Gateway Journalism Review Winter 2013

St. Louis Journalism Review Presents:

25th Anniversary of Hazelwood student press case

by Tom Eveslage pg. 8 and William H. Freivogel pg. 10 Chicago’s finest? Newspaper crusade knocks luster off image

by John McCarron pg. 16 Greek debt crisis: Mainstream media miss critical details

by Joanna Kakissis pg. 22 Rex Sinquefield: ‘A new American oligarch’

by Terry Ganey pg. 24 Former reporter sees Sandy Hook through residents’ eyes Eileen Byrnes pg. 32 Winter 2013 • Volume 43 Number 329 • $8

Thank You

Gateway Journalism Review wishes to thank the following contributors for their generous support of the recent First Amendment Celebration: Kay and Leo Drey, Honorary Co-Chairs Marilyn and Isaac Young, Honorary Co-Chairs St. Louis Beacon Yvette and John Dubinsky Edward Jones Co. Enterprise Holdings Fleishman-Hillard Agnes and Dave Garino Gateway Media Literacy Partners Greensfelder, Henker & Gale, P.C Ray Hartmann KMOV Nancy and Ken Kranzberg Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, L.C. Maryville University Lynn and Mark Sableman Suzanne and Paul Schoomer Mark Vittert Special Thanks to Tom Engelhardt, who designed the First Amendment logo we used in all the printed items, and Bill McClellan for serving as master of ceremonies.

See story on page 13 for more details.

Content Featured

Media & Law 6 • M ask of anonymity emboldens commenters

by Roy Malone 8 • Hazelwood case still suffocating student journalists

by Tom Eveslage 10 • H azelwood reverberates 25 years later

by William H. Freivogel 13 • Seigenthaler sets a high bar for journalists

by Sam Robinson 14 • W hat devices should be allowed in court?

by Eric P. Robinson

Media & Violence

28 • M edia miss story on workplace violence

by Pat Louise 32 • O utside looking in: Former reporter sees Sandy Hook through residents’ eyes

by Eileen Byrnes

Features 16 • C hicago’s finest? Newspaper crusade knocks luster off image

by John McCarron 18 • C ommunication students collaborate on oral history

by Tom Grier 21 • L essons from 2012 election polling

by Charlie Leonard 22 • G reek debt crisis: Mainstream media miss critical details

by Joanna Kakissis 24 • R ex Sinquefield: ‘A new American oligarch’

by Terry Ganey

New Media 34 • M edia alliances fuel community journalism efforts

by John Jarvis 35 • M oochers no more

by Patrick Howe 36 • O nline news finds niche in fragile times

by John Jarvis Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 1

Featured Content

Women In Media 44 • W omen still paid less

by Sam Robinson

Reviews

48 • H illary Clinton’s scrunchies

by Sam Robinson

37 • ‘ Beware of Limbo Dancers’ walks on edge of likability

by William A. Babcock

39 • ‘ Deadline in Disaster ’ refutes cynical nature of newspaper reporters

by Terry Ganey

38 • ‘ Into the Fray ’ details NBC’s forays into documentaries

by Jan Thompson

40 • ‘ St. Louis Radio and Television’ book spotlights St. Louis radio, TV legends

by Michael D. Murray

Published by School of Journalism College of Mass Communication and Media Arts Interim Dean: Dafna Lemish School of Journalism Director: William H. Freivogel William Freivogel Publisher

Charles Klotzer Founder

William Babcock Editor

Sam Robinson Managing Editor

Terry Ganey St. Louis Editor

John Jarvis Associate Managing Editor

Aaron Veenstra Web Master

Christian Holt Designer

Steve Edwards Artist

Board of Advisers: Roy Malone, Jim Kirchherr, Lisa Bedian, Ed Bishop, Tammy Merrett, Don Corrigan, Michael Murray, Rita Csapo-Sweet, Steve Perron, Eileen Duggan, Michael D. Sorkin, David P. Garino, Rick Stoff, Ted Gest, Fred Sweet, William Greenblatt, Lynn Venhaus, Daniel Hellinger, Robert A. Cohn, Michael E. Kahn, John P. Dubinsky, Gerald Early, Paul Schoomer, Moisy Shopper, Ray Hartmann, Ken Solomon, Avis Meyer, Tom Engelhardt

Page 2 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

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Editor’s Note

Media censorship, freedom and responsibility It’s too soon to say whether China’s new leadership eventually will sanction an easing of media restrictions.

In China, where it’s usually impossible to Google the word “freedom,” it should come as little surprise that journalists seldom rock the boat.

But ripples have surfaced this year in China’s harmonious media, sending reminders that issues of press freedom can – and do – resonate around the globe.

Early in January in the southern city of Guangzhou, journalists threatened to strike over a Page 1 editorial rewritten by propaganda officials. In the end, a strike was averted in this prosperous province when a last-minute deal was reached.

The Los Angeles Times reported that problems began a few days into the new year, when a front-page editorial said constitutional reforms were necessary. The Times reported

that the editorial had been “rewritten by the propaganda chief as a bland message of congratulation over China’s achievements.”

Four major newspapers, including the Beijing News and Shanghai Morning Post, refused to run the editorial. Other newspapers placed the editorial on news pages rather than opinion pages. The Times called that “a subtle way of distancing themselves from the message.”

At the same time that a number of Chinese journalists are calling for greater press freedom, Beijing is taking steps to control its citizens’ use of the Internet, and especially microblogging – that nation’s version of tweeting.

TechCrunch, a news site that follows social media, reported that the National People’s Congress is considering legislation to require Internet users (mostly young Chinese) to use their real names.

Such a new law is expected to affect Sina Weibo, China’s microblogging service, which claims more than 400 million members, reported TechCrunch.

Thus, issues of press freedom and access are affecting (and being discussed by) many in the Middle Kingdom. It’s too soon to say whether China’s new

leadership eventually will sanction an easing of media restrictions. And in the event China’s media eventually do become less restrictive, increased freedom may be abused.

As this edition of Gateway Journalism Review shows, the American media can abuse their First Amendment freedoms, as they did in reporting on the Newtown, Conn., school shootings (see Eileen Byrnes’ article, p. 32). And as Pat Louise points out, (see p. 28), media in the United States can fail to see and report on major important trends. The U.S. news media also can act in a less-than-robust manner in protecting students’ press freedoms (see Tom Eveslage’s article, p. 8).

The hope is that Beijing might become more press freedom friendly – and that the U.S. media might use its own freedoms in a more responsible manner.

William A. Babcock, Editor

The staff and contributors at Gateway Journalism Review strive to deliver timely, accurate and thought-provoking content to readers.

We do this through our weekly eNewsletter and our quarterly print publication. We welcome your comments on both.

To send a letter to the editor, please send an email to: gatewayjr@siu.edu.

Please include your full name, city and state.

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 3

Publisher’s Note

First Amendment takes center stage

By happy coincidence rather than clever planning, this issue is filled with stories about the full range of First Amendment issues in the news: • Should public school student journalists have free expression rights or be subject to censorship by the principal?

• Should newspapers allow anonymous comments at the end of stories?

• Should Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act give online sites greater legal protection than dead-tree cousins?

• Should reporters be able to tweet from a courtroom?

• Are colleges violating student free-speech rights by punishing intolerant speech?

• How has the Citizens United Supreme Court case influenced elections, especially in Missouri and the Midwest where retired investment guru Rex Sinquefield has given more than $23 million in the past four years to 170 candidates and 377 committees?

• What is to be done about the plethora of false information that finds its way onto the Web and travels in a flash around the world?

This focus on free speech is fitting, because Gateway Journalism Review just celebrated the First Amendment at its annual fundraiser in St. Louis.

The fundraiser was keynoted by John Seigenthaler, the newspaper editor and former Justice Department official who founded the First Amendment Center. Seigenthaler talked about some of the dangers that accompany the Internet. He was the victim of

maliciously false allegations posted in his Wikipedia biography claiming he had been involved in both Kennedy assassinations.

The false charge was particularly outrageous because Seigenthaler had loyally served Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in helping to desegregate the South, and because of Seigenthaler’s lifelong defense of a free and responsible press.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act generally gives legal immunity to online sites, such as Wikipedia, for the defamatory postings of third parties. That meant Seigenthaler couldn’t sue Wikipedia even if he wanted. If, on the other hand, Wikipedia were a hard-copy encyclopedia, it would have no such immunity.

Having spent his life defending the press, Seigenthaler isn’t about to ask the government to restrict free speech by repealing Section 230. Rather, he thinks that citizens and the media should hold publications responsible.

One good place to start is for newspapers to insist that posters commenting on stories use their real names. For those news organizations that want to continue to permit anonymous comments, it is imperative they keep a closer eye on comments so they can quickly remove racist babble that often lingers long after stories are posted online.

The new media technology that offers journalists and readers so many wonderful new avenues of free expression also is at the center of current controversies involving student expression.

Twenty-five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a body blow to public high school journalists in the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier case from a suburb of St. Louis. That decision, which allowed the principal to censor a student newspaper, is one of the most significant reductions in free speech in the past quarter-century.

With the advent of social media, many of today’s student-administrator confrontations involve off-color comments or parodies written by

Page 4 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

students from home on their personal computers. The question is whether Hazelwood allows principals to reach into students’ homes and punish them for social media comments that cause disruptions in school.

Hazelwood is a leading example of how student free-speech rights and rights of press freedom have suffered during the past quarter-century at the same time the Supreme Court has recognized expanded First Amendment rights for politically and economically powerful forces.

That brings us to Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to use unlimited treasury funds to help elect political candidates.

As predicted, the much-maligned decision helped unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in unlimited campaign spending in the 2012 election, much of it in support of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Republican Senate candidates. Contrary to predictions, the money almost entirely failed to elect candidates it supported.

GJR’s St. Louis editor, Terry Ganey, found that Sinquefield also has accumulated mixed results from his big political expenditures, which have occurred both before and after Citizens United. (A little-noticed fact is that rich individuals could spend unlimited amounts for election of candidates long before Citizens United.)

Citizens United poses a serious intellectual challenge for liberals who believe in a strong First Amendment.

What speech could be more important than speech during a political campaign?

If the First Amendment is robust enough that it should protect student journalists in Hazelwood – as most liberals believe – can it be so weak as to not protect the sources of political spending that help elect our representatives?

William H. Freivogel, Publisher

Opinion

Illinois, Missouri universities fall short of protecting free expression

by Charles L. Klotzer

The First Amendment protects free expression. That, however, covers only governmental acts: “Congress shall make no law ...,” it says. That threat by officialdom is ever-present. But we are also facing a similar threat by private centers of power that may interfere more directly with our lives.

Greg Lakianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), warns in a New York Times op-ed piece that colleges have enacted speech codes intended to enforce civility, “but they often backfire, suppressing free expression instead of allowing for open debate of controversial issues.”

Foundation officials found in a study of 392 campus speech codes that 65 percent of the colleges had policies that, in their view, violated the constitutional guarantee of the right to free speech. (Private colleges, unlike public institutions, do not fall under the First Amendment protection.) Lakianoff reported that a 2010 study by the American Association of Colleges and Universities of 24,000 college students and 9,000 faculty and staff members found that 35.6 percent of the students and 18.5 percent of the faculty and staff strongly agreed that it was “safe to hold unpopular positions on campus.”

The debacle at St. Louis University is a perfect example of intimidation and threats to free expression.

Readers of this review by now know about the travails that faculty members faced if Father Lawrence Biondi, president of the university, found them annoying.

Avis Meyer is a distinguished professor of journalism and has instructed students for more than 35 years. He has been the faculty adviser for the university’s school newspaper.

The newspaper, in the best tradition of investigative journalism, has

exposed many Biondi misdeeds. The president appears to blame Meyer for not censoring some of these exposés and banned Meyer from meeting with journalism students in the newspaper office. The students decided to meet with Meyer off campus.

When this publication covered Biondi’s antics over many years, not one of the faculty members we knew was willing to offer even a “no comment.”

Suppression of free expression was the norm at the school.

FIRE (http://thefire.org/) evaluates free expression at public and private universities throughout the country. It reviewed school policies in detail and concluded whether they are or are not offensive to the First Amendment in the case of public universities, or the spirit of the First Amendment in the case of private universities.

Speech and behavior codes are an attempt to balance community stability and bans on hate speech and disturbances with free speech. These efforts frequently misfire.

In Missouri, FIRE found five of the six public universities may restrict the free exercise of speech under its established policies. Among the two

private schools, it did not rate St. Louis University but Washington University’s policies of its “Residential Life Policies & Procedures: Harassment 11-12” endangered free expression.

“Harassment is defined as any behavior or conduct that is injurious, or potentially injurious to a person’s physical, emotional, or psychological well-being, as determined at the sole discretion of the University. Such behavior is subject to disciplinary action.”

Who defines harassment? Who will determine the emotional injury? All will be up to the sole discretion of the university.

In Illinois, FIRE found that some regulations in 10 public and four private colleges and universities may restrict the free exercise of speech - thus the group found all Illinois schools they studied as potentially limiting a free exchange of ideas.

In the case of Southern Illinois University, it gives a green light to most of its codes, except for a “Policy on Non-Discrimination and NonHarassment” passed by its board of trustees: “Discriminatory harassment includes, but is not limited to, conduct (oral, written, graphics or physical) directed against any person or group of persons because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran’s status that has the purpose of or reasonably foreseeable effect of creating an offensive, demeaning, intimidating or hostile environment for that person or group of persons. Such conduct includes, but is not limited to, objectionable epithets demeaning depictions or treatment and threatened or actual abuse or harm.”

No matter how well-intentioned, the blanket term “discriminatory harassment” and its condemnation of objectionable epithets invite the possibility of censorship by school officials of legitimate expressions.

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 5

Media & Law

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Mask of anonymity emboldens commenters

C

by Roy Malone

an anyone post anonymous comments to a website that is privately owned but operates publicly?

When media companies provide a platform for online comments, usually at the end of news stories, can anonymous ones be barred when they are racist, hateful, vile, disgusting or uncivilized?

The answer to both questions is yes. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that anonymous speech is protected by the First Amendment from government interference. But website owners can delete anonymous comments as they see fit. And they generally cannot be held liable for the content of third-party postings.

But media companies are trying to identify and curb the small number of so-called online “trolls”’ who seem addicted to attacking anyone – the writers, authority figures and even each other on the same website. These trolls hide behind their anonymity and avoid taking responsibility for what they say.

The problem has been growing over the past decade. Here’s what industry commentator James Rainey wrote in his “On the Media” column for the Los Angeles Times: “It seems long past time for reputable news sites to clamp down on the gutter talk. Otherwise, the opendoor policy at npr.org, latimes.com and many other sites drives down the quality of the conversation and alienates the kind of thoughtful guests that make the party worth coming to in the first place.”

Rainey suggested that online postings be identified with real names, just like letters to the editor.

News sites have been experimenting with blocking user comments altogether, and with various forms of comment moderation. A new wrinkle from Facebook makes that job a bit

easier. The social networking site offers a third-party comments plugin. Most important, though, is that the tie-in with Facebook requires that readers must use their real names when commenting on a news story. Facebook bars the use of fake names, although the rule isn’t strictly enforced.

Many news organizations consider this a boon. Facebook and its users, such as large newspapers, say the comments have improved in quality, and the media companies can see an increase in the number of comments, or hits, on their websites. And it’s the hits that publishers tout when targeting advertisers.

Not everyone is impressed. David Eaves, a consultant on public policy, openness and negotiation, wrote that banning anonymous comments is bad for the media and society.

“It is disempowering those who are most marginalized ... many people – for very legitimate reasons – don’t want to use their real name,” Eaves wrote.

“What ending anonymity is really about is power.”

He said the media should not be farming out its privacy policies to Facebook, which he said has more than 80 million fake accounts.

“It also means that a comment you make, 10 years hence, can be saved on a newspaper’s website, traced back to your Facebook account and used by a prospective employer to decide if you should get a job,” Eaves added.

Though anonymous comments were an accepted part of the Internet in its infancy, in recent years news websites have felt the pain. Here are some examples: • A judge in Cleveland sued the Plain Dealer for violating her privacy when it disclosed in a news story that anonymous online comments disparaging a lawyer were made from the judge’s court computer. She settled out of court.

• The U.S. attorney in New Orleans resigned, and it was disclosed in legal motions that his senior prosecutors had been making anonymous and provocative online comments about active criminal matters on the TimesPicayune website.

• Judges have ordered media websites to turn over the identity of anonymous commenters, including one in Texas where a couple won a $13.8 million defamation lawsuit against persons who had posted that they were

Some critics of anonymous comments say the U.S. government has helped foster the climate of freewheeling “anything goes” commenting.

Page 6 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Media & Law “Don’t say anything you’d be afraid to say in front of your mom.”

©The New Yorker Collection/Peter Steiner 1993

sexual deviants and drug dealers.

• In Alton, Ill., the Telegraph was ordered to turn over names of two online readers to police because their comments were connected to a murder investigation. A judge ruled that the names were not protected by the state’s shield law for reporters. However, in several other states judges have ruled that shield laws protected the identity of anonymous commenters.

When a commenter used a vulgar word on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website, a former online editor deleted it, but it was posted again. Kurt Greenbaum found the commenter’s IP address originated at a school and called the school’s principal. The offending commenter lost his job. When word of Greenbaum’s action was reported on social websites, he was bombarded with thousands of comments, many of them

attacking him and urging that he be fired. Greenbaum said all he was trying to do was keep the paper’s website from being abused.

One commenter said of the Greenbaum brouhaha that he preferred reading the comments to the news stories.

“Comments, even vulgar ones, are part of what makes it entertaining,” the commenter said.

