Early Edition

Patriot games

By Ed Bishop

It's good news that the Missouri legislature is reinstating the $500,000 it threatened to take away from the University of Missouri. Rep. Martin "Bubs" Hohulin, R-Lamar, and Rep. Matt Bartle, R-Lee's Summit, didn't think much of Stacy Woelfel's patriotism, so they decided to threaten him and the university. Woelfel is the news director at KOMU-TV who told his staff not to wear those little American flags on their lapels while they were on the air. KOMU is owned by the university.

"Our news broadcasts are not the place for personal statements of support for any cause-no matter how deserving the cause seems to be," Woelfel told his staff.

In any case, what was at stake here wasn't really lapel pins or university budgets. This was actually another episode in the continuing struggle by the political right to appropriate patriotism.

And, so far, they're winning.

After several decades of demagoguery and half-truths-unfortunately, the usual tools in American political debate-the right has convinced a large portion of the public that patriotism is a conservative virtue. And, if it is, it only follows that conservatives get to define how a true patriot thinks and acts.

Ever since the Vietnam War, conservatives have maintained that a true patriot believes the United States is always a force for good in the world, never the opposite. A true patriot also believes the United States has the right to put its troops anywhere in the world it chooses.

Although those little American-flag pins don't necessarily mean that the wearer holds those beliefs, at this particular time in our history, they can certainly signal a solidarity with the American government's recent actions in Afghanistan-a direct link with the aforementioned right-wing definition of patriotism. That's why Bubs and Matt-two rock-ribbed conservatives-were so upset. I'm pretty sure they saw Stacy Woelfel as an enemy in the war to define patriotism.

Of course, they would never admit to that. They would never admit to using the power of the government's purse strings to enforce their view of patriotism. Oh no, they took the high road. They claimed that the anchors and reporters at KOMU wanted to wear the pins and, by denying them the right to do so, Woelfel was denying them their right to freedom of speech. Hohulin and Bartle were just upholding the First Amendment.

"The state-owned TV station should not unconstitutionally violate the free speech of its employees," Bartle told the Associated Press.

But Bartle wasn't really advocating freedom of speech. He was advocating wearing little American flags. I haven't talked to him but I'm sure he wouldn't advocate that the folks at KOMU be allowed to wear little swastikas. (If I'm wrong, I invite Rep. Bartle to write a letter to SJR saying that he advocates journalists' wearing swastikas.) Bartle was wrapping himself in the First Amendment because he thought wrapping himself in the flag would be too obvious.

A good case could be made for Woelfel's actions being truly patriotic. But you would have to set aside the assumption that the United States is always a force for good in the world in order to make the case. It would go like this: If you assume that America's role in world affairs is open to question and if you assume that American citizens have a right to shape what that role will be, then a detached press, set apart from causes of any kind, is needed to give good information to the decision-making public.

Under those assumptions, Woelfel's actions would be patriotic. In fact, the University of Oregon's School of Journalism just gave Woelfel its award for journalism ethics using those assumptions.

But in a world where you're either for us or against us, in a world where evil-doers can only be stopped by the U.S. military, in a world where questioning the decisions of the American president is tantamount to treason, Woelfel and his crew better go buy some little American flags for their lapels. Or next time the Missouri legislature might not be so generous.

Off the Record

Weekly to daily

A pair of prominent bylines in St. Louis weeklies have been snapped up by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the last few months.

Joe Bonwich, long-time restaurant columnist for the Riverfront Times, has been hired to fill a pair of jobs. He'll be a food writer, looking at trends, shopping, recipes and the like in the new weekly food section, "Let's Eat," scheduled to make a debut May 22. He also will become the restaurant columnist, succeeding the troika that has been juggling the job. Obviously, he will not have the anonymity that supposedly was a prerequisite for the position at one time.

And Linda Tucci of the St. Louis Business Journal has moved to the Post's business section where, rumor has it, she may take up a three-dot column format, a la Jerry Berger.

-Joe Pollack

Pink slipped

On April 6, SJR subscribers received their April SJR issue, which included a long Q&A cover story with David Clohessy, leader of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). On April 9, the School Board of the Riverview Gardens School District voted 4-to-3 not to renew Clohessy's contract as community relations director for the district.

Clohessy has been interviewed and quoted nationally for the past three months as stories of abusive Catholic priests have broken from coast to coast.

Clohessy's firing has fueled speculation that he was pink slipped by the board because of his visibility on an issue that makes many uncomfortable, regardless of their religious persuasion.

"I've been asked by many people whether I think I was fired because of my role with SNAP," says Clohessy. "I can only answer that I just don't know. I love my job. I've loved this district. I've never had much contact with the board. Their decision leaves me very sad."

At a subsequent board meeting after the decision to axe Clohessy, district residents berated the board for its decision. They pointed out that Clohessy's job reviews were nearly perfect. They also questioned whether several board members who voted against Clohessy were in violation of residency requirements for district board members.

-Don Corrigan

Soft-balling Slay

In office for more than a year, it seems that Mayor Francis Slay is still getting the "honeymoon" treatment from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Compared to the coverage former Mayor Freeman Bosley received from the Post, it seems Slay is getting the benefit of the doubt.

During the first 12 months of the Bosley administration in 1993, the Post ran 445 articles about the mayor. During the first year of Slay's administration, the Post wrote 384 stories about Slay.

It's true that much of Bosley's early coverage was positive. It wasn't until the final year of his administration that the Post began hitting him hard. That year, more than 500 stories about Bosley's City Hall appeared in the Post. Today, much of that coverage appears overkill-suing for Bosley's phone records to see if he was using his government cell phone for personal calls.

On the other hand, Slay is in the middle of one of the most controversial stories ever-public funding for a baseball stadium. Yet he seems to rate less coverage. For example, the Post did little when Slay fired Percy Green, the former director of the city's minority certification program, or when Rev. Larry Rice sued one of Slay's aides for calling the New Life Evangelistic Center a firetrap.

It could simply be that the City Hall reporter back in 1993 was more aggressive than the current reporter. But, even so, it doesn't look right.

The chart below paints a clear picture of this fact.

-Erica Burleson

Speaking for men

Many in the local news media and the judiciary are familiar with David Usher of Webster Groves, a self-styled men's rights activist and leader in the American Congress of Fathers and Children (ACFC). He has led rallies for dads on Father's Day and protests against judges deemed hostile toward males in divorce court.

In February, Usher was removed from the board of ACFC, apparently because his work with the news media was interfering with the ability of the organization to speak with one voice. In a release announcing his removal, ACFC noted that Executive Director Dianna Thompson is the point person to raise awareness through the media of the need to recognize the importance of fathers in the family unit.

Usher says he was told by the board that Thompson is principal spokesperson for ACFC because she is a woman and "in this sexist society, women can say things that men can't. That's reality."

Remarks Usher: "What's the use of belonging to a men's rights group if men can't speak for it. Unfortunately, our society has decided that men don't have any credibility to speak out on family issues. But I am now in the process of starting my own pro-family organization."

-Don Corrigan

Heart of darkness

It all appears innocent enough. The Sunday morning news/talk programs on the major TV networks give politicians a soapbox and journalists a chance to cross-examine them. But even though it appears to be a win-win situation, it's becoming a power game according to Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz.

Kurtz outlines complaints from the networks that detail strong-arm tactics at the White House. ABC's Sam Donaldson is quoted as saying he's being forced to settle for "second-tier" spokespersons. He says the White House is effectively saying, "'If you don't take so-and-so, you might find it difficult next week.' You can call it blackmail or anything you want."

Of course, a White House spokesman thinks Donaldson is blowing smoke. Adam Levine is quoted as responding, "We never say it's going to be difficult to get somebody else, but we do strongly push our message ... If you see (your) people being treated unfairly, you are more reluctant to play next time. I don't think you have to put people out there to get beat up."

-Frank Absher

Missouri legislature threatens university over ethical question

By Joe Pollack

KOMU-TV, a commercial television station, has a relationship with the University of Missouri School of Journalism much like that of the Columbia Missourian, a commercial newspaper. Both are owned by Mizzou, but each is operated as an independent entity. In good years, they pay their own way. They also teach many students.

The operations are about 10 miles apart, one on campus and one on Highway 63, about halfway between Columbia and Jefferson City.

Managerial types at both places are professionals, and they work as news or advertising people for their employer. But they also deal with the students who make up much of their staffs. They teach classes, they give grades and they go to faculty meetings.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I have worked (or gone to class) in both places. I was a Missourian sports writer as an undergraduate in 1950-51, and when I was in graduate school in 1954, I was sports editor, writing a column and covering events and trying to teach undergraduates about writing sports. I also did some work with copy editing classes and received a small stipend.

KOMU-TV went on the air in January 1954, and I came out of the Army and joined it the following month. I spent a lot of time there, helping set up the station's sports files, visiting high school coaches in the area, writing sports stories for on-air delivery by Harold Ratliff, an Alaskan who had a good voice but little knowledge of, or interest in, what Red Smith used to call the toy department. I was told I could use the title of sports director, which made me the station's first. Dale Spencer, whom I had known since our undergraduate days, taught copy editing at the Missourian and delivered weathercasts at KOMU.

At the end of the semester, Phil Berk, the station manager, asked if I'd be taking another class in the summer so I could continue organizing the sports department. He alluded to the fact that I'd probably get a chance to be on the air (something I'd achieved once in the spring semester). I allowed as how it was a great honor, but that the GI Bill and the university's stipend were minimal, and was there a chance of receiving some money, instead of just air time. Thus ended my career at KOMU-TV.

Stacey Woelfel, the station's news director, laughed when I told the story. "We have a slightly larger budget now," he said with a chuckle.

Woelfel and the station have been battling a lot of public patriots since Sept. 11, with minimal public support from the university. He almost cost the university $500,000 because, last Sept. 17, having seen newscasters everywhere wearing buttons and ribbons pointing out their American-ness, he reminded his staff that existing newsroom policy did not permit on-air displays of symbols supporting any cause. The policy had been in effect for the 11 years Woelfel has been news director.

His e-mail said, simply, "Leave the ribbons at home when reporting or anchoring for KOMU news. What you do on your own time is up to you, though I would urge you to consider the fact that you are always on the clock in terms of being known as a reporter or representative of the station."

Unfortunately, while the station staff knew about the policy, and knew it had been in force for a decade, it was not in writing, nor posted on bulletin boards.

Woelfel admitted that he knew of one violation and was sure there had been some others, mainly out of ignorance.

Woelfel, a St. Louisan and a Mizzou alumnus, didn't realize the storm that was brewing, but the State House of Representatives chopped $500,000 from the university's budget. The station does not receive state funding, but the School of Journalism does.

Rep. Martin (Bubs) Hohulin, a Republican from Lamar, led the campaign to punish the university, but he had many supporters in the Legislature.

Hohulin didn't want to talk to the press, especially the St. Louis press, allowing as how he knew the media were going to trash him and "I don't want to give them any more ammunition." But Rep. Matt Bartle, a Republican from Lee's Summit who also voted for the financial reprimand, said, slightly grumpily, that the money had been restored by the State Senate.

Bartle was willing to talk about the fact that the university and the legislature were often at odds, and that there always had been problems because of basic philosophical differences between town and gown.

"It's not an uncommon struggle," he said wryly.

But Woelfel triumphed, on at least one level. He will travel to Eugene, Ore., on May 14 to receive a Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism, given by the University of Oregon. Three awards were made, with the professional one to Jay Harris, who resigned as publisher of the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury-News when he decided his publication could no longer serve the public interest while trying to reach the higher profit margins demanded by Knight-Ridder. The news organization award goes to the Voice of America for its fight against State Department censorship and its decision to run an interview with Mullah Mohammed Omar, and Woelfel won in the university and college division. Among the judges were Bob Steele, ethics group leader for the Poynter Institute, and Larry Grossman, former president of NBC and PBS. When Bartle was told of the honor, he was unimpressed.

"Media people and college students are having a good time with this," he noted.

Woelfel was pleased, however, at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed piece by George Kennedy, J-School professor and former editor of the Missourian.

Kennedy was supported by 14 colleagues. "We've often argued about the roles of television and newspapers," Woelfel pointed out. "And we've been rivals while covering stories. It was good of him to be so supportive."

In an interview on the Poynter website, Steele asked Woelfel what journalistic principles were involved, and Woelfel replied:

"The principle centers on what messages-intended or unintended-we send the audience. While some would see the ribbons and flags as merely a tribute to the dead on the east coast, others see them as a sign of support for particular policies and positions. We cannot risk sending our viewers the impression that we have taken sides in this conflict. Instead, we show our patriotism best by being aggressive reporters, asking questions of our leaders about the policies they are pursuing."

