St. Louis Journalism Review Presents:

OURNALISMOURNALISM REVIEWREVIEW

Inside this issue: Daily Egyptian challenges Courage and coverage in real time by Jodi MacNeal chancellor’s ethics by Athena Chrysanthou Checking on the facts Remembering Roy Malone by Ben Lyons by Terry Ganey

Activists draw attention to atomic city Review: McPhee and Bill Bradley by Don Corrigan by Michael Murray

- PAGE 1 - 2018 • Volume 47 Number 348 • $8 St. Louis Journalism Review Presents:

CONTRIBUTORS OURNALISM REVIEW

Publisher William H. Freivogel Published by: Publisher of Gateway Journalism Review. Freivo- Artist Steve Edwards gel is a former editorial page deputy editor for Professional artist, Steve Edwards Studio. School of Journalism College the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and contributes to of Mass Communication St. Louis Public Radio. He is a member of the and Media Arts Missouri Bar. GJR Founder Charles Klotzer Deborah Tudor: interim dean The founder of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Kavita Karan: interim director Sherida Evans: School of Editor William A. Babcock Journalism, office manager Editor of Gateway Journalism Review. Former DON CORRIGAN senior international news editor and writing Don Corrigan is the editor-in-chief and co-pub- coach for the Christian Science Monitor. Media lisher of the Webster-Kirkwood Times, South Board of Advisers: ethics is his primary teaching and research area. County Times and West End Word newspapers in Jim Kirchherr, Don Corrigan, St. Louis. He also is a professor of journalism in Lisa Bedian, Tammy Merrett, the School of Communications at Webster Univer- Rita Csapo-Sweet, Steve Managing Editor Jin Lee sity in St. Louis, serving as a print adviser to the Perron, Eileen Duggan, Associate editor of the Gateway Journalism university newspaper. Michael D. Sorkin, David Review. Lee is a doctoral student in the SIUC P. Garino, Rick Stoff, Ted College of Mass Communications and Media Arts. TERRY GANEY Gest, Fred Sweet, William Previously she was a marketing manager at the Terry Ganey is the author of two New York Times Greenblatt, Lynn Venhaus, South Korean government agency brokering Daniel Hellinger, Robert A. intentional trade of media content. investigative reporting. He covered politics and Cohn, Michael E. Kahn, John bestsellersgovernment and for a the finalist Associated for the Press, Pulitzer the Prize St. Louis in P. Dubinsky, Gerald Early, Paul Business Director Zachary Sapienza Post-Dispatch and the Columbia Daily Tribune. Schoomer, Moisy Shopper, Business director of Gateway Journalism Review. Ray Hartmann, Ken Solomon, He is a doctoral student in the SIUC College of HANNAH ERIKSON Avis Meyer, Tom Engelhardt Mass Communications and Media Arts. Previ- Hannah Erickson has a B.A. in Communications ously, he was the education advertising manager from Regent University, and is currently The Gateway Journalism Review for the Chicago Sun-Times and debate coach at completing her M.S. of Mass Communication and GJR (USPS 738-450 ISSN: 0036- Washington University in St. Louis. Media Management from Southern Illinois University. 2972) is published quarterly, by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, School of Journalism, Design Chief Abbey La Tour JODI MACNEAL College of Mass Communication Design chief of Gateway Journalism Review. La Jodi (Davis) MacNeal is a freelance writer/editor and Media Arts, a non-profit entity. Tour is a student at Southern Illinois University and a former journalist at the Miami Herald and The office of publication is SIUC studying journalism and communication design. the Palm Beach Post. School of Journalism, 1100 Lincoln She has previously designed for the Peoria Jour- Drive, Mail Code 6601, Carbondale, nal Star, Small Newspaper Group and the GJR. BEN LYONS IL 62901 Ben Lyons is a Research Fellow in the Department of To Subscribe: Contributing editor ANNA SPOERRE Politics at the University of Exeter, and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Annenberg Public 618-536-3361 Anna Spoerre is a senior from Carterville study- gatewayjr.org/subscribe ing journalism with focuses in news-editorial Policy Center, home to FactCheck.org. He was manag- and photojournalism. After graduating Southern ing editor of Gateway Journalism Review 2014-15. Illinois University Carbondale in May, she is Subscription rates: heading west to intern at the Oregonian before MICHAEL MURRAY $20 -- one year returning to Illinois in the fall to intern with the Michael Murray is University of Missouri Board of $35 -- two years Chicago Tribune’s breaking news desk. Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emeritus on the $45 -- three years UM St. Louis campus. He has taught writing and Foreign subscriptions higher reporting at UMSL for the past 35 years. depending upon country. Contributing editor Khara Lukancic Khara Lukancic is a master’s student in the Col- ATHENA CHRYSANTHOU POSTMASTER: Please send address lege of Mass Communication and Media Arts at changes to: Athena Chrysanthou is a senior from London, Gateway Journalism Review Southern Illinois University. She’s interested in double majoring in journalism and philosophy at Sherida Evans - School of Journalism Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She has 1100 Lincoln Drive, Mail Code 6601 criticism and media ethics. served as editor-in-chief at SIU’s campus newspa- Carbondale, IL 62901. film studies, particularly the intersection of film per, the Daily Egyptian, for two semesters. Periodical postage paid at Carbondale, IL, and additional Associate Editor OLOLADE AFOLABI mailing offices. Please enclose Associate Editor of Gateway Journalism Review. WALTER METZ stamped, self-addressed envelope She is a doctoral student in the College of Mass with manuscript. Communications and Media Arts at Southern Il- of Cinema and Photography at Southern Illinois Copyright © 2017 by the Gateway linois University Carbondale. Her media interest Walter Metz is a Professor in the Department Journalism Review. Indexed in the Alternative Press Index. Allow one focuses on coverage of women in Africa. literary history, theory, and criticism. month for address changes. University, where he teaches film, television, and - PAGE 2 - - TABLE OF CONTENTS -

4 Columbia Tribune’s ‘Tragedy’

8 Remembering Roy Malone 23 Are social media accounts 9 Roy Malone: A Journalism Review public records? original 24 Activists draw attention to 10 Courage and coverage in real atomic city time 27 Documentary movies draw 12 Checking on the facts attention to the atomic city 14 Trump, information chaos 28 Veteran author ‘On the Writing threaten free press, democracy Process’

16 #MeToo, the press and due 30 The specter of the shark process 31 17 Spiritualism, celebrity and Cliches and distraction mass media 19 When fake is real and real is fake 32 Love it or hate it, social media 20 Daily Egyptian challenges drives this generation chancellor’s ethics 33 Bernstein to speak at 22 The reporter’s view First Amendment gala 34 Striking through Redskins bigotry: a media call to action

35 … and a P.S.

- PAGE 3 - The publishing plant of the Columbia Daily Tribune. Columbia Tribune ‘Tragedy’ by Terry Ganey

Eighteen months after GateHouse Media bought the family- 4,300 on Sunday have quit taking the Tribune. owned Columbia Daily Tribune, the staff has been slashed, The sale has cast a shadow over the legacy of the Waters readers are frustrated and circulation has plunged. family, which had operated the Tribune since 1905 before selling No doubt daily newspapers have retrenched within the last to GateHouse in October, 2016. After the Tribune’s downward 10 years in the face of market challenges. But the Tribune has spiral became obvious, Kennedy sent an email to Andy Waters, been bled dry to achieve financial results. As of mid-February, the newspaper’s former president and general manager. layoffs and departures had left the newspaper with one full time reporter in a city of more than 100,000. “What we are seeing here is a tragedy — a journalistic and civic tragedy,” said George Kennedy, former associate dean Apparently the of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. “One of the operational approach of Kennedy is the former managing editor of the Columbia Missourian,country’s best the small-sized journalism newspapers school’s teachinghas been gutted.”newspaper. He “GateHouse, unlike other knows from experience what developments are going uncovered publishers, is to strip as under the newspaper’s new ownership. “Apparently the operational approach of GateHouse, unlike much as they can out other publishers, is to strip as much as they can out of the expense of the expense side, the inevitably a pretty short term approach to things,” Kennedy said. side, theColumbia journalistic might side, feel andthe maximizeTribune’s profit,demise which more is acutely almost journalistic side, and than other cities, since it hosts the nation’s oldest journalism maximize profit ... ” school, and many readers know the value of a local newspaper. Since the GateHouse acquisition, 3,000 daily subscribers and — George Kennedy - PAGE 4 - Dramatic changes began almost immediately after the newspaper was sold. The entire copy desk “was let go, and the newspaper switched to morning delivery. The Tribune’s editing and layout functions are now carried out by a GateHouse facility in Austin, Texas, where the copy is processed for many of the chain’s 125 papers.”

“I asked if he had any regrets about selling the Tribune, and an explanation to readers in June 2017, then-publisher Rustan Burton he said he didn’t,” Kennedy said. “That leaves it up to the rest of us explained what was happening to the newspaper was a lot like pruning to have regrets.” dead branches from a tree to make it healthier. “We understand that you may be unhappy that we pruned some “Pruned some limbs” limbs, but we hope you will be glad that we are still here with deep Waters turned down a reporter’s request to be interviewed for roots,” Burton wrote. Six months later, Burton was “pruned” when he this story. “It doesn’t help me or the family to pick off the scab,” he said. was replaced as publisher. “Hopefully, they will make it work.” Waters has a business relationship with GateHouse, since he still owns the buildings that house the “A gut punch” Tribune’s operations. According to a Winter, 2018, account in The American Hank Waters III, Andy’s father and the 88-year-old former publisher emeritus of the Tribune, still writes a regular opinion column. management has two effects: It destroys the newspaper’s capacity He declined comment. toProspect do its fundamental magazine, “Thejob of ruthlesscovering miserlinessthe news, and of it GateHousemakes for “I certainly don’t want to participate in a critical second-guessing miserable employees.” of GateHouse as steward of a diminished Tribune,” Hank Waters wrote Journalist Jodie Jackson Jr. can attest to both. When he started in an email. “It would not be seemly in any event, and I’m still writing at the Tribune in 2008, it had ten reporters and eight editors, for the paper and hoping management will be able to make progress after an early season of admittedly poor results.” reporters. Charles Westmoreland, the Tribune’s managing editor, also including“How the can copy you desk. even When begin he leftto lastquantify April the there amount were fiveof declined an interview request. But he directed a reporter to what he institutional knowledge, connection with the community, and has written to the newspaper’s readers, attempting to explain the earned trust among readers?” Jackson said. “Gone.” dramatic changes. Before the sale, in the spring and summer of 2016, Jackson “It hasn’t been a joyride for us either,” Westmoreland wrote a said there were weekly newsroom meetings among reporters and column last Dec. 1. editors. He said there were requests to get executives to provide an Shortly after Westmoreland was appointed in May, 2017, 20 update on the paper. who call to cancel. He gets emailed complaints and critical comments we were journalists and inquisitive by nature,” Jackson said. “But throughstaff members social weremedia. fired. Last Since fall, athen picket he hasappeared been hearing on the fromsidewalk people in the requested“There had meetings been layoffsnever happened.”and downsizing in other areas, and front of the newspaper’s rented headquarters. “They often blame corporate greed as the cause, and many and asked if the paper was up for sale. think canceling their subscription will set things right,” Westmoreland “IJackson had a saidcouple in August,of offers 2016, I was he reviewing,” went into JacksonAndy Waters’ said. “Andyoffice wrote. “It’s true we’ve lost some subscribers in 2017, and for every 100 assured me the Tribune would be family owned and independent

ofsubscribers the new changes we lose bythere’s canceling. a $20,000 So we hole lose in another the budget 100 tosubscribers, fill. So we the newspaper’s employees were assembled and told GateHouse fill that hole with more cuts, but more subscribers show their disdain hadand acquirednot affiliated the Tribune. with some larger publication.” Five weeks later, repeats over and over and over.” “It was a gut punch,” Jackson said. “Those sale negotiations and nowWhen there’s GateHouse another bought $20,0000 the Tribune,hole needing it was filled. an afternoon The cycle paper then had been going on since March or April of that year. I was obviously published seven days a week. It had an unusual in-house, “no jump” disappointed to know that.” style in which stories that began on page one had to be completed there Within 24 hours of the announcement, Jackson’s without being continued on an inside page. Dramatic changes began almost immediately after the newspaper former GateHouse employees, contacted him through social media apprehension was verified. Unsolicited, six individuals, current or was sold. The entire copy desk was let go, and the newspaper switched and email messages. to morning delivery. The Tribune’s editing and layout functions are “Every one of them said ‘polish your resume. GateHouse now carried out by a GateHouse facility in Austin, Texas, where the copy is processed for many of the chain’s 125 papers. newsroom.’ I had been there longer than anyone in the newsroom. I Whole sections of the newspaper were cast away. Local knewwill come I was in on and life say support.” everything is fine, and then they will gut the columnists, some of whom were part timers, were discontinued. In continued on next page - PAGE 5 - After the section of the newsroom that contained the copy Dr. Robert Blake, a retired family physician who had served desk was vacated, the lights were no longer turned on in that on the UM Medical School faculty for many years, canceled his area. “It became a black hole,” Jackson said. “It had an incredibly subscription last September. “The quality had steadily declined after the change in the organs out of our body.” ownership,” Blake said. He and his wife, Cokie, were owed a $52 demoralizingThere were effect problems on the newsroom, when the pages like youwere were laid takingout in Austin.one of refund. He said he was told they would be reimbursed in a couple of He said the stories that jumped to the inside sometimes appeared weeks. But the check never came, despite repeated telephone calls. on the wrong pages. After 10 weeks and no refund, Dr. Blake made up a sign that Jackson covered Boone County government. He attended a read “The Tribune Owes Us $” and “Where is our Refund?” He began lot of County Commission work sessions, where each department picketing on the sidewalk in front of the newspaper. “That got their in county government — public works, the auditor, the treasurer attention,” Dr. Blake said. A check for $52 arrived a few days later. —would meet with the three commissioners. Beth Pike had subscribed to the newspaper since graduating from “You sure got a whole lot better understanding of things going on by attending those meetings,” Jackson said. “I built an incredible rapport with the folks making the news. That doesn’t happen anymore.” theMU Tribune,in 1986. She and dropped they need the to paper stay lastemployed,” summer sheafter wrote the mass in an firing. email. At age 53, Jackson left the newspaper of his own accord. He now “Plus, “Imy felt father a little worked guilty atat firstthe Columbiaas I have friendsTribune who for still20 yearswork inat writes as part of a three-person marketing team for a health care circulation, so long ties.” consulting company. as pruning trees “that just did it for me. I picked up the phone “It became ‘McPaper’” and canceledPike said my when subscription. Burton’s I messagealso subscribe referred to tothe the Columbia firings When GateHouse announced the Tribune’s acquisition, Jason Missourian, so I don’t miss out on my local news, and have adjusted Taylor, its western division president, said: “We believe in the to not reading the Tribune each day.” newspaper, we believe in its people, and we are excited that, by leveraging the national resources of GateHouse Media, we can take A two-newspaper town this local company to greater heights than ever before.” The Missouri Press Association’s newspaper directory for Many readers say that hasn’t happened. After John Darkow, the 2016 showed the Tribune’s average daily paid circulation was Tribune’s popular editorial cartoonist, was let go along with nineteen 14,862, and 17,662 on Sunday. According to third quarter numbers other staffers, there was a wave of complaints and cancellations. for 2017, the Alliance for Audited Media reported the Tribune’s “How could they get rid of Darkow?” wondered Roy Fox, who average daily circulation had dropped to 11,873, a decrease of 20 had subscribed since 1991 but canceled last year. “I considered him percent, while Sunday’s was down to 13,368, a drop of 24 percent. a world class editorial cartoonist. That created doubts about the For years the Tribune has promoted itself as a newspaper “run new ownership.” by professionals.” The unspoken dig was that the city’s other daily John O’Connor and his wife, Joan, quit the paper along with newspaper, the Columbia Missourian, was staffed by journalists in two of their children who also had subscriptions. “The main reason training — MU journalism school students — under the direction was they lost touch with the community,” John O’Connor said. of faculty editors. The Missourian has a morning edition published The Tribune had carried a local column, “The Power Couple,” written by O’Connor’s son, Tom, and his wife, Diana Moxon. The It promotes itself as “locally owned.” Darkow’s editorial column focused on the challenges a couple faced when trying to cartoonsfive days anow week. appear in its pages, and editors are trying to capture modify their home to conserve energy. the Tribune’s lost subscribers. A study conducted late last year and When GateHouse took over, the company wanted to retain the presented to Missourian editors Dec. 7 showed that the Tribune had copyright to the articles, something the couple would not surrender. alienated local readers. The paper dropped the column. The research, undertaken by an MU journalism class as “I missed ‘The Power Couple’,” said Georgia Morehouse, who canceled her subscription after 53 years. “It lost the feel of a connection to the community while its weakness was the turnover hometown paper. It became ‘McPaper’.” amonga capstone the student project, reporters. showed theThe Missourianproject was benefitteddesigned to from create the a marketing plan for how the Missourian could increase subscribers and draw readers to its digital pages. “Our news product is far superior to the Tribune’s on a day-to- day basis,” said Scott Swafford, the Missourian’s senior city editor. Swafford said the Missourian’s circulation, about 1,100, was “puny” but twice what it was a year ago. Swafford had worked at the Tribune as a reporter and editor from 1990 to 2003, before coming to the Missourian 14 years ago. He teaches journalism classes and supervises reporters covering city and county government. In an interview, Swafford ticked off the topics the Missourian has tackled such as disclosures about the opioid crisis and untested rape kits. “Our public safety beat has done some good investigative reporting that the Tribune isn’t in a position to touch.” In Westmoreland’s appeal to readers, written last December, he said, “Columbia will get the newspaper it’s willing to pay for. It’s that simple. Quality journalism is an investment. And like any investment, you don’t always see your return immediately.” Swafford said Westmoreland’s approach “is exactly backward. Dr. Robert Blake, with the sign he used to picket the offices of the Columbia Tribune. - PAGE 6 - “To think people are going to subscribe to a newspaper in “Private equity has been gobbling up newspapers across the hopes that someday it will get better is a fallacy,” he said. “You’ve got to put out a product that people want and feel like they need if they are going to stay on top of things.” Prospect.country and “The systematically cost to democracy squeezing is theincalculable. life out of themRobust to civicproduce life dependswindfall on profits, good local while newspapers. the papers Without last,” reported informed the dialogue American that Vacuuming profits a newspaper enables, the public business is the private province The Tribune experience can be compared to that of another of the local commercial elite, voters are uniformed, and elected newspaper, once family-owned, just 30 miles south of Columbia. In 2008, the Weldon family heirs sold the Jefferson City News-Tribune The word in Columbia journalism circles is that the Tribune’s along with two other nearby papers to WEHCO Media, Inc., based in managersofficials are will unaccountable.” eventually settle on a core reporting staff of four. But Little Rock, Ark. for now, the only local reporter is veteran Rudi Keller, whose career The News-Tribune did not go through the turmoil the Columbia paper has encountered. It now has seven full-time and two part- time reporters. According to the Missouri Press Association, the inhas a beenseries distinguished of mysterious by deaths significant at the investigative Truman Memorial journalism. Veterans Jefferson City paper has an average daily paid circulation of about Twenty-five years ago, he reported the major developments 15,000, and Sunday sales of 18,000 in a city with a population of 14, when he reported exclusively that a Russian “troll farm” had about 43,000. aggravatedHospital in the Columbia. protests Kellerthat had scored taken a place significant on the beatUniversity on Feb. of The difference in the operations of the two papers is the fact Missouri campus in 2015. that GateHouse Media operates one of them. “Russian Twitter trolls pounced on the University of “The thing to know is that all of the GateHouse properties Missouri’s woes in 2015, using the same techniques they applied to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, a U.S. Air representative of the United Media Guild headquartered in St. Force officer wrote in an article published recently in Strategic continue to turn a profit,” said Shannon Duffy, the business Studies Quarterly,” Keller’s story said. Other local and national publications chased Keller’s story. sentLouis. up “But the foodnone chain of the to profit the few gets people put back at the into top theof the property, food chain the Since the acquisition by GateHouse, Keller goes wherever inemployees midtown or Manhattan. the community. There, All Michael the profits Reed, are the vacuumed CEO, and up other and the big story of the day is breaking. In recent weeks, his byline executives, they pay themselves all these nice bonuses. Anytime has appeared over stories about Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’ extramarital affair with his beautician, MU budget cuts, and business model of extraction.” a dispute over a permit for a large animal farm in neighboring there Local is a layoff,newspaper they owners get bonuses have a stake for finding in their efficiencies. communities. It Even is a Cooper County. professional managers who operated large chains in the past made “Rudi is one of the best reporters in the state,” Kennedy said. decisions that placed good journalism high on the agenda. But the “But as formidable as Rudi is, I don’t think he’s capable of covering private equity newspaper buyers of today focus only on performance. the full spectrum of what’s new and important.” - PAGE 7 - Terry Ganey, left, with Roy Malone, right, at a Cardinals game. Remembering Roy Malone by Terry Ganey

