Comments on: Isn’t it NEWS when the daily newspaper fires one of its prominent columnists?

By: Tim Hogan

Tim Hogan — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:36:08 +0000

Erich, I live in West County and haven’t seen this (yet!). If I do I’ll forward it to you. It looks like all the far right wing corporatist neofascist Brown Shirt weblog echochambering yobbo yappers have won, and the PD will die.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:52:16 +0000

The St. Louis American has now published an editorial describing the Post-Dispatch flyer in some detail. The bottom line is that the PD sees it's financial future in catering to monied conservative readers, a U-Turn from the Joseph Pulitzer platform that is supposedly the basis for the existence of the Post-Dispatch. Here's an excerpt from the editorial recently published by the American:

The mindset of the hard-pressed Post leadership is best glimpsed in its latest mailer from the Circulation Department that has been appearing in mailboxes in West County and South County ZIP codes. “Our Coverage is Right on the Money (in more ways than one),” screams the headline. A list of six bulleted points includes one boasting of publishing “conservative columnists” and another of providing “conservative, relevant view points.” We get the message: in a lunge for desperately needed circulation revenue, the Post wants to be seen by a targeted demographic group as moving to the conservative right.

Again, if anyone has a copy of the PD mailer, and they are willing to allow me to inspect and photograph it, please let me know. Thanks.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:24:04 +0000

Here’s my caveat. I haven’t yet seen the flyer, but I’ve heard from two sources that something like this was sent out. I should also make clear that I want my metropolitan newspaper to have a wide variety of views, including right wing views. I agree with John Stewart Mill: good ideas beat bad ideas. I’m increasingly concerned, though, that the PD is shifting the entire spectrum of viewpoints to the right. Some would say that this is occurring because readers are leaning more to the right. I disagree. I think that people acquiesced in the atrocities of the Bush Administration because the corporate media marched in lockstep with Bush. Where were the photos from the military occupation of Iraq during the Bush years. If America’s newspapers had published photos from the Iraq theater starting in 2003, the “war” would have ended in 2003.

By: Mindy Carney

Mindy Carney — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:33:47 +0000

Interesting, Erich. Which pretty much dismisses it as the paper for the city, daily or otherwise. If it is going to openly define itself as a right-wing rag, so be it. I will no longer expect (as if I still did) any sort of “fair and balanced” journalism from said rag. We’ll call it the anti-RFT and let it die its slow and uninteresting death all by itself, taking its blogs, which have become the soapbox for the uneducated and bigoted in our fair city, down with it. The Fox news of local print media, no longer good enough for the bottom of our bird cage.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:26:30 +0000

A request: I’ve heard that the Post-Dispatch has been target marketing to folks it considers conservative. The flyer implies that the Post-Dispatch is a good fit for people with right wing politics. It says something like “We’re right for you.”

If anyone in the St. Louis area has received such an advertisement from the Post-Dispatch in the last month and would be willing to allow me to view that advertisement, I would most appreciate it. If you have such an ad, please write to me at erichvieth@gmail.com.

Thanks.

By: Kathi

Kathi — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:45:07 +0000

I’m glad SOMEONE points to this obvious omission.
Thank you.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:20:39 +0000

hahaha, nice! harsh, but nice.