Carlson out there. With teaching, I feel there are a lot of Carlsons out there. That is, I feel like I've been able to have much more of a personal influence on a lot of people who've passed through the college and the student newsroom."

Carlson said he does have some regrets about what has happened to journalism since he started out as a reporter. He said the profession's romance, the missionary zeal of reporters and the work's financial rewards have all been on the decline. He said the profession has only itself to blame for a lot of these maladies.

"Because of all this, I don't see students today bringing the passion to reporting that they brought back in the Watergate period," said Carlson. "I sometimes lecture to kids about some poor slob getting screwed by the system and they look at me like: 'So what? I'm glad it's not my problem.'"

Carlson said many students are less aggressive and more easily cowed than in the past. He attributes some of this to the 1988 Hazelwood Supreme Court decision that allowed high schools to censor student newspapers, in some cases, merely to stop possible embarrassment to administrators.

Sadly, Carlson noted that some courts have recently tried to apply the Hazelwood reasoning at the college level. But on a brighter note, Carlson also pointed out that four states surrounding Missouri have passed so-called "Free Expression Bills" to counteract Hazelwood and to give high school journalists more press rights.

"A version of this bill hasn't passed in Missouri, but I don't blame the state legislators," said Carlson. "I blame the Missouri Press Association. This should be their cause. If every small town newspaper editor went and talked to his legislator about this bill, it could get passed. I'm also disappointed that the Kansas City Star and the Post haven't taken the lead on this.

"Professional journalism acts like what's happened to the student press doesn't affect it," added Carlson. "But it does. It affects the kind of reporters coming up. It affects public attitudes about what rights the press should have generally."

While Carlson can get worked up for a fight talking about the rights of the student press, he knows that most of his energy now must be reserved for a more immediate, personal struggle-his battle with muscular dystrophy.

"At this point, I just take each day as it comes," said Carlson. "I don't feel cheated. I've had a satisfying career, a lovely family and a supportive wife. I'm an avid bridge player and my philosophy is that you have to play the hand that's dealt to you. Even a bad hand can be played well."

In SJR

10 Years Ago:

• Longtime local CBS radio stalwart Bob Osborne died after suffering from pancreatitis. He had worked in just about every position at the AM and FM stations here. Prior to his work at KMOX, Osborne had been a disc jockey on WIL.

• KSHE radio decided not to renew the contract of afternoon announcer Randy Raley. He had recently been named "Worst Afternoon Deejay" in a poll by St. Louis Magazine.

• Julia (J.A.) Lobbia was named the managing editor of the Riverfront Times. Cliff Froehlich was appointed senior editor.

5 Years Ago:

• The Federal Communications Commission was questioning representatives of the radio operation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The Commission alleged KFUO-AM and FM did not hire enough minorities between 1983 and 1990.

• KMOX General Manager Rod Zimmerman angered many radio listeners by signing a contract to broadcast the syndicated program of Rush Limbaugh in place of locally hosted shows.

• The city council of Festus removed the words "sexual orientation" from its municipal anti-discrimination ordinance after a St. Louis religious newspaper conducted a print campaign against the rights of gays. The paper took credit for the council's action.

Post's Mini Page brainwashes children

By Dan Hellinger

Every Tuesday the St. Louis Post-Dispatch runs a seemingly harmless little feature aimed at the younger set, "The Mini Page," in its Everyday section. The page is laid out with various puzzles, games and an educational feature provided by Betty Debnam through the Universal Press Syndicate. The themes vary, but all are written in a vocabulary suitable to elementary schoolers and are supplemented by cartoons.

It makes sense for newspapers to devote some column inches to likely future subscribers. Many of the Debnam features might even educate adults, like myself, who might have "missed that day in class" a few years ago. But when the Mini Page dabbles in history and politics the result is more often the kind of propaganda Plato would have lauded when he advised in The Republic, that rulers make legitimate the prevailing order by convincing children of a Noble Fiction.