Malone hired an expert from a nearby university to come in and InIf you1980, got I workeda tip that on state just such police a story were with fixing Roy tickets Malone, for mybig friend shots measuredeafening conditions noise of a in bank the ofroom tele-printers — the heat that and filled the thedecibel room. levels. With and politicalformer colleague figures, how at the would AP and you thencheck the it out?St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I this data he convinced the AP and the Globe management to build a sound- didn’t do muchSt. work Louis Poston Dispatchthe story; MaloneSt. Louis Post-Dispatchprovided (St. Louis,the Missouri)heavy · 11 lifting. May 1980, Sun · Other Editions · Page 1 At night, under the cover of darkness, after troopers of the Missouri Downloaded on Mar 10, 2018 State Highway Patrol capitalproofing in wall Jefferson between City. the Henoisy quickly printers made and athe name reporter’s for himself work space. with a had ended their shifts story thatShortly pointed after out that, how he Anheuser-Busch got transferred to was the giving AP office away in free the casesstate and gone home, Malone of beer to legislators — and to members of the press corps. would show up at their Malone had become interested in journalism because of the front doors unannounced, movie “Call Northside 777” in which a reporter, played by James and tell them he was Stewart, proved that a man in prison for murder was wrongly convicted. investigating ticket And much of Malone’s career was aimed at bringing about justice. Working with Lou Rose, another Post-Dispatch investigative with each visit, Malone reporter, many of Malone’s stories focused on corrupt politicians in wouldfixing ingain Missouri. the troopers’ Slowly St. Louis city government. Once, when Malone sat down at the supper table, one of his three children asked, “Who did you go after today, dad?” the facts of a story that two The Malone-authored story that perhaps got the most attention, higherconfidence. ups Hein assembledthe police which provided the lede of his obituary in Sunday’s Post-Dispatch, agency were intercepting focused on the night in 1982 when he became a crime victim. Driving tickets and dismissing home from a late night shift, he was carjacked by an armed man who them for the wealthy and well-connected. was convicted and sentenced to two life terms. The story he shot himIn the three months times. that Malone followed survived the attack, and identified Malone began his attacker, digging who into his assailant’s background, trying to understand how the whole incident

Highway Patrol.Clipped By: developed. He wrote a three-part series about the crime and his feelings. developed led to the departures of two supervisory officers in the Malone had becometjganey my hero long before that. He was the kind of The Associated Press distributed the series across the country. guy who stuck his neckSat, out Mar 10, for 2018 others. Malone retired in 2000, and served as a part-time editor of the St. Louis Journalism Review (now the Gateway Journalism Review). Carol, Copyright © 2018 Newspapers.com. All Rights Reserved. his wife of 54 years, died in March 2017. When I last talked to him, he in the ISt. first Louis met Post-Dispatch him in 1972 building, as a colleague and a night in the operation Associated in the Press St. told me how lonely and sad he was to be without her. LouisBureau Globe-Democrat in St. Louis. The a coupleAP had of two blocks offices south. at that time, a day office He died of pneumonia March 8 at a suburban St. Louis hospital. He was 80 years old. The headline over his obit said: “Mild- have to shout into the telephone while taking dictation because of the mannered reporter was a tough, dogged professional.” AP reporters working in the tiny, cramped Globe office would - PAGE 8 - Roy Malone: A Journalism Review original by Charles L. Klotzer

Some of our readers are old enough to remember the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. It was the core event for tens of Roy was a classic. You gotta love thousands of young people and progressives to rally in opposition this business. Roy loved it, couldn’t to the war in Vietnam. Richard J. Daley, then Mayor, decided to call “get enough of it.” out thousands of his police to disrupt the peaceful assembly and literally battle the protesters into submission while the whole — Don Corrigan, editor, Webster- world was watching. Kirkwood Times our predicament and he volunteered to take over the editorship. Sorry to lose Roy, who has been contacted many local universities, which all were eager to accept with SJR/GJR almost since the the publications,It was much but morenone difficultwas able toto findoffer athe new essential sponsor. annual We “beginning. subsidies. Small publications, especially if they intend to remain independent and outspoken, always require subsidies. — Ted Gest, president of Criminal During the next three years of Roy’s tenure, 22 issues (Nos. Justice Journalist and Washington 294-317) were published. Many SJR readers and others in the St. Bureau Louis community decided to keep SJR alive. Like Roy many writers volunteered their efforts, all of whom made it possible to maintain The Chicago media called the event “student riots.” This was the high quality readers always expected. too much for reporters who personally experienced the “police riots.” The events gave birth to the “Chicago Journalism Review,” I highly respected Roy and was under the leadership of Ron Dorfman, to correct the misleading information in the Chicago media. honored to have worked with him.” “— C.D. Stelzer, freelancer and them felt that St. Louis was also ripe for a local journalism review. AmongWhen the thirteen St. Louis1 who reporters are listed received in the masthead the first of issue, Vol. 1 some Issue of 1 documentarian “The First Secret City. September 1970 of the St. Louis Journalism Review is Roy Malone. Other reporters were involved but were concerned that public During the following years, some of the key editors and reporters of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch left the paper, including became a regular contributor. Bill Freivogel, who became the head of the journalism department participationIn 1995, may wondering jeopardize about their the job.survival Roy of was SJR not. — none Indeed, of the he at SIU Carbondale. He and Gary Kolb, then dean, arranged for the 20 or so journalism reviews created in the early seventies has transfer to SIU Carbondale in 2010 and added the title “Gateway survived, many of them now archived at the SIU Morris Library — Journalism Review.” we contacted Webster University, which — thanks to the lobbying Nothing describes more Roy’s dedication to a free and fair press of faculty member Don Corrigan — agreed to become the new home than a review of some of the issues on which he wrote or assigned: under the editorship of Ed Bishop, who had been assisting SJR for a • The ongoing battle between Prof. Avis Meyer and SLU number of years. President Rev. Lawrence Bondi, who tried to oust Meyer (Meyer survived Biondi); • Media knew in the 1930s: tobacco causes cancer; Heartbreaking! Such a gifted • Missouri’s natural resources are under siege; reporter. Roy, Lou Rose and I were • Junk Food News: Corporate media entertains but fails “good friends and active in Society to inform; • Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists in of Professional Journalists years transition or on the brink; ago and I keep those serious and • Nearly all Americans contaminated by Bisphenol-A; • How St. Louis became a one-newspaper town; fund days in my heart.” • — Jessica Brown, Founder, Their reward was a one-way ticket out of town; • GlobalAl Delugash warming and stirsDenny a storm Walsh for won weather the Pulitzer forecasters; in 1969. Gateway Media Literacy • The Evening Whirl—blood, bodies, and babes; • Dick Gephardt’s Fall: How a progressive stalwart turned at Webster caused them to suggest to stop the print edition for into a spectacular sellout. an onlineHowever, site. afterMany supporting supporters, SJR including for many thisyears, writer, difficult strongly times Roy’s legacy is forever embedded in these and many objected. A new SJR board was installed and in 2005 we were similar issues. looking for a new home and new editor. Roy, of course, knew of A great journalist and a great guy.” “ — Robert Cohn, editor-in-chief Malone,1 Robert John E. Shelton,Adams, MargaretEllen Sweets, M. Carlan, Fred Sweets. Al Delugash, Peter A. Donhowe, emeritus, St. Louis Jewish Light Ted Gest, Charles L. Klotzer, Richard Krantz, Gerald Lindorst, Gus Lumpe, Roy - PAGE 9 - Courage and coverage in real time How Parkland students documented the school shooting and propelled a nationwide discussion by Jodi MacNeal

David Hogg, the 17-year-old news director at shouldn’t be happening,” she whispers. Gun access is Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s TV station, too easy, far too easy. Her hands tremble and she chews crouches on the floor of a darkened classroom. He grabs his phone, flips on the video camera and starts asking questions. He speaks just above a whisper, asher they’d fingernails been in without her head. realizing As a journalist, she’s doing Hogg it.shows She because somewhere on campus — nobody knows usapologizes, the miracle deeming — that her she wordscould speaknot as at well-articulated all. where — a gunman with an assault rifle is murdering He goes audio-only for the next segment, an children and their teachers. incredibly mature move. Clearly, this kid has instincts. The recent mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., was He speaks with a girl who admits a lifelong fascination one of the deadliest in U.S. history. Seventeen people died. Fourteen were students. We once believed the best reporting removed the herwith mindfirearms is beingand mentions changed. that “This she’d experience once marched is so storyteller from the story. This time, the most compelling for gun rights. Hogg finds her at the precise moment coverage came from inside the building. From kids. idea of a gun in my house.” Trapped in a hot, crowded room, Hogg traumatizing,”As someone she in says. the background “Now I can’t shushes even the fathom students, the demonstrates remarkable journalistic presence of she goes on. “I even texted my sisters, ‘Shooting at my mind. He doesn’t ask the obvious question: “Are you school. I am safe.’ They both responded, ‘OMG. LOL. You’re scared?” He doesn’t ask the sensational question: funny.’ Now that’s a problem in society, and it’s a bigger “What do you want to say if we don’t make it?” He asks the bigger question: “What, in this moment, do you Emerging later, Hogg stayed on-site until the early want the world to know about gun violence?” hoursproblem of thein America, following and day. I believe He appeared it needs on to beCNN, fixed.” MSNBC and BBC. He described running from the gunman. “It but shaking. “If you looked around this closet and you was almost like there was a shark coming along and we saw everyoneThe first hiding girl glancestogether, around you would nervously, know that poised this

- PAGE were10 - a school of fish.” But then he looked straight into the camera and demanded a meaningful response. “Ideas are great. Ideas are wonderful and they help stoppingly loud and close. A SWAT team entering a classroom, where you get re-elected and everything, but what’s more important is actual studentsmuffled and sit withfar away. arms A raised. classroom, One pair shots of just hands outside shakes the violently. door, heart- action … . Please, this is the 18th [shooting] this year. That’s unacceptable.” Lots of students have spoken out in the days after the shooting, and they’ve carried themselves astoundingly well. That classmates’The kids terror? who Why shot not these get videos,off Snapchat these andcitizen put journalists,your phone took down a Hogg could do so immediately, with such poise and such clarity, andlot of keep heat yourself in the hours safe? followingWhy not call the 911 attack. instead How of could taking they pictures? film their tells me he’s a born journalist. The evening of the shooting, his words hit exactly the right note. “The fact is there are 17 families that now have empty rooms. textedDozens their parents: of students “If I don’t did call make 911. it, So I love many, you.” in fact, Some that watched they were the These are people’s kids. They’ve poured all the love, everything they eventfinally unfold told to on stop. their Many news kidsfeeds. did On putsome their levels, phones I get it. down, Information, or they could ever get, into these kids. And it’s all been taken by one piece of even frightening information, is better than no information at all.