John Seigenthaler was unhappy when he saw his biography falsified on Wikipedia in 2005. Seigenthaler is a noted First Amendment advocate, author and former Justice Department official who was injured protecting Freedom Riders. The Wikipedia bio said he was a suspect in the assassinations of John Kennedy and Kennedy’s brother, Bobby. Seigenthaler worked for months to get the infamous

allegation removed from the website, which allowed volunteers to post information. At a First Amendment celebration in St. Louis last fall, he said he chose not to sue Wikipedia. He said he is against government intrusion.

The best action is to complain to media officials about the “vandalism” caused by irresponsible online commenters, Seigenthaler said.

Some critics of anonymous comments say the U.S. government has helped foster the climate of freewheeling “anything goes” commenting. Under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, online publishers are not to be held liable for the content posted on their websites.

In the print and broadcast worlds, publishers are liable.

As they wrestle with this problem, some news outlets have flatly barred any comments. Others seek to register those who want to state their opinions. Many news organizations lack the staff to police what is said on their websites.

The problem has been discussed by members of the Society of Professional Journalists, but no stated policy has been put forth. David Sheets, director of SPJ’s Region 7, said the stance is to “let each newspaper decide what is the best policy.”

At the American Journalism Review, editor Rem Rieder pulled no punches in a piece he wrote: “It’s time for new sites to stop allowing anonymous online comments.”

Studies show that people behave much worse if their identities are secret than if their true identities are known. In an article in Slate magazine headlined, “Troll, Reveal Thyself,” writer Farhad Manjoo said people behave differently when their comments are seen by a network of friends and family – people they know.

“Don’t say anything you’d be afraid to say in front of your mom,” Manjoo advised. <

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 7

Media & Law

25th anniversary Hazelwood case still suffocating student journalists

by Tom Eveslage

I remember sitting with others lucky enough to hear oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the fall of 1987. It was an important case about educating young citizens, and the first the court heard dealing with a high school newspaper.

I also knew it mattered because the student newspaper is the voice of many young citizens in our public schools.

My mistake. This wasn’t about the court’s earlier mandate that schools foster citizenship education. The Supreme Court said that 18 years earlier in Tinker v. Des Moines, and lower courts echoed this for two decades. But this Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier case was not about educating free and responsible young journalists. It was about administrative authority. And power. And it obscured the Tinker assertion that students learn citizenship in part through practicing free and responsible speech in school.

Students at Hazelwood East High School, near St. Louis, wanted to publish well-researched stories about the impact of divorce on some of their classmates, and how others were coping with being single mothers. And when the Spectrum was ready for publication, the principal removed the two pages carrying the stories.

Cathy Kuhlmeier and two other students took the case to the high court. They lost.

Retreating from Tinker, the Hazelwood court said public school officials could censor student expression that, while neither disruptive nor harmful to individual students, was – in the court’s sweeping decision – inconsistent with the educational goals of the school.

So began a 25-year tailspin for student expression, and a corresponding increase in

Page 8 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

the number of restrictive school policies and practices stifling speech. Court after court gave school censors the benefit of the doubt, shifting the burden from “public officials” to the young citizens wishing to express themselves. Students who were told by the Tinker court that they do not “shed their constitutional rights … at the schoolhouse gate” were now required to show that their speech had value and was consistent with educational goals.

The chill began quickly. One year after Hazelwood, Mark Goodman, then-director of the Student Press Law Center, said censorship calls to the SPLC were up 22 percent.

“Some principals are censoring things they don’t like, but many more are intimidating students into not covering any issue that may embarrass the school,” he said. “It is most disturbing that students have begun themselves to censor substantive issues from their student newspapers out of fear of what their school officials might do.”

Such were early signs of what would be a generation of students taught to be deferential to authority, and to meekly suppress speech that adults in their school society deemed unsettling or counter to the school’s mission.

Surprisingly, this didn’t seem to concern professional journalists. They reacted to Hazelwood in a way that stunned supporters of the student press, dismissing the case by simplistically equating public school officials and newspaper publishers. A flood of editorials and professional commentary supported the administrative censorship Hazelwood endorsed. In a scolding tone, many said that student journalists should learn what professionals know: that what the publisher (or a school official playing that role) says is what must be followed.

Opinion Professionals seemed to ignore the fact that the Supreme Court itself told student journalists to model their behavior on that of professionals.

But, as federal courts have held, journalists erroneously equated the autonomy of a newspaper’s private owner with the Constitution-bound obligations of a taxpayer-supported administrator in a public school.

Professionals seemed to ignore the fact that the Supreme Court itself told student journalists to model their behavior on that of professionals. Few “real” journalists considered whether student journalists also might have interesting or important information to share, might want to question decisionmakers, or might have valid reasons to discuss controversial issues important in their societal audience: their classmates.

High school journalists across the country received little support from their professional role models in the weeks following the Hazelwood decision. Editor & Publisher reported Jan. 23, 1988, that its random national survey showed newspaper editorials “overwhelmingly supported the Supreme Court’s 5-3 ruling upholding censorship of school-owned newspapers. … Freedom of the press, a consensus of the editorials said, is for those who own one.”

“It is a decision in favor of editing – a process that goes on in real newspapers in the real world today,” the Detroit News said.

The Chicago Sun-Times wrote that if the decision had gone the other way, the interpretation of the Constitution would have been “startlingly new … and ridiculous.” The paper also discounted arguments that a chilling effect would result: “We can only urge these worrywarts to stop conjuring up worst-case scenarios to justify unacceptable license.”

But some newspapers did worry about the chilling effect. Editorial page editor Ed Higgins of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said: “There is a right of freedom of expression – and the majority opinion … trampled all over

it.” He said the decision “gave school boards more power than is desirable or necessary. We don’t think they have just an arbitrary right to prevent the expression of any controversial issue.”

Others worried about Hazelwood’s impact. Paul McMasters, then-chairman of SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee and deputy editorial director of USA Today, questioned editorial support of Hazelwood. In the March 1988 issue of the Quill, McMasters rhetorically asked: “Why should we ‘real’ journalists care?

Because the court’s decision means that many aspiring, now disgusted, journalists will turn their talents to [other] careers. … Those who hang in will join our ranks well-schooled in cafeteria journalism, unwilling to question authority or challenge orthodoxy and quite prepared to churn out stories that are often blind and always bland.”

Journalists should monitor and report on censorship in the high school level, McMasters said, and “never miss an opportunity to remind school officials that free speech works much better as a tool for bright young questioners than it does as a distant memory for fearful old fossils.”

This echoes Justice William Brennan’s dissenting opinion in Hazelwood. Censorship “in no way furthers the curricular purposes of a student newspaper,” Brennan wrote, “unless one believes that the purpose of the school newspaper is to teach students that the press ought never report bad news, express unpopular views or print a thought that might upset its sponsors.”

And now a generation of students who were told that their ideas and their voices didn’t really matter is coming to college journalism classes, complacent and with matter-of-fact deference to authority.

“We’re raising a generation of

sheep,” according to David Cullier, director of the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism and presidentelect of the Society of Professional Journalists.

In November 2011, at the University of North Carolina, he told those at a Hazelwood symposium that students begin their college work “completely unprepared for what journalism is about. They think it’s OK to be told what to print and not to print. They don’t challenge authority like they should. ... We have to retrain them.”

What can the professional press do? One early suggestion came from Lyle Denniston. While covering the Supreme Court for the Baltimore Sun, he wrote in the March 1988 Washington Journalism Review that “the students’ only hope [is] recruiting the grown-ups in the regular press as their allies.”

A similar call came just months ago. Student press rights advocates Candace and John Bowen of Kent State University, writing in the fall 2012 Adviser Update from the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, said that what’s needed is “a concerted national effort to educate those in the commercial media about why they should support robust, uncensored ... scholastic media.”

Maybe the student press – the infrequent instance of a “rebellious” story that dares to challenge mainstream school policies and practices – remains beyond the radar of professionals on this 25th anniversary of Hazelwood.

But those who cherish their role of journalist should not retreat from freespeech battles in their community’s schools. Those confrontations undoubtedly will increase in number during this era of social media.

School officials who are quick to impose the limits Hazelwood condones should be worried today about the newfound freedom social media give to these students, their thoughts and expression. It should be no surprise that high school students view social media as a way to break through the barrier school officials have built to “protect” students from using schoolsponsored media – including the school newspaper – to talk to one another about mutual interests and concerns. <

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 9

Media & Law

Hazelwood

reverberates 25 years later

by William H. Freivogel

Twenty-five years ago, on Jan. 13, 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a devastating blow to student speech and the student press when it validated the authority of the principal of Hazelwood East High School to remove controversial stories about teen pregnancy and divorce from the school newspaper over student objections.

The court’s decision in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier was one of the most far-reaching decisions restricting free speech in the past quarter-century. Even as the Supreme Court has recognized expanded free speech rights for corporations, makers of violent video games and fundamentalist picketers at veterans’ funerals, it has continued to limit the free speech rights of students in the public schools.

With today’s social media, Hazelwood’s restrictions on student speech are following students back to their homes.

Some courts have ruled that principals can punish students who write ribald comments or parodies on a home computer, if the comments disrupt the school.

Gregory P. Magarian, a professor at Washington University law school, says Hazelwood “remains a very important speech-restrictive decision.”

“The court has put much more energy into expanding the free speech rights of politically or economically powerful

Page 10 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

speakers while largely disdaining the First Amendment concerns of politically and economically disempowered speakers,” Magarian wrote in an email. “Through this lens, Hazelwood represents perhaps the most important instance of the court’s steady retreat from protecting students’ free speech rights.”

Mitch Eden, adviser to Kirkwood High School’s award-winning Call newspaper, says “advisers all know of the damage done 25 years ago with the Hazelwood decision. There are too many schools today in which scholastic journalism is simply a public relations tool for the administration or, worse, being cut because journalism is not part of the ‘common core,’ the latest educational buzzword.

Well, journalism is a field where the goal always has been ... focused on excellence, on independent thinking and on leading, not following the crowd.

“I am so happy the Kirkwood administration supports scholastic journalism and students are getting an authentic experience. The worst thing Hazelwood did was teach selfcensorship, and that is the worst type of censorship. Some students quit before they even start because they know they do not have a chance. What a horrible environment to be in ...

Simply put, censorship is anti-education and anti-American.”

Media & Law Justice Byron White, who wrote a number of decisions hostile to the press, wrote the 5-3 majority opinion in which he said that high school newspapers were part of the school curriculum, not public forums for the exercise of free speech.

Last-minute decision The Hazelwood East case began at the end of the school year in 1983, when the Journalism II class, which produced the Spectrum, compiled two full pages of stories under the headline: “Pressure describes it all for today’s teen-agers. Pregnancy affects many teens each year.”

Principal Robert Reynolds objected to two of the six articles. One was an account of three Hazelwood East students who had become pregnant.

The article made references to birth control and sexual activity and reflected the positive attitude of the girls toward their pregnancies. The other article was an account of a student whose parents were divorced. The student complained that her father often was absent, “out late playing cards with the guys.”

The names of the pregnant girls had been changed, but Reynolds was concerned that they could be identified from other information in the articles.

The Spectrum planned to delete the name of the student in the divorce article, but the real name was on the proof read by Reynolds. Reynolds thought it unfair that the father did not have a chance to respond. The principal ordered the two pages removed from the Spectrum, excising four unobjectionable articles along with the two controversial ones.

Three students on the staff, led by Cathy Kuhlmeier, challenged Reynolds’ action. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri, the students won in the federal appeals court in St. Louis. But the lawyers handling the case botched the argument in the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the recollections of former ACLU leaders.

Fred Epstein, past president of the ACLU, said: “As I recall, Hazelwood was argued by a couple of incompetent lawyers who would accept no advice from the ACLU or other lawyers who had Supreme Court experience. Worst of all, the two ACLU lawyers handling the case would not even let friendly lawyers conduct a mock court to prep the two lawyers handling the case.”

Justice Byron White, who wrote a number of decisions hostile to the press, wrote the 5-3 majority opinion in which he said high school newspapers were part of the school curriculum, not public forums for the exercise of free speech.

“Educators do not offend the First Amendment by exercising editorial control over the style and content of student speech in school-sponsored expressive activities so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns,” White said.

In dissent, Justice William J. Brennan Jr. said, “The mere fact of school sponsorship does not ... license ... thought control in the high school.”

Brennan added: “The young men and women of Hazelwood East expected a civics lesson, but not the one the court teaches them today.”

Cathy Kuhlmeier Frey – who now lives in southwest Missouri, where she is a risk manager for Bass Pro Shops – continues to see things differently from Reynolds. The two appeared last fall at a forum on student speech.

Education Week described a tense exchange.

“I was so angry because we had worked so hard” on those articles, Frey said, as she and Reynolds argued over the details of the controversy. “I stood up for what I believed in. That has

molded me into someone who is not afraid to speak up.”

Speech at the schoolhouse gates In a famous decision from the 1960s, the Supreme Court said that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” It upheld the right of Mary Beth Tinker to wear an armband to her school in Des Moines protesting the Vietnam War. But it turned out that the students shed many of their rights inside the schoolhouse gates.

The Hazelwood decision was the most important of several decisions cutting back on student speech rights.

Alan Howard, a professor at Saint Louis University Law School, explains how the court could conclude that Kuhlmeier did not have a right of free expression, while Tinker did.

“The court recognized a distinction between kids at school and kids in school,” he wrote in an email. “So the court found that students (even those too young to vote) are still citizens, and when at school in their capacity as citizens can express their views on matters of public concern – in Tinker’s case, express opposition to a war. So when walking in the halls from one class to another class, or playing outside at recess, or eating lunch in the cafeteria, the school can’t punish kids talking to other kids about political issues – even if school officials don’t like what the students are saying or just don’t want kids expressing views on controversial topics.

“Hazelwood was not a case where the school officials were seeking to suppress student/citizenship speech that occurred at school. Rather, it was a case where school officials were engaged in ‘teaching’ kids in their capacity as students – in this setting, the school was playing the role of educator, not sovereign, and the kids were playing the role of student, not citizen – and, in this context, the court concluded that schools should have more leeway to regulate student speech.

Continued on next page

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 11

Media & Law Continued from previous page

“The high school had a journalism class, a component of which was putting out a newspaper – but the purpose of the newspaper was not primarily to serve as an outlet for students as citizens to comment on matters of public concern, but was to provide a means by which the school would teach good journalism practices.”

Reynolds thought the story about divorce was poor journalism, because it criticized the father without having contacted him. Most journalists would agree that this is poor journalistic practice. But many journalism educators consider the Hazelwood stories to be example of extraordinarily good high school journalism.

First Amendment trends In the years after the Hazelwood decision, there was a move to pass anti-Hazelwood laws to give student journalism free speech rights. Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts and Oregon joined California, which had a law before the decision. But the impetus to enact such laws seems to have passed.

In the years since Hazelwood, the Supreme Court has limited student speech in other ways. It ruled that a student running for office could be disciplined for using risqué language in his campaign speech. More recently, it ruled that a student could be punished for holding up a sign across from school that appeared to promote drug use. The student held up a sign reading “Bong hits 4 Jesus” as the Olympic Torch parade passed. He said he was trying to get on television.

The big unanswered question is whether schools can discipline students for gross, disrespectful and potentially disruptive comments made on a home computer and sent to other students. This past fall, the court declined to take up the case of a high school student disciplined for calling called administrators “douchebags” on her blog written from home. Avery Doninger, a student leader, was angry that the administration had canceled “Jamfest,” an annual event at the school. The blog was written as part of the students’ effort to mobilize a letter-writing campaign to overturn the cancellation.

The Supreme Court’s weaker protection of free student expression is consistent with weak support on the court for the press in general, Magarian says.

“The idea of press rights, as a specific, separate category of free speech rights, has all but died on the vine,” he wrote.

“That has more than anything else to do with changes in media economics and technology. But even before the Internet, the court had largely embraced an attitude toward press rights that was indifferent at best. Hazelwood is part of that.”

So are decisions where the court refused to extend constitutional protection for journalists to protect confidential sources and held newspapers responsible for abiding by reporters’ promises of confidentiality to sources.

Adds Magarian: “It is striking that the limitations on student rights and press freedom have come over a time

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Upcoming forum focuses on student free expression rights Mary Beth Tinker, the student suspended for wearing an armband to class to protest the Vietnam War, will speak about student free expression rights at 7:30 p.m. March 11 in a forum at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Tinker’s suspension became the basis for a lawsuit that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided that student free expression rights do not stop at the classroom door. The logic expressed by the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court did not sway a later court in 1988, which curbed student free expression rights with its Hazelwood decision. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Hazelwood case, which originated in St. Louis.

Tinker will be accompanied by a panel of experts on First Amendment law, and they will discuss the impact of the Tinker and Hazelwood decisions. The event, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Gateway Journalism Review/St. Louis Journalism Review, Gateway Media Literacy Partners and the St. Louis Media History Foundation.

when the court has expanded other First Amendment rights.”

But, he adds, “First Amendment speech rights haven’t simply expanded over the past 25 years. Instead, First Amendment speech rights have changed shape. The court has put much more energy into expanding the free speech rights of politically or economically powerful speakers while largely disdaining the First Amendment concerns of politically and economically disempowered speakers. On the other side of the ledger, we can see the court’s expansion of commercial speech rights – and, especially, its conversion of campaign finance regulation into a First Amendment preserve.”

In an interview with the Freedom Forum a decade ago, Kuhlmeier recalled a girl coming up to her at a symposium on the case and calling her a “freedom fighter” while asking for her autograph.

“I never thought of myself as a freedom fighter,” she said. “But I guess I did at least try to make a difference.