Take, for example, the theme which ran in the Post Oct. 20, 1998, just prior to last November's elections-polls and elections. In this little parable young readers are instructed how they might "take a poll to help plan your campaign for an office in student government." A vast political-science literature suggests that campaign polls are more often taken to find voters' emotional push buttons rather than to ascertain the public's preferences. When used to sound out voters on issues, the aim is more often to frame misleading messages, to obfuscate issues or to promote or avoid issues selectively.

To believe Debnam, however, candidates use polls to "decide which messages are important to the voters" and to "check to see if the messages are working." Besides measuring their standing versus other candidates, we are told candidates "use polls to plan the campaign so they take the right steps as well as spend their money wisely and at the best time to influence voters." Against the entire weight of the literature on polling, Debnam tells kids, "Polls help get the voters to the polls!"

The page did include an accurate, straightforward account of how and when congressional elections are held, along with some information about the importance of the November elections for the two major parties. It also included a concise, simple and accurate summary of how pollsters work, including information on how pollsters draw samples. But in Debnam's account, pollsters try to make questions "clear and fair." This might apply to polls done for journalists or academics, but pollsters who work for candidates are often testing various approaches to framing issues. In recent years, polls designed deliberately to do nothing more than spread slander and innuendo about opponents have become more common.

The rather flattering treatment of pollsters can be attributed to the main source for Debnam's explanation-Mark Debnam of the prestigious Washington polling and lobbying organization, the Mellman Group.

History lessons aren't any better. Four years ago, during the Columbus quincentennial, Debnam's feature (then called "Kids Day" in the Post) ran four Mini Pages on the great Admiral. This time the source authority was the Smithsonian's "The Seeds of Change" exhibit. The latter was praised for its depiction of the biological exchange which accompanied the European conquest, but critics at the time criticized the National Museum for soft-peddling the impact of European imperialism on the indigenous population and the role of slavery.

Debnam's "Treasure of Two Worlds" replicated the orthodox vision, of course. In the cartoons, a boat headed West captained by a rather dapper, lordly Columbus is laden with European plants and animals, while another is headed East, directed by a smiling youngster in a Conquistador outfit, bearing fauna and flora from the Americas. Tucked away in the bottom corner is a brief mention of the main reason Columbus sailed-"The gold and silver of the Americas made Spain a rich and powerful country." But young readers would hardly think this was foremost in the adventurer's mind.

The panels mention innocuously that "The Columbus voyages and settlements began changes and exchanges, both good and bad, that still continue today." Debnam, for example, acknowledges that diseases were responsible for the deaths of millions of native Indians. But this seems to exculpate the Europeans. No mention is made that Columbus founded the slave system which made the Indian community culturally defenseless against the Europeans and their microorganisms. Overall, the impression one gets is that Columbus was a great humanitarian who left the world a better place by his voyages.

Another recent page Dec. 3, 1998, the "Mini guide to Economics," teaches kids all about capitalism. In this fable, the child is asked to imagine him or herself as the recurring character "Rookie Cookie." Our hero wants to go into the candy business. After learning how to make candy and studying what consumers want (of course, such studies are used not to shape but merely measure consumer preferences) and what they will pay for it, Rookie Cookie sets "sales goals for 1999." After checking "what laws you need to obey," Rookie Cookie then proceeds to raise the capital." To do so, children are told, "You might borrow from a bank or use your own money." The next step is to "set up a way to keep the records so you can record your profits ... and losses." Then you "plan the advertising to promote your products," hire and train employees, and finally ("step 11") you "sell, sell, sell."

So far we have little more than a lemonade-stand approach to learning about capitalism, but in the next panel, "Rookie Cookie Candies Becomes Big Business," the company decides "to build factories all around the country. You might want to add more people and expand big time." In fact, you decide to "go public" and raise capital from shareholders with the help of an investment banker and a "road show." Soon Rookie Cookie is on the New York Stock Exchange learning about brokers, stocks, bonds, dividends, blue chips, bulls and bears.

We're definitely a long way from Kansas by this time, Toto. Debnam's capitalists are smiling, friendly sorts who are happy with their dividend checks from Rookie Cookie Candies. No one is out to make a hostile takeover of the candy company, and it would seem the stock market is a functional institution directly tied to making the economy more productive and supplying jobs for workers. Rookie Cookie wants to build factories in America and would never think of making a bigger profit by moving the candy factories to Mexico. The term "bankruptcy" is curiously absent. Those economists who see the stock exchange as the world's biggest roulette wheel had better look elsewhere for enlightenment about the nature of modern capitalism.