Woelfel said he was surprised when he was notified because he had not sent in an application or a nomination for himself. "I'm just not one of those self-nominating kinds of people," he said, "but they told me the judges made the award without a formal nomination. That pleased me a lot."

Dean Mills, dean of the School of Journalism, did not return calls seeking comment. The most unusual response, however, came from the university's information office, where a pleasant young woman said that the university had not sent out a news release, nor were there any plans to do so.

"We get a lot of awards," she said, "and it's usually the organization that gives the award that sends out the publicity material.

"Besides, a number of newspaper reporters have told us not to send out so much information. And some of them work at the Post-Dispatch."

Other political threats

The state Legislature used its budgetary powers to punish a number of organizations for shortcomings of their personnel, or so an Associated Press story from Jefferson City and some friends from Columbia have pointed out.

More budget amendments were offered this year than ever before.

In addition to the KOMU-TV furor, legislators have tried to cut the University of Missouri-St. Louis budget because an administrator-reportedly Betty Van Uum-was engaging in politics, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City budget because of the tone used by a professor at the university in a book about homosexuality and pedophilia.

However, the AP story, which ran in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on April 8, was misleading on one item. It also pointed out that Tim Van Zandt, a Democrat from Kansas City, chopped the Department of Transportation budget because an employee was rude to him. This item was untrue. Van Zandt had inserted it as a joke but someone took it seriously.

Ah, spring days in Jefferson City ...

-Joe Pollack

Post Metro desk reorganizes

By Alex Posorske

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch embarked on a major reorganization of its Metro desk on April 15. Metro Editor Kathy Best says it's an effort to catch up with various story ideas that Post editors thought were slipping through the cracks.

The reorganization created a number of new reporting positions that Best hopes will give the Post more ears in strategic locations throughout the community, thus getting away from some of the staid approaches to news coverage that she said were a problem.

"I'm hoping that it will allow us to do more enterprise reporting that is not based on an agenda or from a meeting," Best said.

The new positions include both Urban and Suburban Neighborhoods/Trends, Medicine/Science, Consumer, a second higher education reporter, a second transportation reporter, child welfare/safety and "diversity and changing demographics."

One major thrust of the reorganization is a reaction to Sept. 11. After the attacks, Best said that the Post found itself "unsourced" when it came to federal law enforcement-a major hole in coverage when one considers the new national resources flowing in that direction as well an intense curiosity over how well our safety is being assured.

With that in mind, Best said the Post moved longtime Post and St. Louis Globe-Democrat city-cops reporter Bill Bryan to a new beat that focuses on the FBI, ATF and DEA. Far from being a demotion for Bryan, Best said the Post is hoping to quickly capitalize on his years of experience conversing with law enforcement types.

"That will, I hope, help us trace some of the millions of dollars being spent (on homeland security)," she said. "Bill's been a city-cops reporter for two decades and he's good at it. He knows how to get people to talk to him."

A related move, Best said, is the creation of the second transportation reporter beat. St. Louis, after all, is a major railway and interstate crossing center, which can bring up anxious wonderings about the area's vulnerability to certain types of terrorism.

"We just weren't looking at that because we just had (Ken Leiser) trying to do (all of the transportation reporting)," she said.

Another focus is on beefing up coverage in the two areas that seem to pass sometimes for the real centers of metropolitan power, St. Charles and St. Louis counties.

Noting that President George W. Bush had stopped in St. Charles County on his most recent trip through the area, Best said the Post is responding to the growth in the county by adding one reporter to its St. Charles bureau, which already publishes Monday through Friday. St. Charles Post columnist John Sonderegger will now put out a column three or four times a week instead of just once. Best did say that she wished more reporters could be added to the bureau.

Best said coverage in St. Louis County will benefit not only from the new neighborhood/trends beats, but also the addition of former Jefferson City bureau reporter Eric Stern to the St. Louis County government beat. Stern will look into the county government and development policies as well as taking some of the load off of reporter Phil Sutin's back.

The addition of Stern will leave the Jefferson City bureau with three reporters, but Best insisted coverage would not suffer. She said the Chicago Tribune covered Springfield, Ill., at one time with only two reporters and still did a "damn good job." She also noted that Stern had been in Jefferson City only six months a year and said the wires can probably fill in should the Post miss anything, which isn't the case for Stern's new beat.

"There is no wire backup in St. Louis County. Wire can't back us up in our own region," Best said, apparently not wanting to give the Post 's metro stringers their due.

Meanwhile, the Post is hoping that the urban neighborhoods and diversity/demographics beats can help beef up the Post 's coverage of city and inner-suburb issues. Best said that, once the position is filled, the urban neighborhood reporter will attempt to find stories that previously fell under the radar, but could actually be very telling of a neighborhood or area's state of mind and body.

An example she gave is the hypothetical closing of an independent grocery store. Although the store might have been too small to warrant an item in the Business section, Best said there might be a number of memories invested in the store by its neighbors and that the closing might have a large effect on the lifestyle of people within a certain radius. The new reporter's job will be to dig into that.

The diversity/demographic beat seems like an acknowledgement by the Post that this city is 53 percent African-American and at times very racially divided.

"It's no secret that race is a big issue in the city of St. Louis," Best said. "I think sometimes in the past we danced around issues or we were not deeply enough sourced to explain what happened and why."

Best said the beat will also look into the city's Bosnian and Vietnamese communities as well as the small but growing Hispanic community.

"I think it's a big first step but it's certainly not perfect. It gets us headed in a different direction," she said.

One big issue to keep an eye on will be the future of the Post 's twice-weekly zoned sections, especially in light of the August 2000 acquisition of the Suburban Journals.

"The (zoned sections) were all created to compete with the Suburban Journals. We don't do that anymore," Best said.

Best said that while the decisions are being made at a higher level, from her point of view some alterations may be in order.

"Personally, I would love to see some changes in the way we do that," she said. "Half of my staff is producing editions with really early deadlines. I'm not sure it's the best use for my metro staff."

Media on Media

By Frank Absher

Who's on first

You gotta love a newspaper that doesn't take itself too seriously. From the Palm Beach Post, Feb. 6, 2002: "Because of knucklehead errors, a photograph caption in the Palm Beach Post Monday incorrectly identified one of the Three Stooges, as well as Abbott and Costello. The caption misidentified Curly Howard, at left, one of the Three Stooges, as Curly Joe Howard. Curly Howard, whose real name was Jerome Lester Horwitz, was the brother of Moe and Shemp Howard. Curly Joe DeRita was the sixth and last member to join the Stooges. The caption also incorrectly referred to Bud Abbott and Lou Costello when in fact the photo showed Costello and Abbott, at right. The errors appeared on Page 4E of the Accent section; the photos illustrated a story on the front page of Accent about movie shorts. We're pleased to note that we correctly identified Laurel and Hardy."

Oops

Sometimes it pays to be a kid from the country, and the staff of Boston's MetroWest Daily News could've used someone with a bit of rural experience recently. The paper published a photo, complete with explanatory caption. Then a correction was in order. The photo was not of a two-headed toad. It was, in fact, two toads, caught in the act of mating. (MetroWest Daily News 4/18)

News up

By the end of 2001, the number of listeners tuning to all-news radio stations had hit its highest total in 10 years, according to Interep. During the most recent survey, Interep found 23 percent of residents in the nation's 10 largest metropolitan areas had listened to all-news stations. The survey period was October-December, the months that followed the terrorist attack on New York.

Another indicator of the nation's thirst for information is a rise in newsstand sales of news magazines during the same period. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Newsweek and Time saw a jump of 80 percent in their newsstand sales in the second half of 2001, when compared to the figures of a year earlier. The gain for U.S. News & World Report was 48 percent.

Just kidding

A TV watchdog group is taking MTV and Comedy Central to task for an increase in programming it considers inappropriate. Broadcasting & Cable Magazine reports the Parents Television Council tallied up objectionable references in selected series and came up with the following: "South Park" averaged, during a half-hour broadcast, 126 different instances of foul language, sex or violence; "Undergrads" averaged 73 offenses per show; "Celebrity Death Match" had 66; and "The Andy Dick Show" had 65.

But there's a flaw in all this. The study took place at the time the infamous episode of "South Park" ran in which the writers did a parody on how may times the four-letter word for excrement could be uttered in a program. They managed to work the word in 162 times.

Were talent fees involved?

Management says they wanted to catch a thief. Workers say management was spying on them.

A hidden camera was discovered in the ceiling of the newsroom at WKYC-TV in Cleveland, and an official of local 42 of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians notes the discovery comes in the middle of contract talks. The station's manager says an ongoing theft problem led to the camera placement. (Cleveland Plain Dealer 4/12)

Online staple

Another newspaper staple may soon become history. The Wall Street Journal notes a trend in which daily newspapers are abandoning the practice of publishing all the previous day's stock market quotes.

The move appears based on economic conditions-the cost of newsprint and the fact that few advertisers want their ads to run in the reams of fine print. The reader reaction has been mixed.

The Newark Star-Ledger got 700 calls when it abbreviated its quotes, dropping 6,300 listings, but only 60 people dropped their subscriptions. The San Gabriel Valley Group cut all stock listings until readers' reaction forced a reversal of the decision. The Boston Herald not only restored all the listings it had cut, but it actually added 200. And at the Wall Street Journal, mutual funds listings have been shaved from 8,700 to 5,600.

Most of the negative reaction has come from readers over the age of 55. Younger people, it appears, have no qualms about checking stocks online.

Cop thief

And you thought cops were only interested in donuts. There's at least one member of the police force in Hartford, Conn., who appears to have a burning interest in the day's news.

The Hartford Courant reports on the behavior of Lt. Daniel Albert, who has admitted to stopping by his favorite convenience store every day, picking up a bunch of different papers and walking out without paying. The store's owner, Shabbir Shaikh, says Albert would come back in the afternoon and put the obviously used papers back on the rack. Shaikh says he absorbed the cost of the papers, which was about $300.

Lt. Albert's annual salary is close to $60,000. He said he didn't know there was anything wrong with his behavior.

Ad/PR

Comedy is hard

By Rick Stoff

Clumsy jesting is no joke," wrote Aesop in a fable called "The Ass and the Lapdog." A couple of thousand years later, the mass media enable advertisers to become asses on a much larger scale than Aesop could have imagined.

Humor is a powerful but risky tool to use in making one's advertising stand out from the thousands of messages we are said to confront every day. But it is best left in the hands of experts.

"Humor is a funny thing. I say that to my students, then I pause. And none of them ever laughs," said Stephen C. Kopcha, associate professor of advertising at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

The lack of laughter emphasizes his point. "You have to be careful with humor. It is a tricky tool-like a chain saw," he said. "Humor cuts through the clutter. When it is working for you, it is a tremendous thing."

Kopcha joined the university faculty after 30 years in the advertising business. "Humor is hard to do. There is nothing worse than a joke that falls flat. A lot of people think they're hilariously funny, but what makes you laugh might not make somebody else laugh. Humor also wears out fast."

Funny advertising is great for certain demographic segments and products. Young men and beer are great examples.

"Humor usually means making fun of something or somebody," Kopcha said. And some people have little sense of humor about themselves or their causes, so that rules out humor for many advertisers.

Life insurance, accounting services and medical products probably aren't meant to be funny. "A funny commercial for hemorrhoid relief?" Kopcha asked. "A lot of people would think that is hilariously funny, but people who actually have the problem might think the advertiser doesn't think much of them. One of the secrets of advertising is to make the audience instinctively feel that you know them."

But young men seem immune to ridicule and humiliation (possibly due to their experiences with young women), and frogs and lizards don't complain, either, so witty beer advertisers have found great success in making fun of them.

"Beer is all about good times," Kopcha said. "I bet if you looked at every beer commercial ever made, a huge percentage of them are humor. When you can do it well, it's gangbusters."

When an advertiser's sense of humor doesn't work, the results can be devastating. On one hand, business and trade publications often credit the market share gains of the Budweiser and Bud Light beer brands to Anheuser-Busch's advertising, which is heavy on humor and product-quality messages. Recent attempts at comedy by the Miller brands, however, have been received about as well as, well, a flat beer.

Remember the Miller ad campaign from a couple of years ago, in which a series of curious, somewhat pointless TV ads were closed with the more curious tag, "Endorsed by Dick?" The latest industry news about Miller focuses on the identity of the company's next owner.

"Chrysler Bets on Edgy Ad Campaign" read a headline in a February issue of the trade magazine Automotive News. "The Chrysler group is gambling that risky ads will improve sales and brand recognition," the story began.