Students don’t have enough First Amendment freedoms.

There are a lot of very intelligent kids out there, and we should listen to them more. Maybe, if we did, the world would be a better place.”

William H. Freivogel covered the oral arguments in Hazelwood v.

Kuhlmeier when he was a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A version of this article was published in the St. Louis Beacon. <

Media & Law

Seigenthaler sets a high bar for journalists

by Sam Robinson

“Absence of accountability leads to an absence of credibility,” said John Seigenthaler at the First Amendment Celebration conducted by St. Louis and Gateway Journalism Review supporters.

Seigenthaler, a longtime advocate and activist for free speech, emphasized the importance of traditional journalism values in the digital age to the crowd of nearly 200 at the event.

“Defending the First Amendment is more than an intellectual exercise for John Seigenthaler,” said Bill McClellan, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist and master of ceremonies, as he reviewed Seigenthaler’s many professional accomplishments. The list includes serving as an administrative aide to Robert Kennedy in the Justice Department, being one of the founding editors of USA Today, and being a free speech advocate through the Freedom Forum.

“Flash and trash journalism is found online too often today,” Seigenthaler said. “The state of the news industry has suffered. Balance, accuracy and depth are often lost in online news.”

While he said he still enjoys holding a newspaper, flipping through pages and reading jumps, Seigenthaler acknowledged the future of news is online. With this digital delivery, he said, there are serious First Amendment implications.

“Today’s extraordinary technology allows information in this e-world to be shared instantaneously,” Seigenthaler said. “With just a few keystrokes, one can connect and influence people halfway around the world. This has removed language barriers and made news available to everyone.”

With this great delivery system comes many challenges, he added.

Providing accurate information is a struggle for many online news sources.

Seigenthaler said it is up to citizens, rather than congressional or government action, to demand reliable online news.

Editors and journalists also need to be engaged in ensuring what is published

Photo courtesy Ladue News John Seigenthaler provided remarks on the importance of protecting the First Amendment. a source for this. Under this provision, Internet service providers are not held to the same level of accountability as print and broadcast media.

Seigenthaler said Section 230 should not be repealed. He does not want government to regulate the press. Rather, citizens and journalists should hold media accountable.

Two young journalists in the Photo courtesy Ladue News audience were Antonia Akrap and Rose and Charles Klotzer, founders Jane Manwarring from Kirkwood, Mo. of the St. Louis Journalism Review, Both are on staff of their high school enjoy the First Amendment newspaper, the Kirkwood Call. celebration.

“It is nice to hear such insight into the professional world of journalism,” online is just as reliable as what is Akrap said. “It is wonderful to hear published in print, or what is broadcast from him [Seigenthaler], and to know on network news. how involved he was in history from a “Internet news can be a flashpoint journalist’s point of view.” of problems if journalistic values are “As journalists in the digital age, not upheld,” he said. He provided an we have to get used to the idea that account of the situation in which he was what we do will be online,” Manwarring the victim of fraudulent information said. “Everything we do, from design published online via the website to articles, will go online. Tonight has Wikipedia. helped us to think about issues related Seigenthaler, who said there is a to using the Web for journalism.” double standard between online media and traditional media, cited Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as Continued on page 43

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 13

Media & Law

What devices should be allowed in court?

Kansas, Illinois go different ways

by Eric P. Robinson

While almost all state trial courts allow some level of still and video camera coverage of court proceedings, the rules on usage of modern communications devices and techniques – blogging, tweeting, texting and emailing using cellphones, tablets and other devices – are a wild patchwork of policies which vary from state to state, courthouse to courthouse, and often even courtroom to courtroom.

An example of this is in two wildly diverging policies adopted in late 2012 in Kansas and Illinois’ Cook County. In mid-October, the Kansas Supreme Court amended the state’s courts rules to explicitly permit tweeting and texting from courtrooms, becoming one of only a handful of states that explicitly allow such coverage of their courts. In mid-December, meanwhile, Cook County chief judge Timothy Evans issued an order barring devices “capable of connecting to the Internet or making audio or video recordings” from all of the county’s courthouses where criminal matters are heard, effective Jan. 15.

Kansas lets devices in The amendments to Kansas Supreme Court Rule 1001 start by allowing possession of cell phones and other electronic devices in courtrooms, but prohibit their use to make phone calls, or to record or transmit data, video or audio. Such devices may be used in other areas of courthouses – not courtrooms – for calls and text messaging only.

But the amended rule then allows for judges to permit such recordings and transmissions, and it sets out parameters for such activity. These include a requirement that requests be made at least a week in advance, and it sets prohibitions on recording attorney and bench conferences, jurors and courtroom participants who request not to be covered.

Despite these restrictions – many of which existed in the rule before the revision – the intent of the change is to better facilitate coverage of courts by new electronic media. This is evidenced by the rule’s new preface, which states that “policies developed to address the court’s concerns should include enough flexibility to take into consideration that electronic devices have become a necessary tool for court observers, journalists and participants, and continue to rapidly change and evolve. The courts should champion the enhanced access and the transparency made possible by use of these devices while protecting the integrity of proceedings within the courtroom.”

Before the revision, the rule allowed photography or broadcast of court proceedings only by the news media, and only with permission of the presiding judge. Nevertheless, a few judges in the state did allow tweeting and texting. For example, former Wichita (Kansas) Eagle staff writer for interactive news Ron Sylvester frequently blogged from the courts on his “What the Judge Ate for Breakfast” blog.

Page 14 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Media & Law

Cook County ban While Kansas courts were welcoming electronic devices, most of Cook County’s criminal courthouses banned the public from bringing in electronic devices as of Jan. 15, under an order issued by Evans in midDecember.

In a press release announcing the new policy, Evans cited concerns that people attending court proceedings were using cell phones to photograph – and intimidate – witnesses, judges, jurors and prospective jurors, to relay courtroom testimony to upcoming witnesses and to stream judges’ comments during trial.

“The court is sending a strong message to gang members and others that any attempts to intimidate witnesses, jurors, and judges in court will not be permitted,” Evans was quoted as saying in the release. “The ban will help to ensure that justice is properly done by preserving the integrity of testimony and maintaining court decorum.”

The ban applies to 12 of the 13 courthouses in county. The exception is the Richard J. Daley Center Courthouse in Chicago, which handles civil, traffic and misdemeanor cases.

Under the order, members of the news media are exempt from the ban and will be able to use electronic devices in courtrooms under the circuit court’s pending application to participate in the extended media coverage experiment authorized by the Illinois Supreme Court.

Others exempt from the ban include current or former judges; licensed attorneys; all law enforcement officers; all government employees; persons reporting for jury service; jurors (subject to the authority of the trial judges); building and maintenance workers; and equipment repair persons and vendors.

But their use of the devices will be limited to public areas of the courthouses.

Individual judges also can issue orders allowing others to bring electronic devices into the courthouse,

and they also can opt to allow the devices to be used in their courtrooms.

Other courts vary Besides Sylvester in Wichita, other journalists who have tweeted and blogged from courtrooms include Trish Mehaffey of the Cedar Rapids Gazette; Ben Sheffner of the Copyrights & Campaigns blog; and Henry Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle.

According to the Digital Media Law Project at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, state court judges in California, Colorado and Michigan have permitted tweeting or blogging from their courtrooms. And while Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure bars such live coverage from federal courts, individual federal judges in the southern district of Florida, northern district of Iowa, district of Kansas, eastern district of Pennsylvania, district court for the District of Columbia and the district of Massachusetts have allowed it in some cases. <

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 15

Chicago’s finest?

Newspaper crusade knocks luster off image

by John McCarron

In Chicago, if you have enough political clout, can you get away with murder?

Investigative reporters at the Chicago Sun-Times have not been so blunt as to ask the question, but it underlies what has become one of the most troubling – and sensational – newspaper crusades in recent memory.

And that crusade, launched in front-page tabloid fashion Feb. 28, 2011, has coincided with a series of other civic embarrassments involving the Chicago Police Department … so many that a second question needs asking: Has the department’s storied tough-cop culture run amok?

It gets complicated, but Sun-Times reporters Tim Novak and Chris Fusco have been posing this boiled-down query: Back in April 2004, after a 21-yearold boy died from injuries suffered in an drunken brawl outside a North Side saloon, did the police back off their investigation when it turned out the guy who likely delivered the fatal blow was a nephew of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley?

And if clout was involved, how high on the city’s chain of command was the signal flashed to back off ?

Doubtless some thought the Sun-

Times was chasing shadows a year ago with its initial two-day spread on the failure of the police, and the Cook County state’s attorney, to pursue obvious leads in the killing of David Koschman.

Koschman was a suburban youth who, with friends, was pub crawling that night in 2004, likely celebrating attainment of legal drinking age.

Initial police reports suggested Koschman appeared to be the aggressor. And that it wasn’t the blow – or sudden push – delivered by Daley nephew Richard J. “RJ” Vanecko that killed Koschman, but the fact that his head hit the pavement.

Yet Novak and Fusco stayed with the story, filing over a dozen follow-ups, nearly all getting front-page treatment.

Meanwhile, Carol Marin, a Sun-Times columnist and local public television public affairs moderator, kept asking the deeper questions begged by the news side: Did some higher-up “put a brick” on the investigation? If so, who?

And was Mayor Daley privy to any such decision?

Nor did the three journalists fail to point out that the police chain of command was, and still is, peppered with officers with personal or political ties to Daley’s 11th Ward political apparatus; or that State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, like her predecessor Richard Devine, took a pass on developing

charges against Vanecko. Or that Alvarez worked for Rich Daley when he held that office before being elected mayor in 1989.

So much heat did the Sun-Times create that, in April 2012, Cook County Circuit Judge Andrew Toomin, in response to a petition filed on behalf of Koschman’s still-grieving mother, declared “the system has failed” and appointed a special prosecutor. And not just any prosecutor, but former U.S. Attorney Dan K. Webb, who once won a string of political corruption convictions … and more recently, in private practice, has defended such heavyweights as former Illinois Gov. George Ryan.

On Dec. 3, 2012, a special Cook County grand jury supervised by Webb returned an indictment against Vanecko for involuntary manslaughter. So much for anyone who thought the Sun-Times was showboating … although the newspaper’s triumphal 15-page recap of the case smacked of spiking the ball on the 10-yard line.

After all, the case has yet to be tried. Surely Vanecko will have his own version of what happened that night in 2004 -- and his own witnesses.

Meanwhile, the Sun-Times is campaigning for clout to play no part in the upcoming legal proceeding.

Later in December the paper reported the judge assigned to hear the case by

The police department and county prosecutors, meanwhile, have come under continual criticism for a string of wrongful convictions, typically homicides subsequently determined to be committed by someone else on the strength of DNA evidence or a jailhouse confession.

Page 16 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

court system lottery also once worked as a prosecutor for Daley and later was appointed by the former mayor to a public agency board. So Cook County’s chief judge bucked the venue decision up to the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled before Christmas that a judge should be brought in from neighboring McHenry County.

Perhaps more significant than Vanecko’s guilt or innocence is special prosecutor Webb’s continued inquiry into how the initial police investigation was or was not handled.

The Chicago Police Department already was suffering from a series of law-and-order gaffes.

Last November a federal civil jury delivered an $850,000 verdict against the city after a drunken off-duty cop beat a female bartender for refusing to serve him another drink.

Worse, the jury agreed with the plaintiff ’s assertion that the cop figured he could get away it because

there exists a “code of silence” among Chicago police about the wrongdoing of fellow officers. City lawyers made matters worse by offering not to appeal the award – and thereby make immediate payment – if the bartender would drop her “code of silence” assertion.

The police department and county prosecutors, meanwhile, have come under continual criticism for a string of wrongful convictions, typically homicides subsequently determined to be committed by someone else on the strength of DNA evidence or a jailhouse confession.

Often the wrongfully convicted had signed confessions of guilt. It turned out, however, that several of those confessions, back in the ’70s and early ’80s, came after the accused was beaten and/or electro-shocked by a rogue unit of homicide detectives.

The unit’s leader, retired police Cmdr. John Burge, was convicted in

2010 of lying to a grand jury about the torture and sentenced to 4½ years in federal prison, despite the fact that city taxpayers were called upon to spend millions in Burge’s defense.

Granted, none of these travesties has occurred on the watch of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked superintendent of police, Garry McCarthy.

But it’s awkward that Chicago’s “finest” have fallen into such disrepute just as Emanuel struggles to find answers to the city’s most immediate and intractable problem – youth homicides.

There were 513 homicides in Chicago during 2012 – more than the number of U.S. service members killed last year in Afghanistan.

Lots of potential solutions are being put forward. But as the SunTimes so ably reminds, surely an essential one is to build a Chicago police force its citizens can trust. <

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 17

Photo by Joel Farber Lionel Harvey, Elisenda Xifra Reverter and Laura McCormick interview Agatha Spencer, a program coordinator at Diné College.

Communications students collaborate on oral history

by Tom Grier

A

group of college students sat in a comfortable living room in an Albuquerque, N.M., home and listened attentively as Chester Nez, a Navajo man, told stories of his childhood, growing up and serving in the Marine Corps during World War II. Nez, 91 when the students interviewed him in June 2012, is the last of the original 29 Navajo code talkers, the group that created the code and used it in battle in the South Pacific. The code was never broken.

The students, from Winona State University (Winona, Minn.) and Diné College (Tsaile, Ariz.), the tribal college of the Navajo Nation, were participating in the Navajo oral history project doing documentary journalism projects about Navajo elders.

Nez talked about using the code to call in air support on enemy machine-gun nests, and to help Marines maneuver across battlefields on Guam, Guadalcanal, Bougainville and Peleliu.

Page 18 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Photo by Tom Grier Marla Sandoval-Redhouse, Emily Gust, Elena Lavorato, Kaitlyn Haskie and Kelly Jusilek interview Chester Nez, the last surviving member of the original 29 Navajo code talkers.

After meeting with Diné College faculty, administrators and tribal leaders, it became clear there was value in a dual-purpose program to: enhance student journalism skills and preserve the rich Navajo culture.

He discussed growing up in a traditional Navajo sheep-herding family near Chichiltah, N.M., going to school and eventually graduating from the University of Kansas.

In 2001, Nez and other Navajo code talkers received congressional gold medals from President George W. Bush.

“We all went to Washington and received our gold medal,” Nez said. “I was very glad to receive a reward from our country.”

Nez’s story and those of other Navajo elders have become documentary films created by the Navajo oral history project college students. The collaboration between Winona State University and Diné College entered its fourth year in 2012.

(As project director, I’ve found that students learn and retain skills better if they pair classroom lectures with hands-on projects. Beginning in 2006, we sought partners at Diné College, the oldest tribal college in the United States

on the largest reservation in the country.

After meeting with Diné College faculty, administrators and tribal leaders, it became clear there was value in a dual-purpose program to enhance student journalism skills and preserve the rich Navajo culture. I developed the program along with Miranda Haskie, a Diné College social and behavioral sciences professor.)

In summer 2009, 12 WSU students were placed into teams with nine Dine` College students for the first set of interviews. The Winona mass communication students brought knowledge of composing images, conducting interviews and writing and editing. Diné College students had first hand knowledge of Navajo culture and helped ensure accurate, respectful transcription and editing.

The students met via interactive television before the Winona State University group spent three weeks on Navajo Nation. In addition to

completing significant journalism projects, students from both institutions learned from each other through close cross-cultural collaboration. The students didn’t always get along. When disagreements occurred, students had to deal with differences while remaining committed to the goal of completing quality projects.

In the first year, the teams of students interviewed five Navajo elders: Dr. Beulah Allen, the first Navajo female physician and founder of the Navajo Emergency Medical Service; Wilson Aronilth Jr., an author and professor at Diné College; Ruth Roessel, a Navajo educator, author and founder of the Rough Rock Demonstration School; Samuel Tso, a World War II Navajo code talker; and Harry Walters, an educator, artist and director of the Ned Hatathli Museum at Diné College.

Student groups completed a service project for each elder to build trust.

One group cleared trees from the elder’s property. Another repaired a longunused traditional Navajo hogan. One group weeded and fertilized a garden; another placed a sidewalk of brick pavers at an elder’s home.

Continued on next page

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 19

Photo by Tom Grier Chester Nez, the last surviving member of the original 29 Navajo code talkers, displays his Congressional Gold Medal.

Photo by Tom Grier Joel Farber, Shannon Bolte, James McKenzie and Shawn Tsosie interview Joe Vandever Sr., a World War II Navajo code talker.

Photo by Tom Grier Joe Vandever Sr. (center in yellow), a World War II Navajo code talker, is interviewed by Winona State University and Diné College students.

Pictured (left to right) are: Shawn Tsosie, Shannon Bolte, Marla SandovalRedhouse, Kaitlin Haskie and Joel Farber.

Continued from previous page

Each group interviewed the elder two or three times, collecting video, audio and photographs. They also conducted secondary interviews with people close to the elder. The students transcribed the interviews, then organized, edited and produced documentaries.

The finished projects were duplicated into DVD sets given to each elder and their families, and archived at the Navajo Nation Museum and Library, and the libraries at Diné College and Winona State University. In 2011, the films from all years of the Navajo Oral History project were archived at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Page 20 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

The Navajo Oral History Project was repeated in 2010 with another group of students from the two colleges creating documentary films on four Navajo elders: Andrew Brady, an Air Force veteran, retired coal miner and sheep farmer; John Kinsel, a World War II Navajo code talker; Lettie Nave, an educator and community leader; and Marjorie “Grandma” Thomas, an educator who started an annual walk to raise funds for a Navajo youth center.