Is this just a matter of simplification? It's hard to see how a parable for fourth graders which teaches them about investment bankers and "road shows" is aiming for the lowest common denominator.

Would a more accurate account of how polls influence politics simply confuse young minds? Even if the goal of simplicity is assumed, there is no reason kids could not understand a few sentences in the following vein: Many college teachers are worried that candidates use polls to fool voters. Only candidates with lots of money can hire experts to study the voters' opinions. They try not to say anything voters do not want to hear. Sometimes they use what they learn to see what lies about other candidates people might believe. But people are smart too, and more and more do not believe the candidates, even when they are trying to tell the truth. Many people think our democracy would be stronger if there were no polls."

How about an economics page that read as follows? "Many people start small businesses like this candy company, but many go out of business or sell to big companies. Sometimes they sell their businesses to make a big profit. Sometimes they do not want to sell but are forced to do so when big companies offer their customers the same product at a very cheap price. Later, the big companies can raise the price again. Other times, the big companies pay the shareholders large amounts of money to get enough shares to take the company away from small business owners like Rookie Cookie."

Perhaps young readers might learn that "Columbus was looking to get rich. He and his followers forced Indians to work for them in mines and on big farms, called plantations, where they grew foods such as sugar for people in Europe to eat. When the Indians died or ran away, Columbus used boats to bring slaves from Africa and made them work on his property. Columbus's men copied his example. Many Indians and Africans died, and many of the problems we have in getting along with one another date back to the practices he started."

Is that too hard for kids to understand?

LAW/MEDIA

How to defend newsrooms from illegal police searches

By Mark Sableman

Almost 30 years ago, police in Palo Alto, Calif., investigating a student disturbance at Stanford University, conducted what they considered to be a routine investigative search, looking for photographs and other evidence of criminal conduct. The focus of their search, however, was an unusual one-the Stanford Daily, the student newspaper-and hence the search was anything but routine. It became the search that shook the journalistic world.

The Stanford Daily incident and the resulting national focus on the special problems presented by newsroom raids led initially to a Supreme Court decision dismissive of the student editors' First Amendment concerns-but ultimately to a special federal statute, the First Amendment Privacy Protection Act, that gives journalists special protection from police raids and searches.

That law, enacted by Congress in 1980, essentially commands law enforcement officials: "Thou shall not search newsrooms, except as a last resort in extraordinary situations." And it provides significant civil penalties for agencies that violate its commands.

Recently, however, law enforcement officials in Missouri, Nevada and elsewhere have demonstrated that they have forgotten-or never understood in the first place-the lesson of the Stanford Daily case and the commands of the statute that it engendered. In December 1998 and January 1999, for example, authorities in St. Joseph, Mo. and Reno, Nev. conducted unannounced newsroom raids, attempting to search and retrieve journalistic work product they believed might yield evidence relating to criminal investigations.

The Reno case received national attention; the St. Joseph case did not. In both cases, authorities-apparently blissfully unaware that federal law prohibited their conduct-raided not just one but several newsrooms. They didn't seek the information any other way, and there was no immediate peril or threat of destruction of evidence. In both cases when the Privacy Protection Act was raised, the authorities gave back the seized materials.

The Reno case carried a special twist-the materials sought were videotapes of interviews conducted of a suspect while the suspect was in the sheriff's custody. The sheriff hadn't bothered to videotape the interview himself. So the district attorney ordered the raid on local television stations in an attempt to remedy the sheriff's omission. There was no imminent threat of death or serious harm; the principal threat at hand was the embarrassment the sheriff would suffer when his bumbling became known.

The reaction to the Reno raids highlighted the totally different perspectives of journalists and law enforcement authorities. Ward Bushee, editor of the Reno Gazette-Journal, who felt at one point that he could be facing arrest, called the raid a "senseless showdown between sheriff deputies and newspaper people." The district attorney, Richard Gammick, seemed to see no difference between a newsroom raid and any other: "We know what the press privileges are, and we're not trying to violate those at all. It's my belief that once a newsperson goes up and interviews a defendant in the jail about the crime, they become a witness."

