Roland Klose

‘Never be satisfied with the surface of the news.’

“In this space I cannot hope to describe his singular abilities or indicate the range of his sinewy, searching mind. Through one rule which he laid down for reporters he may be glimpsed. This was the rule: ‘Never be satisfied with the surface of the news.’ If he considered the pupil worthwhile he would explain: ‘There is a formal and superficial aspect of every story. It may be a police report, a lawyer’s brief, an application for a trolley franchise, or a President’s message to Congress. As such it may have a proper place in your story. But to print that alone may result in misleading the reader partially or completely. Read more of this post

Better readers, better newspapers

“Many of the desirable improvements in the newspaper cannot be successfully achieved until the average level of education and intelligence of readers is raised.

“Nor can the newspaper accomplish its function of supplying the basis of sound public opinion unless citizens are willing to devote enough time and thought to newspaper reading to inform themselves thoroughly.

“Hence every movement to develop more intelligent, better-informed citizens deserves the newspaper worker’s heartiest support.”

– Willard Grosvenor Bleyer, “Newspaper Writing and Editing” (1913)

‘What’s the use of living if you can’t help somebody else?’

Occasionally, a gem shows up in the archives of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This item, published on March 11, 1917, shows how a worker found the courage to demand a better shake from her employer. This is taken from the much-longer story, which is included at the end of this summary.

Getting arrested has become a “regular thing” for Madge Keith, 24. In 14 weeks of picket duty at Robinson’s, a restaurant in downtown St. Louis, she’s been picked up by police 25 times. “And I might be arrested 25 more — but it’s all in a day’s work with me now,” she told a Post-Dispatch reporter.

She’s on strike for a wage increase. “We don’t want so very much, either. The restaurant pays $1 a day and 8 hours’ work. We want $1.10 a day 8 hours’ work. We couldn’t get it. So we struck.”

Read more of this post

A good comrade

What is work? Work is struggle.

There are difficulties and problems in those places for us to overcome and solve.

We go there to work and struggle to overcome these difficulties.

A good comrade is one who is more eager to go where the difficulties are greater. (1945)

‘The house where Eugene Field was not born’

A plaque on the Eugene Field House says “the children’s poet” — famous for “Little Boy Blue,” “Wynken, Blynken and Nod,” and other works — was born there. The Field House Museum, on its website, says “Eugene Field was born in St. Louis at 634 South Broadway, on September 2, 1850.” And some contemporary news stories also say Field was born there.

But he wasn’t.

A former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter named Robertus Love took the blame for the confusion — a century ago. In letter to the newspaper, published on Feb. 12, 1917, Love wrote: “About 15 years ago I suggested a story on Eugene Field.… My suggestion was approved and I was assigned to get the story. I interviewed several persons who had known Field more or less intimately when he lived here as a young newspaper man. Also I interviewed his guardian, an elderly gentleman now dead…. In reply to a specific query as to where Eugene Field was born, his guardian told me it was the house on South Broadway.” Read more of this post

Jerry the smoking St. Louis orangutan

(Several links restored on July 17, 2018)

St. Louis still celebrates some of the long-ago residents of its famous zoo. Phil the gorilla. Mr. Moke the chimp. Moby Dick the sea elephant. Siegfried the walrus.

But not Jerry.

This much-photographed orangutan showed up in newspapers across the nation in the 1940s — and even scored appearances in Life magazine and in at least one newsreel.

Today, though, Jerry seems to have been forgotten.

I became curious about Jerry when I spotted an old postcard that showed him in uniform, smoking a cigarette. I made a few inquiries and checked archives.

Here is what I learned. Read more of this post

First uses

The range of verbs is further cut down by means of the -ize and de- formations, and the banal statements are given an appearance of profundity by means of the not un- formation. — George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language“

Apparent first use of certain words employing the “-ize formation” in English-language newspapers, based on a review of online archives. (Does not include variant spellings.) Updated Jan. 11, 2019. 

“… some liberal minded judge permits a continuance and turns the criminal loose on the street to revictimize the victims.” Interview with Maj. Henry J. Wolff of the Indianapolis Police Department. [The National Road Traveler (Cambridge City, Ind.), May 3, 1972]

“Dr. (Emily) Alman startled some 200 homemakers when she suggested that the family of the 70’s may have a completely different structure. “I suggest that the group coming up has started to delegitimize the existing structure. They will not follow our patterns,” said Dr. Alman. [The Courier-News (Bridgewater, N.J.), April 29, 1970]

“And the problem we face now is how to operationalize the concept of Black Power.”
Interview with activist H. Rap Brown. [Delaware County Daily Times, Aug. 8, 1967]

“The U.S. Department of Labor has available a new study entitled ‘Manpower Challenge of the 1960’s.’ It definitely is on the list of required reading for employers and educators. Its perusal might incentivize junior sufficiently to bring home better grades.” [The Burlington Free Press (Burlington, Vermont) May 23, 1960] 