But the story also described three TV spots that Chrysler had pulled or changed because some groups-hunters, snow-plow drivers and prudes-found the humor unacceptable. In the latter case, the commercial featured a mother trying to explain why one of her daughters was named Concorde, after the car in which the girl was conceived.

A print ad that recently appeared in Automotive News pitched employee recruitment and training services to the managers of auto dealerships. The ad, for a company called Automax, was built around a photograph of a man whose pants are around his knees. He points to the backside of his polka-dotted boxer shorts. Behind him is another man moving in with eyes clenched shut and a dramatic pucker on his lips. "Need to find great salespeople ... that follow direction?" the advertiser asked.

While some portion of auto dealers might get the joke, it's hard to imagine that prospective trainees will be attracted to Automax if they ever see the ad.

Local, do-it-yourself advertisers can be the worst abusers of humor.

"A lot of local advertisers get something and run it and run it and run it until people want to scream," said Kopcha, who was working in St. Louis when Steve Mizerany's quirky humor sold appliances. "Mizerany was truly a funny guy. He had some competitors who tried to do what he did, but they couldn't bring it off."

And so we agonize over cutesy car dealers showing off their new golf putters and puppies, and retailers who tape left-over high school skits.

"Being out front is a high risk. You either succeed or flop big-time," Kopcha said. "Some people watch a Steve Mizerany and think they can do that, but they're tone-deaf. A certain number of people will enjoy them, but you're thinking, 'Why should I patronize this guy?'"

During their careers, both Kopcha and Stoff have done work for that large brewery in south St. Louis.

Rick Stoff, a former St. Louis Globe-Democrat reporter and editor, now practices public relations through his own firm, Stoff Communications.

Media/Politics

Breaking news in editorials

By Terry Jones

Editorializing about a local issue that hasn't been covered in its news pages yet is unusual, but it is becoming more common for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The latest example is an April 14 editorial expressing concern about "the abrupt removal of Yvonne Sparks-Strauther" as head of the Vashon/Jeff-Vander-Lou Initiative. Sparks-Strauther is a highly respected administrator who has held responsible positions in the public, non-profit, and private sectors for more than two decades. Immediately before assuming the Vashon/ Jeff-Vander-Lou post, she was a Bank of America vice president.

In March, she was fired by the Initiative's board without explanation. According to the editorial, the Danforth Foundation's Bob Koff , the major funding source for the project, says he was "surprised if not startled." So apparently he did not precipitate the dismissal. The leading suspect, says the editorial, is ward politics in the person of Alderman Mike McMillan. "That kind of cronyism," trumpets the Post, "is unacceptable."

What is also unacceptable is having no news coverage about this matter.

The struggle to revitalize urban areas happens one neighborhood at a time. Few are more daunting in their challenges or more ambitious in their goals than the Vashon/Jeff-Vander-Lou Initiative. With upwards of $5 million in Danforth funding and $800,000 in City allocations, it includes building a new Vashon High School with a $35 million price tag and improving significantly the nine elementary schools that send students to Vashon.

Few areas are more important for the City of St. Louis than Jeff-Vander-Lou. At the heart of the historically black area, demarcated by the racially segregated boundaries drawn almost 90 years ago, it is critical to the overall turnaround for the Near North Side.

When the Initiative was first announced in November 1999, the Post gave it front page coverage. Since then, it has ignored the neighborhood, even when there was a major disruption in leadership. Public policy is more about implementation than design, more about putting ideas into practice than writing plans on paper. The story lies more with what is being done, not what has been proposed. Despite the fact that you can literally see the eastern part of the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood from the Post news room, the paper's reporters have failed to inform readers about how the plan is progressing-or regressing.

•••

The press can be downright puritanical when it comes to public employee salaries and the Post's April 12 story, headlined "21 City Employees Cross the $100,000 Threshold-In St. Louis County, Only Nine Officials Make That Much" is no exception.

Although those of us in the public sector are accustomed to having our salaries a matter of record (you can find out how much the University of Missouri-St. Louis is overpaying me by looking it up on page 1185 in the 2001-2002 Official Manual of the State of Missouri), we can become a tad sensitive when the media make it sound like we're overfeeding at the taxpayers' trough.

At times, the story tilts toward bashing the City of St. Louis for having too many administrators earning more than $100,000, such as with the 21-to-9 contrast with St. Louis County. That comparison, however, is a classic apples-and-oranges situation. The county does not operate an international airport (three of the city's $100,000-plus) nor does it have responsibility for providing water-the Missouri-American Company, a private firm, performs that function. In addition, if one adds the several city managers in county municipalities whose salaries exceed $100,000, the ratio changes even more.

The fairer comparison is with Kansas City, one the story makes in its third paragraph (but not in its headline). Kansas City has 58 employees making $100,000 or more, almost three times the number in St. Louis.

Adjectives are also a problem in this story. Two of the pay reclassifications are characterized as "fat" increases. That's "fat" as in "waste" or "excess" or, getting back to the trough metaphor, as in "pig." How about a more neutral term like "substantial" or "major?"

Moreover, as the story notes, most of these salaries came from a study conducted by an outside firm charged with developing a compensation plan that would enable the city to attract and retain capable managers. Leading public enterprises is a challenging occupation, requiring leaders who are politically savvy, policy-astute and administratively competent. Let's not begrudge them a decent wage.

•••

The first big test in winning state legislative elections is candidate recruitment. Even a modestly funded eagle can beat a better financed turkey, so credentials matter. Political parties in Missouri are very aware of this point. That's why, with term limits creating almost 90 open seats for the 2002 elections, they focused heavily on wooing individuals with strong résumés.

With filing having closed more than a month ago, how did the parties do? We don't know since the media have not bothered to examine systematically each party's lineups. Contrast that to the NFL draft, where the public is first bombarded with the possibilities and then, after the April selections, the outcomes. Which team fared best at what positions? How will this affect the next season? No shortage of coverage on these points. The same questions can be asked for state legislative races but, I suspect, the media will not be answering them. Silly me. It's football, stupid, not politics.

Sports/Media

Greed causes injuries

By Joe Pollack

It's an extremely short step from "wow" to "oops," as the Cardinals have discovered this spring. From Opening Day, when Manager Tony La Russa said his major worry was too many starting pitchers, to a Sunday afternoon six weeks later when his team was 12-13 and in third place, three games behind Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, the Cardinals have provided a reverse echo of the Four Horsemen. This one has earned a title of Fumble, Bumble, Stumble and Fall.

La Russa isn't responsible for this disaster, but as far as I am concerned, the famous Lords of Baseball should be willing to accept the blame, although don't hold your breath.

Perhaps things will change when a $10 million-a-year pitcher files a lawsuit. Believe me, it will happen.

In bad weather-and we've had some across the country-pitchers have worked too long and too often. When they come out for a few days of rest, they're back into the lineup, throwing curves, much too soon. Hamstrings, elbows, shoulders and other joints are abused absurdly.

"Show you're a man!" says the pitching coach, and within a day or so, he's unable to strike out boys. Finely tuned pitchers come from warm weather in Florida and Arizona, and suddenly they're throwing 90-mile-an-hour fast balls in the April chill of St. Louis or Boston or Cleveland. The human arm can't take the strain.

Hitters and fielders get hurt, too, but pitching is key.

Watching the Cardinals is a prime example. Matt Morris won four games, getting some warm weather along the way. He lost his next two, but at least he's healthy, or almost healthy. None of the other starters achieved anything. La Russa even reached the point where he re-created a spring training game, using four pitchers to beat Montreal, and to shut them out. It's a win, but a degrading win. Cardinal starters are on a yo-yo string to Memphis.

I alluded to greedy ownership a few paragraphs ago, and greedy owners are a large part of the problem. Their insistence on long seasons creates the problems that wear players out and create injuries. The NFL and other pro leagues do the same thing. More games, more television income. Don't worry about the players-there are lots of raw material out there in the colleges, the high schools, the junior high schools. Who cares how good they are? Put them in uniforms and get them on the field. Time was when colleges played 10 football games, or even nine. Pro football played 14 games, baseball played 154.

More fodder for the maw of television, more opportunity to sell beer, or cars, or hairspray.

What the Lords of Baseball are doing to their franchises, their source of wealth, is horrendous, but the Lords don't care, not as long as the money keeps coming in. The Lords beg for new stadiums, with someone else paying for them, and they then will duck out as fast as possible.

There are some new stadiums, and some that are a year or two old, and two more coming soon (Cincinnati next year, San Diego in 2004). But they are not drawing any real attendance. Florida drew 4,466 last month, Montreal 3,561. Some other nice low figures in nice new stadiums include 10,736 in Detroit, 12,795 in Pittsburgh, 14,090 in Milwaukee.

Media/Law

Post wins libel case

By Ken Jones

An exposé about a white supremacist organization resulted in a libel lawsuit against the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but the paper won a legal victory in April when a judge dismissed the case before trial.

The plaintiffs were Chad and Terri Sigafus, musicians who performed at a Christian Identity conference in Branson in February 2000. In addition to playing and selling recordings of their music at the conference, which was called the "Gospel Gathering," they provided sound engineering services.

Carolyn Tuft and Joe Holleman of the Post reported on the conference in a March 5 article. They said: "The Christian Identity movement-its message often used by white supremacists and anti-Semites as religious justification for their violent acts-is trying to soften its image as hard-core separatists.

"Some Identity leaders were selling their new image at a conference last weekend in Branson, Mo., although it is clear they still adhere to a whites-only, gay-bashing, Jew-hating doctrine."

Furthermore, the article said that "Identity followers have been tied to murder, robbery and kidnapping. The FBI estimates Identity membership at 50,000, and its rapid growth puts it in the No. 1 spot on the bureau's list of most dangerous hate groups."

Describing the entertainment at the conference, the reporters said: "Mothers breast-fed babies under blankets while Identity musical groups such as the Boatrights, a local Branson Identity family instrumental group; Mark Reynolds of nearby Hollister, Mo.; and Chad and Terri Sigafus of Couch, Mo., played on stage."

In addition, a chart accompanying the article listed 17 "affiliates" of Christian Identity, including the plaintiffs, who were described as the "pastor or owner" of Teeter-Tot Records in Couch, Mo.

The plaintiffs sued the Post for libel, contending that they were not connected with Christian Identity.

The paper's lawyers, Joseph Martineau and Benjamin Lipman of Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, filed for summary judgment before trial, asserting two defenses-that the report was true and that the plaintiffs were public figures who failed to show legal malice in the article.

Margaret Neill, presiding judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, declined to rule on the truth defense because there was a genuine dispute over material facts.

But in her April 12 judgment, Neill granted the Post's motion on the public figure defense, which provides: "If the plaintiff in a defamation action is a public figure, the defendant is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution from liability, unless the defamatory statements were published with actual malice on the part of the defendant.

"A statement is published with actual malice if it was published with knowledge that it was false, or with a reckless disregard as to whether it was true or false," she said.

And a person can be considered a public figure "for either of two reasons: he occupies such a position of power and influence that he is a public figure for all purposes, or he has obtained a place at the forefront of a particular public controversy in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved."

According to Neill, the reason for "requiring a public figure to show that the defamatory statement was published with actual malice is that public figures are less vulnerable to injury because of their ability to communicate to the public and because they are considered to be less deserving of protection because they have voluntarily exposed themselves to the risk of a defamatory statement."

The Post argued that the plaintiffs "have voluntarily involved themselves with Christian Identity, and that Christian Identity is a matter of public interest and concern." Further, the paper said, the plaintiffs "are nationally known musicians who have sold their work in Canada, England, Ireland and Australia, and (they) have been reviewed by prominent industry magazines."

Neill noted that the plaintiffs "have expended a considerable effort to promote their music and their performances, including sending promotional materials to newspapers, television stations, and radio stations across the country.

"Plaintiffs admit that they have a national reputation as performers of children's music. Plaintiffs have the ability to communicate to the public and have voluntarily exposed themselves to the risk of a defamatory statement.

"Thus, the Court finds that plaintiffs are public figures."

And since the plaintiffs "have presented no evidence of actual malice," she granted summary judgment in favor of the Post.

Lipman, the paper's attorney, told SJR that "the court ruled that they were general purpose public figures because of their performances and their selling of CDs.

"The issue was their own voluntary participation in matters of general public concern," Lipman said.

The attorney for the plaintiffs, Robert Seibel, told SJR that he disagreed with Judge Neill's decision "because in essence she ruled that anyone in a public profession-in entertainment or the media where they market to the public-is a public figure for purposes of libel and defamation cases.