Though these cases are extraordinary, it is not unusual to find attitudes like that of the prosecutor in Reno, and lack of understanding of the Privacy Protection Act as existed in both Reno and St. Joseph. In some unreported situations, police and prosecutors have threatened to conduct raids if editors or news directors would not voluntarily give them the information they wanted. Often authorities aren't aware of the prohibition on newsroom searches; sometimes they are aware of it but unwilling to respect it.

Since authorities can't be relied on to know and follow the no-search rule, news directors, editors and even reporters and photographers themselves need to be aware of the rule, and willing and able to assert their rights under it. That, in turn, requires knowledge of the federal First Amendment Privacy Protection Act of 1980 and the circumstances that gave rise to it.

• • •

In 1971, some Stanford University student demonstrators took over Stanford University Hospital's administrative offices. On April 9, Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies forced their way into the building. Students at one entrance attacked the police, in view of a Stanford Daily photographer. A special Stanford Daily edition a few days later carried articles and photographs of the clash. The next day, the sheriff obtained a search warrant for an immediate search of the Daily 's offices, for photographs, film and other evidence. Later that day, four police officers conducted the search, and went through the Daily 's photographic laboratory, filing cabinets, desks and waste baskets. The search revealed nothing relevant other than photographs that had already been published-ultimately, the police removed nothing from the Daily office.

Shook by the raid, the threat to their confidential materials and the chill cast over the newsroom, the Daily 's editors brought an unprecedented federal civil rights lawsuit against the authorities who conducted and authorized the raid. Among other things, the editors claimed that the First Amendment prohibited newsroom raids except in the most extraordinary situations. That argument carried the day in the trial and appeals courts-but lost in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978.

In the Supreme Court, Justice Byron White, writing for the court's five-member majority in Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, dismissed with incredulity the editors' claims of First Amendment protection in the context of a police raid. Police raids and searches, he stressed, by tradition may occur anywhere, and may be directed against any "persons" or "things" so long as the police have probable cause to believe that fruits, instrumentalities or evidence of a crime will be found.

With respect to the lower courts' conclusions that searches of newspaper offices would threaten the ability of the press to gather, analyze and disseminate news, the court held that newsrooms were adequately protected by the general requirements that searches be reasonable and approved in advance by neutral magistrates. Justice White stated that "whatever incremental effect" searches may have in intimidating journalists and news searches "does not make a constitutional difference." Moreover, the majority held, newsroom searches were rare and, if abuse develops, "there will be time enough to deal with it."

Many news organizations and others disagreed with the court majority's confidence that newsroom searches were not a significant problem. Soon after the decision, news organizations and trade associations began petitioning Congress and state legislatures to effectively reverse the Zurcher decision. The effort paid off with the passage by Congress of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980.

The act covers actions by any officials, state or federal. Initially, it provides strong protection for journalists' "work product materials," meaning notes and drafts. The act states that notwithstanding other laws, government officials may not search for or seize such work product. There are, of course, exceptions. A search may be conducted if there is probable cause that the journalist who possesses the materials sought "has committed or is committing the criminal offense to which the materials relate," or if "there is reason to believe that the immediate seizure of such materials to prevent the death of, or serious bodily injury to, a human being."

As to materials other than notes, drafts and similar "work product materials," the act also initially prohibits newsroom searches and seizures for these materials, but it provides for more exceptions than in the case of "work product." These materials can be seized from a newsroom not only where the person possessing them is the criminal suspect, and in cases of imminent threat of death or serious harm, but also where there is a threat that the material would be destroyed or when the materials have not been produced in response to a valid and tested subpoena.

The act has teeth. In the case of a violation, the affected journalists and news organizations can sue both the agency and the officers involved in the search. Law enforcement officers and judges involved in newsroom raids can raise as a defense their belief that they were acting lawfully and in good faith, but the agencies have no such defense; they are strictly liable for violations of the act. Successful plaintiffs are entitled to their actual damages, or a minimum $1,000 "liquidated damages" award, as well as their reasonable attorneys' fees and other litigation costs.