“The Honeywell Model 7000 Digital Data Recorder-Transcriber digitizes data at the fantastic rate of 10,000 samples per second directly from transducer or other data input sources.” [Honeywell recruitment ad, Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 8, 1959] “It accepts signals from thermocouples, flow, pressure and other transducers. It measures these signals, digitizes them and prints their values. A thermocouple reference oven can be supplied to permit it Read more of this post

‘Pockets of volume’ ‘Locally heavy’ ‘Hearts go out’ ‘Great’

Weather words: Cone of concern. Blanketing. Dampening. Spotty mix. Barreling. Lashing. Churning. Taking aim. Little blustery. Ridge of high pressure. Packing winds of. Packing a punch. Gusty winds. Heavy rain. A line of showers. Intermittent. Periods of rain. Severe. Isolated. Spot. Strong. Sun is starting to peek back in. Pop-up shower. Stray and scattered and residual showers. Hit-and-miss. Notches. Hooks. Locally heavy. Couple sprinkles. Rumbles of thunder. Breathing a collective sigh of relief.

Groundhog Day, every morning: The Internet is full of perils, scamsters and child predators. You can’t watch your children enough! Don’t be fat! Really! Too many people are fat!  Here’s a new recipe. Watch these well-paid athletes play sports. Sharks are dangerous, and they’re showing up in all sorts of places. Sharks are unpredictable, and vicious! You never know what the weather will do next! It’s crazy! It’s unpredictable! Here’s our forecast. As President Trump says, “the world is a very dangerous place!” Look at these weird people doing crazy stuff! Here’s a new study. It’s good to know, but more study is needed. Here’s a new book!  Caught on camera, and gone viral.  Dogs!

Traffic words: Lane blockage. It’s heavy now. It’s volume right now. You’re heavy on. You’re stacked up on. Sunshine slowdown. Stacked up for a look. Stop and go. Pockets. Slow pockets. Pockets of volume. Building volume. Hitting/tapping/on your brakes. We’ve got some volume. The usual volume.  Bumper-to-bumper. Injury accident. Trouble-free. On the brakes. Crawling. Jamming. A lingering backup. In the clearing stages. Flowing fine. Still a good run. Typical delays. Clusters. Slowing down in the stretch. Smooth sailing. Keep your eye out for …

Crime (and tragedy) words: Small, tight-knit community. Rattled. Hearts go out to. Make sure a tragedy like this never happens again. Close-knit community. Devastating impact. Loved ones. When something like this happens. No obvious connection to international terrorism. On the ground. Visibly shaken. Thoughts and prayers. Shots rang out. Closure. Grief process. Active scene. On edge. Haunting. Nightmare. Ultimate sacrifice. The community is reeling. Asking the public to come forward. Families left waiting for answers. Escalated from there. Tragic news. Raise awareness. Their desperate time of need. Breathing a collective sigh of relief.  Keeping a close eye on. Bad apples.

TV and radio: Opening up and speaking out and taking a stand and reaching out and setting the record straight. What’s trending online. We’ll continue to monitor this breaking story/situation/news. We want to know what you think. Hard questions. Real concerns. The discussion continues at … . We’re watching out for you. Read more of this post

What is news?

“The highest form of reporting is the ability to understand and fit together certain isolated and apparently unrelated trends before they become news. The public knows what news is after it becomes news. Only the accomplished and skilled reporter or editor knows what it is before it becomes news.” — A Handbook of Scripps Howard (1948)

‘Factious, flippant and reckless’

“Questions of the most momentous importance come up daily, and exact grave consideration from all. The experience of most persons will confirm the assertion that the manner in which the daily newspapers deal with these questions is most defective and unsatisfactory. Their false prophecies, their abandonment of all attempt to sift evidence — often unavoidable, it is true — their constant sacrifice of the truth to the demand for startling effects, the factious, flippant and reckless way in which many of them deal with the most serious topics, constantly remind their more intelligent readers that they are prepared to suit the requirements of the greatest number, but not by any means the best qualified, of those whose judgment goes to make up that force in human affairs called public opinion.” — “Prospectus for a Weekly Journal,” June 1863, from the collected works of Frederick Law Olmsted, a co-founder of The Nation.

We keep entering ‘a new and dangerous phase’

The week-long offensive to retake the ISIS stronghold (of Fallujah) has now entered a new and dangerous phase. [CBS News. May 30, 2016]  The Palestinian president today accused Israel of provoking a “religious war” … amid mounting concerns that their long-running conflict is entering a new and dangerous phase. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 11, 2014]  Declaring a victor before a negotiated settlement could mark a new, dangerous phase of the crisis surrounding the vote to succeed President Hamid Karzai. [The National Journal, September 11, 2014] The 48-page report released Tuesday is grim, Read more of this post

The armadillo in all of us

It may be small-brained and shortsighted, but the armadillo has managed to take over most of the Americas.