Contrast this with local news coverage and its hand-wringing friends of friends of friends, had traveled from Stoneman Douglas metal and bled out onto the floor.” and repetition and over-dramatic delivery. Within about 24 hours, to myBy 15-year-old’s 8 a.m. the next high day, school a half-dozen 45 miles explicit away. Ivideos, asked sharedhim if byhe

“hearsay” interviews with students who happened to be loitering he understood it. “It’s instinct,” he told me. “In high school now, the local ABC affiliate was already broadcasting the expected around the scene. One young man, speaking about accused gunman everythingwould have gets been documented.” one of the ones filming, and he thought not. But Several days later, we sat together and reviewed a New York sold knives and stuff.” Then a girl: “He was someone you could tell Times sidebar headlined, “What to Do When There’s an Active somethingNikolas Cruz: was “I off heard with he him.” was a bad person. I’m not sure, I heard he Shooter.” That he engaged so completely and so somberly was, I think, The day after the shooting, another girl created tribute posters a direct result of having seen it for himself. and brought them to school to add to the makeshift memorials. She I won’t condemn or defend the students who kept their cameras was nearly suffocated by a swarm of cameras and reporters. That out during the ordeal. As the parent of a high school freshman, I grieving child held the two pieces of white cardboard in front of her like a pair of shields, and she sobbed. has become second nature — for some of the students at Marjory The same day, a local television reporter described the Stonemanunderstand Douglas that whipping High School, out the an phoneinstinct and even flicking more onpowerful the camera than for something more to add after a 24-hour news cycle, he painted self-preservation. armament Cruz carried, including smoke bombs. Clearly looking But here’s a truth that makes me feel profoundly uncomfortable: make the rampage even more extensive. Nothing any newspaper printed, nothing any professional news crew a gruesomeWho needspicture thatof how kind Cruz of mightspeculation? have used Wasn’t a smokescreen the actual to shot, had as powerful an impact as a high school kid’s cellphone video. carnage enough? The days since the Parkland shooting have given professional I’ve read much of the print coverage from our three major South Florida newspapers (the Sun-Sentinel in nearby Fort Lauderdale, the journalists a chance to do solid work. They’ve given us the profiles of the Miami Herald and the Palm Beach Post). It was workmanlike, exactly what details of how it happened. In other words, the press has done its job, better you’d expect. Exactly what we’ve all come to expect, because we’ve been invictims. the days They’ve that followed followed than Cruz in to the jail, hours and they’ve that followed. unearthed No surprise the disturbing there. there before and we’ve read those front pages too many times already. But what the mainstream media have done best is to give voice to the young survivors who are now leading the national debate. videos. Columbine happened in 1999, eight years before the iPhone. At SandyThat Hook brings Elementary, me to the children final element were too — young the to student have the shooting started and hasn’t stopped yet. “While I was in there, phones. But not in Parkland, where phones were out and on. I thought,TIME ‘What magazine impact wrote have that I had? David What Hogg will started my story filming be if whenI die here?’” Hogg told TIME. “And the only thing I could think of was, pull whimpering. Massed together in darkened closets, or running down out my camera and try telling others. As a student journalist, as an We see teenagers splayed on the floor, shrieking, cursing, aspiring journalist, that’s all I could think: Get other people’s stories on tape. If we all die, the camera survives, and that’s how we get the a hallway. A mostly empty auditorium, with the sound of gunfire message out there, about how we want change to be brought about.” CNN has given a platform to Stoneman Douglas junior Cameron Kasky, who has written and spoken eloquently: “My message for the

our lives while the adults are playing around.” peopleThe in officeNew is:York you’re Times either published with us anor againstop-ed pieceus. We written are losing by 15-year-old freshman Christine Yared. In cruel irony, her parents relocated from their native Lebanon so she “would never have to experience the violence and loss they did … . My parents chose Parkland to settle in because of Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s stellar reputation, and because we thought that it was a safe place to live. But that isn’t true anymore. The promise of safety and security failed us.” We’ve long since passed the point where we presume news- gatherers are objective. These high school kids? These kids will never be objective about gun violence again. But they’re telling their stories with brutal honesty and well-directed passion. If subjective journalism is where we’re ultimately and inexorably headed, they’re out in front of us, doing it right. - PAGE 11 - Checking on the facts by Ben Lyons

Fact-checking may be American journalism’s most If EU institutions or pro-EU think tanks establish fact-checking influential export. features to address far-right misinformation, or begin legislating What began in the United States in the early 2000s has now the truth (“ban fake news”), as Pres. Macron has signaled he might, spread to more than 50 counties. Some 113 independent fact- checkers operate today. While accuracy is a foundational element of modern they risk transferring this polarization to readers’ feelings about journalism, the fact-checking movement focuses almost solely on Addressingfact-checking more trust broadly, Mantzarlis argues. evaluating the veracity of newsworthy claims made by politicians Conservatives’ distrust remains U.S. fact-checkers’ biggest or others. Departing from passive reporting and horse race problem. Several have taken steps to address this shortfall in analysis, fact-checkers instead hope to render public judgments recent months, but often stumbled. of what’s true, and what isn’t. Anchored by three big players Politifact sent staffers last fall on a listening tour of Red (FactCheck.org, Politifact and Washington Post’s Fact Checker), America, visiting Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mobile, Alabama, and the practice has come to play an increasingly prominent role in Charleston, West Virginia. political coverage in the United States. They also took on fact- In Europe, most fact-checkers operate as independent checking political claims ventures, often rejecting the label of journalism outright. Outside from these locales in an the U.S., where newspapers dominate, only 44 percent of the world’s attempt to build a rapport. In February, though, Politifact announced it active fact-checkers are affiliated with media organizations. had hired two politicians featuresWhile likewise pioneering adopted American Les Pinocchios fact-check as outfitsits cultural such peg as the— — former Florida Reps. manyWashington of the format’s Post’s castrecent long innovations shadows have — onebeen of spurred France’s abroad. first David Jolly (a Republican) Spain’s Maldito Bulo (“damn hoax”), for example, was and Alan Grayson (a launched specifically Democrat) as “reader advocates,” likely intending to fight off to debunk viral hoaxes, the stink of liberal bias. Almost immediately, however, readers and has weighed in on expressed disbelief: Grayson had been in a physical altercation misleading images from with a reporter in 2016. He was fired within hours. Politifact had both sides of recent the failed embarrassingly in its basic fact-finding mission. Catalan demonstrations. By In another move intended to win over conservatives, superimposing corrections Facebook added the Weekly Standard to its fact-checking directly over hoax images, collaboration initiative in December. The initiative began in the the group spreads fact- wake of the 2016 U.S. election, allowing a small set of third-party checks by the same channels as the misinformation they address. fact-checkers — ABC News, AP, FactCheck.org, Politifact and In Colombia, the news site La Silla Vacía uses WhatsApp Snopes — to help flag fake news. to stanch the spread of false claims in their native habitat. The Weekly Standard became the first right-leaning (and WhatsApp — the world’s most popular messaging service — has first explicitly partisan) news outlet in the group. Citing the become a hotbed of misinformation in many countries. Whereas Weekly Standard’s history of questionable content, left-leaning Facebook and Twitter discussions are largely public, WhatsApp groups protested. “I’m really disheartened and disturbed by this,” said Angelo and all information is encrypted. This makes tackling rumors Carusone, president of Media Matters for America. “They have spreadchats are though compartmentalized, the app especially its groups difficult. are limitedRather tothan 256 rely users, on misinformed readers seeking out their website, La Silla Vacía To many, admitting the Weekly Standard’s fledgling weeks- makes use of their most-trusted friends and relatives to share olddescribed fact-check themselves division as smacked an opinion of appeasement. magazine.” the correction directly, via private chat. While new outfits push the boundaries, ties to legacy media Changing minds have their own benefits. Most of Europe’s established media Facebook’s initiative has also been the site of renewed outlets offer at least occasional fact-checking, from Le Monde debate over just what impact fact-checks might have. in France to Germany’s Der Spiegel. These outlets provide reach Gordon Pennycook and David Rand, psychologists at Yale, that can dwarf the upstarts’. Most notably, up to 2 million viewers released a study in September showing that tagging inaccurate each week see the fact-checking segments on El Objetivo con Ana news stories likely won’t work. A “disputed” tag improved Pastor, aired by Spanish TV network La Sexta. readers’ accuracy judgement of news stories by just 3.7 percent. American fact-checkers have yet to tap into targeted social The research also suggested that flagging stories may have an media distribution or big TV audiences. But moves in the European ironic effect. Some readers may come to see any story not tagged Union to combat fake news might up-end Continental fact- as more likely to be true, despite that fact that the vast majority of news stories are never reviewed at all. the International Fact-Checking Network. This would reproduce In December Facebook appeared to respond, shifting away thechecking’s problem credibility, that has long-plagued according to theAlexios enterprise Mantzarlis, in America. director of from disputed tags and instead displaying “Related Stories” below Feelings about the EU remain one of the biggest political cleavages in most member states. the story,” according to Tessa Lyons, Facebook’s Product Manager. identified false news stories to “help give people more context about - PAGE 12 - Facebook may generally want to avoid about 1,000 state legislators in the U.S. Those informed that any role as arbiter theyNyhan would and be Reifler monitored conducted by fact-checkers, a field study with in 2012 their focusing misleading on of truth. Even when claims embarrassingly dissected before the public, ended up offloading the role to third-parties, the subsequent months than a control group. company has faced having a significantly better record on misleading statements in claims of censorship, Outlook regardless of to what degree the First Amendment applies to a As the fact-checking movement grows and matures, its future private company running a free service. is unclear. Even as new outlets innovate, fact-checkers will continue But the reasoning Facebook gave for the shift — that strong warnings like red flags may “entrench deeply held beliefs” — also According to Lucas Graves, a journalism scholar at calls back to mind the now-famous “backfire effect.” theto face University issues revolving of Wisconsin, around reach, however, trust, and“fact-checkers influence. should The legacy of the backfire effect is worth revisiting. In be understood above all as journalistic reformers.” Rather a study that began making the rounds a decade ago, a pair of undertaking an impossible mission fixed on eradicating all political scientists showed that fact-checks can, in extreme political lies, they instead set out to change how reporters and circumstances, increase unsupported beliefs among groups who editors approach their jobs. hold them dear. In particular, Dartmouth’s Brendan Nyhan and But while fact-checking should be conducted regardless of the University of Exeter’s Jason Reifler showed that debunking the ultimate outcome, the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq doubled the its practitioners belief among conservative readers. also should be News of the study was carried in the Washington Post, Slate, willing to adapt the Wall Street Journal, This American Life, and hundreds of outlets to have an impact. around the world. The study has since been cited 794 times in the Experimentation academic literature. For many, the sense that fact-checking was a in format, medium, doomed enterprise sank in. delivery mechanism, But the coverage may have been oversimplified. Far from ratings scale, and any other aspect should be on the table. the rule, backfires appear to be the exception. Practitioners must also accept that new solutions may also A new pair of political scientists, Ethan Porter at George generate new problems. After abandoning the “disputed” tag, Washington University and Thomas Wood at Ohio State University, Facebook has announced its intention to crowd-source ratings conducted a follow-up study with 10,000 subjects, and thus greater of outlet credibility. In other words, Facebook plans to ask users statistical power, assessing how well readers respond to fact-checks whether they are familiar with a given news source, and they trust that source. Those that are widely trusted would receive preferential placement in users’ feeds, while those that don’t direction,across dozens but thoseof issues. whose They party found is impugned no instances move of backfire. less. Instead would essentially be buried. they findSimilarly, readers a Nyhan, generally Reifler, update Porter their and beliefs Wood incollaboration the correct Again Pennycook and Rand have swooped in to test how conducted during the 2016 election showed Trump supporters well this might work in practice. They find that crowd-sourced would accept corrections to his misleading statements, but trustworthiness ratings are much less effective if they exclude the fact-checks had no impact on attitudes toward Trump or ratings from readers unfamiliar with a given site, as Facebook intention to vote for him. plans to do. Instead, Pennycook and Rand’s study, released in Even at their best, though, it is important to note that the February, suggests “a lack of familiarity is an important cue for power of facts is limited. untrustworthiness.” As Ullrich Ecker, a psychologist at the University of Western The lesson, it seems, is that new obstacles will always arise. Australia, told Slate recently, “whether or not they backfire, that’s Shrugging this off as the result of a new “post-truth age,” is not up for debate. But look, if it’s ineffective, that’s pretty much the the answer, though — When exactly was the Age of Truth, again? same story as if there’s a small backfire effect.” Instead, fact-checking will be best served by continuing to blend optimism and pragmatism in its commitment to holding the than readers, cutting false claims off at the source in some instances. powerful accountable. Fact-checking may be more successful at influencing elites

Those informed that they would be monitored by fact-checkers, with their misleading claims “embarrassingly dissected before the public, ended up having a significantly better record on misleading statements in subsequent months than a control group.”

- PAGE 13 - Year two of Trump's assault on truth This is a series of opinions on President Donald Trump and his assault on the truth written by Gateway Journalism Review's publisher William H. Freivogel. You can see last year's series on President Trump at: http://gatewayjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/trumpwarontruth17-2.pdf.

MARCH 28, 2018

Trump, information chaos threaten free press, democracy by William H. Freivogel

America’s temple of democracy is built on the optimistic John Milton proclaimed this faith four centuries ago during the European Enlightenment when he said, “Who knew truth put to people are allowed to say what they think. the worse in a free and open encounter” with Falsehood. belief that free people can find the truth to run a democracy — if all Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. embraced it a century ago the inalienable right to use reason to discover the facts and make when he wrote, “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to good democraticCitizens — decisionsnot just kings based and on thosequeens facts. and This presidents rational — search have get itself accepted in the competition of the market.” for the truth links the free press with institutions of democratic self- And the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed it in the face of governance because the press is in the vanguard of the search for the presidential deceit revealed by the Pentagon Papers when truth and the facts upon which it is based. Justice Potter Stewart wrote “an alert, aware and free” press is a Americans believe with a religious fervor in the inevitable precondition of “an enlightened people.” In turn, an enlightened triumph of free expression in a democracy. people is a precondition of a well-governed republic. - PAGE 14 - These trusty aphorisms about the inevitable victory of truth in a free society are the pillars that support our democracy. But today the pillars about Meanwhile,yelling fire inthe a U.S.crowded president theater. assaults The red-hot the pillars marketplace of truth. He of First , the information chaos. pilesideas lie at upontimes lieseems until on the the real verge is seen of bursting as fake and into the flames. fake is seen as groan underHolmes’ the quaintweight ofmarket information of ideas chaos has and explodedpresidential like perfidy. the big bang. Each dawn brings a galaxy of billions of Facebook messages, the New York Times and Washington Post, while praising the worst, YouTube videos, Tweets, texts and Google searches. suchreal. Heas Fox mocks & Friends the best, and most Hannity. credible He claims news the organizations, most serious such attack as Cambridge Analytica captures the private information from on a presidential election in American history is a hoax and that he 50 million unsuspecting Facebook users, building a psychological He calls a truth-teller like former FBI Director James Comey Russian internet agents in St. Petersburg sow dissent among is the victim of a witch hunt rather than the beneficiary of the attack. Americansprofile that fromenables afar it and to influencetheir non-human American bots and spread British the elections. venom from community to community. Unsuspecting Florida supporters of Directora liar while Andrew he claims McCabe. it a great day for democracy when he finally Donald Trump erect a makeshift jail and employ an actress to play badgersHe Attorneyrepeatedly General declares Jeff there Sessions is no collusion into firing with former the Russians, Acting a “locked up” Hillary Clinton — all at the behest of foreign agents. even though his former national security adviser and a former Each day brings 22 billion texts, 5 billion Google searches, 4.3 billion foreign policy adviser have pleaded guilty because they lied to the Facebook messages, 5.75 billion Facebook likes, 6 billion hours of YouTube FBI about their dealings with the Russians — and even though his videos watched, half a billion tweets and 67 million Instagram messages. son, son-in-law and campaign manager met with Russian agents in Trump Tower during the election to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. He and his Republican yes-men in Congress claim there was a conspiracy of FBI agents — a cabal, a “Deep State” of Washington Each day brings 22 professionals — who have plotted to overthrow him since before he was elected. And the White House announces hiring a lawyer, billion texts, 5 billion Joseph diGenova, who subscribes to that ridiculous theory, claiming “Google searches, without evidence there is “a group of FBI and DOJ people … trying to frame Donald Trump of a falsely created crime.” (In another sign 4.3 billion Facebook of White House chaos, Trump backtracks on hiring deGenova a few days after announcing him.) messages, 5.75 billion For anyone who has lived in Washington and gotten to know Facebook likes, 6 billion as neighbors the FBI agents and CIA agents and Justice Department lawyers and EPA scientists who devote their work to nation, this idea hours of YouTube videos of a Deep State conspiracy is as absurd as the evidence for it is absent. But for the rabble-rouser-in-chief the FBI conspiracy is watched, half a billion another way to amuse the masses, to divert attention from wrong- doing and incompetence and to discredit in advance the mounting tweets and 67 million evidence of obstruction of justice those agents are compiling under Instagram messages.” the direction of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller.