In addition to its substantive provisions, the act requires the attorney general of the United States to issue guidelines for all federal officers to follow when seeking material from journalists. These guidelines have prevented many press-government skirmishes, and they have largely been effective in preventing intrusions into newsrooms by federal officers.

In the almost 20 years that it has been on the books, only one case has been brought under the act, a somewhat convoluted case against Kansas City police and then-Jackson County prosecutor Claire McCaskill, based on a raid on WDAF-TV in Kansas City. WDAF, which had been raided in violation of the Privacy Protection Act, initially won damages in the trial court, but the appeals court reversed and sent the case back for a fuller hearing on McCaskill's defenses.

• • •

Because newsroom searches are rare and by definition occur with no advance notice, and because the act is not well known, newsroom managers need to be aware of the act and able to assert its protections at any time. Put simply, when the sheriff arrives at a newsroom door with a search warrant (or the determination to conduct a warrantless search), news executives must promptly and vigorously assert their rights under the Privacy Protection Act.

Nothing can really prepare anyone for a police raid, but the basic principles are simple:

• Know your rights and assert them.

• Don't consent to the search.

• Call your lawyer immediately.

• Try to delay the search until your lawyer and higher ranking law enforcement authorities can be present.

• Videotape the police activity, using as many cameras as feasible.

The final tip is potentially the most important: Wave around and hand out copies of the First Amendment Privacy Protection Act-with its civil penalties section highlighted. If the officers who come to raid your newsroom don't know about the Privacy Protection Act when they arrive, make sure they know about before they leave. Chances are, they'll wish you hadn't educated them, and they'll think twice (or more) before conducting any other newsroom raid.

The First Amendment Privacy Protection Act of 1980 is codified in Title 42 of the United States Code, section 2000aa. The attorney general's guidelines for federal officers and employees are published in Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 50.10.1096823.

PEOPLE

AD/PR

ADAMSON

Jeff Rule has been named director of production services and Erin Conroy, public relations account executive. Previously, Rule worked as a pre-press manager at DIMAC Direct Marketing. Conroy worked as an account team member for the Vandiver Group.

CREATIVE PRODUCERS GROUP, INC.

Lee Gerstenhaber has been named director of finance and administration. Gerstenhaber will oversee the areas of finance, legal and administration at the St. Louis headquarters and the Dallas and Indianapolis offices.

FALK HARRISON CREATIVE

Bill Goodin has joined the agency as new media director. He will be active in emerging electronic media, including Internet and intranet design, content and functionality; interactive publications; and online marketing.

FINKEL & COMPANY COMMUNICATIONS

Patricia Burns Binder has been promoted to vice president and Barbara Langsam Shuman to senior account manager.

FLEISHMAN-HILLARD INC.

Janelle Bailey has been appointed senior program analyst, and Ken Bales, senior specialist, systems administrator..

KOCHAN & COMPANY

Tracey Wiltshire, former territory marketing manager for Fox Photo Inc. and recent college graduate Jennifer Harbison have been added to the staff. As Account Executive, Wiltshire will manage and supervise accounts and act as primary client contact. Harbison will serve as an assistant account executive.

KUPPER PARKER COMMUNICATIONS

Olivia Erwin has been named a media buyer; Laura Filiatreau, a traffic coordinator; and Laurie Roscow, an assistant buyer.

MILLENNIUM COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

Aaron R. Schoenherr has joined the company as a communications specialist. Previously, he worked as a public affairs representative at Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, Ill.

TRADEMARK CREATIVE

Elizabeth Lintner has jointed the agency as an account executive.

THE GLENNON COMPANY

Annette R. McCall, formerly an account services assistant, has been promoted to junior media buyer. New hires at the agency include: Dave Wells, senior account manager; Christine Corrigan Mendez, account manager; Christopher Ashley, an art director with skills in desktop design and publishing; Dolores A. Gelbach, senior media buyer; Jonathon Fore, art director; Christine M. Schroer, art director; Sharon S. Kaiser, a production manager with both corporate and agency experience; and, Penny L. Samargian, accounting clerk.

