December 2001/January 2002; Vol. 32, No. 242Weathering a century: For 100 years, the Post-Dispatch's Weatherbird has commented on the news
Don Corrigan: When the Weatherbird of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch turned 100 earlier this year, the front page chirper received birthday wishes from cartoon characters across the country.
Pulitzer tries to untangle 'web'
Daniel Hellinger: Eight months ago, when Pulitzer Inc. pulled the plug on POSTnet, it abandoned the idea of integrating its news into a distinct, online edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The company didn't simply shut down POSTnet but decided on a different strategy for its next venture into online publishing. The result is STLtoday.
KOMU controversy dies slow death
Alex Posorske: Two months after Stacey Woelfel, news director at KOMU (Channel 8) in Columbia, Mo., stirred a minor nest of post-Sept. 11 hornets with his memo forbidding the use of patriotic ribbons by on-air talent., mutterings and threats from state politicians still linger in Columbia and Jefferson City, although it is unclear if they will become anything more.
November 2001; Vol. 31, No. 241Home-grown correspondent: St. Louis native reports on war in Afghanistan
Don Corrigan: "We are now in a war that is part of a crusade which has been going on since the 10th Century," declares Dave Francis in his "Francis Report" of Oct. 1. "We are fighting evangelists with Kalishnikovs, ready to kill in the name of Allah."
Small-town newspaper shows unusual courage
Peter Downs: This summer, the Poplar Bluff (Missouri) Daily American Republic took a courageous stand. In a series of articles -- many of them on the front page -- the small town paper exposed problems at the area's largest employer, politically connected Three Rivers Healthcare.
Last days at Channel 30
Terry Cancila: In January 1995, the start of the New Year brought something new to St. Louis television. KDNL (Channel 30), the then-Fox affiliate in St. Louis, now ABC, began broadcasting a 9 p.m. half-hour newscast seven days a week.
Questions surround Channel 30, ABC contract
Alex Posorske: So, KDNL (Channel 30) has dropped its local newscasts, leaving the metropolitan area with only four local newscasts.
October 2001; Vol. 31, No. 240True colors: Former Post-Dispatch reporters drop veil of objectivity, fight against publicly financed baseball stadium
Don Corrigan: While the St. Louis Post-Dispatch continues to write editorials in support of a publicly financed stadium for the baseball Cardinals, a flock of retired Post journalists has flown the corporate coop in defiance of the paper's pro-stadium position.
Wash U hampers press freedom
Alex Posorske: What if they threw a peace rally and no one (from the press) came?
Channel 30 pulls plug on local news
Tripp Frohlichstein: In a shocking move, KDNL (Channel 30) told its newsroom on Sept. 28 that it was dropping newscasts from the station's schedule. Forty seven staffers will be out of work following the 10 p.m. news on Oct. 12. Channel 30 is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting.
Sept. 11, 2001 perspectives A shallow media can inflict deep damage
Daniel Hellinger: News of the attack came early on Sept. 11. A voice, emotionally shaken, said the jets were swooping in for the attack. Smoke billowed from public buildings regarded as embodiments of national greatness and sovereignty. Many people were already dead, and many more would die beneath the rubble. Democracy was under attack.
For one day at least, television brought us together
Dave Cohen: Where would we be without television? Who didn't take almost every opportunity to tune in and see those terrible pictures? Who wasn't affected by the horrific images of destruction, of those running to safety, of those offering help, of those digging through the rubble, of those hoping against hope that their loved ones or their friends had somehow made their escape?
September 2001; Vol. 31, No. 239Newsrooms and barrooms: The beerhall putsch and other stories
Don Corrigan: Throughout the ragged history of American journalism, wherever a thriving newsroom has been located, a drinking establishment with reasonable odds for prosperity has been found in close proximity.
What's in a name? Local media struggle with naming Spangler
Alex Posorske: Like sharks smelling blood in the water, the St. Louis media were all over the developments in the Arlin Henderson case as they unfolded at the end of July and beginning of August.
City officials pull info from website
Benjamin Isreal: On July 11, weeks after the Soulard Homeowners' Association website posted messages opposing the use of public funds for building a new baseball stadium, Ed Rhode, Mayor Francis Slay's press secretary, ordered them removed.
July/August 2001; Vol. 31, No. 238Postmortem on Post's 'Imagine'
Don Corrigan: In some ways, the final edition of "Imagine St. Louis" in the July 1, 2001, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was as bizarre as the first edition of "Imagine" that debuted on April 11, 1999.
Bare improvements
Ed Bishop: Almost anything would have been an improvement. So, the new section that replaced "Imagine St. Louis" in the Sunday, July 8, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was a step upbut just barely.
Confluence works to fill alternative gap
Alex Posorske: For me it arose from the fact that I'm an anarchist. I believe in undermining authority and all elements of power that give people the ability to dominate someone else. I feel like publishing a newspaper is a good way to empower people."