"That's wrong, because there's nothing in (the plaintiffs') profession-the performance of children's music and Christian music-that put them in the vortex of debate regarding white supremacy, hate-groups or anti-Semitic issues.

"Unless they put themselves in the public eye on the issues that the article addressed, they should not be considered public figures," Seibel said, noting that his clients will appeal.

AM/FM

Betting on sports

By Lynn Venhaus

Can listeners and advertisers support another sports station in St. Louis?

Greg Maracek, CEO and general manager of all-sports radio KFNS (590 AM/100.7FM), is confident that there's room for one more. On May 13, he will debut a new station, with 10,000-watt power, at 1190 on the AM band.

For the time being, the station will only be heard from dawn to dusk, and will carry Fox Sports Radio Network, including lightning rod Jim Rome.

"We're doing what's done in a lot of markets. It will be 100 percent totally syndicated. It doesn't mean we couldn't pre-record a local program," Maracek said, explaining that he'd need studio space for live broadcasts and his KFNS studio in Webster Groves is "not vacant very often."

Known for his tell-it-like-it-is aggressive style, Rome, aka "King of Smack," could be a big draw, particularly with the coveted 18- to 34-year-old male listener. "He has a definite following and it's growing. It will be the number one show," Maracek said. Rome had previously aired at KFNS but was removed for local programming.

When football season arrives, Maracek said he hopes to broadcast college games. "I'd like to make us the home of Illinois football, backed up by Notre Dame football," he said. The two all-sports stations will be separate operations but there will be promos for each other on both.

The call letters are currently KRFT, but are in the process of being changed, Maracek said. He wants to have an "X" in the call letters and will refer to the station as "The Sports Explosion."

How the station came about is a complicated tale, but the end result is that some "radio geeks in Texas" (as an admiring Maracek referred to them) re-engineered a strong signal and put the station back on the market. It began with the former KHAD in DeSoto, which had been destroyed by fire in 2000. A group named Radio Free Texas bought it and re-directed the station's daytime signal to the big city of St. Louis. The company built several towers in Illinois so that the signal could be shot over to the city. The station then went back on the block, and it was Maracek, not Larry Rice, who bought it.

The new owner is amazed at the signal's strength, which was recently tested for five days with music programming. "It's the only 10,000-watt signal on AM locally," Maracek said.

The enthusiastic general manager said eventually he would like to broadcast evenings but that would involve building another tower and receiving FCC approval.

Maracek said he believes sports talk radio is strongest in daytime because fans are usually watching or listening to games in the evening hours. Although KFNS is predominantly listened to by males age 25-to-54, female listenership has increased. "The growth is real positive on the female side. We get a lot more female callers these days," he said.

Maracek has owned the 10-year-old KFNS for nearly four years. He airs ESPN and Westwood One programming in addition to local shows featuring staff and sports experts from broadcast and print media. "We have all the talented guys in the market."

Fernando Vina is the newest member of KFNS. His show "The Lead-off Man" runs at 8:15 a.m. Tuesdays. For the previous two seasons, Vina had been a regular feature on J.C. Corcoran's morning show on KLOU (103.3 FM), in a segment a listener dubbed "Livin' La Vina Loca." But when JC was dumped, so were Vina and Eric Mink.

Maracek said Vina approached him during spring training in Jupiter, Fla., and a deal was quickly made. "He's such a classy guy and extremely reliable," the general manager said.

When you talk to Maracek, you get the idea that there's always room for sports in the bi-state area-after all, St. Louis has been previously honored as the "Best Sports City in America."

Sports radio has become something of a phenomenon the past decade, growing to such an extent that there's even a national convention strictly for that niche. "It's been a long time coming. Ten-12 years ago, there were not very many stations. It's really changed. Now, with the addition of the new station, the market's loaded," Maracek said.

•••

With the advent of stations devoted solely to sports talk radio, the Rams on KLOU and the Blues on KTRS, the once-upon-a-time sports giant KMOX is no longer the primary source for listeners' sports news and viewpoints. But the Mighty Mox still has the crown jewel, the St. Louis Cardinals.

However, this season it is very apparent that something is missing in the broadcast booth. The absence of Hall-of-Famer Jack Buck, due to a lengthy hospitalization, looms large. Buck's graceful ease at play-by-play just can't be duplicated. I understand that Joel Meyers and Bob Ramsey are giving it the old college try, but it seems as if I'm listening to a Cardinals broadcast from another city.

Time is needed for the guys to gel, yes, and Buck's shoes are obviously very hard to fill. It would certainly be intimidating to take over those duties. However, when Joe Buck came aboard, he fell into a rhythm with Mike Shannon that felt natural, not forced. Time will tell, I suppose.

During the '60s, I spent many hot summer nights on the porch with my grandfather and uncle, listening to Harry Caray and Jack Buck broadcast the Cards' games. I've tuned in through all the changes over the years and have often preferred the radio broadcast to the televised game.

I enjoy Mike Shannon's take on things and the fun he brings to the table. I've even collected "Shannonisms"-my favorite's the one about the beautiful moon in New York City that he wished people in St. Louis could see-and I recognize the camaraderie necessary in the booth.

But from opening day on, the Cards' broadcast booth hasn't sounded as comforting as in years past. It could be a byproduct of the rocky road the Cards have started on, after such high hopes in pre-season. Clearly, it's not just a matter of change.

There are bright spots, nevertheless. Former pitcher Ricky Horton is surprisingly good when he's on but isn't used nearly enough. Ramsey and Bob Carpenter know their stuff and try hard. Meyers was an excellent stadium announcer and KSHE jock, but years of broadcasting NBA games have honed a style that seems at odds with what we're used to here.

I don't know what happened behind the scenes, but I thought former KSD-FM sportscaster Steve Schlanger did an excellent job-some people even were reminded of a young Bob Costas-the summer of '98 on road games. He was quickly odd-man-out by season's end with little explanation.

Sure, we can always dream, but it's unrealistic to think we could ever get Costas back now that he's a major network star, except for that rare fill-in or interview. But aren't there budding stars out there, future Vin Scullys and Mel Allens who want a shot, and why aren't they applying?

The day will come when Jack Buck retires. And we'll have to deal with it. But we've been spoiled over the years, and it's never more evident than now. We miss you, Jack. We look forward to your return.

•••

Bravo to the KLOU team for their stellar coverage of the NFL draft. They obviously were prepared and executed their plan well. Donn Shipp, broadcast operations manager and director of affiliates for the Rams Radio Network, oversaw the programming, which began at 11 a.m. with updates twice an hour, and wound up in celebratory fashion with a fan event from 4-6 p.m. at a local Chevy's, with Smash and Tim Gilbert on the scene.

Shipp said Rams' broadcasters Jack Snow and Steve Savard were anchored at Rams' Park, along with KTRS' football expert Howard Balzer. Coverage intensified at 4 p.m., with Snow emerging from the "War Room" with the scoop-even before the official announcement from the NFL commissioner-that the Rams had selected Robert Thomas, a linebacker from UCLA. Snow and Savard-who work so well together-interviewed Rams head coach Mike Martz about the choice, not just the perfunctory press conference, and then also conducted a telephone interview with Thomas.

KTRS, a Rams' affiliate, carried the draft as long as possible before switching to the Blues' game. KFNS also covered the draft but apparently missed the crucial pick while airing a commercial, and didn't name the first-round choice before cutting to Martz's press conference. Listeners were left out of the loop, unfortunately, as the coach just referred to the player as "he." Oops.

•••

KFTK (97.1FM) is no longer targeting a strictly female audience and has added some big testosterone guns to its line-up. Irreverent and sarcastic Don Imus can be heard now from 5-9 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Conservative talk show host Bill O'Reilly comes aboard May 8 with a new show and will be heard from 2-4 p.m. weekdays.

Syndicated in nearly 100 cities, "Imus in the Morning" had run on the old WIBV (1260 AM) in Belleville more than seven years ago before Tim Dorsey bought the station. The legendary disc jockey broadcasts from WFAN studios in New York and is also simulcast on cable network MSNBC.

O'Reilly's risen to prominence with his nightly talk show on the Fox News Channel, but prior to that helmed "Inside Edition" and worked as a TV reporter. He's written several books, including "The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad and Completely Ridiculous in American Life," and "The No-Spin Zone." Feisty and strongly opinionated, he's about as in-your-face as you can get on the air today and does not back down from his agenda. It will be interesting to see how he fares in this market.

•••

KTRS is again tinkering with its news operation. Jim Bafaro, a former news manager who was fired in 1999, confirmed that he was asked to return, but has declined the offer. Bafaro, who also worked in news at KMOX and WIL, said he is currently very happy as a communications specialist for the Boeing Company.

Bafaro said KTRS operations manager Fred Zielonko contacted him about his interest in becoming the news director, stating the station was going to seriously upgrade its news operation.

Bafaro worked for KTRS for 18 months before his ouster. When contacted about possible KTRS changes, both Zielonko and current news director Tom Calhoun did not respond.

At presstime it was learned that kent Martin, long a member of the KMOX news staff, had been hired to fill the opening at KTRS.

Since longtime news director Joan Beuckman retired in 2000, the station has had numerous personnel changes in the news division. Calhoun assumed the role after Dale Forbis left last year.

Radio History

Stuff of dreams

By Frank Absher

The days of free-wheeling rock radio in St. Louis are history, but many of those who participated enjoy looking back and remembering. Peter Skye recently took time to reminisce.

Skye came to St. Louis from the New York area to study applied mathematics at Washington University. On an impulse visit to campus radio station KFRH, he and his roommate John Gilbert decided it might be fun to be disc jockeys. The carrier-current station could only be heard around the campus, but that didn't matter. Station manager Phil Steinberg, himself a student, put them on the air. The pair was bitten by the radio bug.

"Things were really loose in those days," Skye says. "We hopped around and stopped in and saw all the local stations. They'd all let us come in and watch. Nick Charles was the all-night guy at KXOK. John and I used to go over there and bug him. The studio at the time was in an old house. Big studio as far as radio goes.

"Dave Scott was the program director out at KIRL in St. Charles. It was a Top 40 station with three towers with a banana-type signal pattern that got them into St. Louis. I visited it once and was fascinated by his cart machine system. When one tape cartridge finished playing it would automatically trip-start the next one."

Fast forward a few years to a cinder block shack in Crestwood. A guy named Ron Elz is making some changes at a radio station called KSHE, and Gilbert and Skye are disc jockeys on a big time commercial FM station. John Gilbert has become John Roberts, and the atmosphere of the station and chemistry with the listeners are the stuff dreams are made of.

"Elz instinctively knew all about demographics and the business side of radio, and that's what helped make KSHE a success as the market's 'underground' radio station from the beginning. He personally took both KSHE and KADI-FM to rock. When Elz changed KADI to Top 40, he had me generate the playlists by computer. I wrote the computer programs to do this while I was still a student and got a full class credit at Washington University for the effort. Boy, did the announcers complain. They hated having to follow the lists," Skye says.

There had been some sort of disagreement at KSHE that caused Elz to leave for KADI. He suggested to management that John Roberts be named his successor as program director. Ron Lipe was there, variously known as "Ron Brothers" and "Prince Knight." So was Bob Skaggs, whose air name was "Jack Davis." In Skye's words, "The program director had his hands full."

At KADI-FM, owner Richard Miller offered Skye an airshift, which Skye accepted. "This is Peter Skye, your curly headed kid in the third row, on the KADI Original Oldies Show!" He served as chief engineer and did morning drive Tuesday through Friday. Sam Kaiser did the morning show on Mondays so Skye could sleep in after the late Sunday oldies show. "Rich Dalton, with whom I worked at KADI, was an extraordinary person. He cared more about the audience than any other jock I've worked with. That is his secret: His caring comes through on his show and everyone senses it."

Programming the oldies show was a challenge. The station's music library wasn't varied enough to support a show like his, but a solution came in the form of another announcer at the station, Joe Edwards. Skye remembers: "Joe supplied all the records for the oldies show. I still have the book he published based on the Billboard charts. Joe was the nicest guy I ever worked with. I hold him in the highest regard.

"On Sunday, Sept. 23, 1973, one of the news teletype machines in the KADI building on Bompart caught fire (a bad bearing in the motor according to the fire marshal) which lit the varnished wall paneling which then came up the stairs. John Killian, who had been 'Johnny K' on KXOK, was on the air at the time. The whole building burned-a six-alarm fire. I owned and drove the KADI Car, my fastback yellow Mustang with KADI plastered all over it, and was up in North County dropping off my date when I heard the station go off the air. I hit the flashers and came in at 90 miles per hour. Fire trucks everywhere.

