St. Louis: Anti-Progress Is Showing

To start, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has maybe a few months left before it folds. It could be weeks away from its demise, and those who have regularly been forced to read the only daily newspaper --- IE the citizens of our region --- already know that it's taken a severe turn for the worse over the past 20 years. It was 20 years ago when the city of St. Louis had two daily newspapers, albeit briefly, in the Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis Sun (remember it's one-year run as the tabloid-style newspaper? I do --- I was a subscriber from Day 1 to it's final day of publication). Sadly, the Sun was entering the world at a time when daily newspapers were struggling due to economic conditions. It's a similar and in many ways a tougher world for newsprint these days. After all, here I am working online, getting readers to see what I have to say about things around our region, and there are numerous sources for news between the radio, TV, and online newspapers, all vying for the audience of a printed word. This is not to say that all newspapers are doomed --- that is prematurely calling something dead the way atheists say Christianity is dead --- it just don't make it so if you say it.

However --- I am saying it about the Post-Dispatch --- it is all but dead now.

The latest reason to see it's in the final days is evident in the online criticisms over the recent firing of columnist Sylvester Brown Jr. --- with only a brief statement showing its complete inability to make a case against Brown as an explanation. You do not have to read between the lines of their statement to see that they only thing which happened was he did not fit the management's way of doing things: in other words, he actually did his job in the correct way and made waves by stating the obvious and reporting it in his columns. To say that Sylvester Brown Jr. has his critics is to state the obvious. His critics don't want him talking. And many of them include perceived heavy-hitters who are aligned with the weak-minded politicians in power in city government. Yes --- I am at liberty to say that many of the politicians in St. Louis City and County are weak-minded. I don't work for them, nor would I pull the slam from the pages of my own blog or newspaper if they asked me to do so --- I calls it as I sees it...and I sees that there are limp-headed numbskulls running much of the city government because they did what the kings and queens and bishops and generals were doing 250 years ago --- finding a way to conquer through monetary means and being in charge. I'm no fool to these people. I know how to report their shenanigans on the new technologies --- and they can read about themselves from time to time in my columns and those of countless others. It is ONE reason that so many of them will fall from power in the next five years.

Now --- I'm holding back ever so slightly right now because I am a person who works in the media industry and the current sets of kings and queens occasionally have employed me. This still does NOT mean that I am going to side with them and be quiet. But I will be as fair as I can be when not being threatened by them.

Being threatened --- well, that only increases the likelihood that someone who is "powerful" or "rich" becomes the target of my RobinHoodesque-writings when they are doing a perceived or actual wrong (sorry, dear brother Robin). You see --- I WILL state a perceived wrong and try to follow it thoroughly until it is either proved or disproved as a reality instead of mere perception. And for the moment --- it appears the city of St. Louis' leaders are all about killing their own. After more than 10 years, I moved out of the city.

Revelation of revelations: the city is poised to lose hundreds of its newer citizens because it is talking about its progress...and showing it's assinine side. IF the city wants to spearhead an effort on something progressive, it should include someone like Sylvester Brown Jr. in the LEAD ROLE of those who can see both sides of the race issue. Race issues are perceived as progressive. In fact, our world has changed dramatically since 1968, so this perception is somewhat reality. Barack Obama became the president of the United States of America --- proof to many of us that race is not as "severe" a factor to how things can be accomplished in 2009. But make no mistake --- St. Louis is a RACIALLY DIVIDED CITY. No matter what Mayor Francis Slay, chief of staff Jeff Rainford, and countless city "leaders" say --- there has been less progress made locally over the past five years than during the 1990s. That's not saying it is the fault of the mayor or his staff. It just is what it is, and we need to make sure that the dialogue is spurred. It's too bad that it appears --- rightly or wrongly --- that the mayor's staff may have had something to do with Sylvester Brown Jr.'s disappearance from the pages of the Post-Disgrace. But, we know that the perceived realities will eventually show up one way or another. The P-D is but a puppet piece for some city politicians who are about to find out that they will have no puppet piece soon --- but will find out how difficult it is to be in the 21st Century where the average citizen can show how disenfranchised they feel by the power of the holyshit politics in St. Louis City. Something is not right near the intersection of I-44/I-55/I-70 --- and those in charge seem to not notice they are steering things into the flood wall.

For now, the reality is: Lee Enterprises bought a ship that they have only helped sink, in a city where the politicians are all praying that they will still be able to use the editors and writers for many years to come. That won't happen unless they bail out the P-D...and I'm not seeing THAT happen.

The Post-Dispatch will die soon. Will its final printing be in 2009 or 2010?

A Column To Follow

Following the media conference from Sylvester Brown Jr. in St. Louis, I am compelled to state something: I will be reading his columns --- wherever they land.

For the moment, join me in reading what has been happening to Sylvester Brown Jr. on HIS blog:

http://sylvesterbrownjr.blogspot.com

I encourage support for this man. He writes with emotion and compassion, empathy and stance, forcefully and tenderly, depending upon what needs to be stated. Sylvester Brown Jr. and I have never had a lengthy face-to-face conversation, but we have exchanged emails and will likely see each other in public soon.

It's sad that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is earning its high school "letters" for 2009 as the Post-Disgrace. I'd suggest only giving it a "D" instead of "PD" --- it is too bad for the people who put in so much effort, time, and heart into their work, as Sylvester Brown Jr. has done. The next step for Lee Enterprises is easy to see: failure...bankruptcy.

Not surprisingly, St. Louis will soon be a city without a daily press --- but we will find news stories throughout the internet the day that the Post-Dispatch dies. Between the different columnists and writers and editors who are blogging, we can only surmise that someone will step forward and print some sort of daily paper within the next 24 months or so.