The list of new communications devices, institutions and congratulateTrump Vladimir fires those Putin around for his him. rigged He election. ignores He — ormakes maybe no communication terms that have appeared in the last decade mentiondoesn’t even of evidence read — Putin’s the capitalized agents poisoned advice aof former his advisers spy in Britainnot to or that he interfered in our 2016 presidential election. Remember, social media, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, he’s taking Putin’s word on that one. Periscope,have mushroomed livestream, as well tweets, — citizen links, journalist,likes, impressions, smartphone, shares, GPS, Can anyone imagine Ronald Reagan or any other American friends, followers, click bait, fake news, big data, Breitbart, alt-right, president behaving this way? The only people Trump wants to get chatbots, WikiLeaks, Google Earth, virtual reality, photoshop, face tough with are the score of women who accuse him of sexual assaults recognition. And on and on it goes. and adulterous affairs with porn stars. He claims he’s above the law and should be protected from their claims. His lawyer pays off the porn stars and Kay Graham, acts instead as the agent of Vladimir Putin. Rather to buy their silence while the White House claims, implausibly, they are than publishingJulian Assange, democracy-cleansing who would claim thesecrets mantle such of Arthur as the Sulzberger Pentagon lying. Innocent men don’t pay porn stars for their silence. Nor do honest Papers, he acts as an enemy agent fencing Democratic Party secrets presidents have to force aides to sign legally dubious non-disclosure stolen in a successful cyber-Watergate that tilts a presidential election. agreements to keep them from talking about his scandalous behavior. This is a president at odds with the values that make America found among the information chaos. A single Twitter handle can great — a free press, human rights, decency, diversity, equality, ignite Yes,a national there are reform big ideas, movement. news and #MeToo, scientific #BlackLivesMatter. discoveries to be a polity formed by a nation of immigrants. It is a rejection of But it can also round up an internet lynch mob to get white President Reagan’s “shining city on a hill” and President Obama’s belief with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that “the arc of the moral And there is the trash of fake news stories, conspiracy theories, universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” misogynistsupremacists and from racist the attacks Charlottesville and terrorist protest recruitment. fired or expelled. Three lines of defense remain to stop this demagogue. One is the Perversely, fake news travels faster than real news in this legitimate press that seeks to be heard amidst the clamor of information online democracy of the web. The fake news is more surprising and chaos. Another is the rule of law, as enforced by Mueller with the backing unexpected because it is wrong, MIT researchers found. For that of the courts. The third is the American people doing their democratic reason, internet users are more likely to pass it along. duties. It may require all three checks on presidential power to end this Sometimes the most appropriate Holmes quote is the one disastrous presidency and preserve our temple of democracy. - PAGE 15 - FEBRUARY 14, 2018

#MeToo, the press and due process by William H. Freivogel

President Donald J. Trump’s sad soliloquy for departing person of one’s choice. White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter and Trump’s plaintive That’s probably not the kind of legal due process Trump plea for Due Process for men are both confused and hypocritical. is referring to. He’s talking about the due process guaranteeing First, due process is primarily a legal term, although procedural fairness. The phrase is almost self-defining in that it it sometimes is used in a broader sense outside the law as a means the legal process that is due under the circumstances. In synonym for fairness. Still, victims of sexual assault don’t owe other words fundamental fairness. due process —legal or societal — to their abusers. A victim of sexual harassment or assault doesn’t owe the Second, due process is the fundamental fairness the perpetrator due process, although the alleged perpetrator gets legal due process if he is prosecuted for rape or sued for assault. process to wrongdoers. The Civil Rights Movement didn’t owe Larry Nassar got plenty of due process at his sentencing hearing Georgegovernment Wallace owes any its kind citizens. of due Private process. individuals don’t owe due for abusing hundreds of young female athletes. Third, if anyone owes due process to Porter — who resigned Also, men who lose their jobs or suffer damage to their last week after his ex-wives’ abuse allegations became public — reputations have the right to sue for wrongful discharge or it is his employer. That’s Trump himself. defamation, with all of the attendant legal process. Fourth, Porter received so much due process in the form of Few of the accused men have sought that kind of due FBI investigations and special White House indulgences that he was able to stay in his job viewing top secret papers for months after the White House knew he was accused of beating his two former wives. And finally, it is apparent Trump pleads for due process for A victim of sexual the accused male predators because he is a man credibly accused harassment or assault monologue about Porter’s resignation, Trump paints Porter as of being a predator by more than a dozen women. In his pathetic “doesn’t owe the the victim — just as he sees himself as the victim of the women who say he assaulted them in the crude manner he confessed to perpetrator due process, on the Access Hollywood tape. Even as he calls for more due process for men he is trying although the alleged to deny one of his accusers her due process by claiming the president is above the law in New York state and should not have perpetrator gets legal to answer her claims. In other words, due process for men but due process if he is not for the president’s female accuser. Trump’s comment on Porter made no mention of the actual prosecuted for rape or victims, his first wife, Colbie Holderness, whose photo with a black eye was published nationally, or of his second wife, Jennifer sued for assault.” Willoughby, who obtained an order of protection against Porter. “ … we certainly wish him (Porter) well.” said Trump. “It’s a, obviously, tough time for him. He did a very good job when he was process, probably because they don’t have a case. Historically, in the White House. And we hope he has a wonderful career, and most of the abusers have been only too happy to settle lawsuits hopefully he will have a great career ahead of him. But it was very against them without the due process of trial, agreeing to pay off sad when we heard about it. And, certainly, he’s also very sad. Now women who agree to the silence of confidentiality agreements. he also — as you probably know, he says he’s innocent, and I think Due process doesn’t directly apply to the media, but the you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he’s press adheres to a duty of fairness requiring journalists to innocent. So you’ll have to talk to him about that. But we absolutely check out allegations and to give alleged abusers the chance wish him well. Did a very good job while he was at the White House.” to respond. The press also has a journalistic obligation to put Trump followed that monologue with this tweet obviously allegations in context, from the horror of Nassar’s abuse of 265 aimed at the #MeToo movement: “There is no recovery for someone falsely accused — life and career are gone. Is there no serious but lesser allegations against former Sen. Al Franken and such thing any longer as Due Process?” formeryoung victims, public radio to Harvey host Garrison Weinstein’s Keillor. dozens of assaults, to the Due process is an important legal phrase in the Fifth and The press was dragged into a dirty little off-the-record 14th Amendments protecting people from the government by session that gave Porter an extra dollop of due process. Press ensuring life, liberty and property can’t be taken away without Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders arranged an off-the-record due process of law. It is one of the most powerful phrases in the session for Porter to defend himself to the New York Times’ Constitution and the foundation of individual privacy and human Maggie Haberman, Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey, Axios’ dignity, including the right to control one’s body and marry the Jonathan Swan and the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender.

- PAGE 16 - During this session he claimed Holderness was lying about to-believe protestations of innocence. As a result of the excess how she got the black eye. He admitted he had called Willoughby of due process, Porter was viewing the nation’s most important a “fucking bitch,” apparently on their honeymoon. It’s hard to secrets for months after he was in a position to be blackmailed. fault the reporters for agreeing to hear Porter’s defense, although The other extraordinary thing about Trump’s plea for due it’s a dirty business and he should not be able to call Holderness process is he makes it at the same time his lawyers are arguing a liar without putting his name behind it. in New York that former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos Altogether, Porter got far more process — legal and societal should not be able to sue Trump in state court while he is — than he was due or the White House should have afforded. president. Zervos claimed before the 2016 election that Trump Porter’s ex-wives had told the FBI about his abuse early last kissed and groped her and pressed his genitals against her in a year and the FBI gave the White House its report last summer. It Beverly Hills hotel in 2007. Trump called her and all his other took publication in the press and finally the picture of the black accusers liars. Zervos thought that deserved the due process of a eye to force Porter from his job even as he mouthed his hard- defamation suit, even if he is president.

FEBRURARY 7, 2018

Cliches and distraction by William H. Freivogel

Transparency. The people’s right to know. is employing transparency and the people’s “right” to know for Un-American. Treasonous. one self-interested purpose — to save his own skin. Political firestorm. Constitutional crisis. Transparency is great when he can release a House GOP These cliches, exaggerations and emotional charges have report and follow it up with the tweet that it “totally vindicates” in recent months filled news columns, air waves and Twitter him the the “Russian Witch Hunt.” But transparency isn’t feeds of millions of Americans. They don’t help make sense of the so great when it comes to answering questions from Special chaotic, nasty, ill-informed national discussion about whether Counsel Robert Mueller’s team. Or when it comes to releasing President Trump is obstructing justice in the probe of Russia’s his income taxes like every other modern president. Or when interference in the 2016 election. it comes to releasing the list of visitors to the White House. Or Rather, they add to the clamor and serve the president’s when it comes to allowing his aides and former aides to testify to goal of misdirection and distraction. But they don’t inform. Congress about Russia. Two of the media’s favorite, self-serving bromides are This week Trump also has dusted off the McCarthy-era slur “transparency” and the “public’s right to know.” Just as Trump of un-American. After first slinging it in the direction of black has expropriated fake news for his own purposes of discrediting NFL players who kneeled for the National Anthem, he now aims real news, he has expropriated these press favorites for his self- it at Democrats who wouldn’t clap during the State of the Union serving purpose. speech when he said black unemployment was at a new low. The Last week transparency and the right to know became the Democrats “were like death and un-American, un-American,” Trump White House’s favorite words when he wanted to release he told a crowd in Ohio this week. “Somebody said treasonous. a partisan Republican report from Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., Yeah, I guess, why not? Can we call that treason? Why not? I claiming the Russia investigation was tainted by anti-Trump bias mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.” at the FBI. There are good reasons for a president not to call opposing “I’ve always believed in the public’s right to know,” Vice- members of Congress traitors. First, it ruins the mood of President Mike Pence said. “We have said all along, from day one, bipartisanship he claimed to have brought to the State of the that we want full transparency in this process,” chimed White Union Speech. Second, failing to clap for the president of the House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. opposing party is a tradition, not treason. But the transparency argument makes no sense in the Treason is one of those words thrown around with no regard to context of intelligence secrets. It’s hard to argue “transparency” its meaning. Treason is the only crime laid out in the Constitution, and justifies access to intelligence secrets. Nor does the people’s it essentially requires a high level of proof that someone has waged war right to know. The uncomfortable truth is there is no explicit against the United States or given aid and comfort to the enemy. constitutional protection for a people’s right to know. Thus, the Democrats’ silence isn’t treason. Nor was it treason for Yes, Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden served a public good when they risked prison to disclose the Pentagon Papers romantic exchanges, which the president told the Wall Street Journal and NSA meta-data collection of Americans’ cell phone calls. But wasFBI officials“treason Peter right Strzok there.” andNor Lisawere Page Stephen to blast Bannon Trump or inSen. their Tim private, Kaine, they knew they were violating the law. D-Va., correct in saying Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with the Russians The risks these men took to enlighten Americans about during the campaign to get dirt on Hillary Clinton was treason. It wasn’t. their government’s secret abuses were noble. By contrast, Trump continued on next page - PAGE 17 - If there were a firestorm every time the media said there before a grand jury, Trump would have to resist and the Supreme was, Washington would be burnt to a crisp. At the beginning of Court would have to decide whether or not to order him to appear the 2016 presidential campaign, Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter — as it required Nixon to turn over the White House tapes and Institute for Media Studies said he wanted to drown the “political Clinton to answer to Paula Jones. firestorm” cliche. As he put it, the phrase was “unmitigated The real constitutional crises would be if the Supreme Court hyperbole as a way of heating up coverage. It’s the journalist let Trump avoid testimony. Or if Mueller decides to file criminal or commentator as carnival barker: ‘Step right up, ladies and charges against a sitting president and Trump challenges his right to do it. Or if Mueller leaves it to Congress to decide whether Clark’s campaign failed. The Washington Post and the to impeach and remove Trump for obstructing justice. Washingtongentlemen, and Times watch recently the amazing showed firestorm what ofan controversy attractive …bi- .” The ultimate constitutional crisis would be Mueller partisan cliche it is, both saying that the Nunes memo created a identifying high crimes and misdemeanors and Congress “political firestorm.” failing to act because of the false narratives ginned up by the Democrats and commentators also warned the Nunes president, Nunes-style Republicans and Trump’s amen chorus of memo was leading to a constitutional crisis. Their prediction the pseudo-media. That would amount to a mass failure of the may turn out to be correct, but the nation isn’t there yet. Most Constitution’s checks and balances. of the constitutional machinery for handling crises hasn’t yet It’s tempting to conclude with the editorial writer’s kicked into action. ultimate cliche — time will tell. But the reputable media owe it To get to a real constitutional crisis Trump would have to to the American people to cut the cliches, avoid the distractions, refuse to talk to Mueller, Mueller would have to subpoena him deflate the hyperbole and stick to the facts.

It’s tempting to conclude with the editorial writer’s ultimate cliche — time will tell. But the reputable “media owe it to the American people to cut the cliches, avoid the distractions, deflate the hyperbole and stick to the facts.” - PAGE 18 - JANUARY 31, 2018

When fake is real and real is fake by William H. Freivogel

In one universe — the universe of facts and reality — Special joined into the obvious diversion, that House Speaker Paul Ryan Counsel Robert S. Mueller III is painstakingly compiling evidence has supported release of the Nunes memo and that so many Trump President Donald Trump repeatedly obstructed the criminal investigation supporters follow along like sheep. into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. In an alternative universe — one inhabited by conspiracies, Evidence of obstruction mounts right-wing media and Trump die-hards — a “secret society” in Yet in Mueller’s world of facts and evidence, the proof mounts. the FBI and its allies in the mythical “deep state” are abusing the Here is what has been established so far: Mueller investigation to overturn Trump’s election. Donald Trump Jr. and George Papadopoulos a former Trump In the universe of fact, the New York Times reported last week campaign adviser, met with Russian agents during the campaign, eager to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. Western intelligence found his White House counsel threatened to quit. evidence Russian hackers turned over Democratic National that TrumpIn Trump’s ordered universe, Mueller’s though, firing the last multi-sourced June, only backing reports off in after the Committee and Clinton campaign emails to WikiLeaks, which Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal on the planned published them weeks before the election. When Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with the Russians was revealed a year later in the summer of 2017, Trump dictated a Strangerfiring are “fake and news,” stranger as the president put it to a chorus of boos at Davos. misleading explanation for the meeting that neglected to mention Republicans, who spent careers extolling the FBI, now are the Russian promise of dirt on Clinton. On Dec. 29, 2016, incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn Republican congressman supposed to be investigating the Russian asked Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to “refrain from escalating the interferencecriticizing it asin partthe ofelection the deep-state instead blamesconspiracy G-men against and Trump. women Thefor situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed” using the Russian investigation against the president. punishing Russia for election interference, according to the charging document that accompanied Flynn’s guilty plea for lying to the FBI. orchestrated efforts to distract the American people from Mueller’s Flynn’s lie to the FBI about that communication opened RussiaIt probe doesn’t and take to protect a political the sciencepresident Ph.D. from to any realize fallout these from are a himself to prosecution. But Trump, after demanding loyalty from Mueller report on Trump’s obstruction of justice. FBI Director James Comey, asked Comey privately, “I hope you can And the GOP efforts gets curiouser and curiouser. see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.” Comey Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News last week about an FBI wrote down the quote right after leaving the meeting with Trump. “secret society.” He told Bret Baier, “That secret society — we have an informant that’s talking about a group that were holding secret meetings Comey to back off the Flynn investigation, a tactic reminiscent of offsite. There is so much smoke here, there’s so much suspicion.” the NixonTrump White asked House top during intelligence Watergate. officials to intercede to ask Johnson got the notion of a secret society from cyber pillow-

reasonWhen was the Comey Russian didn’t investigation. drop the Flynn investigation, Trump fired youtalk even between going two to give top FBIout your officials calendars? having anSeems affair, kind Peter of depressing. Strzok and Comey, admitting to NBC and to Russians in the Oval Office that the Lisa Page. On the day after the election Page messaged Strzok, “Are of Mueller, Trump raged at Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not The comment was apparently in jest. The calendars referred to After Trump’s firing of Comey resulted in the appointment containedMaybe it should cheesecake just be shots the first of Vladimir meeting Putin of the in secret various society.” shirtless poses. White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II threatened to quit. protecting him and ordered Mueller fired, backing off only after Saturday Night Massacre in slow motion. Strzok was going to pass them out to agents working with him on the Thus,The Comey strong firing evidence and attemptshows tothat fire the Mueller Trump resembled campaign a theinvestigation inspector ofgeneral Putin’s in interference the Justice Department,in the election. Mueller When immediately the Strzok- was eager to receive dirt on Clinton from the Russians and that Page texts, which also criticized Trump, were uncovered last summer by President Trump led a concerted campaign to obstruct the criminal investigation of Russian interference in the election. acknowledgedand properly removed Page’s Strzok comment from themay Russia have investigation. been in jest and backpedaledJohnson, from one the day “secret after society” making charge. his inflammatory charge, Department concluded a sitting president couldn’t be indicted. Meanwhile, House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who was MuellerDuring probably Watergate, will follow the that Office guidance. of Legal But Counsel there is in every the reasonJustice supposed to lead the investigation of the Russian interference, has stepped to expect Mueller to issue a report within a few months laying out up his adopted role as Trump’s defender-in-chief. His staff prepared a the evidence that could trigger an impeachment process. four-page memo accusing the FBI of abuse in obtaining a secret warrant The evidence for impeachment would appear to be strong, to wiretap Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. House Republicans but that’s only in the universe of facts and reality that Mueller, the have voted to ask Trump to release the memo, and he told a member of mainstream press and most Americans inhabit. Congress after the State of the Union speech he would “100 percent.” Meanwhile, in the parallel universe of the president, Trump But Trump’s own appointees at the Justice Department — Deputy continues to operate as if he strangely is under Putin’s sway, refusing Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray — went to the White House this week to strongly urge the president not thisto impose week that sanctions it is actually on Russian the U.S. officials that is involved interfering in the in Russia’s election What is astonishing is that so many Republicans have eagerly currentinterference. presidential In a final election note ofcampaign. absurdity, Russian officials claimed to release the memo because of the classified information it contains. - PAGE 19 - Daily Egyptian challenges chancellor’s ethics by Athena Chrysanthou In the past months the Daily Egyptian, the student newspaper at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, published a series of stories highlighting Chancellor Carlo Montemagno’s dealings at SIU since arriving to the university in July. These stories include his role in hiring family and using university money to move them to Carbondale from Alberta, Canada. The reports in the campus newspaper shed light on the hirings of the chancellor’s daughter and son-in-law. The positions into which they were hired were not advertised, according to documents obtained by the DE. As our student newspaper dug deeper into the story, it found the chancellor used university money to move his family members to the university. He has since reimbursed SIU $11,146.42 for the moving costs of a second household initially covered by the university-granted moving expenses. It all started when the DE was tipped off Thursday, Jan. 25, about the relationships between new hirings and the chancellor. The paper’s Tuesday print deadline loomed.

