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PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH CENTER September 2002 OCCASIONAL PAPER 8 NEW MEDIA, NEW POLITICS: THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY ORUM O THE ST. LOUIS JOURNALISM REVIEW, OCTOBER 2001 By: Rita M Csapo, Ed.D., In the irst Amendment, the ounding athers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its Associate Professor of essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Governments Communication, Department power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the of Communication and 9aculty Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. 9ellow, Public Policy Research - Justice Hugo Black Center. INTRODUCTION The St. Louis Journalism Review celebrated the 30th anniversary of its founding in October, The St. Louis 2000. The celebration was a forum at the Sheldon Concert Hall, titled: New Media, Journalism Review New Politics. This was a roundtable discussion with prominent journalists from major gave their readers national news organizations about how new media have changed politics and campaign insightful and coverage. The forum took place the day before the final presidential debate at Washington outspoken news University in St. Louis between Governor George Bush and Vice-President Al Gore. editorials that the Over the years, the SJR gave their readers insightful and outspoken news/editorials local and national that the local and national mainstream press overlooked or was afraid to tell. SJR mainstream press often broke a story or gave vital background information to a news item that the overlooked or was corporate media did not reveal. afraid to tell. As major news companies merge and media conglomerates gobble each other up, the SJR continues its role as watchdog of rich and powerful entities. By all ac- counts, the SJR has never been a profitable business. Nevertheless its leadership, staff, and contributors publish a monthly newspaper that is widely read among the media in St. Louis, in the region, as well as nationally. The integrity of its founders, Rose and Charles L. Klotzer, and its current editor, Ed Bishop, allows the SJR to exercise influence in the media far beyond its modest outward appearance. SJR 8001 Natural Bridge Road may not be a household name among the public, but in media circles SJR is re- St. Louis, Missouri 631214499 spected and at times even feared. Media professionals know that the SJR engages in investigative reporting, even when it means turning a critical spotlight on the pro- OR MORE IN ORMATION fession of journalism itself. (314) 516.5273 TEL (314) 516.5268 AX [email protected] EMAIL 1 BACKGROUND The St. Louis Journalism Review is a product of the Sixties, although it first hit the newsstands in 1970. In the 1960s, around the world and in the United States there was turmoil. Both the struggle to stop the war in Vietnam and the struggle to gain civil rights for African Americans had brought out the worst in America. Political assassination was becoming a routine event. American leaders were being gunned down in the street, in their driveways, and in their homes. Inner city ghettoes were burning, students were closing down universities, and thousands of protesters were marching in the streets. Just a few months before SJRs first issue was printed, several students peaceably demonstrating at Kent State were shot and killed by the Na- tional Guard. The Sixties also created a crisis in journalism. Almost overnight newspa- pers sprung up around the country. Young, radical writers who pro- duced these papers were convinced that mainstream media were collabo- Mainstream rating with the establishment to mislead the public. Some in the main- reporters knew that stream press were coming to the same conclusion. critical information The turning point for American journalism was the Democratic Na- had been withheld tional Convention in Chicago in 1968. Mainstream reporters knew that critical information had been withheld by top editors and that sto- by top editors and ries had been interpreted in ways that put a false light on what actually that stories had happened. Specifically, it had been the police who rioted, not the dem- onstrators. Within months of the convention, local TV and newspa- been interpreted in per reporters got together and founded the Chicago Journalism Review. ways that put a During the next two years, dozens of other local journalism reviews were founded in the United States. false light on what actually happened. Here in St. Louis, in the summer of 1970, a number of reporters and politi- cal activists met in the home of Charles and Rose Klotzer. They included: Al Delugach, who had just won a Pulitzer Prize the year before; Ted Guest, who is now the National News Editor of U.S. News and World Reports; and from the local press Robert E. Adams, Margaret M. Carlan, Peter A. Donhowe, Richard Krantz, Gerald Lindhorst, Gus Lumpe, Roy Malone, John Shelton, Ellen Sweets, 9red Sweets and others. They decided St. Louis needed a straightforward, tell-it-how-it-is critique of the local media, a publication that couldnt be intimidated. The St. Louis Journalism Review became the editor and publisher. As the SJR group anticipated, attempts at intimidation came almost immediately. Threats were made and the SJR stopped running bylines for a time. Editors and news directors continued to complain, sometimes rightfully so. But for the most part, for over 30 years, media management in St. Louis understood and accepted SJRs mission. Everyone knew and understood that the SJR was being run on a shoestring. Year after year the SJR lost money. But the publication continued because the Klotzers continued to subsidize it. Publication also continued because a core group of local journalists, university professors and activists worked hard to write and produce it. To this day a group called the Board of Advisers meets each month to discuss media issues, plan upcoming articles and share the energy of a publication that has never lost its Sixties philosophy. Part of that philosophy was that media should not only be criticized for what they do but also for what they omit from print or broadcast. Indeed, the SJR decided to publish important articles on topics ignored by the mainstream media. 2 On May 4, 1996, the Klotzers donated the SJR to Webster University. To insure its independence, it was set up as a separate corporation with its own nonprofit tax exemption. The SJR is housed on the university campus, and receives some subsidies from Webster University for a number of important functions. The university has never interfered in any way with the editorial content. Today, SJR is the only surviving local journalism review, out of about 30, founded in the late 60 and early 70s. NEW MEDIA, NEW POLITICS The following is excerpted from the round table discussion at the 30th Anniversary forum for the St. Louis Journalism Review. The author has also just completed a half hour documentary titled: Whos Minding the Media: Charles L. Klotzer and the St. Louis Journalism Review:. This documentary is partially funded by the Public Policy Research Center, at UM - St. Louis. The advent of Participants: Jodi Enda, Knight-Ridder White House Correspondent; Bill Plante, CBS News White House Correspondent; Adam Clayton Powell, III, new mediathe 9reedom 9orum; Senator Paul Simon; Richard Stengel, Editor in Chief Internet and Time.com; Kenneth Walsh, US News & World Report White House Corre- spondent. 24-hour news Moderator: Charles Jaco, KMOX Radio. services has Jaco: The title of this evening is New Media and New Politics. It is a nice changed the loose construct in which we can fit just about anything. The advent of new way the news media -the Internet and 24-hour news services- has changed the way the news business does its business. One of the interesting things about it, Ive found, business does is that the reason the new media has gotten such attention is because old its business. media has been swimming to the bottom with such gusto and relish for the past 20 or 30 years. Its like the old story I used to tell. Someone asks, What do you do for a living? And I say, Well, my mother thinks Im a numbers runner over in East St. Louis. Dont tell her the truth, itd break her heart. Bill let me start the questions with you. What about the idea that one of the reasons that a lot of people are interested in new media whether its online services or anything else is that, frankly, they feel that the kind of coverage they are getting from the traditional media is basically all commercialism, all fluff. They might be able to get more if they go to Matt Drudge or something like that. They dont feel theyre being told the truth. Plante: If we put the same content on television and then also the very same material on a web site, the web site gets more hits and more recognition than the television program. Its the same story, but because you hear it in the new media it is granted more credibility, at least with a certain segment of society (younger of course). Is there a lot to be improved upon in the old media? Jaco: Rick, what about you? 9irst off, why Time.com? Time not dot-com seems to be doing pretty well. Why do it at all? Stengel: Until recently, people who ended up at the dot-coms were often those who did not make it in the print versions. The dot-coms were seen as the little brothers of the print versions.