For the third year, 2011, the films featured Mitzie Begay, a cultural liaison at Tséhootsooí Medical Center in Fort Defiance, Ariz.; Jack Jackson Sr., a former Arizona state senator; Keith Little, a World War II Navajo code talker; and Harold Morgan, legislative assistant to the Navajo Tribal Council.

In 2012, student documentaries focused on Agatha Spencer, a long time Diné College employee, and four Navajo code talkers: Nez, Kee Etsicitty, Samuel Tom Holiday and Joe Vandever Sr. All Navajo oral history project films are available on YouTube and on Winona360.org, the WSU Mass Communication department’s student showcase site.

Plans are under way for the fifth year of the Navajo oral history project.

In May 2013, college students will again listen and learn from Navajo elders while honing journalism skills and helping preserve the Navajo culture. <

Lessons from 2012 election polling

by Charlie Leonard

The history of coverage of election polling in America is shot through with headlines of polls gone wrong.

“Dewey Defeats Truman” in 1948 is the first and most enduring example.

The screwup of exit polling in the 2000 Bush-Gore contest kept the networks from accurately calling the race on Election Night and gave regular phonebased polling an undeserved black eye.

Less interesting to audiences is the prosaic truth that the most reputable polls are remarkably accurate most of the time, even under challenging technological and logistical circumstances.

In part because of the media’s natural focus on the unusual – in this case, the big election survey errors – the public is skeptical about polling and willing to believe it can be capricious and wrong.

The 2012 presidential election did have its share of high-profile polling mistakes (again, against a backdrop of mostly accurate surveys). For example,

the Gallup Poll had a consistent proRomney tilt throughout the summer and fall leading up to the election. More startling, perhaps, was the genuine surprise registered among Romney insiders that their candidate lost the election. Their misplaced certitude, the New Republic and others reported, was based on a cockeyed reading of their own internal polls.

How could a green-eyeshade type like Mitt Romney – or the consummate GOP campaign insider Karl Rove, who melted down in shock on Election Night on Fox News – get the numbers so wrong?

More to the point, if those guys – who are supposed to understand the numbers and who have made a good living doing so – can so misread the polls, what is there for writers and critics to learn from the mistakes of 2012?

1) Don’t rely on just one poll.

This appears to have been the primary mistake of the Romney folks, who were surprised at his substantial loss at the polls, even in the face of swarms of evidence to the contrary. They

looked primarily at their own internal polling, convinced that it was showing movement in his favor that other surveys hadn’t captured. Similarly, if you had followed only Gallup, you might have been convinced Romney could win a squeaker. Look instead at the trends created by multiple polls, which, when grouped together, have samples of voters many times the size of just one poll. Better yet, and simpler, look at the work of poll aggregators such as realclearpolitics.com or the New York Times’ fivethirtyeight.com.

Single surveys – even by the most reputable pollsters – are subject to enough error that you don’t want to base your own reputation on them.

2) Understand the real limitations of polls. The statistical theory behind election polling says that, even in a survey that is perfectly designed and executed (no such thing, really), the same questionnaire administered to similarly selected random samples can bring in results that will vary fairly widely, depending on the sample size.

Continued on page 42

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 21

Greek Debt Crisis

mainstream media miss critical details

by Joanna Kakissis

When the Greek debt crisis began more than three years ago, those writing and broadcasting about it needed victims and villains for their narratives.

At first, those roles were blurred. In late 2009, Greeks had elected the centerleft party, PASOK, to change a rotting system of clientelism and corruption that had bankrupted the country. Yet PASOK and the conservative party, New Democracy, were part of the problem. They had alternately governed Greece for the last 40 years. Most Greeks had voted for them over the years, and so both the political class and its voters shared the responsibility for their country’s dire straits.

The first international media reports on the debt crisis aired the country’s dirty laundry: massive tax evasion, a jobs-for-votes system that bloated the public sector with employees who did not work, and corruption so widespread that doctors at state hospitals asked their patients for bribes to perform routine surgeries. Greeks had long been ashamed of these practices, which were so ingrained in the country’s culture that they seemed impossible to challenge. And as long as times were good, few wanted to rock the boat.

After PASOK revealed that the previous New Democracy government had hidden the country’s huge debt, George Papandreou’s center-left government was cast as the reformer. A prominent PASOK deputy, Theodoros Pangalos, proclaimed that all Greeks had to share the blame for past sins to save Greece and the eurozone.

The foreign media – from U.S. broadcasting giant CNN to the German tabloid Bild – dug further into the blame-game narrative, writing and broadcasting stories themed on corrupt, lazy Greeks. In February 2010, the German magazine FOCUS famously

ran a cover with the headline “Cheaters in the European Family” and depicting the Venus de Milo statue (found on the Greek island of Milos) raising her middle finger.

The Greeks-as-villains narrative worsened after protests became more frequent following the first bailout and austerity measures in spring 2010.

Unions organizing these protests had long used strikes and demonstrations to stop government measures they didn’t like. But now the Greek government had signed away some of its power to its foreign lenders: the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Now the protests outside parliament were regularly devolving into violence between hooded gangs of young men and riot police.

The gangs threw Molotov cocktails at banks, killing three young employees (including a pregnant woman) in May 2010. They used sledgehammers to hack marble from the steps of fancy hotels, then smashed and firebombed shops and a beloved movie theater with a storied history. The police responded with rounds of tear gas so strong hundreds of people were hospitalized with breathing problems. Foreign and domestic media staked out these protests, broadcasting images of fire, destruction and chaos to living rooms in and out of Greece. It would make for dramatic copy and images – but, in the eyes of the world, the lazy and corrupt Greeks were now violent, too.

The media rarely questioned if the austerity policy promoted by Greece’s lenders – the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – was sound. In fact, critics contend, they served as uncritical propagandists.

“There was a lot of deliberately false information,” says Theodora Oikonomides, a citizen journalist who hosts an English-language show on

Page 22 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Radio Bubble, a community-based Internet radio station in the activist central Athens neighborhood of Exarcheia. “The mainstream media here belong to political parties, and they have a very clear political line. I can’t trust what they say unless I verify the information myself.”

Foreign media dependent on local journalists or researchers who worked as “fixers” also, with some exceptions, uncritically reported the domestic media’s narrative that the country’s lenders, called the troika, would revitalize Greece with the austerity program. Some U.S. and European media checked in with skeptical economists – such as Yanis Varoufakis of the University of Athens and Megan Greene, formerly of Roubini Global Economics – who said the austerity program would doom the country to a cycle of deflation, depression and debt.

But when Greece could not make fiscal targets, the media also largely adopted the troika’s line that it was the fault of the unruly, undisciplined Greeks.

What was ignored was that the country had made drastic spending cuts that worsened the recession, which is expected to extend a sixth year through 2013. As unemployment doubled and household incomes were cut by up to 50 percent, thanks to wage cuts and tax hikes, Greek revenues also plummeted.

In 2011, as the human toll of austerity became more obvious, the media coverage of Greece abroad – and, to a lesser extent, at home – began to change. The Wall Street Journal explored a rise in crisis-related suicides, the New York Times reported on homelessness and the fraying of the social welfare net, and Time magazine examined the broken social contract between Greek citizens and their government.

Domestic news programs featured haunting personal stories of workingclass mothers who couldn’t afford to keep their children, families sitting in

cold, dark houses because they couldn’t afford to pay their electricity bills, and unemployed families living off grandparents’ slashed pensions.

Greeks morphed from villains to victims. The new villains became the political class and their “masters” the troika.

But Tassos Teloglou, a respected investigative reporter for the news magazine “New Files” on private SKAI TV, says this new narrative also allowed anti-austerity activists to emotionalize what should have been a rational debate about the country’s future.

“This is really a discussion about numbers and logic,” he says. “Greece is a totally dependent economy. We cannot have it both ways, having money without conditions. Without the bailout loans, we would likely have had to leave the euro. It is beyond the imagination of even the anti-bailout people of what would happen if we would leave the euro. It would be really horrible. But yet they present logic as propaganda.”

Teloglou wants more reporting on corruption, especially on the connection between the lack of transparency in politics and the business world.

He believes insight into these shady practices will make Greeks embrace the structural reforms needed to modernize the country. To that end, one foreign news organization, Reuters, has assigned an investigative reporter, Stephen Grey, to look into the transparency of the country’s banks. His investigations, which were deeply reported and backed up with documents, prompted one of the country’s largest banks, Piraeus Bank, to sue Reuters for 50 million euros on defamation charges.

In 2011 and 2012, protests against the “troika’s occupation” would bring down the elected government of Papandreou, the American-born scion of Greece’s most powerful political family, and the technocrat caretaker government of Lucas Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank whom anti-austerity protesters called the leader of the “Republic of Bankistan.”

Two chaotic elections followed in 2012 that crushed the political center and elevated a once-obscure leftist party called Syriza, whose telegenic young leader, Alexis Tsipras, promised to rip up the bailout agreements and “free”

Greece from austerity. A dark force also arose: The neo-fascist Golden Dawn party, best known for brutality, Nazi symbolism and Holocaust denying, reinvented itself as a patriotic force that wanted to “clean” Greece of corrupt politicians and dark-skinned undocumented migrants. In 2012, Golden Dawn inspired a new wave of bad press for the Greeks, now viewed as racists who condoned violence against impoverished foreigners.

A centrist coalition of three parties – including the discredited PASOK and New Democracy – has been running the country since June. It’s been on shaky ground since October, when a muckraking journalist named Kostas Vaxevanis published what he says is a list of about 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts. The list is named after Christine Lagarde – who, as French finance minister in 2010, gave the names to the Greek government to be checked for tax evasion. It wasn’t checked and, when its existence was revealed last fall, Greek politicians couldn’t even find it.

Vaxevanis says he received a copy of the list in the mail and checked the names for authenticity before publishing it.

Greek authorities promptly arrested him and tried him for privacy violations. He was acquitted, though he faces a retrial.

“This case is not about me,” he says.

“It’s about how we do things in Greece.”

He says the mainstream media are aiding and abetting the wealthy and well-connected to get away with crimes such as tax evasion while the rest of the country suffers the pain of austerity.

Many Greeks agree and view Vaxevanis as both a hero for the underdog and a warrior for free speech.

The Guardian newspaper even declared that he should be appointed as Greece’s official tax collector. But some Greeks, such as political science professor Thanos Veremis, say Vaxevanis is a vigilante whose rush to publish the Lagarde List has tainted everyone on it as a tax evader.

“We can’t have vigilantism at a time like this, when the public is in so much pain and out for blood,” he says. “We will only create scapegoats and not solve our problems.”

It’s unclear when Greece will recover from the debt crisis. Some economists say it could be another decade.

Meanwhile, the post-crisis Greek media are changing quickly. Newspapers have laid off staff or closed altogether.

Readers are challenging mainstream media reports on the crisis as biased or compromised by oligarchic forces.

Activist anti-austerity bloggers and tweeters are filling the void with energetic reports and analyses of the debt crisis, its human toll and its neoliberal economics. These reports, too, are often biased, though they serve as a counterweight to pro-bailout mainstream reports. As the story of the debt crisis fades from the world’s front pages, there continues to be very painful human consequences to decisions by the troika and the Greek government.

Such sad and deeply affecting stories don’t need melodrama or ideological sloganeering to be effective.<

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 23

Rex Sinquefield: ‘A new American oligarch’

by Terry Ganey

W

hile covering the Midwest for the Chicago Tribune, reporter Tim Jones made it a habit to pay close attention to clips from Missouri newspapers.

And when he moved to Bloomberg’s Chicago bureau, he kept up the practice. That’s how Jones became the first national reporter to focus on Rex Sinquefield, a man Jones described as a “new American oligarch.”

Page 24 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

A man who amassed a fortune managing business investments, Sinquefield’s primary objectives now are to rid Missouri of its income tax and end tenure for public schoolteachers.

Sinquefield (pronounced Sink-Field) first showed up on Jones’ radar screen in 2010, when the retired investment analyst spent more than $11 million to influence an election. It was hard to miss him. Sinquefield’s name popped up in Missouri newspapers 165 times that year.

“I just thought when you look around the country and see all of these business guys spending money like crazy, there wasn’t a whole lot of that in the Midwest,” Jones said. “And all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, comes Rex Sinquefield, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is fascinating, a new player throwing big bucks around.’ ” After Bloomberg published Jones’ piece during the 2012 election, other national news organizations took note.

The Huffington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal all introduced their readers to Rex Sinquefield, the super-PAC man.

Some stories were profiles. Others attempted to connect the dots between who Sinquefield supported and what they could do to help him implement his goals. For example, both the Times and the Huffington Post focused on his $400,000 contribution to Shane Schoeller, the Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state. If he had been elected, Schoeller would have written ballot language that voters consider.

That language is often important to Sinquefield. Frustrated in trying to get the Missouri Legislature to see things his way, Sinquefield had used the initiative petition process to try to change laws to suit him. A man who amassed a fortune managing business investments, Sinquefield’s primary objectives now are to rid Missouri of its income tax and end tenure for public schoolteachers.

Sinquefield, 67, was born and raised in St. Louis. He and a brother lived in an orphanage for a time after his family

fell on hard times following his father’s death. Sinquefield attended a Catholic seminary and graduated from St. Louis University.

During graduate work in economics at the University of Chicago, Sinquefield learned about applying an index approach to stock investing. In 1981, he and others created Dimensional Fund Advisors, which now manages more than $200 billion in assets. After retiring, Sinquefield returned to Missouri, where he has focused on political and philanthropic causes.

Missouri publications, especially the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, had been covering Sinquefield since 2005. That’s when he started his think tank, the Show-Me Institute, to push for the adoption of “free market” public policy strategies.

A state law and a court ruling enabled Sinquefield to write six-figure checks during political campaigns.

Since Missouri removed campaign finance limits in 2008, individuals can give as much as they want to a political candidate or committee. The U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision enabled Sinquefield to give unlimited amounts of money to super PACs to influence elections.

Sinquefield opposes campaignfinance limits.

“Our system works when all voices are heard,” he told the Journal.

But because money amplifies Sinquefield’s voice, some Republican political strategists say small donors are discouraged from making contributions.

“They come to the conclusion their $250 contributions just don’t count for much,” said one veteran GOP operative.

Over the past four years, Sinquefield has spent more than $23 million in 547 donations to 170 candidates and 377 committees, according to St. Louis Beacon reporter

Jason Rosenbaum. He used campaign finance records to create a list of Missouri’s “Power Players,” which is posted on the online news service’s website. Sinquefield’s name easily appears at the top.

“It’s been a fun project to do,” Rosenbaum said. “Sinquefield is easy to focus on because he’s given so much money.”

Other Missouri reporters have attempted to document Sinquefield’s contributions, too, but have been less comprehensive. For example, when Elizabeth Crisp of the Post-Dispatch reviewed Sinquefield’s contributions, she left out what he had given to the Now or Never Political Action Committee.

“The Now or Never PAC is a federal PAC,” Crisp said in an email. “I cover state government, so I only used the state-based data provided by the state Ethics Commission.”

Crisp’s story posted on the newspaper’s “Political Fix” blog showed how Sinquefield’s large campaign contributions do not always translate into political success. For example, Democrat Jason Kander defeated Schoeller.

“Sinquefield also lost his $385,000 bet on state Sen. Brad Lager’s bid for lieutenant governor,” Crisp reported.

Other Sinquefield-financed campaigns have been successful. For example, he was behind the effort to end state control of the St. Louis police department, which voters approved in November. And many of the candidates for the state House and state legislative leadership offices won seats last November. Those lawmakers will be in a position to help push his agenda during this session of the Missouri General Assembly.

That includes reducing or eliminating Missouri’s income tax.

In addition to spending money on Missouri campaigns, Sinquefield financed efforts in Oklahoma and Kansas to lower state income taxes to pressure Missouri to do the same.

Kansas obliged by cutting individual income tax rates and eliminating income taxes for the owners of 191,000 businesses.

Continued on next page

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 25

Rex and KTRS St. Louis

by Terry Ganey

Perhaps no media outlet gives Sinquefield better treatment than KTRS radio in St. Louis.

Not only does the station regularly feature one of Sinquefield’s “experts” to talk about tax policy, when Sinquefield was interviewed on a “McGraw in the Morning” program, the person asking the questions was an employee of one of Sinquefield’s enterprises.

Former KPLR-TV news anchor Rick Edlund is now the communications director for the ShowMe Institute, the “free-market” think tank that Sinquefield helped found and finance. When Edlund took over as a guest host for McGraw Milhaven, he used the opportunity to bring Sinquefield on the program.

“Part of my job as communications director is to get him out there as well as the message of the Show-Me Institute,” Edlund said in an interview.

At the beginning of the program, Edlund disclosed his relationship with the Show-Me Institute. Then, for the next 16 minutes, he allowed Sinquefield and Show-Me Institute policy analyst Patrick Ishmael to explain why they believed Missouri should get rid of its income tax.

Continued from previous page

Sinquefield also paid for a television ad campaign in the Kansas City area pointing out that jobs will move across the state line from Missouri to Kansas to take advantage of the lower tax rates.

“I think this is a massive tsunami that’s going to hit Missouri,” Sinquefield said during an interview on KTRS radio in St. Louis. “It’s a catastrophic problem for Missouri if they don’t respond.”

Opponents say that, without the income tax, the burden for state

Then for the next 16 minutes, he allowed Sinquefield and Show-Me Institute policy analyst Patrick Ishmael to explain why they believed Missouri should get rid of its income tax.

The discussion topic was whether Missouri could compete for jobs now that neighboring Kansas had lowered its individual income tax rates and eliminated some business taxes. Sinquefield’s goal is to replace Missouri’s income tax with a gross receipts tax on all transactions.

In an interview, Milhaven said Edlund is an experienced newsman, and that it was logical for him to take his place while Milhaven was on vacation.