SIU president Randy Dunn, far left, chancellor Carlo Montemagno and his wife Pam Montemagno on Friday, Nov. 10, 2017, before the annual Veterans Day ceremony at Veterans Memorial Plaza. reachingMost out of to thesources following and putting five days timelines were Photo by Brian Muñoz courtesy of Daily Egyptian together.spent deciphering Over the weekend, dozens ofreporter documents, Anna Spoerre conducted interviews, made phone With deadline fast approaching, I made the call to push back calls and reread documents. the deadline. By 8 p.m. the story was proofread and placed on the cover and inside the paper. shape, and the Tuesday headline read ”University hires chancellor’s Watching my staff work calmly and persistently under daughter,The son-in-law.”first story in the series surrounding Montemagno took me why teamwork is imperative for any job. It reminded me of A blow-by-blow account thepressure reason during I love those being final in momentsa newsroom of sending — to share the paper the stress reminded and As editor-in-chief, I was present for most of the discovery that deadline pressure with the staff. weekend, but my attention was directed elsewhere late Sunday to help staff prepare other content for the Tuesday deadline. During the staff’s National attention followed weekly editorial meeting on Sunday, we left the cover and a two-page spread in the week’s edition blank. of the most-viewed Daily Egyptian stories published in the past several The next 48 hours were the most stressful, intense, monthsWithin and received the first nationwide day of the storyattention being from published, several itmedia became outlets. one adrenaline-inducing hours I have experienced in the newsroom. From the moment I walked into the newsroom the next morning, my Juggling classes, checking in on the unfolding story and managing daily newsroom duties added to the pressure and uncertainty of Sitting at my computer sifting through emails, I caught word whether the story would be ready. Theoffice Chronicle phone incessantly of Higher rangEducation and my picked email upinbox our worked story and in overdrive. reported Monday was a blur. Before we knew it, Tuesday came around. Designers were creating the pages and Spoerre was running in and Chicago Tribune posted its own detailed account of the chancellor’s out of the newsroom throughout the day with her head attached to dealingsthe findings. based A dayoff the after Daily the Egyptian’smoving expenses reporting. story was published, the her smartphone. Two days after the story was published, SIU President Randy Keeping me informed of her progress amid the newsroom Dunn launched ethics inquiries into the chancellor’s family hirings and discussions of hiring some of his previous coworkers and previous coworkers. Dunn said the information reported by the DE presented class,craze, the she cover continued and two to page work spread under set deadline for the story pressure, were butblank. time was flyingI sat by.in classBefore for heading the next to two my andTuesday a-half afternoon hours not media knowing ethics of hiring details through the story. the story’s progress. facts appropriateThe next day,to examine, the investigations and that he first into learned the hiringof some of of the Sprinting from class when it ended at 6 p.m., I returned to because the university did not feel as if they could ethically conduct deadline. There was a silence in the newsroom combined with the thechancellor’s investigation family since members the SIU were Board passed of Trustees to the was state involved ethics inoffice the the newsroom with the final pages still blank and one hour until hiring of the chancellor. sound of Spoerre’s fingers aggressively attacking her keyboard.- PAGE 20 - Why report? Reporting on controversial or potentially reputation-

reporting on issues that could potentially harm the university and makedamaging prospective matters students can come second at a guess cost. Theattending DE was SIU. criticized for But promoting the university is not the role of a campus newspaper. Rather, our job is to adhere to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics and to seek and report the truth. In doing so we are doing our jobs and acting appropriately in the interests of society. Still, the question is valid: Why report on something that might turn potential students away from SIU? While we kept such possible consequences of these stories in mind, keeping things from the public because it may be perceived as negative to the university or area is simply unethical. It is a journalist’s duty and responsibility to report truthfully, whether it be what is deemed a negative or positive story. Presenting facts to the public is the foundation of what journalists do.

understanding of the negative effects a story can have on someone or theDifficulties community. can However, arise by for reporting journalists the whenfacts and there shining is the light on the truth, journalists have done their job as they should.

Ramifications In early February I attended the SIU Board of Trustees meeting and saw the effects our work had on the university moving expenses, claiming he posted it for the sake of “transparency”. community. During the public comment portion of the meeting, a number of community members, faculty and students expressed Cause and effect their concerns and distrust in the chancellor’s ability to lead the Since the DE shed light on these matters, state ethics inquiries university after the ethics inquiries were opened. began, the chancellor reimbursed the university money and faculty Dave Johnson, Faculty Association President, said in the and members of the SIU community have been outspoken about meeting that students, faculty and staff had lost trust in the chancellor. their distrust in the chancellor. It is clear these stories sparked Natasha Zaretsky, an associate history professor from SIUC, outrage, distrust and frustration in our community. spoke at the meeting and said the ethics investigations eroded the It’s never easy evaluating potential damage and assessing trust and faith in Montemagno’s leadership. balance in stories. And concerns about the balance of the DE’s While it was clear prior to the meeting that many people had coverage of the chancellor have been brought to me. I respond doubts about the chancellor and his restructuring plan, it was also to those concerns about balance by reminding people we are clear the DE story had a profound effect on the faculty and community, ultimately doing our jobs. giving rise to most of the public comment portion at the board meeting. I have no doubt in my mind Spoerre is asking the right questions and reaching out to all the appropriate people with the editor have been submitted by faculty and alumni expressing their interest of being fair and balanced in her reporting. reactionSince to thethe newspublishing about ofthe the chancellor. first story, dozens of letters to the Despite the questioning and negativity, the vast amount of the Janis Esch, a reporter for the Southern Illinoisan, asked Dunn feedback has been positive. People have called and thanked the DE for if he was proud of the “in-depth investigative work” by the DE. She reporting these stories, paper racks have been bare around campus tweeted part of his response: “The DE in particular has a long, historic record of being able College newspapers are sometimes underestimated or to get to stories like this and go after them. … Everyone plays their undervaluedand people are because recognizing of the Spoerre fact they for are the student quality staffed.of her reporting. However, role, and reporters have their jobs to do. In this case, the DE did it, just because we are students, balancing a full class schedule on top they did it well, they did it with good research on their facts and of the pressures of being in college does not mean we hold ourselves now the story goes forward, and they should be able to wear that as to lower journalistic standards. If we do not hold ourselves to the a big point of pride and another feather in the cap for these types of same standard as professional journalists, we are not adequately stories they’ve been able to break.” preparing ourselves for future careers in the industry. The investigative content within these stories and the quality of Moving expenses This semester so far as editor-in-chief has tested me. But, documents related to the chancellor’s moving expenses. morereporting importantly, justifies those I’ve professional constantly standards been reminded to which of we how hold important ourselves. The universityDE filed a Freedom responded of to Information the Freedom Act of on Information Feb. 2 requesting request DE. At the end of the day we will continue to report the facts, the before the DE was initially supposed to be given the documents — truthjournalists and act are as and the how primary proud watchdogs I am to be for a piece the public. of the puzzle at the theby issuing chancellor a five-day published extension. a blog Duringpost detailing this extension the situation — and with the daythe If we don’t, who will? At the end of the day we will continue to report the facts, the truth and act as the primary watchdogs for the public.” “ - PAGE 21 - me to be unrelenting in chasing a story, especially one of this caliber. The reporter’s view Just as many unnamed individuals went into this story as by Anna Spoerre off-the-record sources, and it was a challenge at times. At one point I feltnamed. like IThis hit awas roadblock the first because time in Imy hardly career had I’ve anyone dealt onwith the so record. many I spent the fall in Israel as part of a semester-long international Though this was frustrating at times, especially when running up relations program far removed from my hometown of Carbondale. against a very tight deadline, it was an important experience for me On the plane ride back to America I made a list of goals for my last in protecting sources in a situation where some individuals were to the Daily Egyptian to help out where needed, copy-edit and work on their comments public. And in the end, these unnamed individuals somesemester investigations. of college. I hadfigured no ideaas a what“retired” those editor-in-chief, investigations I’dmight return be. werefearful just their as importantcareer may to inthe some story way as those be jeopardized who went on if thethey record. made I certainly didn’t know that less than a month later the story about the chancellor would break, or that I would be the one to break it. so many times in my life. As my reporting got underway I really I was still catching up on all I’d missed while abroad when I don’t think I’ve ever agonized over fact-checking a story someone tipped off the DE about the hiring of the chancellor’s all the more important to be painstakingly thorough and accurate. daughter and son-in-law. This shows how important a role the Thoughstarted toI believe realize Iwhat accomplished influence thatthis goalstory based might on have, the responsesmaking it community plays in our news coverage, especially now: Enrollment at SIU is the lowest it’s been since 1965, and the effects of this drop inI have print and the haven’t next morning gotten, itbecause was still there’s so difficult always to thatgo to fear sleep that the a taken over the years. night the story was first published online and was set to come out in students is reflected in the hit the number of DE staff has also January, was felt more across campus than any other I remember afterpuzzle the piece stories, was andmissed. there truly hasn’t been any on my end. When being Thepublished reach during of the my first time chancellor at SIU. The piece, week published after the ininitial late asked I’vea few been weeks asked ago dozensto give advice of times to collegeabout any newspaper fallout that reporters came for a blog run by a journalism professor and college media advisor in phone was demanding much more attention than usual. The 36-hour-turnaroundstory came out, my email in the inbox launching was overflowing of an ethics and investigation the newsroom by reinforced for me. I relayed that even though student newspapers the university’s president was also one of those semi-rare occasions areWisconsin, run by mya handful response of reflected“kids” taking the aspects full course of reporting loads who this likelystory don’t yet have degrees, I reminded my peers that this isn’t an excuse I’ve been at the DE for three years now. After having spent a to put in less efforts or make mistakes. What student journalists yearwhere in tangiblean editing influence role, along of awith story a summer is evident as almostan intern immediately. at the Peoria report and write has real effects on real people and policies and decisions, and that should be more than enough reason to approach approach to being a reporter for the Daily Egyptian hasn’t changed, the responsibility of being a reporter not only professionally, but Journal Star and a summer with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, my with integrity and honesty and the understanding that what we learned how to be a student reporter, it is also a real job with real write is a crucial component of our communities. but my values have strengthened. Though the DE is where I first heavy burden to bare as a new reporter. That was something I kept ininfluence mind constantly on the community while working and on people’s this story lives. and And aiming that to can make be it a as fair and balanced as possible. This experience in particular taught

- PAGE 22 - Are social media accounts public records? by Terry Ganey

A court case may be needed to determine whether Missouri’s Open Records

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley wrote a letter in February concluding Law applies to public officials’ social media accounts.

athat records the office request of Gov. last Ericsummer Greitens seeking is not some required records to fromturn Greitens’over records social from media his accounts,Facebook including and Twitter the accounts.names of people The Columbia who had Missourian been blocked. newspaper had filed Greitens, a Republican, has bypassed the traditional news media to get his messages to the public. Through his Facebook account, he reaches out to thousands of his followers with policy announcements, news releases about governmental activities and public statements. Earlier this year he entertained questions about a tax proposal through Facebook Live. When the administrator of a public Facebook page blocks someone from commenting, that action could create an inaccurate public image of support for

impression of the public’s true reaction to a governmental decision. the public official’s positions. A public official blocking comments can create a false subject to Missouri’s Sunshine law. Since the “@EricGreitens” Facebook page had been createdThe governor’s before he officebecame contends governor, his the Facebook social media account account is is private not considered and not a public record, according to the governor’s legal counsel.

accounts are not used to conduct public business they are not subject to the state’s Open RecordsA spokeswoman Law. for Hawley’s office said if campaign or personal social media Mark Horvit, state government editor for the Missourian, said increasingly

public“The officials logical are next using step, social in reactionmedia as to their the primaryattorney connection general’s ruling, to constituents. is to go to court,”Horvit saidHorvit public said. officials “The business in other of states government had turned has absolutely over social been media conducted records. on the governor’s Facebook account.” The Missourian has discovered that some of those blocked from Greitens’ Facebook page had challenged his decision to sign into law “right to work” legislation that weakened labor unions.

