Roth’s letter to readers: Decide for yourselves

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Joseph Pulitzer uttered three words that occupy an even more exalted place in the ideals of the working journalist than the poetry of his Platform: “Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy,” he said. The prize that bears Mr. Pulitzer’s name embeds in its rules another pre-eminent value of professional journalism: fairness. The Post-Dispatch has fallen woefully short of these standards. Its editors approved publication of reports that are grossly unfair, that are full of errors and that fundamentally misrepresent the system of criminal suspect identification in St. Louis.

St. Louis TV station does disservice to viewers

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St. Louis television station KMOV (Channel 4) did an extraordinary disservice to viewers on March 7. Anchor Sharon Reed read, in her usual dramatic style, this promo at 6:20 p.m.: “Tonight at 10, tainted beef on local store shelves. News 4 exposing a major alert that your family needs to know about before your next meal. Tonight at 10.” If it’s so important, tell us now … at dinnertime, no less. It was irresponsible at best. Yet this story that was so vital did not air until 10:07 p.m. and was just 22 seconds long.

‘12 Years a Slave’ headlines miss the mark

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The movie “12 Years a Slave” earned three Academy Awards at Sunday’s Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, including Best Supporting Actress and Best Picture honors, and several newspapers attempted witty headlines to commemorate the accolades. The front-page headline in the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif., read, “ ‘Slave’ becomes master.” Other newspapers ran similar Page 1 headlines. The East Central Illinois News-Gazette’s headline was, “ ‘12 Years a Slave’ escapes with top Oscar.” The Denver Post’s headline read, “ ‘12 Years a Slave’ escapes pull of ‘Gravity’ for win.”

Journalism for the perpetually busy and easily distracted

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On June 6, Farhad Manjoo wrote a column headlined “You Won’t Finish This Article. Why people online don’t read to the end” for the online magazine Slate. To find out why they don’t, you must read to the end and learn that “we live in an age of skimming. I want to finish the whole thing, I really do. I wish you would, too. Really – stop quitting. But who am I kidding? I’m busy. You’re busy. There’s always something else to read, watch, play, or eat.” How does Slate, founded in 1996, attract about 3 million monthly Internet visitors in the United States alone (about 5 million worldwide) if Manjoo is right about current reading habits?

Social media campaign by former Post-Dispatch writer alleges mistakes in series about mistakes

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BY WILLIAM H. FREIVOGEL / The “Jailed by Mistake” project published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this past fall had all of the earmarks of enterprising journalism in the public interest. By the time the project went to press Oct. 27, the Post-Dispatch reported that 100 people had been arrested in error over the past seven years and had spent a collective 2,000 days in jail. But in the months since publication, a former Post-Dispatch editorial writer who went to work for St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay meticulously documented what he thinks were mistakes in the series about mistakes. The top Slay administration official, Eddie Roth, has gone about it in an unorthodox way: He has published a series of criticisms on his Facebook page that have run even longer than the original series.