THE VANDIVER GROUP

Suzanne Holroyd, Ph.D., has been promoted to senior account team leader.

AWARDS

CREATIVE PRODUCERS GROUP, INC.

The Group received a 1998 WebAward for its self-promotional Web site production www.getcreative.com. from the Web Marketing Association, Inc. The agency also won an Omni Intermedia Silver Award and a Communicator Award for outstanding video production.

The agency was also awarded the Gold World Medal in the 41st New York Festivals International Non-Broadcast Media Competition in the Training/Professional category

O'CONNOR & PARTNERS

The agency has earned two "Gold" awards in the international Mercury Awards competition for work with the Nextel Communications new product media kit and for newsletter writing excellence in the "Belleville Free Press." Danielle Oser lead the team for both projects.

AGENCY NEWS

FALK HARRISON CREATIVE

The Falk Design Group, has been renamed Falk Harrison Creative. The name change recognizes the contribution of Stephen P. Harrison, who was recently promoted to senior vice president. The name change coincides with the firm's reorganization to employee ownership through an employee stock ownership plan. Robert J. Falk founded the firm in 1971, which has grown to a staff of 25.

IMAGE MATTERS, INC.

Laclede's Landing Merchants' Association has signed the agency as their public relations agency of record.

SALSMAN LUNDGREN PUBLIC RELATIONS, INC.

The Plumbing Industry Council (PIC) has selected the company as its agency of record. The company will assist the council with public relations, advertising, media placement and a new corporate image campaign.

"Follow the trail of the money"

That journalistic guideline applies also to what interests journalists. The "Pew Center for Civic Journalism" has funded 15 experiments in 12 states which will receive $20,000 each in 1999.

The purpose of the grants is "to develop interaction between public and news organizations."

In line with the philosophy of civic (or public) journalism, all the efforts somehow hope to involve, study or reach out to the public. The grants were given, among others, to find new sources, to identify systems, to help families in trouble, to bridge communications between the public and officials, to solicit and explain tax alternatives, to create a web page for facilitating communications, to create a clearing house for public debates, to enable the public to communicate by video-conferencing, to find out how a region affects future leaders, to examine end-of-life issues, to examine how values should be taught in schools, to examine what affects the elderly population and similar projects.

In every instance, the funded media will be involved in not merely exploring how various solutions affect the public, but "to give ordinary people a voice in coverage of their communities, to help citizens identify problems and discuss solutions and to empower people to be active civic participants."

Besides the question whether the media and its reporters should not only be observers, but also become activists on behalf of creating solutions (aside from its traditional editorial page), we tend to agree with Seth Effron who essentially found nothing new in "public journalism" in his review of "Assessing Public Journalism" by Edmund B. Lambeth, Philip E. Meyer and Esther Thorson (University of Missouri Press, 284 pages). Writing in Nieman Reports (Vol. 52, No. 4), Effron, a founding editor of "the insider," a state government news service in North Carolina, cites a couple of pre-civic journalism stories where the media involved outsiders, experts and the public in collecting relevant data for their coverage.

"Today these efforts would likely be called 'public journalism,' " he writes, "But these two examples, a few of many that can be found in newspapers around the nation for decades, are at their core simply good reporting. They represent what the best newspapers can do when they look in different ways at their communities and are able to identify fresh issues and perspectives that need explorations."

What is good about public journalism is really nothing new. What is bad about public journalism is the partisan nature of their interests imposed on a public issue.

-Charles L. Klotzer

invitations

The calendar has been prepared by the International Writers Center at Washington University. All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Monday, February 8

u The Open Book Club discusses Arturo Perez-Revite's The Club Dumas at 7 p.m. at Library Ltd., 7700 Forsyth. 721-0378

u Erica Rand's Barbie's Queer Accessories is the topic for the Queer Talk Reading Group at 7 p.m. at MoKaBe's Coffee House, 3606 Arsenal, co-sponsored by Our World Too and MoKaBe's. 533-5322