The logical next step, in reaction to the attorney general’s ruling, “is to go to court. The business of government has absolutely been conducted on the governor’s Facebook account.” — Mark Horvit

- PAGE 23 - Activists draw attention to atomic city by Don Corrigan

America won the race for the atomic bomb against the Axis powers human damage that began when uranium ore came to St. Louis. in World War II. America also won the race for nuclear superiority against the Soviet Union in the Cold War that followed. America won these cleanup of much of the radioactive contamination will be. apocalyptic battles, but the Midwest metropolis of St. Louis paid the price. And only now does there seem to be a realization of how costly the St. Louis paid the price because it’s where uranium from the by itself is enormous. The estimate for simply capping the mound Congo was processed for making atomic bombs. It paid the price of debrisThe is price set at tag $95 for million. addressing Costs thefor fullWest excavation Lake landfill of the problem debris with off-site disposal climbs to $700 million or more. how they disposed of the radioactive waste from that processing. Thebecause deadly government waste ended and up industry in the city’s officials suburbs, were in irresponsible neighborhood in on Feb. 1 that they will initiate a remedy called “Excavation Plus.” The planEnvironmental calls for digging Protection up the Agency waste (EPA) linked officials to the announcedManhattan “We have paid dearly,” said Dawn Chapman of Just MomsSTL. “We paidstreams dearly and and in will a giant continue landfill to pay in northeven after St. Louis the last County. spoonful is cleaned for installing a cover system for long-term protection. Price tag for up. The way this radioactive waste harms people, it gets passed down from thisProject partial to a removaldepth of is16 $236 feet andmillion. removing it. The five-year task calls one generation to the next through their DNA. It will go on and on. “St. Louis did pay the ultimate price, and that needs to be Just Moms St. Louis Activists like Chapman and Karen Nickel and their Just MomsSTL can take a lot of credit for efforts to get the EPA and other togetherrecognized with by theus federaland amplify government our voices. and local That officials,” is what saidwe are Chapman. asking them“Officials to do, like and St. from Louis where Mayor we Lyda are Krewsonsitting, it isn’thave asking to be willingtoo much.” to join the mound of radioactive material has reached a crisis stage so that For decades, the cost of cleaning up all the radioactive itofficials simply to cannot finally be recognize ignored anymore.the problem. But they will tell you that the problem has been deemed too much. National, state and local contamination has been deemed too steep. The cost of recognizing catastrophicAt least nature three of documentary what’s buried films in producedthe St. Louis in theregion. last One five relocating affected residents and addressing the contamination. ofyears, those with catastrophic the cooperation scenarios of involves Just Moms, a years-long have dramatized underground the officialsOnly have now played — after down years dangers of tears, and diseases balked and at the deaths price — tag does of chemical reaction in an adjacent Bridgeton garbage dump that is it seem that there is an acknowledgment of the full extent of the creeping closer and closer to the West Lake radioactive material. - PAGE 24 - Some scientists argue that if the chemical reaction — EPA plan: Mixed reactions The “Excavation Plus” for partial removal of the material at a radioactive plume of smoke or steam could further endanger West Lake has received mixed reactions. The Missouri Congressional usually referred to as a fire — comes into contact with the debris, Delegation has been generally positive with both U.S. Senators, Pattonville Fire Protection District have been preparing residents Democrat Claire McCaskill and Republican Roy Blunt, issuing andresidents school milesdistricts downwind. for a worst-case Emergency situation: officials evacuation in the due nearby to a favorable responses. nuclear fallout event. In contrast, Steve Stenger, St. Louis County Executive, said the “There are really too many worst case scenarios to list,” EPA’s decision is a disappointment. He said the seriousness of the health issues in the area mandate a complete excavation and total radioactive waste, or an earthquake allowing the radioactive waste removal of the radioactive waste from North County. tosaid fall Chapman. into two water “Starting aquifers with beneath this fire the or site. another fire hitting the Longtime anti-nuclear activist Kay Drey said the EPA decision “Floods could carry this waste into the Missouri River and into is not an answer to a long-term problem. Her sentiments were echoed our drinking water,” Chapman continued. “This site is threatened by every element known to mankind. And these are things that Environment, which insisted that all St. Louis area residents deserve —by environmentaland should demand organizations — a full cleanup such as theof the Missouri radioactivity. Coalition for the vulnerable site on this planet for waste that will remain dangerous “Our position as Just MomsSTL is that we are glad EPA has forwill millions eventually of years.” happen at this site. You simply cannot find a more decided this waste requires action,” said Chapman. “We acknowledge An estimated 47,000 tons of radioactive waste and that more needs to be removed than has been indicated. “EPA also needs to protect any material that stays behind argue that the material may be layered under 25 or 50 or even 100 feetcontaminated of garbage. soil Nearby were residents dumped inare the asking: West WhatLake landfill.is an excavation Experts Chapman noted. “We will continue to push EPA to remove residents of just 16 feet of this nasty layer cake actually going to accomplish? whofrom livethe currentclosest andwho a wish future to fire, be relocated.floods, and We groundwater have asked contact,” that all Of course, not all of the thorium and radium products from work be done under a covered structure, which EPA has design plans for in their proposal. We are asking that waste be taken to a site east of Lambert Airport runways. Some of the deadly material licensed storage facility once it is removed.” foundthe uranium its way processing into Coldwater made Creek,it into wherethe landfill. nearby Some residents of it is have at a On March 6, more than 1,000 St. Louis area residents packed suffered rare cancers, reproductive disorders, skin diseases and the Machinists Hall in Bridgeton for a public hearing on the West Lake cleanup. The meeting was animated, but orderly Among voices heard at the meeting were Nickel, Chapman, Aautoimmune creek and deficiencies. West Lake Bridgeton Mayor Terry Briggs and Albert Kelly, chair of EPA’s Some activists and experts think that the radioactive issues Superfund Task Force and adviser to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. The EPA has outlined eight different scenarios to remedy the contamination should be kept separate. The range of sites involve differentinvolved geography with the Westand a Lakevaried Landfill history andof contamination. the Coldwater Creek EPA has shown a preference for a partial excavation and removal of “We refuse to fall into the trap of playing the game of whose site theillegally material, dumped but radioactiveattendees atwaste the Marchcontained meeting in West made Lake clear Landfill. that they wanted full excavation. is create the ability for the entire region to be contaminated through Several days after the meeting, Pruitt noted that EPA could is worse,” said Nickel of Just Moms. “What West Lake Landfill does do reconsider the partial excavation plan and take other actions. Pruitt “The truth is that until the last shovel full of this waste is told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that EPA could go further with removedairborne particlesfrom both should areas, the the fire region reach remains the radioactive at risk,” she waste. continued. cleanup efforts. “As I challenge my team I ask them, ‘what do we need to surrounding this waste and what can go wrong. It’s also an example do to ensure protection of health,’” Pruitt told the Post-Dispatch. of“The how landfill dragging fire helpsyour peoplefeet and realize passing and these think issues about onall thedown issues the “And that is the reason that we came to the conclusion that we are road leads to damaged health and looming emergency situations getting after the radioactive material that I have been told poses a that could have been avoided.” risk to health. Both Chapman and Nickel can talk about damaged health from “As you know it approaches 70 percent (removal) with the a personal standpoint. Nickel grew up near Coldwater Creek and current proposal, and I think through this comment period it might actually increase,” Pruitt told the Post. “But the charge was (to) get Chapman’s family has three special-needs children and her husband all the radioactive material that poses a risk to health, and I have has been been diagnosed dealing with with an psoriatic autoimmune arthritis, disorder. lupus and fibromyalgia. been told and assured that that is taking place. That is the most “It’s the same source of material, whether it is Coldwater important. The EPA is seeking public comments about the proposed already has a record of decisions to clean up their waste. We do not plans. The deadline to submit comments is April 23, 2018. atCreek West or Lake. West So Lake they Landfill,” are further said along Chapman. in this “But, process Coldwater than we Creek are. “Also, having cleaned up the main sources in Coldwater Creek, Help for Just Moms they are now tracking the mode of transport and where else the Nickel and Chapman feel that the EPA’s responses are a victory waste ended up. We will eventually get there. of sorts, but they are not exactly breathing a sigh of relief. They are “The issue with West Lake is it has sat out longer and we not letting their guard down and they hope more people will enlist haven’t had an agency willing to do proper testing and historical research needed to truly track where it has gone off site,” said Just MomsSTL has high praise for activists, politicians, labor Chapman. “It’s our belief with West Lake, and sites all over this in the fight for a safer environment. nation, that there is no place where this radioactive waste has sat in the battle against what they view as a neglected, decades-old, and not harmed people. It does exactly what it was created to do — slow-killing,leaders, school environmental officials, clergy disaster. and filmmakers who have put energy and that is sicken and kill people. And it’s very good at it.” continued on next page - PAGE 25 - It’s important for people to understand that even if there was no radioactive waste at this site, it would “still be a Superfund Site due to all the chemicals and hazardous waste that was dumped there” — Dawn Chapman

Nickel and Chapman said that neighborhood activists are particularly inspiring. They have made phone calls to politicians there,” said Chapman. “The dump is an unlined limestone quarry, and government agencies in between chemotherapy treatments soSite it’s due basically to all the like chemicals Swiss cheese. and hazardous The ground waste water that comes was dumped in and mixes with all the waste. between all this activity. “We have documents and permits from the State of Missouri and visits to their doctors. Managing family life is squeezed in showing dumping of herbicides and pesticides, jet fuel, lead paint, everyday and to live in it,” said Chapman. “Lois Gibbs from the shock waste and more,” said Chapman. “Back then, it was not illegal Love Canal“It is chemical hard to understanddisaster has whatvisited it us is and like she to fighthas been this fightvery to dump all this, because there were no regulations. But, you did have to have a permit to dump, so it can be tracked.” Just MomsSTL has great respect for the politicians who have supportive. From her fight over Love Canal, she knows what it’s like been active on the radioactive waste and dumping issues up to now. to fix “Weyour never kids breakfast really get ata break,”the kitchen said Chapman.table, all the “We while don’t sitting get to Moms said powerful corporations put pressure on these politicians across from them on the phone with elected officials and agencies. and give money in election campaigns to defeat them. call it a day. For us, home is where this battle is fought.” Chapman and Nickel noted the new advertisements by the push inNickel our chair and Chapman at an office, also turn have out kind all words the lights, for activist drive home Kay Drey, and giant waste hauler, Republic Services, with its new ad campaign whom they describe as their “Radioactive God Mother.” Drey, who has entitled, “We’ll Handle It From Here.” They said it would be much better if millions of dollars in advertising were actually devoted to the atomic age is more than 70 years old, but experts are still not sure handling waste site problems. been involved in the anti-nuclear fight for decades, often remarks that “Republic Services owns the radioactive site and is one of “Kay has been steadfast and she has instilled courage and what to do with the first cup of radioactive waste products. explained. “They’re not responsible for the entire price tag. There Chapman. “She knows better than anyone the risks of leaving this arethe others companies involved financially such as responsible Exelon, which for cleaningpays on itbehalf up,” Chapmanof Cotter wasteresilience where for itthose currently of us sits.who She are alsorelatively has seen new people to this succumb fight,” said to Corporation, as well as the costs for EPA and the Department of Energy. exposure to it over the decades she has been involved, so she knows “Corporations are not human beings — they answer to their

of the cleanup bill, however they can do that,” said Chapman. “We havewhat producedthis fight takes documentaries out of you.” about the battles over the St. Louis tryshareholders, to remember so they this, will because do what they they always can to are minimize spending their money portion on Chapman also has words of praise for the filmmakers who advertising, lobbyists, elections and creating front groups.” Homefront,” has had members of Just MomsSTL slammed with phonenuclear calls legacy. from She all over said they the recently-releasedcountry — calls from HBO people film, who “Atomic are angry and who want to help. They saidJust Momsthe stakes STL said are they’veespecially heard high first-hand at the state how level,difficult where it is “Our anger is at an all time high, and so is theirs, because “lotsfor elected of campaign officials cash to advocate is being thrownon the issue around of Westbehind Lake the cleanup. scenes” we have failed as a country to address this issue from decades in order to keep publicity about the radioactive legacy of St. Louis tamped down. outraged. How can you not be when you see that this issue has been Chapman and Nickel said those who speak out against the essentiallyago,” said Chapman. buried and “Those ignored who by thoseare just in power? finding out about it are handling of West Lake are subject to aggressive tactics involving paid public relations. They said they have been personally targeted airborne particulates. This issue is one big ticking time bomb. St. in Op-Eds on a national level, as well as locally. They said the ads and Louis “Theneeds fireto step gives up and this lead material by example. the potential The Manhattan to spread Project via negative publicity have not been effective in shutting down critics. started here, and it needs to end here.” individuals who serve in Jeff City and on local school boards and city Political Impact “We have encountered some very brave and selfless Chapman and Nickel said it’s time for politicians to stop saying some individuals will go to protect others — even at the potential they “are working behind the scenes” on the waste issue. With the expensecouncils,” to said their Chapman. own political “It never careers. ceases to amaze us the lengths

teachers, school superintendents, local hospitals, the St. Ann crossfilms party and EPA lines announcement, in 2018 to vote for the the issue most is responsive out front andcandidates center Business“From Association, these elected Rock officialsRoad Report to our Facebook local first Page responders, and more, onbefore a regional the public. radioactive They’re issue. confident St. Louis area residents will we are forever grateful,” said Chapman. “This truly is a grass-roots “It’s important for people to understand that even if there effort to clean up the radioactive legacy of St. Louis — and that is was no radioactive waste at this site, it would still be a Superfund

- PAGEwhy 26 -it’s finally having some success.” Documentary movies draw attention to the atomic city by Don Corrigan

Dawn Chapman and Karen Nickel of Just MomsSTL said some of the most effective media getting the message out about the old-school investigative reporting and historic video footage, includingThe reviewsome 1950’spraises animatedthe two film sequences, collaborators a clip for combiningof Robert Oppenheimer, and an old public access TV show featuring interviews fight against radioactive contamination at West Lake — and the sad with Atomic Energy Commission scientists. The interviews manage ofimpact radioactive of St. Louis’s waste atomic in St. legacy Louis — and have decides been film it’s documentaries.worthwhile to to be simultaneously hilarious and disturbing. “We are thankful to any filmmaker who looks at our history radioactive crisis in the St. Louis region could go unnoticed for so capture“Tony on film,” West, said along Chapman. with Denise “Each ofBrock, the films did ‘Themade Safe thus Side far doof long. TheA question interviews posed reveal to several film subjects explanations is how involving such a politics, critical thean amazing Fence,’ which job focusing focused on on it thefrom Weldon a different Springs perspective. atomic plant and seamy public relations, outright cover-ups, political corruption and more. But the biggest factor could simply be human psychology — the preference to stay “in denial” when a problem seems so big as to aboutthe workers. the radioactive C.D. Stelzer waste did ina heckour communities of a job with versus the ‘First what Secret was be insurmountable. actuallyCity’ film made giving public. the background and showing how much was known “And now we have the documentary, ‘Atomic Homefront’ on HBO, which focuses more on the current battles between agencies The Safe Side of the Fence (Can be viewed on iTunes, Amazon Prime, opPRIME.TV and purchased as a DVD on their website.) dangers. This is needed information that the people of St. Louis and Cinema St. Louis describes this 2015 movie as, in part, the story theand entire communities nation have fighting a legal to get right answers to know,” on West Chapman Lake andsaid. its many of how the top secret Manhattan Project had a tough assignment Atomic Homefront (Can be viewed on HBO and HBO GO.) massive amounts of uranium. Deadline Hollywood describes this recent movie as a “deep Edwardto find a Mallinckrodtpartner willing Jr., towho refine ran dive into the history of the illegal dumping and government lethargy a small chemical company in St. verging on indifference in the face of devastating and ongoing new Louis, agreed to take on the job. evidence about its impact.” As a result, the According to Deadline Mallinckrodt employees Hollywood, the film shows became some of the most how the federal government contaminated nuclear workers dumped radioactive refuse in history, although the company from uranium processing in a prospered. St. Louis was left to leaky landfill, and nature did deal with the consequences of the rest, leeching the poison into soil and water. As if that waste from the manufacture of An uncontrolled subsurface fire weren’t bad enough, the review encroaching on 47,000 tons of radioactive waste… To keep your family safe, you have to be your own superhero atomiccreating weapons. the world’s first nuclear notes, an underground fire is Seventy years later, the city’s nuclear legacy continues to making its way toward this have damaging effects. The steps required to keep workers and the radioactive junk yard in the public safe from these dangerous materials presents a never-ending, suburbs, and no one is doing

with JBF PRODUCiNG CORP aND DOCUMENtRESS FiLMS PRESENtS “atOMiC hOMEFRONt” DiRECtED aND PRODUCED By REBECCa CaMMiSa PRODUCED By JaMES B. FREyDBERG PRODUCED By LaRiSSa BiLLS nightmarish challenge. EDitED By MaDELEiNE GaViN aDDitiONaL EDitiNG By DON KLESZy MiKi MiLMORE DiRECtOR OF PhOtOGRaPhy CLaUDia RaSChKE CiNEMatOGRaPhERS thOMaS NEwCOMB KiRStEN JOhNSON MUSiC COMPOSED aND ORChEStRatED By ROBERt MiLLER anything to extinguish it. ExECUtiVE PRODUCERS UNSEEN haND BiLL BENENSON LaURiE BENENSON ROSE ViLLaSEÑOR aDiLia aGUiLaR MaRy RECiNE OLiVia NEGRÓN FOR hBO: SENiOR PRODUCER SaRa BERNStEiN ExECUtiVE PRODUCER ShEiLa NEViNS COMING SOON “If we were to do a documentary,” said Chapman of Just Moms “If you’re not screaming www.atomichomefront.film @atomichomefront

©2017 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and related service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc. Illustration © 1976 Engelhardt in the St. Louis-Post Dispatch / Reprinted with Permission mad by the end of Atomic STL, “we would really focus on the people who are sick, and have Homefront,” wrote Elias Savada in Film International, “you obviously believe the system works.” yearsbeen exposed,of our battles. and their daily fight to save others. That to us is the First Secret City most amazing“Ordinary thing people, we who have are witnessed already sick throughout from exposure, the past keep five (Can be viewed on Amazon Prime, Vimeo on Demand and purchased as a DVD on their website.) they get up everyday and in between chemo treatments, they are fighting even though it’s too late for them,” said Chapman. “But still, and Alison Carrick in 2015 when it was screened for the St. Louis the word. It’s all in the hope that they can spare one more person from InternationalSt. Louis Film Magazine Festival. reviewed the documentary by C.D. Stelzer goingmaking through phone thecalls hell to theyelected are officials,dealing with.” sending emails and spreading