"A policeman stopped me at the driveway entrance and I rolled down the window and yelled 'I'm the chief engineer' and he waved me through. I went into the building with the first firefighters because, without windows and with lots of rooms, they weren't sure what they would find. Two firemen were on the roof and it gave way, dumping them into the building. They were brought out and an ambulance came full-tilt-boogie across the open field in reverse (the driveway was full of fire trucks) and the driver didn't notice the guy wires supporting the big 385' antenna. He hit one and the back of the ambulance rode up the wire until the wheels were off the ground. Several guys had to push it off. Wow, that tower shook!"

Skye was also a jock on KSLQ working for program director Gary Bridges in 1974. "It was funny getting calls from girls who had listened to me at KADI and KSHE wondering what I was doing at Top 40 KSLQ! Mike 'The Red Baron' Jeffries was a jock at the Q back then. He was probably the most energetic announcer I've ever worked with. His upbeat style was truly infectious." The job was short-lived, with Peter Skye heading west to try his hand at a different side of the business. He can now be found in Hollywood, where, among other jobs, he worked for 14 years helping Casey Kasem produce "American Top 40."

Father knows best

The St. Louis Review rejects ad for Vatican correspondent of The National Catholic Reporter, while accepting ads of dismissed priest charged with abuse

By Don Corrigan

When Margaret Mary Moore tried to get an advertisement about a lecture at St. Louis University in the St. Louis Archdiocese weekly, she was told there was no room at the inn.

Moore, director of the Theology and Life Institute in University City, helped bring two nationally esteemed journalists to St. Louis University's St. Francis Xavier Church on April 18. Moore tried to advertise the event in The St. Louis Review, the official weekly of the Archdiocese, and was told it was inappropriate for the paper.

"They accepted the ad at first," said Moore. "The Review ad sales representative, Jeff Aldrich, said it would cost $195. Then he called back and said the ad was run past the paper's editor and it was rejected.

"Aldrich said the editor told him that 'these two guys are antagonists of the church. We don't need to give them any publicity.' I was amazed to hear this," said Moore. "I was just absolutely amazed."

The Rev. Robert Finn, editor of The Review and a priest-in-residence at Holy Redeemer Church in Webster Groves, said it was his decision to kill the advertisement.

"It's my decision," said Finn. "I think we just preferred not to give advertisements to The National Catholic Reporter. It's such a far cry from our own approach to church teaching and interpretation that it doesn't seem consistent with our policy for us to do that."

The two journalists, who spoke at the April 18 lecture event, are Robert Blair Kaiser of Newsweek and John L. Allen Jr., Vatican correspondent to The National Catholic Reporter. Both journalists offered their insights on the future of the Roman Catholic Church and the next papal election process.

Kaiser currently reports on the Vatican for Newsweek. He covered the Vatican during the historical church meetings of Vatican II. He wrote the best-selling memoir about the changes called, "Pope, Council and World." He is at work on another volume covering the future of the church.

Allen is a long-time Vatican correspondent who wrote a popular biography of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. His new book, "Conclave: The Politics, Personalities and Process of the Next Papal Election," will be published by Doubleday in May.

Outright censorship

Moore said the two journalists are church men themselves, not "cynical journalists or skeptics off the street." Moore said their expertise ensured astute and respectful commentaries on the state of the church today.

"I'm a theologian and I don't think these two respected men are antagonists of the church at all," said Moore. "I think what we are talking about here with The Review is outright censorship. I was stunned that these two reputable, balanced, award-winning authors are judged to be inappropriate for Catholic readers.

"The lecture was not meant to be antagonistic to the church," added Moore. "It was focused on the church's future. It wasn't about the current crisis with pedophilia by priests, or anything to do with scandal."

Editor Finn said he stands by his decision to nix any advertising about the lecture event in The Review.

"Perhaps the lecture was very, very good," said Finn. "But we have a policy of rejecting anything that we think would not be helpful to our readers. So, it would be in my purview to make a decision like that on the lecture.

"We certainly have the right to determine what goes in our paper," added Finn. "We don't publish ads for political candidates. We don't run ads for X-rated movies. We don't run ads for nightclubs on the East Side-they're not interested in us anyway because we don't have the audience they want, so we're glad that we don't have to tell them we don't want their ads."

Moore said she was offended that an ad to promote dialogue within the Catholic community was talked about in the same breath as an ad for an X-rated movie.

"I thought The Review would be delighted to get our ad," said Moore. "These respected writers and The National Catholic Reporter are all part of our Catholic community. We don't have to agree with everything that they say, but the education that results from a good discussion merits appreciation, not discouragement."

"What hypocrisy!"

"I've been told that The Review takes vacation tour ads of Robert Vonnahmen, who I am told is a defrocked priest," said Moore. "I am flabbergasted that it is OK to take advertising from a discredited priest, but it's not OK to take advertising from within the Catholic community. What hypocrisy! I have zero tolerance for such duplicity."

Vonnahmen is the director of Catholic Shrine Pilgrimage, a Southern Illinois-based travel company that offers tours to international Catholic holy sites. Vonnahmen was removed by the Belleville Diocese from his parish in Elizabethtown, Ill., in 1993 after being accused of sexually abusing a minor. A spate of sexual abuse lawsuits against Vonnahmen followed throughout the 1990s.

When Finn of The Review was asked about accepting ads from Vonnahmen's travel firm, he denied any specific knowledge of ads for Shrine Tours.

"I am not sure about that," said Finn. "We take a lot of travel ads in the paper that we think will be of interest to our readers."

SJR contacted Catholic Shrine Pilgrimage offices where an employee confirmed that travel ads were scheduled to run in The Review in St. Louis in the May 3 edition.

"Father Vonnahmen is the director of our company and Father leads many of our tours himself," the receptionist at Catholic Shrine Pilgrimage told SJR. "We only advertise in Catholic publications. We are very careful about that, because we are non-profit," she noted.

Moore said the idea that ads from a discredited priest are being accepted by The Review is appalling in light of Finn's self-professed mission to protect readers. She said the descriptive that Vonnahmen's tours are "Catholic pilgrimages" is tantamount to false advertising.

"Our shepherds are supposed to protect us from the wolves, not from the truth," said Moore. "If I went on one of these tours and I found out about the background of the company, I would feel very betrayed. This is the kind of duplicity that has so many Catholics upset and disillusioned."

David Clohessy, head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), has worked with a number of individuals who claim to have been abused by Vonnahmen. Clohessy said many of their lawsuits ran into trouble because of statute of limitation technicalities.

While Vonnahmen has been permanently removed by the Belleville Diocese as a priest, Clohessy said it is troubling that he continues to wear his Roman collar, continues to be called "Father" by his travel firm employees, and continues to lead the public to believe that his travel company is a Catholic institution.

"Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville should take further steps to disassociate his diocese from Vonnahmen's enterprises and warn Catholics of his predatory behavior," Clohessy said. "Vonnahmen certainly must hold one of the records for sex abuse lawsuits filed."

Among the lawsuits filed against Vonnahmen in the 1990s:

• Stephen McCaffrey of New Mexico, who alleged that he was sexually abused by Vonnahmen in the 1980s while he was attending Camp Ondessonk. Vonnahmen was camp director at the time.

• William Boyd of Carbondale, who alleged Vonnahmen forced him to have sex in exchange for employment with the tour company Vonnahmen heads.

• "Sue Doe," a minor who alleged that Vonnahmen forced her to have sex with him in the rectory at St. Phillip's Church in East St. Louis in the 1960s.

• William Benton of Carbondale, who alleged that Vonnahmen abused him at the age of 15 while he was attending Camp Ondessonk.

SJR attempted to reach Vicar General James Margason of the Belleville Catholic Diocese for comment on Vonnahmen's Catholic Shrine Pilgrimage tour business and regarding his current status with the church. Margason was unavailable for comment at SJR press time.

Take Five's lonely mission

By Alex Posorske

It seems like it could get lonely being Sylvester Brown Jr. Loneliness is, of course, a condition that is universal from time to time for every member of the human race. But it seems like it could get really damn lonely being Sylvester Brown Jr.

That's because Brown is the founder, publisher, editor-in-chief and all-around driving force of Take Five magazine. For those unaware of Take Five's existence, it can be summed up best-on the surface-as the black Riverfront Times. Which means that, like the RFT, Brown finds himself constantly in opposition to the conservatism that defines the St. Louis metropolitan region, as well as butting heads occasionally with a more mainstream alternative (in Brown's case, the St. Louis American, which bills itself as "the Black Weekly.")

But unlike the RFT, Brown is a black man flying solo trying to buck a white system in a racially divided town where blacks more often than not still seem to end up with the short stick. And unlike the RFT, Take Five is not owned by an out-of-town conglomerate. He doesn't have access to the national advertising base and financial security that a New Times Inc. can provide.

Instead, Brown has an unprofitable labor of love publication-in an era that does not smile on such things-staffed primarily by Managing Editor Victoria Anton, Senior Writer Lori Reed and ... Sylvester Brown. It all seems like a recipe for, at the very least, a little bit of loneliness. But instead Brown seems to revel in it.

"I'm kind of a private person anyway," he said, when asked if he feels isolated. "I like the independence. I like being different. I like people not knowing where we're coming from. Are we Democrat, Republican, independent? The only downside is wondering when we're going to be accepted by the advertisers and the general public."

Brown, 44, has been producing Take Five with that hope for the last 15 years. Every month he manages to put out 20,000 copies of his tabloid newspaper, seeking to reach, in his words, "into the heart of the Black community," and ideally find perspectives that haven't been given widespread notice by the rest of the area media, black or white.

For instance, a Brown piece from April entitled "Dumping the Democrats?" looks into the rumblings that have started in some sections of the African-American community over their decades-long unflinching loyalty to the Democratic party. Noting the recent black uproar over St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's redistricting plan, Brown interviews several local black liberals who say that they are considering apostasy-supporting Jim Talent over Jean Carnahan in the upcoming senate race.

Brown said he and his two staffers had heard mutterings about the subject on local talk radio and read articles about blacks in New York considering similar action but hadn't seen any real coverage of it in the local media.

"The Post touched on it a little bit. The Riverfront Times touched on it a little bit. But nobody talked to African-Americans about it," he said.

(Meanwhile, as if to cement Take Five's reputation as the black opposition, the American ran an editorial on April 11, entitled "The Democratic Party isn't the issue," asking blacks to stick with the Democrats.)

Other recent Brown pieces include an editorial blasting the local media for treating the white Slay with kid gloves when compared to the coverage of the city's first black mayor, Freeman Bosley Jr. ("Slay has the city dancing to a Dixie tune," Brown wrote), a look into the civil rights background and thoughts of Percy Green II (who was fired by Slay last year from his position as director of the city's Minority Business Certification Office), and a December 2001 story that jumps to the international scene to show, through rigorous research, how George W. Bush and friends financially benefit from new petroleum access when the U.S. uses its military might in Asia and the Middle East.

Brown's writing is characterized by excellent organization, a style (at least in editorials) that combines sarcasm, metaphor and a need to call it the way he sees it-consider "Harmon was the Handy Wipe that Whites used to clean up what they perceived as a growing mess in City Hall. Once the house was 'cleaned,' the Handy Wipe was thrown in the trash and forgotten" from Brown's April editorial).

"I'm too detail-oriented," Brown said. "I'll take a simple story and turn it into a novel. When I write I pretend I'm going to be challenged on every point."

As all writers know, though, pretending that one is going to be challenged on every point is not the worst way to write effectively. And writing effectively is necessary in Brown's case as he strives to carve and hold a niche for his publication separate from two St. Louis journalism camps that are similar but quite different from his-white liberals and mainstream blacks. Brown recognizes that both groups deal with similar issues, but thinks his perspective is different enough to make his publication needed on the local scene.

For instance, Brown said that white liberals, however close their politics may be to his, still have one large difference and obvious advantage in this society-their skin color. That fact, he said, means that no matter how often Ray Hartmann might voice opinions that are favorable to a majority of St. Louis' black community there will still be a need for an African-American to do more.

"The white community can tolerate a Ray Hartmann talking about racism or talking about affirmative action. They would not tolerate the same thing from an African-American," he said. "The liberal gets the benefit from both sides. He gets the benefit from having this liberal position and having African-Americans respect him. But he can still get paid."

Put simply, Brown said, the black community needs its own people to tell its own story. But a short logical leap from that statement brings Brown directly under the looming shadow of the 60,000 weekly circulation, black-owned American.

"Strange things happen in St. Louis," he said. "There is this one black mentality. You can have one black world-wide technology, one black newspaper, one black radio station. That's what I'm bumping my head up against. Every time I talk to people it's always about, 'Well, what about the American?'"