“I was off, and it’s hard to find good fill-in talent,” Milhaven said.

“When he hosts the show, he’s allowed to get any guest he wants.”

A few days after Edlund played host to Sinquefield, Milhaven had Sinquefield on his show, too.

“Rick Edlund threw softballs at you,” Milhaven told Sinquefield at the beginning of an hourlong segment.

“We will be a little tougher with you this round.”

But Milhaven did not challenge Sinquefield’s claim that higher taxes

on rich people will cause them to stop making investments and thus eliminate jobs for the little guy. And Sinquefield was not asked to explain how Kansas will be able to provide state services with less tax revenue.

Every Monday at 8:30 a.m., Milhaven discusses tax policy with David Stokes, an analyst with the Show-Me Institute.

“David Stokes and I have known each other for years,” Milhaven said.

“We had a slot open, and I asked David if he wanted to come on and be a regular contributor.”

Since Ronald Reagan deregulated the airwaves, broadcasters are no longer required to give equal time and balanced opinions. That’s what’s allowed announcers such as Rush Limbaugh to prosper.

Milhaven said KTRS brings other voices on to provide alternative opinions.

“I’m sure as this thing heats up, we will get more and different viewpoints,” he said. <

services will either be shifted to a regressive sales tax or leave state government short of funds for services.

The $11 million campaign Sinquefield financed in 2010 was aimed at the 1 percent earnings tax levied on residents and workers in St. Louis and Kansas City. Voters approved the ballot measure that required the tax authorization to be reconsidered every five years. Voters in Kansas City and St. Louis later reauthorized the tax.

“It shows money is important but not a defining factor in whether someone will win,” Rosenbaum said.

“He’s spending all this money and having some victories and some losses, but the status quo didn’t change. I’m still paying an earnings tax.”

A political consultant said Sinquefield had changed the normal wcalculus of campaigns.

“He has so many resources that he can afford to look long term, so incremental victories are fine with him,” the consultant said. “In the case of the local earnings tax, here is the victory he got out of it: Every five years they have to go back and vote on it. He moved the football a few yards.” <

Page 26 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Industry News MEDIA NOTES – ST. LOUIS AREA KMOV Maggie Crane announced she would leave the CBS-affiliate television at the end of January to work as press secretary to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. Crane, a St. Charles native, has been with KMOV since 2009. She replaces Kara Bowlin, who left to become a communications specialist at Graybar Services.

KSDK CHANNEL 5 Anne Allred joined Mike Bush as co-anchor of the 5 p.m. newscast Jan. 2. Allred, a St. Louis native, left NBC-affiliate WHDH in Boston after more than five years there as weekday morning anchor.

ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO Veronique LaCapra took a temporary assignment on the NPR science desk in Washington, D.C., for December 2012 and January 2013. She was scheduled to return to St. Louis in February. Jennifer Brake joined the station as a development coordinator, where she will be focusing on sustaining members and volunteers. Brake came to KWMU from the Missouri History Museum.

Edwardsville resident, has been city editor of the Telegraph since 2001.

in photojournalism award for their coverage of the Joplin tornado.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

David Lieb, Jefferson City correspondent for the Associated Press, won the AP’s Fred Moen KansasMissouri 2012 Staffer of the Year for his political and legislative coverage. Lieb led AP’s coverage of Missouri’s busy election season, which included the race for U.S. Senate. Lieb also won the award in 2006. The honor is named for the late Fred Moen, who was AP’s Kansas City bureau chief from 1971 to 1984.

AP also honored St. Louis PostDispatch chief photographer J.R. Forbes with its Photo of the Year award for a photo of the roof of the City Museum silhouetted against a September sunset.

Lee Enterprises has selected the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for its highest company honor, 2012 Enterprise of the Year. Mary Junck, Lee chairman and chief executive officer, cited the newspaper’s strong financial results and leadership in companywide initiatives, as well as other achievements, that led to 2012 Lee President’s Awards for marketing and news.

“Publisher Kevin Mowbray and his management team have led outstanding performance in St. Louis, including significant growth in operating cash flow,” she said.

A team from the Post-Dispatch received a 2012 President’s Award for initiatives that have driven growth in circulation revenue. Another team received a President’s Award for news: Reporter Nancy Cambria and page designer Josh Renaud won a President’s Award for news for the series “Deadly Day Cares.” Nancy Long, Brian Obregon and Becky Griess shared a President’s Award for helping roll out an extensive series of marketing, sales and retention initiatives that have driven increases in circulation revenue.

PRESS CLUB OF METROPOLITAN ST. LOUIS

MEDIA AWARDS

Veteran broadcaster Robert Eugene Hille was honored with the Press Club’s highest honor, the Catfish Award, at its annual meeting in December. Hille started at KXOK radio when it first went on the air in 1938. He later worked for KSD radio and moved over to KSD-TV when it went on the air as St. Louis’ first television station.

The Press Club’s outgoing president, Gloria Ross, presented the president’s “Above and Beyond” Award to the club’s 2012 Media Person of the Year co-chairs, St. Louis Jewish Light editor Ellen Futterman and local mystery writer Claire Applewhite. The club installed its 2013-15 president, Bill Smith, who is an investigator for the Better Business Bureau and a former Post-Dispatch reporter.

Dennis Grubaugh, city editor of the Telegraph in Alton, Ill. won the Bob Hardy Award from the Southwestern Illinois Law Enforcement Commission.

The award, named for the late KMOX broadcaster, is given annually to a media professional in the St. Louis area for exemplary service to public safety and law enforcement. Grubaugh, an

In October, the press club named Leisa Zigman, chief investigative reporter for KSDK News Channel 5, its Media Person of the Year. The club also honored public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard with its first Luminary Award. It honored Forbes and Robert Cohen of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch with its excellence

KTRS RADIO Claire Kellett of KMOV and Randi Naughton of Fox 2 have joined Martin Kilcoyne on his noon-to-3 p.m. weekdays talk show. Kellett now shares the mike on Mondays and Wednesdays, while Naughton joins him on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

KSHE-FM Shelley Grafman, who made KSHEFM into the Midwest’s first albumoriented rock radio station and the late Richard Miller, who changed KADIFM into its first local competitor, were honored at the Second Annual Classic Rock Radio Reunion at the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles in January. Miller, who had been ill, died Dec. 28.

RITENOUR SCHOOLS The Ritenour High School student newspaper, the Pepper Box, won the 2012 Quill & Scroll International Second Place Award for outstanding journalism. Ritenour senior Kathryn Teoli is the paper’s editor in chief, and Ron Steinschriber is the faculty adviser.

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 27

Media & Violence

Media miss story on workplace violence

by Pat Louise

Jeffrey Johnson dressed in his one suit, left his apartment and waited outside his former workplace the morning of Aug. 23, 2012.

When Steven Ercolino approached with another Harzen Import employee, Johnson pulled out a gun and killed Ercolino. Johnson, 58, then was killed and nine bystanders wounded in the resulting police gunfire response.

Ercolino and Johnson had worked together at Harzen. The former coworkers did not get along, according to police.

The story ran in media across the country and around the world, not so much for what it was – a fatal workplace violence incident – but because of where it was. The August fatalities took place in front of the Empire State Building.

That famous New York landmark warranted the media’s attention in a way other workplace fatalities in 2012 and previous years usually do not. Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries shows that, on average, two people a day die from workplace violence incidents – or about 17 percent of all fatal injuries in the workplace – such deaths rarely are mentioned beyond local media.

Carol Fredrickson, chief executive officer and a founder of Violence Free, a violence prevention consulting firm in Phoenix, said a workplace violence fatality must rise above the routine to make news outside of its own area.

“Unless it is a mass shooting, a recognized company or landmark, it is not going to be enough for the media to pick up on,” she said. “The media will pick up on the weird, strange or unusual, but it has to be the big stuff.”

Numerous media outlets ran the story about the Empire State Building shooting as a stand-alone article. None of them, according to an Internet search, mentioned how many other workplace deaths happened in 2012.

In the four months after the Aug.

Fatal workplace violence incidents have their roots in 1986, when a series of shootings at post offices across the country spawned the phrase “going postal.”

23 fatalities, only the Minneapolis StarTribune, in a Sept. 30 follow-up story about a workplace shooting the week before in Minneapolis – resulting in six workers dead, four wounded employees and the suicide of the shooter – noted it was the second workplace shooting in the United States in the past month.

(Actually, it was at least the fourth workplace shooting in a month.)

Granted, that context can be difficult to find. The listing of 2012 workplace violence fatalities (see pg.

29) took several weeks of Internet searching to compile. However, as of 1992 each state is required to report all workplace fatalities, and the federal Bureau of Labor tallies each previous year’s total in the ensuing spring.

(Official statistics for 2012 are not yet available.)

In 2011, 780 workers were killed at work through violence, including 458 homicides and 242 suicides. Shootings accounted for not quite 80 percent of the deaths.

All told, those 780 deaths represented 17 percent of the 4,609 fatalities in 2011. Transportationrelated deaths accounted for the largest segment, with 1,898 fatalities. (See pg.

30) Yet those Labor Department statistics, readily available online, showed up in just three of the stories examined for this article. Of the dozens of articles and broadcast reports examined, the only attempt at looking at one incident as part of a larger trend came from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The newspaper stated the September shooting was the worst example of workplace violence in the state since at least 1992.

The FBI defines workplace violence as “action or words that endanger or harm another employee or result in

Page 28 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

other employees having a reasonable belief that they are in danger.” Actions under this definition range from verbal bullying to fatal physical attacks.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, under that definition about 2 million American workers are subject to workplace violence on the job each year.

W. Barry Nixon, executive director of the National Institute for the Prevention of Workplace Violence, often uses another number he said grabs the media’s attention when other statistics do not.

“More than 9,000 people have been killed at work in the 21st century,” Nixon said. “Nine thousand is a number that gets attention.”

Whether it is 9,000 in the last 12 years, 780 a year or two a day, both Nixon and Fredrickson say the numbers applied to workplace violence deaths are conservative. In part, this is because of the classification given some mass shooting incidents. Were the deaths of about 3,000 people killed at work on Sept. 11, 2001, caused by workplace violence? Was the shooting of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the 18 other people shot in January 2011 – six of whom died – workplace violence? Where does the Dec. 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting fall, since six of the 28 who died that day did so while on the job?

How about the Fort Hood, Texas, military post shooting that left 13 dead and 29 wounded?

Nixon and Fredrickson say yes to all four. The federal government calls the first two domestic terrorism and the Newtown shootings a school shooting incident.

Continued on page 30

Media & Violence LIST OF 2012 WORKPLACE VIOLENCE INCIDENTS THAT RESULTED IN FATALITIES Editor’s note: This list was compiled through Internet searches of violent incidents in a workplace that included at least one employee killed. Another 22 shootings happened in workplaces involving employees that caused injuries but no deaths.

JANUARY Jan. 6: Three employees of the McBride Lumber Co. in Star, N.C., were killed, a fourth wounded; the gunman, also an employee, was injured in a suicide attempt at the store. (WFMY) Jan. 28: An officer in the Santa Maria (Calif.) Police Department was shot and killed by another officer trying to arrest his co-worker on charges of an improper relationship with a child. (KCOY) FEBRUARY Feb. 2: One federal immigration agent was killed and another wounded by a co-worker in Long Beach, Calif.

A third agent shot and killed the gunman. (Los Angeles Times) Feb. 22: An employee of McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond, Va., shot a man in the parking lot. The man died.

(Richmond Times-Dispatch) Feb. 22: At a Walmart Distribution Center in Dinwiddie County, Va., a man shot and wounded his supervisor before committing suicide. (Richmond Times-Dispatch) Feb. 22: Four employees were shot and killed in a Norcross, Ga., health spa before the shooter killed himself. (11Alive Atlanta) MARCH March 8: Six employees of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center were shot, and one died. Police killed the shooter.

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) APRIL April 2: A school secretary and six students at Oikos University in Oakland, Calif., died when shot by a former student. Three people were wounded. The gunman was arrested.

(Los Angeles Times)

JULY July 10: An employee of Cabarrus Plastics in Concord, N.C., was shot and killed by a co-worker in a parking lot. (Fox Charlotte) July 23: An employee of Central Moloney in Pine Bluff, Ark., shot and killed her co-worker at the plant.

(KARK) AUGUST Aug. 5: Six people were killed and four wounded, including two police officers, in a shooting in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis. The shooter committed suicide at the scene. (Fox News) Aug. 10: Two employees of a strip club in Wicksburg, Ala., and a customer were shot and killed by another customer who had been kicked out of the club. (Dothan Eagle) Aug. 13: A Texas constable was shot and killed near the campus of Texas A&M University while serving a summons. A bystander also was shot to death and four people wounded before police killed the shooter. (Fort Worth Star Telegram) Aug. 23: One man was shot by a former co-worker. Nine bystanders were wounded in front of the Empire State Building by police gunfire, which killed the shooter.

(New York Times) Aug. 31: An employee of a Pathmark grocery store in Old Bridge, N.J., shot and killed two employees before killing himself.

(Reuters) SEPTEMBER Sept. 27: Two Orlando, Fla., Quality Suites employees were killed by the ex-boyfriend of one of the women, while another employee was wounded before the gunman committed suicide. (Orlando Sentinel)

Sept. 27: Five employees of Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis were shot and killed by a co-worker who was being fired.

A sixth person, a UPS man making a delivery, also was killed, and four Accent employees were wounded before the gunman shot himself.

OCTOBER Oct. 4: An employee of a Cupertino, Calif., quarry killed three co-workers before being killed by police. (Los Angeles Times) Oct. 21: Three employees of the Azana Day Spa in Milwaukee, Wis. were shot and killed and three wounded before the shooter, the husband of one of the slain employees, killed himself. (Fox 6 News) Oct. 23: Three employees were killed and two injured in a shooting in Downey, Calif. (NBC4-LA) NOVEMBER Nov. 6: Two employees of Valley Protein, a poultry plant in Fresno, Calif., were shot and killed and two wounded by a co-worker, who committed suicide. (Fresno Bee) DECEMBER Dec. 11: A worker at Clackamas Town Center mall near Portland, Ore., and a shopper were killed by a gunman, who then committee suicide. (Oregonian) Dec. 21: Six employees of a Newtown, Conn., elementary school were shot and killed, as were 20 students, by a gunman who committed suicide at the scene. The gunman had earlier killed his mother at home. (Newtown Bee) Dec. 24: Two firefighters were shot and killed and three emergency personnel injured when responding to a fire in Webster, N.Y. (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle) Dec. 28: One employee was found shot dead inside a Gainesville, Ga., car dealership during an apparent robbery. (Associated Press)

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 29

Media & Violence Continued from page 28

Only the Fort Hood deaths were labeled as workplace violence, which angered those who believed it was domestic terrorism.

In fact, some of the deaths in the workplace from 2012 likely will fall into other categories, such as the Sikh temple (domestic terrorism) and Oikos University (school shooting), while the causes of others are attributed to domestic violence or robbery attempts.

Fredrickson recalled a 1996 shooting at a workplace in Minneapolis.

The woman who was killed at work by her boyfriend – who gained entry by carrying a dozen long-stemmed roses, in which he had hidden a gun – rarely gets mentioned as a workplace fatality, Fredrickson said.

Neither does a December 1987 USAir plane crash caused by former USAir employee David Burke, who shot the pilot, co-pilot and the flight attendants during the flight and then crashed the plane, killing the 38

passengers.

“The data used is incomplete,” she said. “When a person is killed at work in a violent manner, that is workplace violence. When a bystander is killed in a place of business that is workplace violence. There is a narrow understanding of what workplace violence is.”

Fatal workplace violence incidents have their roots in 1986, when a series of shootings at post offices across the country spawned the phrase “going postal” to indicate an employee losing control and becoming angry, sometimes to the point of violence. Last fall the documentary “Murder by Proxy, How America Went Postal” was released, tracing the history of workplace violence starting with those late 1980s post office shootings.

In the last few years, preventive training methods for businesses have been developed to spot and abort workplace violence. Fredrickson and Nixon both offer such training. Last summer the city of Houston made “Run, Hide and Fight,” an instructional

video on how to escape a workplace shooting. The city put the video on YouTube, where in five months it has received 1.8 million views.

“Businesses and organizations are catching on that preventing workplace violence in any form can save a lot of money,” Nixon said. “Businesses are finding that the residual effect is quite pervasive – lost work time, lost customers, lost time on the job for employees.”

That calculable cost also can include lawsuits and having to rebuild the business’ public image. In 1995 that cost was about $34.5 billion, according to the Workplace Violence Research Institute, which did a two-year study.

“Businesses are getting it, that knowing what to look for - what the red flags are - can be a good step,” Nixon said. “As for the media, they seem to do a good job when it happens in their coverage area, but don’t have the time to do the research and educate the public on the bigger picture. They don’t see it as their job to put this story in any context.” <

2011 WORKPLACE DEATH STATISTICS Editor’s note: Data is preliminary. Final statistics for 2011 will be released in the spring of 2013.

Some 2011 statistics on workplace deaths from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Total workplace deaths: 4,609. This was down from the 2010 total of 4,690.

Workplace violence accounted for 780 deaths, or 17 percent.

Fatal work injuries to employees age 55 and older dropped, but rose 18 percent for those 20 to 24 years old. The largest age category of those killed was 45 to 54, with 1,207 deaths.

Transportation-related workplace deaths

Page 30 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

were 1,898, or two out of every five deaths while at work.

Of the 375 women killed at work in a violent manner, two out of every five were slain by a relative or someone they knew.

Fatal falls killed 666 people, or 14 percent of those who died on the job.