- PAGE 27 - Veteran author ‘On the Writing Process’ by Michael Murray

DRAFT NO 4: On the Writing Process. By Bradley’s senior year, McPhee sent a query note to By John McPhee. “The New Yorker” during the NCAA basketball tourney asking 192 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $25 (paper). a college student who balanced scholarship with being a top John McPhee is well known among writers because of his athlete?if the magazine The response might be came interested quickly. in a“The “try-out” New articleYorker” about had authorship of over thirty books. But his notoriety also extends no interest in a college student — or any stories about him. to a lengthy teaching career including an influential writing Undeterred, McPhee spoke to Bradley again on the cusp of the course he teaches at Princeton. His most recent book, “Draft No. 1965 NCAA finals, and then wrote an extended piece focusing 4: On the Writing Process,” offers the master class for aspiring in great depth on his subject. The article described how Bradley and experienced writers — and writing teachers. It is based could dribble-drive hard to the basket and was “a deadly shot on an accumulated lifetime of contributions he made over the with either hand” while still excelling in classes. But McPhee also years, with solid influence on other writers, including his former students, many of whom are now prominent authors themselves. the Princeton University community as a whole. McPhee knew This book is short at 192 pages but includes a summary of heemphasized had a great Bradley’s story. unusual influence on his teammates and McPhee’s experiences, first as a developing author discussing the When the legendary editor of “The New Yorker,” William sometimes messy, often difficult process of writing something Shawn, read the piece, he was very impressed. Shawn quickly worthwhile and trying to get it published in an acceptable form. extracted a quote to use as its title — one McPhee discovered He includes counseling he received when starting-out as a writer when his subject spoke to him for the very first time in that plus insights about what he passes along to his students. then shop-worn gym at Princeton, the one the team shared for As you might expect from the book’s title, McPhee makes intramurals. Looking directly at his subject while interrogating him about his shooting style, Bradley continually pumped-in on a good story, then improve it. He discusses the importance of jump shots. McPhee asked how was it possible to keep making repeatedlyspecial note reworking of the attention a story requiredto make itto as discover good as and it can capitalize be. And one basket after another without even glancing up at the rim? in considering the importance of this particular book, readers As Bradley pointed out at the time, “When you have played of some vintage might recall some of McPhee’s early stories — basketball for a while, you don’t need to look at the basket when and one in particular. It was an occasion fifty years ago, when he you are in close like this. You develop a sense of where you are.” discovered and then wrote about a Princeton student with very unique athletic and leadership abilities. That story began when a Missouri high school basketball player was credited by reliable sources in St. Louis as being When you have played gifted enough to play basketball professionally; a thought rarely expressed, at least out loud, at that time. In what appeared to basketball for a while, be another unusual development, that same student turned “you don’t need to look powerhouse, Duke. But he chose to matriculate instead in the at the basket when you Ivydown League. a prized Even athletic though scholarship he had tocommitted play for perennial to Duke, “hoops” at the very last minute he changed his mind to enroll at Princeton. In are in close like this. doing so, he told his parents he was considering his long-term goal of becoming a Rhodes Scholar, as opposed to any sports You develop a sense of considerations; deciding an education at an Ivy institution — one with a strong track record in placing Rhodes Scholars at Oxford, where you are.” enhanced the prospects of achieving his objective. — William Warren The student’s contact with John McPhee, an aspiring writer at that time, came when McPhee’s father, the team physician for “Bill” Bradley Princeton athletics, alerted his son that William Warren “Bill” Bradley’s presence in a dilapidated campus gymnasium at the The McPhee classic article “A Sense of Where You Are,” school was causing quite a stir. So McPhee started carefully eventually became a book of the same name and was credited following the play of the Crystal City, Missouri round-ball phenom, for creating an impressive, indelible image of a bright and beginning with a series of interviews and observations. The young thoughtful Midwesterner — a hard worker with the right moves author was of course won over by some incredible shooting and on the basketball court, including some rather deceptive, but ball control but also by a display of natural leadership. McPhee highly effective “head fakes.” But readers of “The New Yorker” captured many specifics, asking about his background and his style of play. He learned how he had mastered a “set shot” at the about this story — or McPhee’s subject. So there were subtle age of fifteen at a basketball camp run by “Easy” Ed Macauley allusionseverywhere to atwhat the timemight recognized follow. Of that course, there the was book nothing with “fake” that of St. Louis University basketball fame and later the NBA. He same name became a polemic about college basketball’s growing was instructed to: “Crouch like Groucho Marx. Go off your feet influence. But in the course of writing the piece, McPhee created a few inches. You shoot with your legs. Your arms merely guide a classic model for writing a perceptive personality sketch. The the ball.” McPhee chronicled how Princeton’s team seemed to subject’s response to questions provided a title but McPhee be uplifted by Bradley. He noticed how players started imitating offered a metaphor for what became life as a Rhode Scholar, “Life him on basketball court; then in the library. on the Run” in the N.B.A. and in the U. S. Senate. - PAGE 28 - So as you might expect, McPhee’s first national article, “A Sense of Where You Are,” is given attention in this book along with other noteworthy and telling examples of what works in print. Referencing his story for “The New Yorker;” most of the examples in this book are taken from the fifty years since, writing for “Time,” and then joining “The New Yorker” as a staff writer. There are some more interesting profiles from the Midwest including one focusing on Tony Buford, General Counsel to Anheuser-Busch

Park Service Ranger during the initiationand also Georgeof the Gateway Hartzog, Arch. Chief McPhee discusses the source of that St. Louis-based story and how it first developed: with a preoccupation with life on the Mississippi for a piece entitled “Tight-Assed River.” He offers the focus of attempts at gaining some skill at fishing but clarifies how he ended-up instead with attention to a different sports subject, horse breeding. He details how basic information was gathered for a variety of different stories from interview subjects then triangulated in various publishing projects by dissecting the particulars for aspiring Bill Bradley playing basketball for Princeton. writers. He presents diagrams and models he regularly employs McPhee provides what we might now consider historical to add understanding for his students. He points to important examples, with added insights about his extensive experience examples of early influence on his own writing, including David with some deeply devoted editors with whom he enjoyed jousting Maraniss’ book “When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince regularly over critical edits of his work. In the chapter entitled Lombardi,” about the legendary football coach, in which stories “Fighting over Words,” for example, he discusses his interaction about his attention to detail explained success. McPhee elucidates with Robert Gottlieb, the person who replaced William Shawn as the process of selecting subjects then focuses on sentence structure and word choice as his stories began to develop and the time in a cutting way: “If eccentricity was a criterion for the interacted with universal themes. job,the editorBob was of “Thequalified.” New Yorker.” He summarized his new editor at He admits to having structured three or four endings to some stories and describes how and why he finally made the Through a review of his life in print, McPhee eloquently cuts. He reviews his first approach to a subject, including notes proves the point that almost every piece of writing can be he kept on story development, stressing again the importance improved by reviewing and judicious cutting. And, of course, of selecting the best words. And he also describes the painful every piece, he insists as well, can benefit from serious fact- process of having some of his works translated to film. For checking. The final chapters of the book provide encouragement anyone with the special interest in media history, this book also for writing teachers; stressing a need for perseverance and includes some added bonuses, such as writer profiles akin to patience. Any aspiring or seasoned author would benefit from Brendan Gill’s classic, “Here at the New Yorker.” reading this lifetime of great writing.

- PAGE 29 - The specter of the shark A Review of ‘The Post’ by Walter Metz

to interveneSteven against Spielberg’s the latestvast rightward film, The shift Post, of is American a revelation. politics The sincenew film the representsneo-conservative an embrace revolution of liberalism of the latedeliberately 1970s, for designed which the rise of Donald Trump is the apotheosis (or at least one hopes).

That embrace of liberalism is a significant shift from Spielberg’s decades old blockbuster film, Jaws (1975). scandal,In Jaws,the women’s Ideology, liberation and Film Theory, movement British and film the scholar Vietnam Stephen War. Heath analyzes Jaws using three ideological filters: the Watergate as liberal. Through only one filter does the 1975 Steven Spielberg film emerge shark attack, has coerced the coroner to change his autopsy report so thatEarly the inislanders the film, can the make Mayor money of Amity from Island, tourists. in response Police Chief to a Brody becomes complicit in the cover-up. In Heath’s eyes, this facet of the plot mirrors the Watergate scandal: the politician with immense power destroys the well-being of the community for his own gain. of advocating for progressive social change. Jaws is a proto-slasher However, through the other two filters, Jaws comes up short film in which a sexually active woman at the beginning of the film menis eaten go offby theto hunt shark. and At kill the the film’s shark. first Heath turning deems point, this Chief a backlash Brody’s againstwife is banished the 1970s from quest the forfilm equal by Quint’s rights salty for women.language In as cinematic the three terms, feminists demanded that female characters not be reduced to the narrow roles of sexual object and mother, indeed the only female characters in Jaws. Finally, Heath reads Jaws as an apology for the Vietnam War. In both Jaws and Vietnam, the beaches are the only safe place for

Americans. The shark terrorizes swimmers from a murky depth which, aftervia seaweed the U.S.S. fields, Indianapolis looks suspiciously was torpedoed like the jungles during of WorldVietnam. War II. The lastIn linethe middleof his story of the is “wefilm, delivered Quint tells the the bomb,” story referring of his survival to the atomic weapon that was shortly thereafter dropped on Hiroshima. of Defense, Robert McNamara. Graham is a powerful woman In Heath’s eyes, when Brody blows up the shark at the end of Jaws, intervening in the patriarchal public space, something not availed he “delivers the bomb,” something the hawks in the late 1960s to any of the female characters in Jaws. believed would win the war in Vietnam, replicating an atomic attack by the United States on yet another Asian nation. The Post tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who In its final moments, The Post dovetails with Jaws, despite ordersthe forty-year his lackeys gap to betweenbar The Washington the films. The Post’s demonic reporters shadow from his of series of presidents from Harry Truman onward knew that the war in Richard Nixon, filmed behind the shrubs outside the White House, Vietnamsteals the was Pentagon unwinnable. Papers, In classified The Post, military Spielberg documents makes no that maneuver prove a despicable behavior deafens, as a security guard at the Watergate to redeem the Vietnam War, as did Jaws in Heath’s reading. Hotelpress discovers briefings. the The break-in echo of at the the Trumpheadquarters Administration’s of the Democratic similar After the Nixon Administration challenges via an injunction National Committee. the right of The New York Times to publish the documents, The Spielberg has come full circle, now properly linking the Washington Post, under the editorial control of Ben Bradlee (Tom reprehensible behavior of Nixon’s abuse of governmental power to Hanks) must decide whether to also publish the documents, despite the necessary transformations of the role of women in American the threat this poses to the future of the newspaper. The Post society, all fueled by the discovery of the folly of America’s chooses to foreground the role of Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep involvement in Vietnam. The Post represents Spielberg at his very best, using his immense talent as a visual storyteller, so evident Supreme Court, The Times and The Post have their right to publish at her finest), the heiress to her father’s publishing empire. At the guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Graham thateven the as earlyyouthful as Jaws, maker now of Jawspointed could directly barely at have the systemicimagined. flaws As our of courageouslyaffirmed; six ofdecides the nine to justicesestrange support her family’s the freedom rich and of thepowerful press American civilization. The Post offers a precise, coherent critique friends, including their beloved John F. Kennedy’s Secretary put his old shark to sleep. current youngsters say, The Post is “woke,” and Spielberg has finally - PAGE 30 - Spiritualism, celebrity and mass media by Khara Lukancic

Natale, Simone, Supernatural Entertainments: Victorian larger performances gave rise to more fantastic performances Spiritualism and the Rise of Modern Media Culture, Pennsylvania that ‘proved’ the existence of another realm and the medium’s University Press, 2016, $34.95, 235 pages. ability to communicate with it. The public performances began to offer live music as accompaniment to the medium’s performance. In Supernatural Entertainments, communication and Although Natale never calls it by name, public relations media studies scholar Simone Natale explores the relationship plays a big role in the success of spiritualism. Mediums depended between the rise of spiritualism and the development of media culture. Much like the performance of spiritualism itself — to draw the public to their performances. Throughout the employing slight-of-hand to deliver the unexpected — Natale’s bookon advertisements Natale frequently run in references newspapers P. andT. Barnum, spiritualist who magazines is widely book also provides an unexpected journey. considered the first showman and initial practitioner of public Indeed, it is easy to expect Supernatural Entertainments relations. to deliver a more materialist analysis of the intersection of Presumably following the example of Barnum, Victorian spiritualism and mass media — such as a study tracking more era mediums thrived on controversy and scandal. Proving there closely with Friedrich Kittler’s book about media technologies was no such thing as bad press, spiritualists benefitted from titled Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. While Natale’s work news articles describing their spectacular performance as much touches on the impact of various media, her focus is on the as they benefited from the criticism. The general public tended connection between spiritualism and celebrity culture. to gain equal interest whether the article corroborated the The two core projects of Natale’s book are (1) to show spiritualist’s claims or if it debunked a performance as fraud. the parallel rise of the People wanted to see a performance for themselves to determine spiritualist movement its authenticity. and the evolution of the The spiritualist movement both impacted and benefitted media entertainment the industry of mass-market printing. Natale describes the industry, and (2) to spiritualist community as being connected through print argue for spiritualism’s place within communicated through writings in tracts, papers, journals, commodity culture. media instead of forming an institutionalized religion. People The former establishes the rise of the spiritualist movement bolstered interest in the spiritualist as supernaturalmagazines and fictions. other The spiritualist popularity publications. of the Gothic Additionally, novel an early example of increased along with the rise of religious spiritualism. Natale celebrity, while the notes that ghosts became a part of popular culture through latter demonstrates literature and film. Ghosts were a common feature of spiritualist the usefulness of public séances as well as a popular inclusion in the fictional narratives relations for media of literature and film. entertainments. Another connection between media and spiritualism is the During the popularity of spirit photography. Spirit photography provides Victorian era, as the comfort to those grieving a close family member, as it offers a spiritualist movement tangible item with the image of their lost loved one. However, it was gaining popularity, also offers a commodity to be exploited. Spirit photographs were it depended on the collected and traded by enthusiasts as indisputable evidence cultivation of the supporting the spirit world. Of course, this was proven false after spectacle. Spiritualists were expected to be engaging and to photography became better understood and spirit photography deliver the unexpected. Thus, their roles were very performative became an example of trick photography. in nature. Natale compares the spectacle expected of the Supernatural Entertainments provides a historical successful spiritualist to popular illusionists and public scientific survey of the link between spiritualism and entertainment lecturers of the time, as well as to the spectacle associated with culture. Approaching it with an open mind, one can enjoy many the early cinema. connections made by Natale, including the associations with One of the most important developments within public relations, newspaper publications, mass market printing spiritualism is the movement from the private to public spheres. and spirit photography. However, when approaching the book Initially, spiritualists — called mediums — conducted séances with expectations of an in-depth analysis of media technologies, within their homes to a private, small group of people. As the Supernatural Entertainments falls short. Much like sitting for a popularity of séances grew, the performances of spiritualists Victorian séance, if the book is approached with an open mind, entered the public sphere, allowing for larger audiences. The readers can decide for themselves its value.