Brown treads carefully when talking about the American. He clearly thinks his publication often goes above and beyond what he sees as the American's limited coverage, but at the same time he seems reluctant to criticize the larger paper too much.

During an interview with SJR, Brown frequently criticized the American but would follow each criticism by saying that he recognizes why the American does what it does.

Still, Brown thinks that the American is a little too beholden to its advertisers, which he says are mainly white corporations. (A recent stroll through the American revealed Schnucks, Famous-Barr and AT&T Wireless ads all within the first five pages). From Brown's standpoint, American Publisher Donald Suggs has to toe a line and never go over that line or else risk losing his advertisers. Meanwhile, Take Five, where advertisements seem to consist of local colleges, the Missouri lottery and local businesses that profess solidarity with black St. Louisans, does not face that problem.

"Suggs is a part, a small component, a wheel of the status quo, a wheel that the status quo uses to communicate with the black community," he said. "That's a one-sided communication. It's not where you're getting the input of the black community. It's not where you're showing the opinions of the black community. It's (the status quo) speaking through that black publication."

But after that fairly harsh criticism, Brown did quickly qualify his characterization of Suggs.

"Again, there's nothing wrong with that, you just need balance," he said. "There's nothing wrong with the Post-Dispatch per se. They deliver the news. But you need the Riverfront Times to give a more in-depth, varied view of many issues."

Brown was born into a poor St. Louis family in the late 1950s, and was one of 11 children. He said his family shuttled around various low-income housing areas and that he attended six different grade schools. Raised as a Jehovah's Witness, he said he was rather sheltered from the turmoil of the late 1960s, although he did develop a fondness for debating ministers over various biblical passages.

One of the older children in his family, Brown said he dropped out of high school in his sophomore year in order to work full-time and bring more cash into his home. He left that home at age 18, moving into his own apartment and buying his own car.

Around the age of 20, Brown went to work for Laclede Gas Co. It was the mid-1970s when affirmative action was just beginning to be implemented and Brown was one of the first beneficiaries. He also got his first look at racism in action, however, observing what he said was the good ol' boy culture at its finest.

Before Brown and other blacks got there, no extended education was necessary to advance in the company, but he said that as more blacks with limited schooling entered the company, that quickly changed as whites stayed on top and blacks stayed on the bottom.

Brown began taking classes at Forest Park Community College where he said he immersed himself in black literature. Reading "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," James Baldwin, Richard Wright and studying Martin Luther King Jr. combined with his experiences at Laclede Gas (and growing activism and outspokenness there) led to what seems like an almost classic awakening to the world around him.

"All this stuff was new to me and I was like why didn't I know about this? That, I guess, was the birth of Take Five," he said.

At the same time, Brown got into layout and design, both academically and for a small bar newspaper called Tryst. He soon began to write profiles for Tryst and after a while got it into his head that he could do better. Brown said he and a friend began making plans to start a paper. One day, while the pair were "sitting at home enjoying ourselves," as Brown said, laughing salaciously, and listening to Dave Brubeck's song "Take Five," it all started to became clear.

Brown managed to get an ad from the Forest Park public relations department and at that point felt confident enough to begin publishing. He continued working at Laclede for several years until his fledgling paper came to the attention of his superiors.

"They had tolerated my activism. They had tolerated my radicalism. They had tolerated my mouth, my trouble. When I started Take Five it was different," he said, citing the paper as the reason for his dismissal from the company.

A bigger blow came after his firing, as his then-wife decided that she did not have the interest in living the starving artist/activist dream.

"She was OK as long as I had the job, but putting everything on the line for it was not part of our original agreement," Brown said.

At that point, with mostly everything else in the rear view mirror, Brown devoted himself full-time to Take Five, managing to pay the rent through free-lance design work. He set out to build a paper that would do more than just report the news, it would empower and help his readers.

"I know everybody says that, but I thought that if you have these readers you should be able to take them somewhere," he said. "You know, not just give them bad news or good news and leave them hanging, but help them change the situation."

But rather than hold forums on the state of the St. Louis black community, Brown decided to be active. He organized bus tours of black businesses, in an attempt to get dollars flowing into his community. He also brought in speakers who lectured on black self-improvement and education, among other topics.

And he continued writing, focusing on life in St. Louis as an African-American, which, one way or another, always seems to come down to race.

"St. Louis has got to come to grips with that," he said. "Why do we have this racial problem in this city? What is it about black people and black power that scares the hell out of us?"

And that brings us to the present day, where, somewhat ironically, the future of Take Five is in doubt. In a fair world, and according to the official script, Brown's publication should be in decent shape after 15 years of working his ass off and sacrificing the steady job and domesticity that middle-America holds so dear.

But while Brown said Take Five is not in any immediate danger of folding, he said he is not satisfied with where he is. He would like to take the publication to the "next level" he said, with better distribution, a larger staff and an ability to cultivate more and more sources. But that, of course, takes money, which is a troubling proposition for a publication that likes to stray from the mainstream.

"It would take 200 grand to take Take Five to the next level," Brown said. "I know I'm not going to get that from the bank and I really have my doubts that I could get that from the black leadership."

Brown said that he is simply not a salesman, which he acknowledges is what Take Five needs right now. He said that at some point he may have to bring someone in who can handle the business side, although he noted that people with business know-how aren't always attracted to enterprises that don't stand a very good chance of turning a large profit. He said he could also foresee merging with another publication to try and stay afloat and hinted that he might have to end up killing the whole thing.

With the possible end looming, though, Brown is at least philosophical about where he has gotten to.

"I've told myself for years that I didn't go through all that for nothing," he said. "But maybe I'm trying to dictate the journey and shouldn't be. Maybe Take Five was my road to somewhere else. Maybe Take Five is just a doorway to what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm at a point in my life where I'm not really insisting on things going a certain way."

Channels

Changing times

By Tripp Frohlichstein

The times they are a'changing for local television news. Once upon a time the main newscast of the day was at 10 p.m. Period. End of story. The local showcase was at 6 p.m. and there was a local/national mix at 5 p.m.

During the past decade, morning news has become more and more important. Three local stations-led by KTVI (Channel 2) in terms of amount of time on the air-produce more local newscasts in the four hours between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. than the 20 hours from 9 a.m. until 5 a.m. the next morning.

One local television general manager believes the KSDK (Channel 5) morning ratings will soon outperform the formerly vaunted 10 p.m. numbers.

In recent years, many so-called pundits have suggested local news is a dying breed. I would disagree. Viewing patterns are shifting, that is true. Still, there is a desire to know what's happening in the area in which we live.

In terms of national and international news, cable has grabbed many viewers and deservedly so. You can get it anytime you want, not just 5:30 in the afternoon. But local broadcast stations still own the local news market.

Some might be surprised to learn that four years ago there were 94 hours of local news a week. Now, despite KDNL (Channel 30) dropping its newscasts and KPLR (Channel 11)'s reduction of news, this year there are more than 102 hours of local news per week. Channel 2's addition of nearly 14 hours a week over the last four years is the primary reason. Channel 4 added three-and-a-half hours.

Local news was a major topic at last month's Radio-TV News Directors Association (RTNDA) and National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting in Las Vegas.

John Lansing of Scripps-Howard theorizes that Sept. 11 "reawakened the real value of television news and people are coming back to more committed and serious local newscasts." Cox's Andy Fisher agreed, "We have reawakened viewers' interest in watching local television news."

"Local news is not going away," said Gary Wordlaw, president and general manager of WTVH-TV in Syracuse, N.Y. While acknowledging that local news is a revenue-driven business, Wordlaw and others noted there will always be a need for quality local news.

Although there have been several examples recently of local news operations shutting down, including Channel 30 in St. Louis, this trend appears to be more of a shakeout than an indication local news is dying. Even McDonald's closes restaurants that don't perform well, but that doesn't mean people don't like burgers anymore.

A panel of broadcast executives at RTNDA who looked at local news concluded "weak stations will perish while the strong will prosper." Continued investing in local news is necessary. Media General's Dan Bradley feels, "Strong stations will survive because they are dedicated to their communities and covering local stories important to viewers."

As stations see their budgets squeezed, there is a new effort to find more efficient ways to produce the news. Mark Effron, Post-Newsweek Stations news vice president, predicts more of a focus on sharing journalistic efforts. In St. Louis, we have seen that with Channel 4's teaming with the Post to produce a weekly in-depth news program and Channel 2's partnering with the Post's online operation.

Deb McDermott, executive vice president of operations for Young Broadcasting Inc., thinks local news may expand into new time periods, "finding ways to get to our viewers in times that are more convenient to them." The growth of morning news illustrates the validity of this idea. Channel 2's moving of its noon news to 11 a.m. is another.

So why the talk of the death of local news? Post-Newsweek's Effron blames print journalists. "Those carping stories are just written by a bunch of newspaper reporters who wish they were in TV news." I'm not so sure that's the case.

But there are legitimate concerns stations must face as they head into the future. One television station general manager warned, "Repetition of news drives viewers away." He's right. Often, I find myself watching a station and seeing a story almost identical to one aired earlier. Like many other people I know, having seen the same angle of the story before, I reach for the remote and change to a different station.

•••

Now that Eric Mink is no longer working as a New York media critic, here's an idea. I'd love to see the Post hire him back. Now, lest Gail Pennington get worried, there is room for both (in terms of content-I can't speak to its budget). Pennington can continue to review entertainment programs. Mink can focus on local television and heavier, more controversial issues (although to her credit, Pennington has recently tackled substantive issues in an interesting and skillful manner).

Mink was the best overall television writer the Post ever had. He served readers extremely well. It's time to let him serve us again.

Memories of the old Channel 11

By David Cohen

I came to St. Louis in 1986 to open the St. Louis Bureau for ABC News. A network news bureau is nothing but an office without means to transmit video. In other words, without a satellite connection the bureau is useless. Back then, the only satellite uplink in St. Louis was at KPLR (Channel 11)-so that is where the ABC News St. Louis Bureau was established.

I spent a lot of time introducing myself around town explaining why the network set up shop at the city's independent station, instead of at KTVI (Channel 2) which was then the ABC affiliate. Ted Koplar owned Channel 11 at the time, Barry Baker was the station's general manager, and Larry Marcus the business manager. Jim Wright, now with KDNL (Channel 30), was Channel 11's operations chief-the man in control of the satellite uplink.

Others have written about the charms of the old Channel 11 building at 4931 Lindell Blvd. and some have written about its oddities. The best thing about the building was its location. The Central West End was like New York City's Greenwich Village-with restaurants from which to choose your lunch, quirky shops and the wonderful Daily Planet newsstand.

But the building was old and rickety, and required compromises to make the bureau work. The air conditioning was phlegmatic at best and our transmission rack was located in a bathroom. But we had fireplaces, high ceilings and large rooms for a central newsroom and individual offices. We got used to the stairs and the old elevators and adjusted to the quirks of the elevator operators, who would sometimes come and go on a daily basis.

But the bureau functioned well for ABC News. We were able to scramble quickly to get to stories throughout the Midwest, and we got the Gateway Arch some regular exposure on ABC News programs.

The bureau hosted a broadcast of "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" in January 1987. Later that year, "Good Morning America" broadcast live from under the Arch as a prelude to the VP Fair.

The ABC Bureau moved from its base on Lindell in 1989 to an office building in Clayton as our staff expanded and the desire for serious air conditioning in the St. Louis summers increased.

But we still used the satellite uplink at Channel 11.

The old Channel 11 building had character and charm, and its positives outweighed its negatives. I wish Channel 11 well in its new building and hope legends and character grow there.

The ABC News St. Louis Bureau closed in 1991-the victim of budget cuts following the Gulf War.

David Cohen, a member of SJR's board of advisors, was the Midwest bureau chief for ABC News from 1986 to 1988. He is currently a public relations consultant in the San Francisco area.

Mass-mediated coup in Venezuela

By Daniel Hellinger

The political class that President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela vanquished in the December 1998 election was, from outward appearances, the product of a democratic system. But Venezuela was far from a model democracy.

As in other Latin American countries, newspapers in Venezuela depend heavily upon government advertising, as well as subsidies for paper and ink. In return, publishers pay politicians lucrative stipends for writing (or ghost writing) regular columns. Broadcasters count on government advertising revenues, concessions and licenses, which have become especially lucrative as communications companies have been privatized. Chávez threatened this cozy relationship.

International human rights organizations found little reason to criticize the state of press freedoms in Venezuela-mainly because complaints originating in Venezuela, which formally supports human rights strongly, pale compared to reports of abuses elsewhere in the hemisphere. The victims most often faced loss of employment, not disappearance, assassination or torture. Complaints largely originated from leftist journalists, like the current Defense Minister José Vicente Rangel, who did not have the support of the country's media barons.