There were 152 multiple-fatality incidents where at least two employees died.

All but six states reported a death due to workplace violence. California was the highest with 85. New York was second with 48, while Illinois and Florida tied for third with 44 apiece.

For overall workplace deaths, Texas ranked first with 433, while California was second with 360.

Industry News MEDIA NOTES – ST. LOUIS AREA REPUBLIC-TIMES (WATERLOO, ILL.) Waterloo, Ill., native Teryn Schaefer has joined the RepublicTimes as sports editor. Schaefer will work on the website and introduce new multimedia formats to the local news scene. She formerly freelanced for KSDK’sHighSchoolSports.net and created her own franchise segment called “All-Access” that went behind the scenes of a local team each week.

Schaefer also worked for Fat Chimp Studios, a video production company in St. Louis.

ASSOCIATION OF HEALTH CARE JOURNALISTS Jeanne Erdmann, an independent journalist based in Wentzville, won a 2013 fellowship from the association.

She plans to investigate the health outcomes of people who either are too rural or too poor to access the spectrum of care offered through genetic counseling. Her work has appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nature, the HHMI Bulletin (from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute), Science News, ScientificAmerican.com, Chemistry & Biology and Cure.

ONLINE NEWS ASSOCIATION The St. Louis Beacon was a finalist for two awards from the association in 2012: General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small, and Explanatory Journalism, Small. The latter was for its series “Class: the Great Divide.”

CITY AND REGIONAL MAGAZINE ASSOCIATION St. Louis Magazine was a finalist in four categories in the 2012 City and Regional Magazine Association Awards: best column, Ray Hartmann, for “A Hero’s Unwelcome,” “Max Starkloff ’s Revolution” and “At War with the Girl (Scouts) Next Door”; reporting, Jeanette Cooperman, for “A Family Erased,” and Jeannette Cooperman

and Jarrett Medlin for “Twist of Fate”; leisure and lifestyle interests, for “Big River”; and community service project, for “Excellence in Nursing Awards” and “Food/Wine Design.”

MISSOURI BAR ASSOCIATION The association honored the St. Louis American and the St. Louis Beacon with 2012 Excellence in Legal Journalism Awards. The American won for its coverage of an unfolding scandal in the Dellwood Police Department.

The Beacon won for its coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court by William H. Freivogel.

WEW RADIO Anthony Kaminski, host of the Polish radio show, won the Cross of Merit award from the Republic of Poland for service to the St. Louis-area Polish-American Community.

ADVERTISING/PUBLIC RELATIONS FUSE3 CNN reported in November that the Obama re-election campaign paid $2.86 million to FUSE3, a St. Louisbased advertising agency. The AfricanAmerican-owned firm composed ads and other messages aimed at minority voters. The agency worked closely with the campaign staff in Chicago on election night to help the campaign craft any last-minute messages.

GEILE/LEON MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS The agency has hired Adam Schneider to be its new art director. It also hired Jennifer Fuhrman to work with clients to help them achieve their strategic marketing goals.

MOOSYLVANIA The St. Louis ad agency hired Lauren Runge as an account coordinator.

ROMAN COMMUNICATIONS Judi Roman, president of Roman Communications and recently the interim executive director of the Consumers Council of Missouri, has announced her retirement. She is a veteran of more than three decades in public relations. Roman’s friends are planning a “Bon Voyage Judi Party” at 6 p.m. April 7 at IBEW Hall, 5850 Elizabeth Ave., near I-44 and Hampton in St. Louis. For more information, contact Joan Suarez at 7224 Pershing, St. Louis, MO 63130.

ADVERTISING/PUBLIC RELATIONS AWARDS YWCA METRO ST. LOUIS The YWCA honored the following among its 2012 Leaders of Distinction: Shirley Cunningham, chief information officer at Monsanto, Mildred Galvin, senior vice president and partner at Fleishman-Hillard Inc., and Jamala Rogers, columnist for the St. Louis American.

CALENDAR AMERICAN COPY EDITORS SOCIETY The society will conduct its 17th national conference in St. Louis April 4-6 at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark. On April 5, it will feature a national summit on plagiarism and fabrication in conjunction with the Associated Press Media Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Online News Association, the American Society of News Editors, the Canadian Association of Journalists, the RadioTelevision Digital News Association and Local Independent Online News Publishers.

The summit will be in addition to sessions on new technologies, style, grammar, math, and managing for editors in news, business, nonprofits, government and books, for professors and for freelancers.

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 31

Media & Violence

Outside

looking in Former reporter sees Sandy Hook through residents’ eyes

by Eileen Byrnes

For many years I was on the reporter’s side of collecting news. When the massacre at an elementary school occurred in my hometown of Newtown, Conn., I no longer was a member of the press, but rather a resident watching reporters, videographers, radio press, international writers and Internet bloggers descend on a hamlet that has one stoplight.

As each hour passed and the horror of the story became more evident, the ranks of reporters swelled. A town previously known only to the local daily and a family owned weekly now was on the map for reporters from around the world. National news, local reporters, swarms of journalists from New York, the writer for the local patch.com, a giggly Yale student hired as a stringer by a West Coast newspaper and the “Inside Edition” television show all were there.

Each was jockeying for position.

Standing among the hundreds of reporters who clogged the street leading to my current place of employment, I heard rumors swirl like leaves in a gusty wind. For hours the only confirmed information was the death toll, but reporters were up against deadlines and live news feeds, and state police were releasing no information. The scene became a feeding frenzy, and reporters went with what they had. Most of it was unconfirmed and inaccurate, yet still reported. It became the ultimate game of “telephone.” It wasn’t until six hours later, when a press conference took place, that lines between truth and fiction no longer were blurred. Yet as the reporters moved on to the next phase of the story, I did not encounter one journalist who looked back and questioned how it was that nearly every lesson in Journalism 101 was violated.

Page 32 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Media & Violence

For the first 24 hours, news gathering was the focus. Once the victims’ names were released later the next evening, however, the bottomfeeding began. Reporters from as far away as London swarmed our cul-desac looking for any information on one of the 6-year-old neighbors who was a victim. Television crews parked outside his house until they were chased away by police. Teachers, school staff and volunteer ambulance members were called throughout the night by reporters hoping to find someone – anyone – who would talk.

So many press members were seeking comments or snippets of information that by Sunday morning, two days after the tragedy, “No Press” signs could be found on the doors of many victims’ homes, on churches and in storefronts. I encountered someone from CBS who misrepresented herself as a friend of a grieving parent to gain access to the property. But for each reporter who bent or crossed the line of professional behavior, there were just as many who cried with us,

who stood in disbelief that so many children and educators could be slaughtered, and who expressed their sympathies that such horror happened in this town. I saw an NBC producer interview with great care and sympathy a neighbor whose children were in the school that day. I only encountered a nodding understanding when declining comment.

As a former reporter, I understood there was a job to be done, and an audience or readership eager for as much information as possible. I also was part of the audience and readership.

But after a few days of encountering reporters at every turn, having cameras in your face, of being asked for a comment at the grocery store, at the memorials and even at the funerals, it got to be a bit much. And the crowds drawn to the memorials, stoked by the media attention, only added to the stress. It was like living in a fishbowl with now-crowded streets. Town residents became impatient and eager for the press to leave.

But they didn’t leave until the last

funeral more than a week later.

After being camped out near the crime scene for nearly a week, some television crewmembers confided to me they wanted to be home with their families. After all, it was a few days before Christmas. But the decision to stay or leave was not theirs. It was based on ratings, and the country was still watching.

So, standing on the outside looking in, I watched with understanding, awe and annoyance as the coverage continued. And, truth be told, on Dec. 14 it was difficult being a one-time reporter without a publication when one of the biggest stories broke in my backyard. By the next day, however, I was relieved I didn’t have to knock on the doors of grieving families. It got me thinking of past stories, and hoping I covered the funerals of murder victims with respect and sensitive stories with the utmost care. I now understood what it was like to be on the other side.

If more reporters spent any time on the other side, it just might make a difference on how stores are covered.<

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 33

New Media

Media alliances fuel community journalism efforts

by John Jarvis

If it seems that all the media choices across the United States are looking more and more alike, it’s not your imagination. Traditional media in the United States have never been as consolidated as now.

Since 1983, the number of companies that provide Americans with media has dropped more than eightfold, from 50 firms back three decades ago to just a half-dozen now. Put another way, there are six media behemoths – CBS Corp. and Viacom (both subsidiaries of National Amusements Inc.), Disney, General Electric, News Corp. and Time Warner Inc. – that now control 90 percent of what is listened to, read or watched in the United States.

And yet within this ever-narrowing field of media variety there are those in the journalism industry bucking the trend, most notably in the form of collaborations between public radio stations and online media. The common objective of these collaborations is to provide high-quality reporting to members of their communities via new avenues in the digital age.

In St. Louis, an announcement Oct. 5 highlighted the efforts of the online nonprofit news organization St. Louis Beacon and St. Louis Public Radio to “explore forming an alliance to better serve the community through journalism.”

A press release from public radio station KWMU noted that “a letter of intent was signed by Margaret Wolf Freivogel, a founder and the editor of the St. Louis Beacon, and Tim Eby, St. Louis Public Radio general manager.

The letter expresses the shared belief that the Beacon and St. Louis Public Radio can serve St. Louisans better together than they can separately. As a result of this action the two news organizations will begin exploring options for strengthening regional news reporting by using their individual assets in combination.”

“By combining talents and resources, our organizations will again

St. Louis Beacon and St. Louis Public Radio to “explore forming an alliance to better serve the community through journalism.” make this region a national leader in journalism that serves the community,” Freivogel said in the press release.

The collaboration between St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis Beacon recently paid dividends for voters in the region surrounding St. Louis, when the two entities combined efforts with the Nine Network of Public Media to launch the website beyondnovember.org.

Richard Weiss, the website’s managing editor, said Beyond November is designed to be a resource for voters and a tool to hold elected officials accountable to their constituents.

In addition to attracting attention from members of the community, these media collaborations are picking up funding to fuel their efforts. Beyond November, for example, was seeded with a grant from the St. Louis-based Deer Park Foundation.

Another media collaboration that has attracted attention and funding involves the Greater New Orleans Foundation, a community foundation serving the 13-parish region of metropolitan New Orleans.

It was awarded $102,000 by the Knight Foundation in September to help expand the city’s NPR affiliate, WWNO, as part of an effort to increase local news reporting in southeast Louisiana.

The award was part of the Knight Foundation’s 2012 Knight Community Information Challenge, which contributed $3.67 million in matching funds to help the winners “take a leadership role in addressing issues relevant to their communities.”

The public radio station, which had been devoted almost exclusively to classical music, will implement a new service to cover education reform efforts, arts and culture. Plans also call for WWNO to add a reporting staff and to team up with two local online news organizations. One of

Page 34 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

those organizations is The Lens, “the New Orleans area’s first nonprofit, nonpartisan public-interest newsroom, dedicated to unique in-depth reporting projects, as well as exclusive daily stories.” The Lens was co-founded in November 2009 by journalists Ariella Cohen and Karen Gadbois.

Not to be outdone, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the principal funding entity for the New Jersey News Collaborative project, was one of the winners of the Knight Foundation’s 2012 Knight Community Information Challenge. With the $802,000 in challenge funding it received, the foundation intends to develop a network of news organizations and journalists in New Jersey. Along with fellow founding partners Montclair State University and New Jersey Public Radio (NJPR), the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation “will work on a range of projects to expand coverage, engage the public and provide training and services to the news ecosystem,” according to information on the Knight Foundation’s website.

The collaborative project will include activities such as “hiring reporters to focus on New Jersey issues, coordinating collaborative reporting projects, offering website-in-a-box functionality for new organizations and journalists, and developing creative community engagement projects.”

Chris Daggett, the foundation’s president and CEO, says the two founding partners are New Jersey Public Radio and the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University.

“NJPR is our lead editorial partner,” Daggett told writer Amanda Hirsch for a PBS story that ran Oct. 9. “They will be hiring three to five New Jerseybased reporters to cover the state.

They also will be leading collaborative reporting projects and hosting town hall forums.” <

New Media

Moochers no more How the news ‘aggregators’ are scoring scoops with original reporting

by Patrick Howe

Look back five years and the story line on news aggregators was clear: They were moochers – or, in the tamer words of the 2008 Pew State of the Media report, they were contributing to a narrowing of coverage and a dwindling of editorial resources.

These days, though, many of the most notorious aggregators are gathering scoops and awards for their original reporting.

Consider that in 2012: • The news-gossip site Gawker – an unabashed, often outrageous content repurposer – broke one of the bigger tech-related stories of the year by outing reddit “moderator” Violentacrez, known for curating some of the nastiest discussions on the “front page of the Internet.” He turned out to be a middleaged programmer from Texas.

• BuzzFeed, best known for focusing on trends and viral content, hired Ben Smith from Politico, beefed up its editorial staff and scored scoops on the campaign trail.

• The Huffington Post took home a Pulitzer for its 10-part series by senior military correspondent David Wood exploring the lives of wounded veterans.

“It’s definitely a trend,” Joshua Benton, director of Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab, said of aggregators creating original content. He said the increased investment in original reporting is a product both of pride – Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, for example, has been talking about building a reporting team for at least five years – and economics.

“One piece of this is wanting to attract a better class of advertising,” Benton said. “You want to increase the caliber of your content so you can reach a broader audience.”

He cited BuzzFeed and Huffington Post as primary examples, noting that both, at their most spare, offered little

original reporting. Both, have beefed up their editorial teams significantly.

In 2012, according to a year-end review written by Smith, BuzzFeed claimed scoops on stories ranging from Sen. John McCain’s endorsement of Mitt Romney to an exploration of the problems with the new G.I. Bill.

(It wasn’t all so serious; the look-back also fondly noted BuzzFeed’s coverage of “the Angriest Babies in the Whole World” and “27 Nail Hacks for the Perfect DIY Manicure.”)

But the switch to original news creation has been most obvious at Huffington Post, where the editorial side has grown, thanks to an infusion of cash from a $315 million purchase by AOL in 2011, from an editorial operation of about 30 (including just five reporters) in 2009 according to a New York Times piece, to, based on a recent look at

“It’s a part of the natural life cycle of a startup to examine its current strategy and look at what else it can do to provide greater value,” he said.

“That fight for respect may be more ego-driven than economic, but there’s economic value as well.”

Buttry, formerly of the Washington, D.C.-area startup TBD.com, though, argues that the so-called aggregators have long been creating original content, even if they weren’t necessarily sending reporters to meetings. He notes that Huffington Post always featured original, if unpaid, columns. And most so-called aggregators have primarily attracted audiences by both curating content and highlighting news buried or underplayed in their original sources.

But could the move to original content be a defensive play as well?

The argument goes that the upstarts

While aggregators may poach talent from legacy media, they aren’t adopting other high-cost practices, such as printing presses. its masthead, more than 330 editorial employees, including 41 with “reporter” in their titles.

Benton sees the trend as an example of Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen’s broader theory of disruptive innovation, in which low-end innovators, with lower-cost structures, move up-market, just as Hyundai has in the automobile industry.

“They are starting out at the beginning with a structure designed for the Internet,” Benton said.

While aggregators may poach talent from legacy media, they aren’t adopting other high-cost practices, such as printing presses. Steve Buttry, digital transformation editor at Digital First Media, also sees the trend as an example of the disruptive innovation theory.

have been squeezed between cheap, algorithm-driven aggregators such as Google News and the digital offerings of legacy media, which have gotten far more savvy in recent years.

Buttry doesn’t think so, saying: “I bet the aggregators still dominate the aggregation field.”

Still, there’s certain to be higher costs. A Wall Street Journal article on BuzzFeed’s recent $19 million round of venture capital fundraising called the site’s reliance on employees (both for content and its social-based advertising strategy) “old school” and noted that it will need higher revenues to fund its higher-cost structure.

To that observation, many legacy media executives may well say, “Welcome to the club.” <

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 35

New Media

Online news finds niche in fragile times

by John Jarvis

While investigative budgets at newspapers are shrinking, online nonprofit news organizations are finding financing from charitable foundations, journalism schools, philanthropists and other donors.

These revenue streams are fueling investigative reporting efforts at the local, regional and national levels in Minnesota (MinnPost.com), Missouri (St. Louis Beacon), Texas (Texas Tribune in Austin), San Diego (Voice of San Diego), across California (California Watch) in New York (ProPublica), and even in university classrooms.

At least one seasoned reporter has used his newsroom knowledge as a springboard into academia, where he’s teaching a new generation of reporters. Walter Robinson, a professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, translated his 34-year stint at the Boston Globe into teaching investigative reporting classes to undergraduate and graduate students. It’s a subject he knows well. While at the Globe, Robinson led a team of reporters that won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for uncovering the sexual abuse scandal involving the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. A university website notes that students in his class have generated 26 front-page investigative stories for the Globe since 2007.

Of making the change from journalism to academics, Robinson said, “I think of the classroom as a newsroom. They are not ‘students’ but journalists. They are investigating and reporting real news.”

An increasing number of investigative centers are affiliated with universities. The Investigative Journalism Education Consortium (IJEC) uses investigative journalism classes in Midwest states to produce publishable stories. The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting also uses college professors and students in its focus on agribusiness. Professors Brent Houston, from the University of

Illinois, and William H. Freivogel, from Southern Illinois University, lead these efforts. Houston obtained funding from the McCormick Foundation and Center for Ethics and Excellence in Journalism.

Other university centers affiliated with IJEC are Stephen Berry’s Iowa Center for Public Affairs and Andy Hall’s Wisconsin Center for Investigative journalism. Also involved are Matt Waite of the University of Nebraska, Suzanne McBride at Columbia College Chicago and Gerard Lanosga at Indiana University.