- PAGE 31 - Love it or hate it, social media drives this generation by Hannah Erickson

Donna Freitas, The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving esteem issues have always a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost, Oxford University Press, New existed, social media have York, 2017, $29.95, 339 pages. compounded it into a deeper issue with constant Life for a college kid looks very different today than it did a access to posts and decade ago. In The Happiness Effect Donna Freitas gives a glimpse insights. When interviewed into how young adults wrestle with social media and work to reconcile and surveyed, the process the many sides of this omnipresent entity. As an author of both of comparing and then feeling inadequate because such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe and of social media was the Washingtonfiction and non-fiction Post, former books Boston and Universitya writer for professor national publicationsand current most common experience researcher at Notre Dame, Donna Freitas has a strong foundation for shared by the students. understanding young people and their relationship with social media. Beyond affecting Nearly every college student feels the pull of social media. Thanks the self-esteem of young to the constant presence of this medium, young people are developing people, social media have an unhealthy dependence on social media for their sense of worth, created an unauthentic self-esteem and happiness. Donna Freitas does not endeavor to craft aura among this young a book full of personal rants and thoughts about the negative aspects generation. While it is of social media. Rather, The Happiness Effect compiles numerous tiny normal to wrestle through memoirs from college students around the country as they tell their the issue of people- funny, sad, personal and insightful stories of social media and the often- pleasing, social media have dysfunctional attributes of these pervasive media. pressured young people to conform to the ideas and desires of others. In 11 chapters, the book addresses typical social media hot- Instead of focusing on self-discovery, imagination and creativity, young relationships, sexting and others. For every topic, students give craft to meet the common standards of the time. Freitas found many theirtopics frank such impressions as “likes,” professionalism, of what it’s like to selfies, craft “perfect” anonymity, posts bullies, and youngpeople peopleare focusing deeply on concerned fake and idealizedabout the versions issue of of authenticity. themselves Eventhey long for others to validate them. The young people express the need to always appear happy and carefree on social media, and were struggled to know how to navigate these platforms in their search to createthough their they own knew genuine they would character. not find it on social media, but they still amount of social media interaction varied, almost all millennials One of the key frustrations Freitas found in her research of college interviewedoften only satisfied confessed when feeling others they reciprocated were living positively. a confusing While andthe students was the struggle of living in the moment. Many young people frustrating lie by only promoting the information that would be quoted the common phrase, “if it’s not on Facebook, it didn’t happen.” well-received by others. Some students even admitted to suffering Young people reported to spending so much time framing events emotionally when they could not hit their personal goals of likes, around the perfect picture or witty post, they often missed the point comments and other positive reinforcements. Freitas subtly builds a picture of social media forcing young people to appear happy just to maintain friends, appear professional and feel validated. of the real experience. Selfies contributed to the theme of recording Not all young people handle the pressures of social media in also added a pressure to report on every aspect of one’s life. This everything, while being “Facebook official” in romantic relationships the same way. In Freitas’ interviews with more than 200 students threatened to rob them of the joy of one of life’s simple moments. spanning 13 diverse universities, she found some students who Freitas pointed to several ways social media threatened young hated the popular sites, some who admitted to online trolling, some who loved the freedom to connect, some who hid behind anonymity, dating and hooking up. But other platforms played a role in romantic relationshipspeople. Some by online giving sites,options such to post as Tinder, about one’s focused relationship specifically status on sorting out their mixed feelings. However, the overwhelming or preference and to initiate the popular trend of sexting. Even when responsesome who was were a deep flamboyant pressure and to open perform and manyand hit who the wereinvisible still students admitted to using social media for these purposes, they standard of a “good” social media post. often felt concerned that one wrong post or leaked picture could ruin The Happiness Effect is an eye-opening look at the damage their future hopes and dreams. This book did not argue that social social media can have on a young person’s self-esteem. Many media was taking over interpersonal communication, but only that platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, have become it was creating an additional atmosphere that created more pressure less of a place to connect and more of an avenue to compare. and placed unreasonable expectations on young people. Many students discussed a common theme of checking online The Happiness Effect gives an intimate glimpse into the heart of to see what others were posting, but then feeling more lonely and young people as they navigate the new world of social media and work inadequate because they couldn’t measure up to those “perfect” posts. to balance the many negative aspects of this medium. Freitas does not social media are different because they provide avenues for bragging as pioneers working to navigate a dangerous yet powerful medium. andWhile boasting. Freitas says She that explains comparison that, is“unless an age-old you issue,have sherock-solid emphasizes self- Theportray book young points people to several as narcissistic key ways and social selfish, media but places rather an frames unnatural them esteem, are impervious to jealousy, or have an extraordinarily rational pressure on young people, and inspires students, parents, teachers and capacity to remind yourself exactly what everyone is doing when they leaders to evaluate what can be done to ease these expectations and work to build a more balanced approach to social media. post their glories on social media, it’s difficult not to care.” Although- self-PAGE 32 - Bernstein to speak at First Amendment gala

Carl Bernstein, of the Washington Post reporting with the Whistleblower award for their leadership duo of Woodward and Bernstein, is the featured speaker of the Just MomsSTL environmental group, which at the Journalism Review’s 7th Annual First Amendment blew the whistle on the contamination of West Celebration on April 12. The event begins with cocktails at 6 p.m. at the Edward Jones Headquarters, 12556 Manchester • Wayne Goode, an iconic former legislator Road, across from the West County shopping center. fromLake Landfill.Normandy, will present the Lifetime Bernstein’s topic will be: “It’s not just the politicians. Achievement award to Bill McClellan, the Post- We the people sent them there. We the press are complicit.” Dispatch’s witty, beloved columnist for 35 years. Four awards will be presented after Bernstein’s talk. • • Former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Journalism Review, will present the Leadership A. Wolff will present the second annual Freedom awardCharles to Klotzer,the late founderRoy Malone of the, former St. LouisPost- Fighter award to Thomas Harvey, former director of Dispatch reporter and editor of the Journalism ArchCity Defenders, and to ArchCity itself. ArchCity Review. The award will be presented to Terri led the way to revealing the injustices of the St. Louis Waters, Roy’s daughter. County municipal courts system in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Wolff Tickets are $100. Mail checks payable to GJR/SJR, P.O. Box 28284, St. Louis, Mo. 63132-9998. For more • Kay Drey, the legendary environmental activist, willwas thepresent first recipient Dawn Chapman of the Freedom and Karenaward. Nickel [email protected]. information contact Dan Sullivan, program organizer at

Gateway Journalism Review QUESTIONS FOR CARL BERNSTEIN and The St. Louis Journalism Review Submit here any questions you would like for Carl Bernstein about the media and their responsibility. The Gateway Journalism Review is published by the School of Journalism at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. K He may mention my name “It's not just the politicians. We the people sent them there. We the press are complicit.”

Carl Bernstein Live From New York Planning Board Jessica Z. Brown, Co-Chair William Freivogel Mike Murray Few journalists in America’s history have had the impact on their era Dan Sullivan, Co-Chair David P. Garino Steve Perron and their craft as Carl Bernstein. For forty years, from All the Presi- William Babcock William Greenblatt Mark Sableman dent’s Men to A Woman-In-Charge: The Life of Hillary Clinton, Don Corrigan Charles L. Klotzer Anita Sullivan Bernstein’s books, reporting, and commentary have revealed the inner- Rita Csapo Sweet Rose F. Klotzer Zachary Sapienza Eileen Duggan Jin Lee David Sheets workings of government, politics, and the hidden stories of Washington Tom Engelhardt Roy Malone Tammy Merritt and its leaders. In the early 1970s, Bernstein and Bob Woodward — the Sherida Jean Evans Avis Meyer key speaker at our initial First Amendment Celebration — broke the Lu Fan Jill Moon Watergate story for The Washington Post, leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. In 1977–78, Bernstein spent a year investigating the CIA's secret Gateway Journalism Review Staff St. Louis Journalism Review Board William Freivogel. Publisher David P. Garino, Chair relationship with the American press during the Cold War. The William Babcock, Editor Robert A. Cohn resulting 25,000-word article for Rolling Stone, entitled The CIA and Fall Managing Editor, Lu Fan Don Corrigan the Media, was the first to examine a subject long suppressed by both Spring Managing Editor, Jin Lee John Dubinsky American newspapers and the intelligence community. Associate Editor, Ololade Afolabi Gerald Early Design Chief, Abbey La Tour Raymond P. Hartmann Artist, Steve Edwards Michael E. Kahn April 12, 2018, 6-9:30, Business Manager, Zachary Sapienza Charles L. Klotzer Contributing Editors, Anne Spoerre and Roy Malone at Edward Jones Headquarters, 12556 Manchester Road, Des Peres. Khara Lukancic Paul Schoomer All contributions in excess of $25 are tax-deductible and benefit Office Manager, Sherida Jean Evans Moisy Shopper The Gateway Journalism Review, Webmaster, Aaron Veenstra the nation’s last remaining regional journalism review in print.

- PAGE 33 - - OPINION -

Striking through Redskins Bigotry: A Media Call to Action by Zachary Sapienza

Certain terms are simply not fit for media to print. The win for the Washington Redskins N-word is one. The F-bomb is another. Words like these pack such a strong semantic punch that society created new terms just by recognizing that the First to reference them. Amendment“Speech protects that demeans its right on as the an basisorganization of race, ethnicity,to name its gender, team Redskins religion,whatever age, it deems disability, fit. or any other similar ground is hateful; but for that matter. It is a racial slur that almost every modern dictionary the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we is yet another word unfit for print or any use at all protect the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate,’” wrote the systematic genocide of millions of Native Americans. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., in a unanimous decision. recognizesOne doesn’tas such. have The toterm’s dig deephistory into is thedeeply annals intertwined of history with to demonstrate numerous less-than-forgiving past usages by the Objectivity or Linguistic Decorum? media alone. Journalists maintain some of the highest standards for An article from the Daily Republican, a newspaper based in the written use of English language, and have a more nuanced Winona, Minn., published Sept. 29, 1862, reads, “The removal of understanding of its inner workings than does much of the the entire race of redskins has become an imperative necessity, and we trust that it will be pressed upon the Government until the work term redskins. Rather than be accused of diminished objectivity, is accomplished. Otherwise the depopulation of a large portion somepopulation. journalists Still, believe many mediaomitting organizations the term is worse continue than to reporting use the of the State must be the unwelcome alternative. This should not a potentially offensive team name. Journalists often defer to their be permitted, if every Indian in the State has to be consigned to a ‘hospitable grave.’” decorum collide. Likewise, an ad in the Sept. 25, 1863, edition of the same mediaWhen organizations the Washington for guidance Post’s editorial when objectivity board decided and linguistic against newspaper reads, “The State reward for dead Indians has been using the name, the news-gathering side kept it. “The Post’s increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory. This sum is newsroom and the editorial page operate independently of each more than the dead bodies of all the Indians east of the Red River other,” Executive Editor Martin Baron said in a 2014 interview are worth.” Keep in mind that the average Union civil war soldier for his paper. “Standard operating policy in the newsroom has in 1863 made less than $20 a month, which means that $200 was been to use the names that established institutions choose for small fortune then, and equivalent to about $3,800 in 2018. themselves. That remains our policy, as we continue to vigorously Such examples remind us why the term redskins carries a cover controversy over the team’s name and avoid any advocacy significant amount of bigoted baggage. The term was not used role on this subject.” as a racial compliment, but rather operated as a genocidal Unfortunately, valuing objectivity over linguistic decorum semantic-enabler. does not support the media’s ideal of being the watchdog over society, nor does it allow the media to alleviate itself of its Growing protests to the term responsibility to promote common decency. In this manner, According to a 2013 Pew Research Center study, 76 media no longer using the term. Twelve media outlets have banned the thanmedia the companies perpetuation and of industrythe status organizations quo, and that suchthey are as just the termorganizations out right, and including journalists newspapers either support such as thea name Oregonian, change Seattle or are asAssociated responsible Press for need the tocurrent realize situation their inaction as are is the nothing journalists more Times, Kansas City Star and San Francisco Chronicle. reporting the name. The editorial board at the Washington Post followed suit in 2014 when its members announced they would no longer use the were to ban the use of redskins, it would drastically reduce the term in writing, “While we wait for the National Football League to objectivityIf an industryconcerns organizationof individual such reporters as the forced Associated to decide Press catch up with thoughtful opinion and common decency, we have between linguistic decorum or objectivity. In these cases, it decided that, except when it is essential for clarity or effect, we will would remove the concerns of “diminished” objectivity from no longer use the slur ourselves.” journalists and place it on their media company and/or the of redskins as a school team name or as a mascot by enacting the Furthermore, objectivity would be better served through CaliforniaLikewise, Racial CaliforniaMascots Act became in 2015. the California’s first state Assembly to ban theBill useNo. theindustry omission organizations of the term to altogether,which their rather company than adheres. through its use. 30 reads, “The use of racially derogatory or discriminatory school Unless in a direct quotation, journalists do not use any other racial or athletic team names, mascots, or nicknames in California public slur with the frequency or intensity as they do redskins. From schools is antithetical to the California school mission of providing a linguistic perspective, the use of redskins is more subjective an equal education to all.” than objective. It would be more objective to avoid all racial Although these advancements represent critical steps slurs in reporting rather than subjectively deciding some slurs forward, there have been recent legal setbacks as well. The United are allowable if already in the commercial marketplace. In other States Supreme Court’s July 2017 decision that rejected the words, it would be more objective to avoid the entire category disparagement clause of federal trademark law represents a major rather than justify the use of one or two. - PAGE 34 - Silence through Omission is Not the Solution types “redskins and editorial” into the search bar on Washington For the term redskins to ultimately be discarded from society’s Post’s website, there is no way to know the editorial department Redskins is protesting the term. Based on the term’s usage on the website name. Based on Washington Redskins’ Dan Snyder’s commitment alone, the editorial department, if anything, is being visually tolexicon, the term, it will this first type require of change a change will innot the come Washington easily, and it will silenced by its news-gathering counterpart. Striking out the term explicitly calls attention to the problem, while omission can only boycotting the term. Instead, it requires a systemic solution where call attention effectually through the term’s absence. In the case of take time. It will require more than a couple media organizations the Washington Post, in order for a protest of omission to work, the It will require a proactive protest and not a protest of silence every opportunity to strike through the term is seized. Isentire striking organization through would Redskins have to adhere a solution to the same in name standard. only? and not only use it as a weapon against Dan Snyder and its semantic The continued use of redskins, even with a strikethrough, through omission. Journalists must first take ownership of the term might be problematic to some because it requires using the very the general public. Current media protests omitting the term term it seeks to avoid. However, this temporary usage could help supporters, but also utilize it as an educational opportunity with redskins would be more effective by striking through it instead. In eradicate the term from society’s lexicon permanently. One thing is certain: Redskins is different than other racial Dan Snyder’s right to name his team whatever he wants, but it also slurs in that a professional sports team has a vested interest in doing so, it allows the media to recognize the First Amendment and allows the media to highlight the term’s offensiveness by explicitly keeping the term relevant. As long as the NFL remains as popular as drawing attention to the term’s semantic baggage. it is today, the term — if left unchecked — will continue to dominate This is a resolution to the journalist’s ethical dilemma, or the media landscape. Unlike other racial slurs, journalists and double-bind, where journalists may have to use the term in their media outlets are forced to either report the news as objectively as reporting, but object to it. It allows journalists to take ownership possible or avoid using the term in good conscience. of the term by framing it as morally objectionable to their reader, Once the Washington Redskins were to switch its name to a rather than avoiding the term. Additionally, striking through the non-racial slur, there would be no need to continue striking through term allows for continued discussion where omission prevents it. the term, in part, because it would no longer be printed in the pages Assuming the term “Washington Redskins” is probably mentioned of every major daily newspaper. would be striking and its impact impossible to ignore. regarding redskins for far too long. It’s time for a Colin Kaepernick-like five to six times in the average article after a game, its visual effect mediaMost kneel-down media organizations for Native Americans. have been A standing media protest on the of sidelines silence term is not being used by a media outlet protesting it. Unless one through omission, or worse, indifference, is simply not enough. On the other hand, a reader might not even realize when the

- OPINION - … and a P.S. by William A. Babcock

Speaking or printing the word is generally regarded as in other nations that are truly equally despicable. Crude names virtually taboo as the word is considered to be a viciously hostile for Indians (or Native Americans), Italians, Japanese, Chinese and epithet. Puerto Ricans, still appear in print protected by quotation marks. So vile, in fact, that one is hard-pressed to think of a time this The same goes for misogynistic slurs, even when uttered by century that it has appeared in the print media or been uttered in a televised or broadcast news program. And when it is used, it’s often explains in the previousprominent GJR political article. figures. Too, a professional football team from letter followed by a word. the nation’sBut not capital the word. gets Even a bye, though as Zachary used in Sapienzaan iconic 1895 American identifiedAnd byeven a single if uttered letter by followed a public byperson, a few the spaces word or would as a singlelikely literary work read by decades of American children, some English classes have banned this book, or edited it so the But while the word is frequently spoken by one segment of This is not to argue that the word should be used. Rather, that Americanstill be camouflaged society, its in very quoted utterance code. is blacked out by “progressive” the media should be consistent. Either all such wordharmful is camouflaged. words need members of the majority society. similar media expunging, or there should be consistent policies for Not only is this entire process rather cumbersome, but it also when and how to use all such hateful words, including the word. Until there is vile-words parity, the media should not award the only the word, while other offensive words warrant no such “thou word with a unique non-disclosure status. shaltdefies never logic use”that thestatus. media adhere to such an ill-defined process for Anything less indicates the media’s the word practice to be And yes, there are any number of words in this society and not only inconsistent, but also unethical.

- PAGE 35 - - PAGE 36 -