MLB wants to own all photos
Joe Pollack: Newspapers want to ownand resell at their pleasure and their priceall pictures and words they buy from freelancers. Freelancers are very upset, and very powerless. At the same time, newspapers want the right to keep and later sellat their pleasure and their pricethe work of their sports photographers. The four major sports are in an argument, and later, undoubtedly, will be in court trying to decide who owns the intellectual property.
June 2001; Vol. 31, No. 237'Public investment insuring private profits:' A conversation about baseball with Bob Costas
Ed Bishop: Major League Baseball -- the national pastime and St. Louis' secular religion -- is in trouble. A combination of sky-high free-agency salaries for ballplayers and vastly unequal incomes for owners is threatening to tear the business of baseball apart.
Fired reporter questions RFT integrity
Alex Posorske: So what's going on at the Riverfront Times? We all know the familiar complaints against the publication: It has turned its back on alternative journalism; it's just another cog in the corporate wheel of New Times Inc., it didn't used to be like this.
More reporting needed on 'Star Wars'
Don Corrigan: Some officials in the current Bush administration tout it as "Star Wars II," a simple revival of the high-tech Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) first unveiled during President Ronald Reagan's administration.
May 2001; Vol. 31, No. 236Crusade: What drove Carolyn Tuft and the Post-Dispatch in the Woidtke case
Roy Malone: Who Killed Audrey Cardenas? That's what the boxed graphic asked St. Louis Post-Dispatch readers each time a story appeared about the murder of the 24-year-old news reporter intern in Belleville in 1988.
Under Ted Garcia, KETC (Channel 9) established commerical grounding, though some are glad to see him go
Dawn Grodsky: Ted Garcia gets choked up when talking about the people he's about to leave behind. Garcia, 52, who has worked in St. Louis television for 30 years -- including the past 20 at KETC (Channel 9) -- has accepted a job as general manager/CEO of the public television station in Albuquerque, N.M.
After 18 years, Froehlich leaves RFT
Alex Posorske: Don't whine to Cliff Froehlich about the decline of the alternative press. Froehlich, the associate editor at the Riverfront Times until last month, has been with St. Louis' large scale answer to the mainstream press in one form or another since 1983.
KTRS in up-hill battle for listener share
Frank Absher: If there were any people out there who still thought KTRS was a threat to topple KMOX, those thoughts should be dispelled. Tim Dorsey's crusade to emulate the late Robert Hyland appears to be a failure.
April 2001; Vol. 31, No. 235Ball park figures: How politicians and the local media are handling public funding for a new baseball stadium
Two points of general consensus about the use of public funds for building the Cardinals a new stadium seem to have formed. First, most Missourians do not believe public money should be used. And, second, most Missourians believe public money will be used. Or, as one leading St. Louis journalist puts it, "The fix is in."
Legislator thinks Post closing its eyes to reality of stadium deal
Don Corrigan: When state legislators met this March with the pack of heavy hitters demanding a new downtown stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals, some in the press described the unusual encounter in Jefferson City as a "lovefest."
St. Louis media thinks they have done a good job covering stadium deal
Alex Posorske: If you ask the St. Louis media, they think they've been doing a pretty good job looking into the whole stadium mess. "Overall I think the local media is doing a fine job of covering it," said KMOX's Charles Jaco. "They've been asking all the questions that the Cardinals haven't raised.
American fails to cover death threats
Tammy Merrett: Death threats are a serious matter. And, no matter how you look at them, they're news.
March 2001; Vol. 31, No. 234'Tough Broad:' Aggressive journalist Ellen Soeteber takes reins at Post-Dispatch
Dawn Grodsky: Ellen Soeteber, the new editor-in-chief of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, laughs when she learns a former colleague called her a "tough broad." But Soeteber is not offended by the term. "In fact, I consider that a compliment," she says.
KKK flyers concern local colleges
Don Corrigan: Flyers advertising meetings of a national group known as NOFEAR, led by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, are appearing on St. Louis area college campuses.
Media and Democracy: An Interview with Robert W. McChesney
Rita Csapo-Sweet: Robert McChesney's insightful analysis of mass communications and its effects on American journalism and American culture has put him in the forefront of current media criticism. His speciality is understanding the impact of the concentration of media ownership on the democratic process.
February 2001; Vol. 31, No. 233Lost watchdogs: Local media abandon consumers
Don Corrigan: The watchdog has lost its teeth! Whether it's because of corporate directives, advertising pressures or a new-fangled philosophy of civic cheerleadingthe news media watchdog in St. Louis has lost its teeth.
Media/Politics: Number of black voters did not increase
Terry Jones: Was African-American turnout up in the November 2000 elections in Missouri? There's only one problem with this tale. It's fiction, not fact.
Appellate court strikes blow against administrator control of student press
Don Corrigan: In the 1988 Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the First Amendment's reach stops at a high school's classroom door. A similar attempt to halt First Amendment freedoms at the college gates has now been repudiated.
You can forget RCGA's 'Biobelt' idea
Peter Downs: It used to be that conservatives opposed any kind of government subsidy to industry under the mantra that government should not try to pick winners and losers in business. How times change.