Only when the owners of media outlets were confronted with a government that threatened their interests did they encourage journalists to take complaints about the government to international forums. After Chávez came to power, the politicians and union leaders associated with the old system-suddenly isolated from government subsidies-used their overseas connections to build opposition to the populist president. Organizations affiliated with the U.S. taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy passed hundreds of thousands of dollars to individuals who were deeply implicated in the recent coup attempt.

Still, overall criticisms of the Chávez administration are rather slight considering how politically and socially polarized the country is. In its annual report, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) summarized the overall situation in 2001 as one where the local media could "still report the news freely" but that "the antagonistic relationship between the media and the president took a turn for the worse."

CPJ cited some incidents that gave it cause for concern. In February 2001, Pedro Aure, a lawyer and freelance columnist, was detained for one day by military authorities for writing a provocative letter to the editor. Aure chastised Venezuela's generals and admirals for tolerating Chávez. Aure was investigated but never charged with slander. Given that his letter was a thinly veiled incitement for a coup, more serious consequences could have followed.

In its report, CPJ cited two other incidents. It called for the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights to take under advisement the government's slander investigation of the editor of La Razón, which had accused a pro-government businessman of receiving insurance contracts in exchange for funding Chávez's 1998 campaign. CPJ also expressed concern that Chávez was threatening to review the broadcast license of Globovisión after its news operation incorrectly reported that nine taxi drivers had been murdered one night. (One had been killed.) In neither case did the government act, but neither did it entirely cease threatening action against papers and stations deemed its sworn enemies.

The greatest concern cited by CPJ was with a provision in the new constitution engineered by Chávez and his supporters two years ago, and passed overwhelmingly in a national referendum. The Constitution defines the public's "right to timely, truthful and impartial information." CPJ and other critics warn that this clause provides an excuse for government interference with press freedoms.

The dangers of such a clause are obvious, but it should be placed in the context of Latin American legal traditions. Many Latin American countries require journalists to obtain licenses to practice, and social obligations are often written into media law. In this case, the strictures on media in Venezuela's Constitution were a reaction to the symbiotic relationship between government and media under the old regime, and in anticipation of the highly biased coverage the new government felt it was attracting.

Chávez, media superstar

Chávez came to power through a landslide election in December 1998. A populist, Chávez promised to clean out corruption, restore an economic safety net for the poor, wrest Venezuelan oil policy back from the state-owned oil company, and create a more participatory democratic culture.

Venezuela is the fourth largest oil exporter in the world, and since 1976, when its foreign oil companies were nationalized in a negotiated, consensual manner, only the state-owned oil company has a right to pump oil. Created to assert Venezuela's sovereignty over its most important resource, the company has grown as powerful as the private entities it replaced.

Oil executives painted Chávez's oil policy and appointments as an attack on the company's independence and meritocracy. In reality, Chávez's goal was to rein in a company that was maneuvering Venezuela out of OPEC and signing agreements (service contracts, shared risk agreements for new exploration, joint ventures) that offered foreign companies access to oil on terms better than they could get under the old system when they negotiated leases with the government.

Ultimately, critics warned, the goal was to re-privatize the company. With a powerful public relations apparatus, company executives painted the company as an island of efficiency in the midst of a sea of government corruption. The business publications of Europe and North America were receptive to this message. Hence, when Chávez moved to take back some aspects of national oil policy, it was not difficult to paint his actions as a simple grasp for power and patronage.

Nothing matters more than oil in U.S. policy on Venezuela, but certainly Chávez has challenged U.S. hegemony in other ways too. He angered the Bush administration by criticizing the air war in Afghanistan and refusing to cooperate with U.S. operations against Colombia's guerrillas. Not only did he challenge international capital by leading the re-invigoration of OPEC, but he restored normal relations with Iraq and Libya. And, of course, he has openly admired Fidel Castro.

For two years, the popularity ratings of the mercurial president were high. However, in the last year, his approval ratings shrank below 50 percent as his supporters began to loose patience with his government's inability to improve their living conditions. Also close associates of Chávez were caught dipping into the public trough, just like the politicians he dislodged from office. Chávez has been unable to oust corrupt labor leaders associated with the past because workers are suspicious of his efforts to dominate the unions. The coup makers in Venezuela probably thought the time was ripe for his ouster. Certainly the media thought so.

A made-by-media coup

Venezuela's major newspapers, Internet sites and private television networks are geared to the sectors of the population most distrustful of Chávez. Middle- and upper-class Venezuelans are mostly white and European in appearance. When they marched on the presidential palace to demand Chávez's resignation, the media inside and outside Venezuela were quick to label them "civil society." The term was never applied to demonstrators in support of Chávez. More often they were labeled "turbos," the mob.

Chávez is from the interior and his face is a demographic composite of Venezuelans' Indian, African and European heritages. His rhetoric and style have a popular touch that distinguishes him from the traditional Venezuelan ruling class, which he routinely labels a "squalid oligarchy."

This is key to understanding the popular reaction that reversed the coup. "Approval ratings" in polls indicate dissatisfaction with a president; they fail to capture deeper sentiments that Chávez elicited. Venezuelans saw in the faces of the junta that claimed power on April 12 the image of the very oligarchy that they blamed for squandering Venezuelan's considerable oil wealth.

On April 10, Venezuelan media, on orders from ownership, began to issue, at 10-minute intervals, direct calls for people to attend a demonstration in front of the oil company's headquarters the next day. This demonstration was in support of a floundering general strike called by business and union leaders to demand reinstatement of oil company directors and executives fired by the president.

At the last moment, organizers called on the demonstrators to march on the presidential palace and throw Chávez out of power. Violence broke out when they were confronted by the National Guard and supporters of the president. Television stations transmitted images of pro-Chávez supporters brandishing arms and carried reports that military commanders were resisting the president's orders to fire on protesters.

Days later, it was learned that demonstrators on both sides had died. Apparently the Caracas police, under control of Chávez's main political opponent, also fired on chavistas. At the time of coup, the national and international news media showed little interest in verifying the electrifying reports they were carrying. All initial news reports blamed the government exclusively and said that Chávez had broken his pledge never to turn the army against the people.

A few hours later came the "news" that Chávez, being held against his will in an army garrison near the presidential palace, had resigned. Opponents of the president began to celebrate. Among the most festive were the privately owned print and electronic media. Understandably so, since there is circumstantial evidence suggesting they organized it.

Initial reports in the United States characterized the coup as a restoration of democracy, implying that Chávez, though elected twice in landslides, had become a dictator. As the coup unraveled, the news media backtracked and began to question the role of the United States, largely focusing on Washington's haste to recognize the new government. Reports speculated that the U.S. may have been involved in planning the coup, but reporters tended to emphasize the lack of a smoking gun, despite strong circumstantial evidence of U.S. involvement.

The U.S. media had made up its mind that Chávez was a dictator long before the events of the last few weeks. The New York Times' Larry Rohter produced a steady drum beat of anti-Chávez articles, beginning with his report on Chávez's Dec. 6, 1998 election victory, when he labeled the new president a "populist demagogue, the authoritarian man." Seizing on reports of the president's resignation last month, Rohter quoted sources only too willing to blame Chávez for his own demise.

After the coup attempt, Rohter gave the Bush administration a clean bill of health, saying that unlike the cases of Guatemala in 1954 and Chile in 1973, there were "no obvious American fingerprints" on the attempted golpe. Of course, the "fingerprints" in those cases only became visible when investigators used the Freedom of Information Act to pry the incriminating documents out of classified government files.

Dan Hellinger is professor of political science at Webster University.

Commentary

Radio's solution unworkable

By Frank Absher

I don't like what I'm hearing on the radio today. It's not the music that bothers me. It's everything else. But my feelings don't really matter to radio's managers-I'm outside their target demographic. What does matter to them is finding methods to get the most listeners in their target demos while spending the least amount of money. And this is where my blissful, Pollyannaish image of radio comes crashing down.

Recently I attended the National Association of Broadcasters' annual convention in Las Vegas. That experience, combined with some recent feedback from my students, tells me there's not much chance that things will get better-ever.

Those students who are taking broadcasting courses at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park responded honestly to my questions about their radio preferences. To my surprise, they don't care whether the show they're hearing on the radio emanates from St. Louis or Indianapolis or from the bowels of some computer. If they don't like the music that's available they turn it off and put on a CD-one they burned on their computer. When commercials come on they punch on another station.

But when you think about it, I shouldn't have been surprised. Young radio listeners have been tuning away from radio commercials since Marconi's day. They have also punched out when a song came on they didn't like. The part that didn't sit well was the lack of concern over the disc jockeys' whereabouts. To these radio listeners, the disc jockey doesn't matter that much.

Apparently that's fine with the folks at the radio stations. In their eyes, an extremely popular disc jockey could make a good case for a hefty paycheck, and that could mess up profit margins. Nondescript deejays-well, let's just say they don't cost much. Take those nondescript types and use their voices on three or four of your stations and we're talking real savings in the "talent" department. Apparently the listeners don't care, so mediocrity reigns!

Today's radio managers have no qualms about hiring mediocre announcers in a market the size of St. Louis. One even told me he realizes he could have hired a staff of air personalities who are much more talented than the ones he has, but he'd have to pay more money to get and keep them. The problem: His current staff thinks they're stars, and they behave like prima donnas.

In Las Vegas I saw a convention hall filled with equipment and computer programs, most of which were designed to perpetuate and encourage multiple-station mediocrity. "Now you can run all your stations with one computer!" "Voice tracking so easy anyone can do it." There was nothing about new ways to serve the listeners.

So if radio's listening base continues to erode, will management be surprised? Let's look at this from another perspective.

Radio makes its money by selling advertising. Happy advertisers (those who see response to their ads) will keep coming back and spending money on the stations. Those who don't see a response will eventually stop throwing money into a bottomless pit. Logic tells us that the stations will do everything they can to make sure the ads are heard by listeners. This would, in turn, maximize response to the ads they run.

But if you listen to local music stations, you'll hear five, six maybe even seven straight minutes of commercials at a time. How would you like to be a merchant whose ad runs four minutes into the break? Do you think anyone is still listening? If they're like my students, they're not. And if people tune out of those long commercial clusters, no one will respond. How would you like to be the ad salesperson who has to get the follow-up sale?

Why do stations do this? What possible rationale could there be behind this sort of commercial scheduling? Well, programmers think it's a great idea: "If listeners tune out at the sound of the first commercial, we'll just run a lot of spots during the break so we only lose listeners once or twice an hour." From the programmers' perspective, commercials are a nasty medicine to be dealt with and swallowed as quickly as possible, so as not to detract from their precious air product.

Now you see the evil triumvirate of problems facing radio management. 1) We need to maximize our listening base by doing whatever is necessary to keep them tuned in; 2) We need to maximize the possibility that our listeners will respond to our advertising; 3) Since listeners hate ads, we'll run as many as we can during breaks because no one will stay with us for all of them.

Obviously, in the long run, this new style of automated radio won't work. Advertisers will rebel. But, in the meantime, people like me who remember when radio was run by people who took pride in their product will be disappointed.

I'm not alone in my disappointment in the radio industry. The Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot recently called commercial music radio "a wasteland of inertia, a medium afraid to change or challenge its audience." He quotes Clear Channel's CEO Randy Michaels as saying, "When you have professional management, who is focused on the listener, then of necessity we are obsessed with what the public wants, and we work every day to give them what they want." But Kot correctly points out that they're not doing a very good job of it. The number of people who listen to radio has dropped 7 percent in the past two years.

Michaels is probably not worried about losing his stations' listeners to the new technology of satellite radio. XM Satellite Radio boasts over 100 different "stations" that can be listened to without interruption from coast to coast, and many of those stations are free of commercials. A search of XM's financial statements yields agreements with and ownership percentages in the name of Clear Channel. Looks like the company is hedging its bet on the future.

In my opinion, the local radio stations are literally driving their listeners away and into the hands of the satellite folks. Sure, we won't hear about anything local on XM, but we will hear stronger personalities who can be both funny and informative. In the words of Larry Shannon writing on RadioDailyNews.com, "The 'funny' on a lot of radio stations is, sometimes, just not funny. Much of the information being broadcast is not that 'informative.'...Radio may not have the sense to quit listening to some of the financial folks in the corporate offices who have just become too greedy and shortsighted."

Just for fun, I played some radio air checks for my broadcasting class. They heard jocks from the 1970s, and they were blown away. They wanted to know why radio wasn't that way today. I know why. I just don't know of any way to justify it.