In Texas, venture capitalist John Thornton is one of the Texas Tribune’s three founders. The other two are Texas political journalist Ross Ramsey and former Texas Monthly magazine editor Evan Smith.

The Texas Tribune encourages reader interaction on its website while also conducting events that focus on community engagement. It’s similar to approaches taken by other online nonprofit journalism organizations such as the St. Louis Beacon – “a nonprofit news organization dedicated to creating a better St. Louis powered by journalism,” according to information on its website – and the Bay Citizen in San Francisco. (The Bay Citizen is part of the Center for Investigative Reporting, the longest-running nonprofit investigative news center in the nation.) Another nonprofit website is MinnPost.com, which was launched in 2007 by Joel Kramer, the former editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Initial funding for that project came from private donors, and from grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Blandin Foundation.

MinnPost.com “is one example of a site with varied revenue streams that is faring better than most,” noted “The State of the News Media 2012,” an annual report on American journalism produced by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

“A nonprofit, MinnPost’s annual report for 2011 shows strong growth in visits to the site and in memberships, and a 19 percent increase in revenue to

Page 36 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

$1.5 million. About a quarter of the revenue came from advertising and sponsorships, another 25 percent came from individual and corporate memberships, 21 percent came from foundation grants, 20 percent from a capital campaign and 9 percent from special events.”

Information on California Watch’s website reveals that the organization “is supported by major grants from the James Irvine Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the California Endowment, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Wyncote Foundation.” California Watch, which was founded by the Center for Investigative Reporting, has offices in the Bay Area, as well as in Sacramento and southern California.

Not every venture along this new path is prospering, though. In December 2011, Voice of San Diego was forced to lay off four employees – including its photo editor, education reporter and neighborhood reporter – when its fundraising totals failed to hit projections. In Chicago, the Chi-Town Daily News failed; it had abandoned its nonprofit business model four years after it launched in 2005. Editor and founder Geoff Dougherty said in a statement posted on the organization’s website that, “as a nonprofit, we cannot raise the money we need to build a truly robust local news organization that provides comprehensive local coverage.” Another nonprofit news initiative to fail was the Chicago News Cooperative; it was formed in October 2009 and shut down in February 2012.

The path to survival in this new media landscape, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism report, is the one that has been forged by the Texas Tribune and MinnPost. com. “As some seed grants begin to sunset, a shakeout in community news sites is beginning, along with a clearer model for success,” a press alert from the 2012 report reads. “The model for success, epitomized by Texas Tribune and MinnPost, is to diversify funding sources and spend more resources on business – not just journalism.” <

Reviews

‘Beware of Limbo Dancers’ walks on edge of likability

by William A. Babcock

Most readers likely will have a hate-love relationship with Roy Reed’s “Beware of Limbo Dancers,” as it’s nearly impossible to like a book containing so much to dislike.

Nearly.

Reed, a former journalist from Arkansas who spent many of his salad days at the New York Times covering the American civil rights movement, has rubbed shoulders with, known well or covered Nancy Hicks, Bob Maynard, Gene Roberts, Jack Nelson, Molly Ivins, Ann Richards, Turner Catledge, Julian Bond, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter, Johnny Apple, Bill Moyers, Richard Stout, Ralph McGill and George Wallace.

As one might expect, some of these profiles are perfunctory, others richly layered. And readers learn of Reed’s dislike for former Times colleague Apple and reverence for President Johnson. Of Johnson, Reed says, “I have taken perhaps too much joy from the fact that the greatest gains on the race issue in a hundred years were the political work of a Southerner.”

Much of the book’s tone is written from an “us versus them” (Southerners versus Northerners) perspective. While in the book’s last chapter Reed says, “You may not have noticed much of Roy in this book that calls itself a memoir,” the author has interjected so many telling asides that readers indeed end up knowing a great deal of the author – in some cases, much more than seems necessary. For example, Reed: • Says he tries to “never lie with revisionists” over spelling issues.

• Chats about what he will tell a particular segregationist should they meet “in hell.”

• Remarks that it was a “pity” a particular white Southerner “was not hurt seriously.”

• Grouses about how a colleague edited his copy, saying, “I also knew that the paper would have numerous sidebars. Mine should have been one of them. I never got a satisfactory answer as to why it was not. I’m still waiting – in case the editor who made the decision is still out there somewhere.”

• Says of one friend that “he’s almost the only friend I have left from university days.”

• Remembers his time working in London, where he rented a garage space to a friend, and that “she still owes me a month’s rent.”

Such asides detract from Reed’s book. It seems strange that he would have been compelled to include such inconsequential commentary, and stranger still that an editor would not have caught and edited out such meanderings, which detract from the author’s storytelling. By repeating various facts, such as Wallace’s boxing past, “Beware of Limbo Dancers” sometimes comes off as sloppily edited.

While the book often seems fixated on questionably edited name-dropping trivia, journalists or former journalists of a certain age (as well as civil-rights history buffs) will find enough familiar faces and curious, unknown narratives to keep them occupied turning pages.

Where Reed excels is in providing a good primer on the civil rights movement as it played out in the second half of the 20th century. At the same time, the book’s narrative traces how the GOP – which had, as the author says, “lain more or less dormant since the post-Civil War Reconstruction” – began to come alive.

“Beware of Limbo Dancers” is chockablock with stories about Southern politicians, white supremacists and enterprising journalism, and the sagas and portraits are recounted in a never-ending deluge that only a former journalist – and especially a former Southern journalist – could unleash. <

Roy Reed, Beware of Limbo Dancers: A Correspondent’s Adventures with the New York Times Author: Roy Reed Publisher: University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, 2012 Hardcover: $34.95, 216 pages

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 37

Reviews

‘Into the Fray’ details NBC’s forays into documentaries

by Jan Thompson

Documentary film making has exploded in popularity over the last several decades, and naturally it has gone through a metamorphosis.

Documentarians or broadcast journalists who were influential in shaping and laying the main groundwork often are overlooked.

And that is why Tom Mascaro’s “Into the Fray” is an important historical reference book.

Mascaro, now at Bowling Green State University, has a solid background in the area of documentary, network news, and has a handle on information quality. That is, he writes both as a knowledgeable observer and as an “insider” with a deep appreciation of what it took to create the field of broadcast documentaries.

“Into the Fray” is a thoughtful and well-researched overview of the how NBC’s Washington Documentary Unit was created in the early 1960s. Mascaro sets the stage by introducing the main leaders of the documentary unit: Stuart Schulberg, Ted Yates and Bob Rogers.

He gives the reader ample biographical background to understand these men and how they were influenced while producing their work.

Schulberg was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) under the Hollywood director John Ford. In the summer of 1945, Ford sent

him to Europe to hunt for, and prepare, photographic documentary evidence for the international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. The films and photos were essential to convicting the Nazis on trial. As a result of this enormous collection, Schulberg wrote and directed “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today,” now considered to be the official documentary about the trial.

Yates, a Wyoming native, was a veteran of the Korean War. He worked with Ben Hecht and was influenced, like many at the time, by Ernest Hemingway’s works. He was the producer of “Night Beat” with Mike Wallace that established Wallace’s style as a hard-hitting, tough, no-holdsbarred interviewer.

Rogers, also a war veteran, was highly influenced by his Jesuit education at St. John’s College High School, a preparatory school in Washington, D.C. His interest in writing was sparked by Hemingway, but the Catholic writer Graham Greene influenced him greatly with his stories and characters about good versus evil set among foreign conflicts.

Though NBC had produced successful programs such as the 26-part series “Victory At Sea” (1952-53), NBC lagged behind CBS – which, at the time, was producing more documentaries than any other network. The inauguration of what would be known as the NBC Washington Documentary Unit got its start with “David Brinkley’s Journal” with Schulberg and Yates as the producers. The program premiered in the fall of 1961.

Brinkley’s on-camera lead

informed the viewers that “this is a new television program for adults. We will not give away any washing machines, nor play any games in the studio. We will try each week to find something worth a half-hour of your time – and ours.”

Mascaro puts the reader into the context of the time by supplying information about pop culture and political driving forces of the time that would influence story choice and direction. He notes that this was during the era of the “Quiz Show” scandal and the infamous FCC chairman Newton Minow’s accusation that television was a “vast wasteland.” The time was perfect for serious, in-depth journalism.

“David Brinkley’s Journal” lasted two seasons, and Mascaro reviews the stories that were covered during that those seasons. It established the Shulberg-Yates team that later brought in Rogers as a writer. Rogers was considered by many as the best “write to picture” guy. NBC wanted to continue to feature Brinkley and produce one-hour specials devoted to significant subjects. Now the team would concentrate on a single subject for an extended time.

Schulberg, Yates and Rogers all saw that the long-form documentary could be used as a tool not just to clarify choices and interpret history, but to also promote the human understanding of the subject. The team had editorial courage to confront the subject matter openly.

The team produced several documentaries, and Mascaro takes the reader though the background of several of them. A notable and

Into the Fray Author: Tom Mascaro Publisher: Potomac Books, Dulles, VA 2012 Hardcover: $29.95, 432 pages

Page 38 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Reviews ‘Deadline in Disaster’ refutes cynical nature of newspaper reporters

by Terry Ganey

Hollywood often portrays newspaper reporters as a calloused, cynical bunch, interested only in grabbing a headline no matter the cost.

If ever a movie refuted that notion, it’s “Deadline in Disaster,” a vivid onehour documentary that illustrates the value of a newspaper to a community at a time when it needs it most.

Produced by the Missouri Press Association, the film recounts the Joplin Globe’s coverage of the giant tornado that killed 161 people, and destroyed 8,500 homes and businesses, in Joplin May 22, 2011. One of the newspaper’s page designers, Bruce Baillie, was killed in the storm. Several other employees had their homes destroyed or damaged.

“After people see the film, they come up and express appreciation for what newspapers do,” said Doug Crews, MPA executive director. “It puts a face

on a newspaper and its staff. It allows the public to take an inside look as to what goes into producing a newspaper and gives an appreciation of reporters who have to work under extreme conditions.”

The film follows the Globe staff as it copes with devastation on a personal and professional basis. Reporters and photographers discuss their feelings as they deal with people who have lost everything.

The film was directed by Emmy Award-winning journalists and documentary filmmakers Beth Pike and Stephen Hudnell, along with retired Associated Press correspondent Scott Charton. It has been screened at theaters in the Missouri communities of Columbia, Joplin and St. Louis, and it will be shown on some PBS stations this year.

More information on the film can be found online at http://www. deadlineindisaster.com. <

Mascaro puts the reader into the context of the time by supplying information about pop culture and political driving forces of the time that would influence story choice and direction. overlooked film produced by Yates and Rogers was “Vietnam: It’s a Mad World,” narrated by Chet Huntley, that foreshadowed “the quagmire facing the United States.” The documentary unit took on subjects that were in dangerous locations and controversial.

This unit also provided opportunities for several women in the documentary

field, among them Lois Stark, Rhonda Schwartz, Peggy Rhoades and Judy Williams.

“Into the Fray” gives the reader insights into other journalists and producers of the period, such as Brinkley, Wallace and Georges Klotz.

Yates and Rogers died in their 50s, and Yates was killed on the job

in Jerusalem covering the Six-Day War. Their lives were cut short, but they left a legacy with their work.

Yates and Rogers, unfortunately, have been ignored by documentary historians, even though they had major contributions to the documentary form.

The book is a social history of the NBC Washington Documentary Unit during the early days of television and broadcast journalism – perhaps the glory days before the mighty dollar and a new definition of “yellow journalism” emerged.

Mascaro’s “Into the Fray” is a significant contribution to the history of broadcast journalism and the longform documentary. <

Check out the results of our end-of-the-year survey to see what our top stories were!

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 39

Reviews

Book spotlights St. Louis radio, TV legends

by Michael D. Murray

Let’s face it. Any book with Harry Caray on the cover “behind the mike” is going to attract attention in St. Louis – and maybe north of the Gateway Arch, too. And any book about the history of local broadcasting compiled by Frank Absher, known for developing Media Archives, is going to be well worth a look.

Absher has put together an excellent collection of illuminating photos and supplementary material for the “Images of America” series, his second about broadcasting for Arcadia, specializing in visual works, focusing on local history.

The book begins by hitting all the highlights of St. Louis broadcast history in a brief, two-page introduction, followed by seven chapters. At 128 pages, it is compact. It starts with the experimental 1920s and wireless operators, with equipment on the grounds of St. Louis Country Club.

It progresses through studio shots and portraits of investors, inventors, innovators and promoters; Virginia “Val” Jones, KSD’s first program director; and Thomas Patrick Convey, the first station manager of KMOX. The second chapter, titled “Radio Comes Alive,” begins with KXOK, KWK, KFUO and St. Louis University’s WEW. Pulitzer’s KSD includes a youthful Russ David, a prelude to television entering the picture. A more mature David appears with Frank Eschen and highlights of the longestrunning local radio drama. Every once in awhile, programs or people of national acclaim appear, such as songbird Kate Smith (p. 43) or funny man Spike Jones (p. 55). Diverse sources include brochures and booklets with black performers: Spider Burks (pp. 5051), jazz great Count Basie (pp. 80-81) and the man called “hardest working” in show business, James Brown, appearing for KATZ (Bernie Hayes is next to him, p. 86), a delight for radio-crazed kids.

Vintage readers will remember “Johnny Rabbitt,” Lou “Father” Thimes, Rex

St. Louis Radio and Television Author: Frank Absher Publisher: Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012 Paperback: $21.99, 128 pages

Davis, Jack Carney, John McCormack – “the man who walks and talks at midnight” – and also “The Katz Man,” who confounded high school principals with “on-air,” call-in antics.

Having watched too much TV, Baby Boomer readers will recognize homemaker-turned-TV-entertainer Charlotte Peters with trusty sidekicks Stan Kann and John Roedel, and weather fixture Howard “That’s all from here” DeMere. The book’s fifth chapter enters the 1960s with a photo of Forest Park Highlands with Harry “Texas Bruce” Gibbs “In Person” and “Live Telecasts,” and a ticket from KPLR-TVs “Wrestling at the Chase.”

Close to the end of the book we get an entire chapter from the time when kids were TV kings, with fan favorites such as “Cookie and the Captain” with Dave Allen and Jim Bolen; versatile Harry Fender – a.k.a. “Captain 11”; and Clif St. James as “Corky the Clown,” who served in news and weather.

There are photos of many of the folks Baby Boomers first heard or saw creating “media magic” – perhaps so much, in some cases, that they thought they knew them: Jack Buck and other talented Buck family members, Joe and Christine; “Newsbeats’” John Auble and Dick Ford; and managers such as Jeff Rainford and Robert Hyland, to whom

Page 40 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

much attention was paid in Absher’s previous book.

From TV news, Fred Porterfield, Spencer Allen, Max Roby and Julius Hunter are there – and, because of St. Louis’ ongoing sports fascination, so, too, are Dizzy Dean, “Easy” Ed Macauley, Jay Randolph, Mike Shannon and Dan Dierdorf.

Talents from KWMU include the late Greg Freeman and Joe Pollack, and others still with us, reflecting on the varied news career of Don Marsh. The book concludes with shots of KETCTV regulars: Patrick Murphy, AnneMarie Berger and Jim Kirchherr, as well as the “Donnybrook” founders.

This book essentially is a photo collection, and no one ever would mistake it for a scholarly tome. While it could have been enhanced by an index to enable readers to track down contributors over time, it is consistent with other books in this series. This one, alongside efforts to maintain media, which Absher also leads, offers insight into broadcasting’s evolution. In the parlance of its most likely readers, it’s “a trip” – a walk down memory lane, well conceived and well executed. It will be a welcome addition for anyone with a love of local broadcasting. If you happened to have “lived it,” it’s even better. <

GJR contributors William A. Babcock

Tom Grier

is editor of Gateway Journalism Review. He is the senior ethics professor and deputy director of the SIU Carbondale School of Journalism.

is a professor of communication at Winona University (Winona, Minn.).

Eileen Byrnes

is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She worked as a reporter for daily newspapers in New York and Connecticut, as well as a freelance writer for newspapers and other print publications. In addition to writing, she also works in the health and fitness industry.

Tom Eveslage

John McCarron mass State

Benjamin Israel

is a freelance writer living in St. Louis. He was a regular contributor to the St. Louis Journalism Review.

Forty years ago, he was news director of KDNA-FM in St. Louis. His work has appeared in more than a dozen Missouri publications. He formerly covered St. Louis courts for Bloomberg News.

John Jarvis

is a freelance urban affairs writer and adjunct lecturer at DePaul University’s School of Communication.

He worked 27 years for the Chicago Tribune as reporter, financial editor and member of the editorial board.

Michael D. Murray

is a University of Missouri Board of Curators Professor in Media Studies at University of Missouri-St. Louis. He also is a member of Gateway Journalism Review’s board of advisers.

Eric P. Robinson

reports for NPR and Time magazine from her base in Athens, Greece.

teaches media law and ethics at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and Baruch College, both in New York. He was deputy director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Courts and Media at the University of Nevada-Reno. Robinson is a media and Internet law attorney with extensive experience analyzing and writing on media, Internet and freedom-of-expression issues, including tracking media, and Internet litigation and legislation. He blogs at bloglawonline.com.

is publisher of Gateway Journalism Review and director of the SIU Carbondale School of Journalism.

He is a former editorial page deputy editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and contributes to the St. Louis Beacon.

He is a member of the Missouri Bar.

Charlie Leonard

Sam Robinson

is a visiting professor and director of polling at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, SIU Carbondale.

