One for the GOOD GUYS - St Louis newspaper will stay PROGRESSIVE

[Nothing Without Hope]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000920570

In Unusual Agreement, 'Post-Dispatch' Will Remain Liberal Under Lee

By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: May 13, 2005 3:10 PM ET

CHICAGO When Lee Enterprises Inc. agreed to purchase Pulitzer Inc. for $1.46 billion, it also agreed that the flagship St. Louis Post-Dispatch will keep its longstanding liberal editorial slant for at least the next five years, according to the purchase agreement mailed to Pulitzer shareholders Friday.

"For a period of at least five years following the Effective Time, Parent (Lee Enterprises) will cause the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to maintain its current name and editorial page platform statement and to maintain its news and editorial headquarters in the City of St. Louis, Missouri," the agreement states.

The Post-Dispatch platform statement, adopted in 1911, includes the pledge that the newspaper "will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty."

Over the years, the paper's editorials have taken a reliably Democratic or liberal view of issues, positions some worried would change under Lee's ownership.

(snip)

When I was a student at Washington University many years ago, there was a horrible, conservative St Louis newspaper, the Globe Democrat, which we called the Glob-Demagogue. Wonder if it's still churning out the sludge? Well, if so, its rival looks to be offering an alternative view for at least the next 5 years.

[w13rd0]

1. No, the Globe vanished many years ago...

...it made a brief (less than a year) comeback, but thankfully, it slinked back into the sludge. I just can't believe that vile Shafly woman lives here.

[Nothing Without Hope]

2. Phyllis lives there? That's a surprise, I wouldn't think there would be

many large rocks around on a river floodplain for her to lurk under.

Lots of awfully nice people in St Louis, guess they have to work harder at it to make up for that witch.

[Mountainman]

3. Funny, even though the paper says it will never belong to a party.

the values it stands for are considered part of a Democratic or liberal view of the issues. What does that say about the other side?

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. Yes, interesting statement indeed - the good qualities listed in that

third paragraph are so obviously NOT associated with the GOP. Wish it were obvious to more people.