BY GENELLE I. BELMAS and JASON M. SHEPARD / When Lisa Rosenberg recently traveled to Croatia, the open-government advocate was prepared to debate the appropriateness of campaign-finance disclosure laws in a formerly Communist regime. But she found little need to persuade.
BY SCOTT LAMBERT / Sports Illustrated’s recent series of articles chronicling cheating at Oklahoma State University were meant to reignite a long-running conversation about the seedy culture of big-time college athletics. Instead, Sports Illustrated started a conversation about credibility and perceptions of bias that overshadowed its original plan.
by Patty Louise / When the NFL opened its season in early September, Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning grabbed much of the attention when he guided his team to a win over Baltimore by throwing a record-tying seven touchdown passes. The next day, though, it was the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch that captured headlines over its own headline about the game. In its early print editions, the Dispatch’s page C3 headline said Elway – as in 53-year-old Hall of Fame, long-since retired, former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway – had thrown those game-winning scores.
BY TERRY GANEY / When the Missouri Legislature failed to override Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a tax cut bill, St. Louis Post-Dispatch political reporter Kevin McDermott knew where to find the far right’s reaction. Dana Loesch.
BY WILLIAM H. FREIVOGEL / The press doesn’t cover nuance very well, especially when it is covering itself – or when a reporter is more of an advocate than an impartial observer. The recent NSA stories and those about leaks of top-secret information are good examples.
BY WILLIAM H. FREIVOGEL / The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a correction this week to its “Jailed by Mistake” series, acknowledging that one man it had reported as jailed by mistake had not been behind bars. The correction was included in a Page 1 story by Robert Patrick under the headline, “Man battles to free himself from St. Louis police paperwork glitch.”
BY SANDRA ROBINSON / Gateway Journalism Review will once again host a First Amendment Celebration on March 29, 2014. The event will be at the Edward Jones Headquarters in Des Peres, Mo. Longtime St. Louis publisher Ray Hartmann will serve as the Master of Ceremonies. Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now!” will be the keynote speaker.
BY WILLIAM A. BABCOCK / Read a couple of letters to our editor about articles in the Fall 2013 edition and the humorous replies.
BY GEORGE SALAMON / “Iranian military commander tells Obama ‘all options are on the table’” Raw Story, March 16, 2013; “’All options are on the table’ in dealing with Iran,” Obama said, CBS News, March 20, 2013; “’All options are on the table,’” President Obama on Syria, USA Today, June 1, 2013; “’All options are on the table,’ Israeli Deputy Minister of Defense Danny Danon warned,” WND, November 24, 2013
BY PAT LOUISE / When former New York Times Executive Editor Abraham “A.M.” Rosenthal died in May 2006, his obituary lauded his numerous accomplishments during his 56 years at the newspaper. He had won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting and led the paper through coverage of the Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers. He also was credited as initiating the now industry standard practice of running corrections in a fixed spot for readers to find. The New York Times chose Page 2 for its corrections, and many newspapers followed. He and the Times began the practice in 1972.
BY WILLIAM A. BABCOCK / Family traditions die hard. When I was in college in the Dark Ages, my mother would send me a few business-size envelopes each week – often with a letter, and always stuffed with newspaper and magazine clippings. There were Cleveland Plain Dealer clippings about the Indians baseball and Browns football teams, clippings from the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram about news from northern Ohio, Avon Lake Press community updates on which high school girlfriends were getting married and to whom, Newsweek clippings about politics and world events – the works.
by William A. Babcock / My Paris correspondent had trouble walking, chewing gum and correctly using the English language. Heck, he didn’t even have to be meandering with a Dentyne wad in his mouth to muck up his mother tongue. I knew this, as I should, being his stateside editor. So imagine my great joy when I saw I’d be editing three Page 1 stories for the next day’s paper, and knowing that his would be the last one to arrive at my desk, and thus giving me a grand total of 10 minutes, tops, to edit his piece.
BY WILLIAM H. FREIVOGEL / Eddie Roth, St. Louis’ Director of Operations and former Post-Dispatch editorial writer, is using his Facebook page to criticize a recent Post-Dispatch series, “Jailed by Mistake.” Roth maintains the series “is premised on ‘facts’ whose accuracy the reporters admittedly have been unable to verify, and that it distorts statements in ways that create a patently false and deeply unfair impression of official indifference.”
by Tripp Frohlichstein / Commendations to Channel 4 (KMOV) for its performance during the severe weather outbreak last Sunday afternoon. As killer tornadoes formed in the area and noon approached, there was no doubt many football fans were concerned their game would not air because of the dangerous weather.
by Tripp Frohlichstein / Elliott Davis brought viewers an effective “You Paid For It” this past week as he produced a story (http://fox2now.com/2013/11/13/expensive-deal-costing-st-charles-county-taxpayers-millions/) on what appears to be an inconsistency in how St. Charles County does business. He pointed out that a recent $5 million plus project had only one bid submitted. Davis went after St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann to ask him why they did not put the bid out again hoping for more bids to potentially lower the cost. Ehlmann responded that it fell within their expected cost range. Then it was clear that Davis did his homework.