Terry Ganey

is a 1984 (Newhouse) and 2001 (Whitman) graduate of Syracuse University. Her journalism career has included six years at the Syracuse PostStandard, including three years as a sports editor heading up coverage of SU sports.

She lives in upstate New York, where she is publisher of a community weekly newspaper and teaches journalism at Utica College.

is managing editor of Gateway Journalism Review. She recently completed her doctorate at SIU Carbondale. She has a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies from Kansas State. In the fall, she will join the faculty at California State University Monterey Bay as an assistant professor of journalism and digital media.

taught law and ethics at Temple University for 32 years as a journalism professor. He served for almost 20 years on the Student Press Law Center Board of Directors, the Journalism Education Association’s Press Rights Commission and the Pennsylvania School Press Association’s Executive Board.

William H. Freivogel

is the St. Louis editor of Gateway Journalism Review. He has more than 40 years’ experience as an investigative reporter and political correspondent, and worked with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Patrick Howe

is a former Washington correspondent and Associated Press newsman. He is an assistant professor of multimedia journalism at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

is associate managing editor of Gateway Journalism Review. He has worked as a writer, copy editor and editor for newspapers in Texas, Indiana and Arizona. He is an M.S. student at SIU Carbondale.

Joanna Kakissis

Pat Louise

Roy Malone

is a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the former editor of St. Louis Journalism Review.

Jan Thompson

is an associate professor in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts at SIU Carbondale. She is a 28year broadcast veteran. She has produced more than 300 television programs, including long-form documentaries across varied subject genres.

Charles Klotzer

is the founder of St. Louis Journalism Review.

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 41

Industry News

Brown’s return to radio comes at Hayes’ expense

by Benjamin Israel

Lizz Brown, a well-known AfricanAmerican broadcaster, has returned to the St. Louis airwaves with a weekday show on WGNU from 6 to 9 a.m.

Between 1993 and 2007, Brown had worked behind the WGNU microphones, starting out at once a week and gradually building up to four hours every weekday morning. In 2007, Radio Property Ventures bought the AM station from the estate of Chuck Norman, adopted an all-gospel format and canceled her show. She returned this year Jan. 4.

Brown’s return came at the expense of another local institution: Bernie Hayes, whose show ran from 7 to 8 a.m.

Hayes started at WGNU in July 2009, shortly after the station abandoned its gospel format. From 1965, when he joined KATZ-AM as a disk jockey, and except for a one-year hiatus in the 1980s, Bernie Hayes has been a presence on the St. Louis radio airwaves.

He started the first AfricanAmerican talk show on a St. Louis commercial radio station and served as KWMU’s news director. Hayes is a member of the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. He also is included in the St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame and the St. Louis Black Radio Hall of Fame. He is

Polling continued from page 21

Big national or statewide samples will have margins for error of three to four percentage points. If this week’s poll says Candidate A is leading Candidate B by 51 to 49 percentage points, do not rely upon exact numbers.

The estimates naturally will bounce around from survey to survey and week to week. If next week’s survey says A is ahead of B 52 to 48, it does not necessarily mean the candidate’s real lead is widening. And if that survey has a three-percentage-point margin

the author of the book “The Death of Black Radio.”

Brown and Hayes are civil rights activists and share many fans. Although Brown is glad to be in the morning drive-time slot, she said she did not mean to displace Hayes. She said she approached Radio Property Ventures about getting on its other station, the all-gospel KXEN 1010, which has a daytime power of 50,000 watts. WGNU is 450 watts daytime. The station owner instead offered her WGNU. Neither Hayes nor Brown will speak ill of the other. Hayes said WGNU’s management never called him to say his show was canceled. Word came in the form of a memo to the whole staff announcing Brown’s show.

He said he had Julian Bond, Dick Gregory and two media professors lined up. “They offered me four other spots,” Hayes said, “except they knew I could not take any of them.” Hayes said the slots offered conflicted with classes he teaches at Webster University.

Dirk Hallemeier, manager at Radio Property Ventures, said in an email that he “has not given up on Bernie Hayes” and continues discuss possible alternatives with him.

In his last weeks on the air, Hayes’ guests included local figures such as alderman Charles Quincy Troupe, Jamala Rogers, Maryann McGivern and Percy Green. He also brought in out-of-

town guests such as Maulana Karenga, a professor of Africana studies who is best known as the creator of the holiday Kwanzaa. Two regulars on his program were syndicated talk-show host Bob Law and journalist George Curry.

Brown says to expect similar guests on her show. She already has lined up former St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Sylvester Brown for a regular slot on Wednesdays. But there is a real difference in tone. Hayes’ tone is measured, while Brown will interject lines such as, “Are you scared yet?”

And Brown can get sloppy with facts. For example, she referred to President Barack Obama as a former Harvard Law professor. Obama graduated from Harvard Law School and taught law as a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. She said the last Congress voted to repeal Obamacare 33 times. In fact, it was the House of Representatives that had done so without the bill ever reaching the floor of the Senate.

St. Louis alderman Antonio French, a former journalist, isn’t bothered by those mistakes.

“It’s rare that I read a political article whether in the Post-Dispatch or the American where it doesn’t get something wrong,” French said.“She fires people up,” he said. “Apathy is the (African-American) community’s greatest problem.” <

for error, don’t write that A’s fourpoint lead in that poll is “statistically significant.”

The 52-point estimate for A and the 48-point estimate for B can both vary by plus or minus three percentage points.

3) Be skeptical of internal polls.

We can all be seduced by insider access and the promise of a scoop. But ask yourself, “Why is this campaign insider sharing these poll numbers with me?” Not so that you can know the selectively shared truth, but so that your reporting can influence perceptions. If

they don’t show you the results of the whole survey - and even results of their past surveys - don’t trust them.

4) All polls are not created equal.

A quick list of things to ask yourself includes: A) Is the poll done by a reputable firm or a university with a good track record? An organization with a reputation to lose won’t rig a poll. B) Does the firm reveal its survey methods, including sampling, interviewing method, and actual question wording? C) Does it reveal who paid for the survey, and what the survey’s ultimate purpose was?<

Page 42 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Industry News

Post-Dispatch names new business editor Submitted to Gateway Journalism Review

Roland Klose has been hired as the new business editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Klose has been business editor at the Commercial Appeal in Memphis for the past three years, but he has held a wide variety of jobs in journalism during his career. He was managing editor for the Riverfront Times from 1999 to 2003, and his past

business news experience includes jobs as assistant business editor at the Tampa Tribune, and as staff writer at the Memphis and Nashville business journals.

He also led the Illinois Times, an alternative newspaper in Springfield, Ill., as editor for five years and worked about nine years as a reporter and editor at the Commercial-Appeal in a prior stint there early in his career. He is a graduate of Washington University.

Post-Dispatch officials said Klose’s background as a dedicated and trusted manager with expertise in business and watchdog reporting will be a fine addition to the newsroom and the paper’s business team. Management officials said they are looking forward to continued quality business coverage by the paper’s staff, both online and in print, under the leadership of Klose and assistant business editor Greg Cancelada.

Jo Mannies wins lifetime achievement award Submitted to Gateway Journalism Review

St. Louis Beacon political reporter Jo Mannies accepted the John Michael McGuire Lifetime Achievement Award from United Media Guild on Jan. 25.

Mannies was cited for more than 30 years covering politics and policy in an intrepid, unbiased way. McGuire was a longtime

and beloved feature writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who died in 2009.

Also honored, was Christine Byers of the Post-Dispatch. She won the Terry Hughes Award named in memory of the late Post-Dispatch columnist who wrote stories that were by turns compassionate and revelatory. In her remarks, Byers cited Mannies as a role model and noted that a few years ago when she was slated to be

Seigenthaler continued from page 13

Akrap and Manwarring, both winners of the Gateway Media Literacy Partner, Charles Klotzer Media Literacy award, were part of a group of 16 students attending the event.

The students were sponsored by Agnes and Dave Garina, Mark Vittert and Nancy and Ken Kranzberg. In addition to the student tables, there was a special table dedicated to the “Fans of Joe Pollack.” It was organized by professor Avis Meyer of St. Louis University. Pollack, a longtime contributor to the Journalism Review, died last year.

“The excellent turnout for the ‘First Amendment Celebration’ testifies that readers and supporters of the Gateway Journalism Review respect the work being done with limited resources, but also that they welcome the addition of Terry Ganey as St. Louis editor, who took over from veteran Roy Malone,” said Charles Klotzer, founder of the Journalism Review. “The key SIU Carbondale team of William Freivogel, William Babcock, Sam Robinson and John

laid off as part of a downsizing, Mannies retired from the Post-Dispatch thus saving her job.

Mannies noted that Hughes, who died in 1991 at age 36 of breast cancer, had been a close friend. She said Hughes would have proud of Byers’ work, which included a series of stories about Anna Brown, a homeless woman who died in police custody.

Jarvis can look upon this successful event both as an endorsement as well as an encouragement for all their efforts.

“So many people deserve thanks for organizing the event. On top of the list would be Dan and Anita Sullivan Agnes, Dave Garino, Carol and Roy Malone, Lynn and Mark Sableman, Jessica Brown and Michael Murray as well as many, many others on the event’s sponsors committee and planning board.”

“Taking time to pay tribute to people who have worked with the Journalism Reviews over the past 40 years is important,” Seigenthaler said. “We need independent review of the news media, like what the [Gateway] Journalism Review provides.”

Seigenthaler said it is tempting to let unreliable and inaccurate journalism pass by “let[ting] the buck pass.” But he encouraged the audience to be involved and to exercise their citizens’ right to speak out when they find false information in the media.

In the age of the Internet, “everyone can be a pamphleteer,” Seigenthaler said. “And we all need to step up and protect free speech.” <

Gateway Journalism Review welcomes media news from across the Midwest. If you, your company, your organization or your club has news to share with others in the industry, let us know. We will run appropriate items in our “Media Notes” section in the next print issue.

Promotions, election of officers, meetings, business openings and conferences are examples of items that are suitable for “Media Notes.” Please send your information to gatewayjr@siu.edu.

Please be sure to include the name, telephone number and email address for the contact person.

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 43

Women In Media

Women still paid less

by Sam Robinson

Journalism was once called a “pink collar” industry due to the high number of women who entered the occupation.

Whether it is print, broadcast or online, many women still find the field to be attractive despite corporate cutbacks over the past 10 years.

What should women in media professions expect for wages?

In the United States, women across all profession make 77 cents

on the dollar compared to their male counterparts in the same occupation with comparable educations. Genderbased wage disparity can be found in media occupations as well.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Labor, Gateway Journalism Review has compiled the following charts that compare the number of women and men in various salary ranges in six metropolitan areas of the Midwest.

Information is voluntarily reported by employers and reflects 2011 statistics as

reported in 2012. Overall, the regional statistics reflect the national averages in that more women are in the lower salary ranges, while more men are in the $100,000-plus categories.

Of the six surveyed, the best locations for women as reporters are Minneapolis and Nashville, Tenn.

Minneapolis and Kansas City, Mo., topped the list for women as editors.

Overall, Oklahoma City appeared to pay lower wages regardless of gender, while metropolitan areas such as Chicago paid higher wages across the board.

U.S. Median Annual Income Classification

Overall

Women

Men

Public Relations Manager Editor Reporter

$78,900 $52,262 $50,031

$71,346 $49,934 $45,380

$90,900 $57,350 $52,309

Salaries of Reporters & Editors

United States

Reporters

Editors

Number of men and women per income bracket

$0 $14,999

$15 – $24,999

$25 – $34,999

$35 – $49,999

$50 – $74,999

$75$99,999

$100 $124,999

$125,000+ Key:

1 = 1,000 Men = Green Women = Orange

Page 44 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Women In Media $125,000+

Chicago

$100 $124,999 $75$99,999

Chicago

$50 – $74,999 $35 – $49,999 $25 – $34,999 $15 – $24,999 $0 $14,999

Key: Reporters

Editors

1 = 50 Men = Green Women = Orange

Kansas City

$125,000+

$100 $124,999 $75$99,999 $50 – $74,999 $35 – $49,999 $25 – $34,999 $15 – $24,999 $0 $14,999

Key: Reporters

Editors

1 = 10 Men = Green Women = Orange

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 45

Women In Media St. Louis

$125,000+

$100 $124,999 $75$99,999 $50 – $74,999 $35 – $49,999 $25 – $34,999 $15 – $24,999 $0 $14,999

Key: Reporters

1 = 10 Men = Green Women = Orange

Editors

Minneapolis

$125,000+

$100 $124,999 $75$99,999 $50 – $74,999 $35 – $49,999 $25 – $34,999 $15 – $24,999 $0 $14,999

Key: Reporters

Page 46 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

Editors

1 = 50 Men = Green Women = Orange

Women In Media Nashville

$125,000+

$100 $124,999 $75$99,999 $50 – $74,999 $35 – $49,999 $25 – $34,999 $15 – $24,999 $0 $14,999

Key: Reporters

Editors

1 = 10 Men = Green Women = Orange

Oklahoma City

$125,000+

$75$99,999 $50 – $74,999 $35 – $49,999 $25 – $34,999 $15 – $24,999 $0 $14,999

Key: Reporters

Editors

1 = 10 Men = Green Women = Orange

* Information compiled from the U.S. Census Bureau and Dept. of Labor Statistics. Data is voluntarily reported by employers and reflects 2011 statistics as reported in 2012. Census occupation classification codes 2810 (News analysts, reporters and correspondents) and 2830 (Editors) were used.

Winter 2013 • Gateway Journalism Review • Page 47

Women In Media

Hillary Clinton’s scrunchies

by Sam Robinson

Nails manicured, hair parted on the right and swept to the left, wearing a conservative charcoal suit with white shirt, Speaker of the House John Boehner was sworn in to office Jan. 3. The speaker added a splash of color to his ensemble wearing a cobalt-blue tie with white dots.

The look mimicked that of the 2011 ceremony. The only real wardrobe difference between the two dates was the absence of a lapel pin he wore two years ago. (We are not yet certain why his staff let him commit such a fashion faux pas.)

The signs of age and stress were evident in the noticeable greying of hair on the 63-year-old Republican from Ohio. He also looked heavier in the face. Sadly, we were not able to get a good look at his shoes to know the brand. But they were black – and sensible for the day’s events, too.

This imagined story about Boehner’s swearing in never appeared in print. But, how many articles have you read with paragraphs similar to these, but with reference to women in politics?

Articles that discuss the weight, attire and hairstyle of female elected officials are a mainstay in today’s media. The 2012 election has brought a record number of women to the U.S. House and Senate. If coverage of the Jan. 3 oaths of office events is any indication, we are certain to see even more articles with appearance details on women in politics.

Reporters with serious economic and political issues to cover, and with ample news to report, cannot resist filling articles with tidbits on women’s shoes and hairstyle. A Jan. 3 article in the New York Times, “Boehner Retains Speaker’s Post, but Dissidents Nip at His Heels,” started by discussing the political divide between the two parties. But by the eighth paragraph the reporter could not resist the urge and added this: “Newly elected Representative Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, displayed her grievous wounds from the war in Iraq, wearing a skirt that revealed two prosthetic legs, with red pumps on her feet.”

Granted, the extenuating circumstances related to Duckworth’s appearance could be considered noteworthy. But was the added detail of the “red pumps” necessary?

On the same day, another New York Times reporter used a reference to a “serious display of XX-chromosome strength” in an article titled, “Day of Records and Firsts as 113th Congress Opens.”

Are these gender-based references appropriate? Do these references go beyond inessential to sexist?

The most prominent woman in politics today is an appointed, rather than elected, official – outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton has received considerable media attention since the November election. Between testifying before Congress about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, her recent

Page 48 • Gateway Journalism Review • Winter 2013

“I know that it’s (her hairstyle) one of the great fascinations of our time – much to my amazement.” hospitalization, resigning her post and speculation on a “Hillary in 2016” presidential campaign, she is daily news fodder.

Several members of the media already have started to question Clinton’s age when discussing a possible presidential campaign. Should she run in 2016 and win, she would be 69 years old, the same age Ronald Reagan was when elected to his first term as president.

Recent articles about Clinton’s hospitalization because of a blood clot have questioned her overall physical fitness. In a Jan. 2 article, “Clinton Out of Hospital After Treatment for Clot” in the New York Times, the writer noted: “She has put on weight and in recent times appeared fatigued.” The article was accompanied with a graphic depicting where the blood clot was located in Clinton’s head. The graphic was very detailed. In fact, it included Clinton’s ponytail in the artwork.

Clinton, who recently was voted the “Most Admired Woman in the World” for the 11th year in a row in a Gallup poll, has noted media coverage of her hair in several interviews. Most recently, in an interview with Barbara Walters, Clinton said, “I know that it’s one of the great fascinations of our time – much to my amazement.”

Clinton noted that hairstyle is a topic “nobody asks men about.”

There is so much media coverage on Clinton’s hairstyle that even a Google search on “Hillary Clinton’s scrunchie” will bring up more than 20 pages of images and articles.

Several female elected officials were asked for comments for this article. One replied: Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, a Kansas Republican.

“I would assume it is more challenging for the media to cover women in politics, because there are simply fewer of us,” Jenkins said. “At least in Congress, women are still significantly outnumbered by men. I do not think this changes how the media treats female politicians versus male politicians. I don’t think they are any easier on us than our male colleagues. However, I do think the public has stronger opinions about women who do media, especially TV interviews, in regards to their appearance.

“My advice to anyone entering politics is to think about how you will handle the transition from private life to public life. This change can be quite the personal shock, but it also affects your family and children. Everything you do and say will be scrutinized. You have to have thick skin to be an elected official, so that is something to be aware of.” <

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Hillary Clintonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scrunchies

by Sam Robinson page 48