In SJR

10 Years Ago:

• David Lipman announced his resignation from the position of managing editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to take a newly created position as chairman of Pulitzer 2000.

• Forty-two percent of the nation's TV newsrooms and 24 percent of the nation's radio newsrooms had cut their staff numbers in the previous 12 months.

• D'Arcy was listed as the largest ad agency in St. Louis, with local billings of $401 million.

5 Years Ago:

• Ownership of the Belleville News-Democrat was transferred from the Walt Disney Company to Knight-Ridder.

• Don Pietromonaco, who had worked at KXOK as the legendary "Johnny Rabbitt," died in California after an extended illness.

• There were rumors that KTVI (Channel 2) would soon drop out of the 10 p.m. news race and debut a 9 p.m. nightly newscast.

Late Edition

The Newspaper Preservation Act legitimized "criminal conduct" and turned St. Louis into a one-newspaper town

By Charles L. Klotzer

A brief review of the Annual Report of Pulitzer, Inc. triggered memories going back to the first issue of the St. Louis Journalism Review (SJR). The Pulitzer clan and its executives will meet at the Ritz-Carlton in St. Louis on May 14, 10 a.m. If they had a chance to read the report, these notes will fill in some background to the information detailed on page 38 updating the "Operating Agreement" between Pulitzer, Inc. and Newhouse's The Herald Company, publisher of the defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat. To many this arrangement was called a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) and is still in effect as far as the profit sharing is concerned.

When SJR published a report on the JOA under the heading "Post and Globe Split Profits" in its first issue (Oct./Nov. 1970), we received an agitated phone call from one of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's editors that we were libeling his paper. We asked that gentleman to read the Congressional Record of March 25, 1968 which featured a statement by Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., publisher of the Post, and by Charles Sabin, attorney for the Globe-Democrat on which our report was based.

His ignorance was forgivable because at the time no one in St. Louis knew about the JOA. When the U.S. House and Senate passed legislation that would exempt such joint newspaper arrangements from the antitrust laws, both the Post and Globe reported the votes without mentioning that they had such an arrangement.

In December 1964, the U.S. Justice Department sued to break up the JOA between the Tucson Citizens and the Star. That suit wound its way through the legal system finally reaching the U.S. Supreme Court, which declared on March 10, 1969 that JOA is in violation of federal anti-trust laws.

The Act permitted two papers to combine their business or mechanical operations while maintaining separate editorial staffs. The Act was introduced after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such an arrangement by two papers in Tucson, Arizona-one of them being the Arizona Daily Star still owned by the Pulitzer, Inc.-was in violation of the antitrust laws. When ordinary mortals break the law, we know where they end up. The media, in its incestuous relationship with politicians, merely see to it that the law is changed.

The name of the act, The Failing Newspaper Act, sounded too much like bad public relations so it was changed to The Newspaper Preservation Act, which was signed by President Nixon on July 24, 1970.

The Post had actually acquired the building and printing plant of the Globe on Feb. 27, 1959, and as of then contracted to print the Globe. After two years, due to the printing losses claimed by Pulitzer, which it was not willing to carry any longer, their contract was revised. The parties entered a 30-year agreement dividing combined earnings of both newspapers as of Jan. 1, 1961 with 30 percent of the profits marked for the Globe and 70 percent for the Post. This agreement was modified from time to time to satisfy complaints from one of the parties.

In 1975, the JOA was amended again, giving Newhouse an increased share of profits and extending the agreement to Dec. 31 1999. Under the new formula, the two papers share all profits 50:50 up to $4 million. Profits exceeding $4 million are shared 70 percent for Pulitzer and 30 percent for Newhouse.

Citing huge losses, the publishers agreed to merge advertising, circulation and accounting operations and amended their profit-splitting agreement to 50:50.

Although all unions at both papers agreed to an 18-month wage increase moratorium in the fall of 1981, the Globe folded on Dec. 31, 1983.

Thus the St. Louis JOA , supposedly to "preserve" newspapers became the first agreement to facilitate the demise of a daily. Actually, the Globe's circulation and readership in the late l970s was larger than the Post's and a financial study by SJR at the time showed Globe ad revenue were in a growth mode while the Post was declining.

The demise of the Globe did not mean the abandonment of the JOA. That agreement stayed in effect and provided 50 percent of Post profits to the Herald Company for years to come. Probably, the Post attained much higher profits than if both papers would have continued publishing. Closing the Globe was a win-win situation for both.

Fast forward to May 1, 2000 when 45 percent of Newhouse's interest in the Post was bought out for $306 million, leaving it with 5 percent. "On May 10, 2010," the Annual Report says, "Herald will have a one-time right to require PD LLC [the Post] to redeem Herald's interest in PD LLC, together with Herald's interest, if any, in another limited liability company in which the Company [Pulitzer, Inc.] is the managing member and which is engaged in the business of delivery publications and products in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area."

Actually, the legal stipulations of how the Herald interest is to be dealt with continues for paragraphs-but to translate it requires the combined expertise of a tax lawyer and certified accountant.

The Annual Report is rich with other information, listing the many daily and other newspapers the company has bought in 12 states, its divestiture of broadcasting interests to Hearst-Argyle, and the various bonuses and compensations paid to its executives. We will get back to these at a later date.

As SJR has insisted for more than 30 years, all joint operating agreements are anti-trust violations and do not serve the public. When Congress considered the Newspaper Preservation Act, two dissenters, Reps. Clark MacGregor and Abner Mikva-who later became President Clinton's Counsel-charged that the Act legitimizes hitherto illegal activity, price fixing, profit pooling and market allocation. They argued, the Act "will stifle competition in ideas by crippling the growth of small newspapers and preventing successful establishment of competing newspapers. It guarantees that the public will not be served by what the benefits of competition produce but by the whims of newspaper-monopolists whose right to engage in otherwise criminal conduct would last forever."

In St. Louis that "criminal conduct" was permitted and The Herald Company was permitted to accrue huge financial benefits at the expense of the public, which has to put up with one newspaper.

People

KTVI (Channel 2)

Sports reporter Rob Desir has joined the station.

KWMU

Stephen Potter has been hired as the station's afternoon host; Olivia Tyson has been named account executive; and Matthew Randolph has been hired as computer support specialist. Potter has been working part-time at KWMU as an announcer and at KMOX as a news anchor. Over the past several years he has worked as a talk show host, news anchor, station manager, news director and reporter for several stations in Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois. He currently hosts several programs on cable television station City 16. Tyson was a fitness consultant and sales representative at NordicTrack. Randolph was most recently the station's part-time assistant engineer. Prior to that, he was the video streaming engineer for Global Streams, a local manufacturer of video streaming solutions.

Pulitzer, Inc.

Terrie Robbins, has been selected general manager of STLtoday.com, the online Web portal owned by Pulitzer Inc. Robbins had been vice president/director of marketing for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which also is owned by Pulitzer. She replaces Colette Hogan, who resigned in January.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Joe Denneny was hired as marketing research director.

Stephen Helm has been appointed vice president and director of circulation.

Advanswers PHD

Linda Heil, Jennifer Musich and Jennifer Wichman have joined the agency as staff assistants in the media planning group.

O'Connor & Partners

Mary Hediger was appointed director of advertising and sales promotion. She will lead the agency's expansion into consumer-directed communication programs. Hediger joins the firm from Bonneville St. Louis Radio Group.

Standing Partnership

Dan Jenkins, account manager, has been accredited in public relations by the Universal Accreditation Board on behalf of the Public Relations Society of America.

Bonneville Saint Louis

Radio Group

The Group presented its Presidential Awards to its employees: Anne Haynes, Kim Grant, Debbie Alexander and Robyn Curtis.

National Federation

of Press Women

The St. Louis Chapter presented six Annual Virginia Betts White Quest Awards.

• Lifetime Award to Bob Broeg, Sports writer;

• Rising Star Award to Diane Toroian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch;

• Robert A. Cohn, Editor-in-chief, Publisher, St. Louis Jewish Light;

• Julius Hunter, Anchor KMOV, Channel 4, Author;

• Gloria Ross, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, United Way of St. Louis;

• Barbara Washington, Vice President, Public Relations Mathews-Dickey Boys' and Girls' Club.

Times Newspapers

The Webster-Kirkwood Times and South County Times papers won awards in the Independent Free Papers of America Spring Editorial and Advertising Awards Contest.

Webster-Kirkwood Times placed first in general excellence for papers with more than 25 percent news content.

Editor Don Corrigan was awarded the Joe Sklenar Award for editorial writing. In addition, he received a second place in the personal column category and a third-place award for a post-Sept. 11 story about a Kirkwood couple whose son perished in the World Trade Center calamity.

Managing Editor Kevin Murphy received a third place award in the news story category.

The Webster-Kirkwood Times won first place in the community service category.

The Times creative department received a first place win and the South County Times received a third place award in ad categories. The Times also placed third in self-promotion for publishing a book.

Adamson, Inc.

The St. Louis Web Developers Organization presented three awards to web developer Ashley Warren, Warren, who recently joined the Interactive Division of Adamson Inc., was working as a freelance developer when he completed the projects for which he received recognition.

Warren and co-developer Bob Niemeier received third-place awards in the categories of "Best Web Site Application" and "Best St. Louis-Oriented Site." In the web site application category, Warren and Niemeier were recognized for their work for St. Louis-based Membership Consultants. Warren and Niemeier were also recognized in the "Best St. Louis-Oriented" category for their work on the St. Louis Metro Golf site.

Grizzell & Co.

The advertising firm received the 2002 Summit Creative Award. The international contest was created to recognize exceptional work by firms with billings of $15 million or less.

Mid-America

Grocers Association

Mid-America Grocers magazine, a regional trade association publication based in St. Louis, has been awarded The Communicator Award of Distinction, which recognizes outstanding work in the communications field. Mid-America Grocers Association in conjunction with O'Connor & Partners were honored for the January/February 2002 issue featuring articles and information for association members, including security, legislative and management issues.

Journalists to discuss

local business coverage

The St. Louis-area business scene and how it is covered by the business press will be the topic of a Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis lunch forum at noon Wed., May 15. The forum, which is open to the public, will be held at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center at Washington University.

The panelists will be: Judy Meador, publisher of the St. Louis small Business Monthly, Patricia Miller, editor of the St. Louis Business Journal, and David Nicklaus, senior business writer, columnist and former editor with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Greg Gibson, a member of Fuse Advertising and Public Relations, will moderate the discussion.

Cost of the luncheon is $16 for Press Club members; $18 for nonmembers; and $12 for students. For reservations or more information, call 314-241-NEWS (6397) by Mon., May 13.

The networks decide

what you know

Interested in what the major networks put on the air? The weekly Tyndall Report digests and collects all that data and reports the time allocation for the top ten for the weekdays as follows:

April 8-12

1 Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

Powell shuttle 129

2 Enron Corporation

bankruptcy investigation 12

3 Islamic World anti-US

sentiment intensifies 10

4 Catholic pedophile

priests scandal 10

5 Oil, natural gas, gasoline

prices increase 8

6 Alcohol: NIH studies

abuse on campus 7

7 IRS income tax season 7

8 Egypt terrorism: Islamic

Group's blind cleric 6

9 Venezuela's President

Hugo Chavez ousted 5

10 Israel-Jordan relations

become frayed 5

April 15-19

1 Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

Powell shuttle ends 62

2 Saudi exile Osama bin Laden: more videotape 19

3 Amtrak train derails in

northern Florida 13

4 Afghanistan's Taliban

regime aftermath 13

5 Hijacked jets attacks:

UAL 093 kin hear tapes 9

6 Catholic pedophile

priests scandal 10

7 Domestic terrorism:

northeastern banks alert 8

8 Internet child pornography:

virtual pix OK'd 7

9 Milan skyscraper hit

by small plane 7

10 Indonesia politics:

radical Islamist opposition 6

Nightline catches on

Besides its proclaimed role of routing out terrorism, American involvement in Afghanistan-as well as in Kazakhstan, Tajikstan, Uzbhekistan and Turkmenistan-has other national interests, read oil, in that region as well. That was the theme of two of Ted Koppel's Nightline programs late in April.

The programs were exhaustive, detailed and showed the intimate involvement of key members of the current U.S. Administration when they were still in private life lives and executives for oil companies. Their role as public officials follows a similar track and has changed little.

The only question is where have the mass media been for these many months? U.S. involvement in central Asia has been a favorite topic of the alternative media for a long time. In These Times, a biweekly, published a report by J. Eric Duskin exploring America's oil and military interests in central Asia again late in April. Duskin is an assistant professor of history at Christopher Newport University and is currently living in central Asia as a Fulbright Scholar.