Tuesday, February 9

u The St. Louis Publishers Association hosts a round table discussion on "Effective Book Marketing" featuring Bud Banis, Judy Coker, Fran Hamilton and Linda Senn speaking on book marketing techniques at 7 p.m. at Washington University's Bixby Hall, corner of Forsyth and Skinker. $5 for non-members. 984-9805

u Fiction writer Lydia Davis, author of Almost No Memory and The End of the Story, reads at 8 p.m. for the International Writers Center Reading Series at Washington University's West Campus Conference Center (lower level), 7425 Forsyth. $5; A & E cardholders receive a two-for-one discount. All students and senior citizens are admitted free of charge. Davis's reading will be followed by a booksigning. 935-5576

u Nawal El Saadawi's The Circling Song is the topic for the Foreign Literature Discussion Group at 7:30 at Washington University's West Campus Conference Center (lower level), 7425 Forsyth. 727-6118

Thursday, February 11

u Lolita Files, author of Scenes From a Sistah, reads and signs her book, Getting to the Good Part at 6 p.m. at Afrocentric Books, 8081 Olive. 991-0097

u The Heebie-Jeebies Book Group discusses John Fowles's The Collector at 7 p.m. at Borders-Creve Coeur, 11745 Olive. 432-3575

u Carol Bly, author of Changing the Bully Who Rules the World and The Tomcat's Wife and Other Stories, reads from her work at 8 p.m. at Washington University's Hurst Lounge, Duncker 201. 935-7130

u Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold is the topic for the Great Books Discussion Group, from 8 to 10 p.m. at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 6800 Washington Avenue. 966-8425

Saturday, February 13

u Rochelle Alers, author of Careless Whispers, and Donna Hill, author of Quiet Storm, present an African-American Romance Writers Program at the meeting of the Romance Writers Workshop at 11 a.m. at the Barr Branch of the St. Louis Public Library, 1701 S. Jefferson. 771-7040

u Brian Jacques, author of Marlfox and the Redwall fantasy series, will read and sign his work from 5 to 7 p.m. at Borders-Sunset Hills, 10990 Sunset Hills Plaza, 909-0300. Line tickets will be distributed on a first-come/first-served basis.

Monday, February 15

u Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is the topic for the Book Discussion Group at 7 p.m. at the Carpenter branch of the St. Louis Public Library, 3309 S. Grand. 772-6586.

u David Nelson and Sheryl Johnson read for the River Styx at Duff's Series at 7:30 p.m. at Duff's restaurant, 392 N. Euclid. $5 at door; $4 for members, students and seniors. 533-4541

Tuesday, February 16

u The Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club presents a poetry reading and open mike in honor of Black History Month featuring Sherman Fowler, Eugene B. Redmond, Darlene Roy, Evon Udoh and others at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers of the Municipal Building, 301 River Park Drive, East St. Louis, IL (618) 650-2060

u Graphic artist Ben Katchor, author of The Jew of New York, presents a slide lecture, Graven Images in the Popular Yiddish Press and Other Illicit Objects of Worship, at 7 p.m. in Washington University's Steinberg Hall Auditorium, corner of Skinker and Forsyth. Sponsored by the Fine Arts Institute, 935-4643.

u Photojournalist Alison Wright discusses and signs her book The Spirit of Tibet: A Portrait of a Culture in Exile, accompanied by slides, at 7 p.m. at Library Ltd., 7700 Forsyth, 721-0378; again 2/17 at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble-Ladue, 8871 Ladue, 862-6280; and 2/20 at 3 p.m. at Barnes & Noble-Crestwood, 9618 Watson, 843-9480.

Wednesday, February 17

u Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha, speaks on "The Making of a Geisha: Forging a Cultural Identity" at 11 a.m. in Graham Chapel for Washington University's Assembly Series. 935-5285

Thursday, February 18

u Rabbi Robert Jacobs reads and signs his memoir By Reason of Strength: The Life and Work of Rabbi Robert P. Jacobs at 7:30 p.m. at Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid. 367-6731

Saturday, February 20

u Central Library presents Spotlight on Getting Your Writing Published, featuring Richard Newman, editor of River Styx magazine, at 10:30 a.m. at the Central Library, 1301 Olive. 539-0305

u Velma Maia Thomas, author of Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery, speaks at 2 p.m. at the Julia Davis branch of the St. Louis Public Library, 4415 Natural Bridge. 383-3021

u Pamela Toussaint, author of Mama's Little Boy, discusses and signs her book Great Books for African American Children at 3 p.m. at Afrocentric Books, 8081 Olive. 991-0097

u River Styx editor Richard Newman speaks at 7 p.m. for the meeting of the St. Louis Writers Guild at McNulty's in Westport Plaza. Dinner (on your own) is at 6 p.m. 542-9888

Sunday, February 21

u Spoken Word Sundays hosts its first Poetry Slam at 8 p.m. at Brandt's Market and Café, 6525 Delmar; 516-4516. $2 at door-winner receives total ticket sales. Readings are followed by an open mike from 9 to 10 p.m.

Tuesday, February 23

u 1998 National Book Award Winner Alice McDermott reads and signs her novel Charming Billy at 7 p.m. at Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid, 367-6731

Wednesday, February 24

u The Christian Writer's Workshop meets from 10 a.m. to noon at Rock Hill Baptist Church, 9125 Manchester. 532-7584

u Yasunari Kawabata's Beauty and Sadness is the topic for the Green Trails Book Shop Discussion Group at 7:30 p.m., 14270 Ladue Road. 576-7758

Thursday, February 25

u Hugh Holton, author of Chicago Blues, reads and signs his mystery Left Hand of God at 6 p.m. at Afrocentric Books, 8081 Olive. 991-0097

u Ralph Nader, author of The Case Against Free Trade, lectures at 8 p.m. for the St. Louis Speakers Series at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand. For series subscription, call 533-7888, or visit www.speakerseries.com

u Eugene Ionesco's Exit the King is the topic for the Great Books Discussion Group, from 8 to 10 p.m. at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 6800 Washington Avenue. 966-8425

Saturday, February 27

u Jill VonGruben, author of Taming the Paper Monster, speaks on how to write and publish work at 2 p.m. at Borders-Creve Coeur, 11745 Olive Blvd. 432-3575

Sunday, February 28

u Ivan Van Sertima, author of They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, speaks at 2 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Central branch of the St. Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive. 539-0305

u Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary is the topic for the Contemporary Fiction and Non-Fiction Reading Group from 2 to 4 p.m. at Washington University's West Campus Conference Center (lower level), 7425 Forsyth. 481-0730

u The Book Club discusses Ron Hansen's Atticus: A Novel. Call Lloyd Klinedinst for more information, 451-2988, or e-mail [email protected]

DEADLINE

n The Beauty Within: Writing About St. Louis: Sunday, Feb. 14, 3-5 p.m. Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center, 225 S. Skinker Blvd. Admission is free. Dr. Gerald Early, author of the anthology "Ain't But a Place," and winners of MHS' inaugural student creative writing contest, will read prize-winning stories, poems and essays.

n Glory Sounds Through Me: The Women of Gospel: February 19-March 7, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center, 225 S. Skinker Blvd. Tickets are $14; $12 for MHS members. The performance chronicles Willie Mae Ford Smith's career and life-long struggle against racial inequality.

n Eastern Missouri Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Annual Meeting, Wednesday, March 3, 7:30 p.m. will feature Sr. Helen Prejean at the Grace United Methodist Church, 6199 Waterman at Skinker. Prejean is the author of "Dead Man Walking." For information call 241-8062.

n A march to abolish the death penalty will be held on Sat. March 6, 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Jefferson City. Participants will assemble at West Main St. and Missouri Blvd. to march around the Capitol and Governor's mansion and proceed around the South side of capitol for rally. For information call 962-4937.

n Mark Sableman will be the featured speaker at the Great Decisions lecture series on "The U.S. Information Age: New Dimensions for U.S. Foreign Policy" at the Salad Bowl, 3949 Lindell Blvd. For information call 862-5735.

n The St. Louis Independent Journalists Association meets from noon to 1 p.m. the fourth Thursday of the month at the St. Louis County Library headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh. The organization primarily addresses the needs of experienced freelancers. 891-9033.

n Indigo Ink, the St. Louis Association of African-American Writers, meets from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Left Bank Books every Saturday, 399 N. Euclid; call to confirm meeting dates 531-1154.