Only one armadillo showed up for this year’s “World Famous Armadillo Festival” in Hamburg, Ark., and it couldn’t have cared less.

After a ceremonial weigh-in and photo shoot with the reigning Teen Miss Armadillo (a local high school beauty), the creature was released in the designated “racetrack” — a makeshift chicken wire enclosure — where it immediately began to nose around for bugs and grubs. Read more of this post

Jinx Rag

“Dedicated to the famous cartoonist Jean Knott.”

Knott (1883-1937) worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he drew the popular “Penny Ante” strip and other cartoons. In 1916, he joined the Hearst syndicate.

Recent accounts say Lucian Porter Gibson of St. Louis (1890-1959) wrote “Jinx Rag” in 1915.  But a clip from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, published on Oct. 8, 1911, says Gibson and Jesse Dukes “jointly composed” the song. Little is known about either man. Copies of the score include the instruction: “Not Fast. Don’t Fake”

The exposure era

 “One of the chief requisites of a successful author-exposer is that he shall take himself and everything he touches most seriously. An appreciation of the humorous would be likely to mar what would otherwise be masterpieces of exposure literature. … He takes the world seriously, he demands to be himself taken seriously, else he may brand you as one of ‘The System’ or a sympathizer of that aggregation of corruptors.” — The Exposure Era in the Magazines, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 8, 1906.

Clara-Jumi Kang 클라라주미 강

The homicide record: ‘A truly terrible state of lawlessness and indifference to human life’

In December 1915, The Spectator, a weekly that covered the nation’s insurance industry, looked at the large increase in mortality caused by homicide in the previous decade. It focused on 30 leading cities. Many of its findings are familiar, including a condemnation of “the unrestrained sale of firearms.”

The largest numbers of homicides were recorded in places with the biggest populations, including Chicago and New York City’s then-biggest boroughs (Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn).

But the highest homicide rates were found in cities in the South, led by Memphis, Tenn., which recorded a rate of 63.7 homicides per 100,000 people in 1904-1913 and 72.2 in 1914. Those numbers, wrote statistician Frederick L. Hoffman, “reflect a truly terrible state of lawlessness and indifference to human life.” A distant second was Charleston, S.C., at 32.7 in 1904-1913 and 33.3 in 1914, followed by Savannah, Ga.; Atlanta; New Orleans; Nashville, Tenn.; and Louisville, Ky.

St. Louis  —  the nation’s fourth-largest city until 1920, when it was overtaken by Detroit and Cleveland — had the eighth-highest homicide rate, according to the 1915 ranking.  Read more of this post

Patience in the face of adversity

. . .

“If God send thee adversity, receive it in patience and give thanks to Our Lord and bethink thee that thou has deserved it, and that He will make it turn to thine advantage.” — Louis IX

Guiding principle

I have not a whole series of journalistic principles. I have only one principle, and that is represented by an effort to make it harder for the rich to grow richer and easier for the poor to keep from growing poorer. –– E.W. Scripps, 1910

We can only hold together, having supporting us the army of our followers, so long as we fight hard and win battles for them; so long as we fight against privilege and successfully and by degrees transfer continually some of the privileges of the few to the many. — E.W. Scripps, 1915

One year, 250 links

A lot was written about #Ferguson. Some of it was interesting. Some was good. A few things were important. http://bit.ly/1ww93uA

Stuffed sausages

It was a smile full of disdain, typical of self-important jerks who hang like stuffed sausages from the top of all corporate ladders. … They grew like a plague of fungi, thriving on the dung on which companies are built.

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

The focus should be …

From Post-Dispatch review of Henry W. Berger’s St. Louis & Empire:

… past attempts to address poverty, racial segregation and inequality, and troubled public education have had, at best, “limited success” and, in many cases, made things worse.

“Far more extensive attention and far greater corrective action” is required, he writes. “The focus should … be on people, not real estate. High-ticket enterprises such as stadiums, convention centers, and condo buildings do not a city make.”

Matthäus-Passion

Seeing the world through the eyes of the Globe

People who knew Martin Duggan as the elderly, avuncular host of a St. Louis PBS talk show also remember that he was a veteran newspaperman, the former editorial page editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

They may remember the Globe-Democrat as a conservative voice; they may forget, however, how reactionary, how out-of-step with the times, and how often foolish that newspaper could be.

In early 1983, the same year the Newhouse chain announced it was closing the Globe-Democrat, I interviewed Duggan for a profile of his newspaper’s editorial page. He was 62; I was 24.

He spoke about his reasons for only running columnists that agreed with the paper’s philosophy Read more of this post

‘Always remember, your work is not important. It is merely interesting.’

A scale of basic values for an individual, or for a newspaper, in [O.K.] Bovard’s thinking, started with the concept of man as primarily an economic animal, whose life being was shaped to a great extent by his search for the necessities. But, while food, clothing, and shelter as basic needs of man provided the skeleton of his news philosophy, it was large enough to include such factors as the right to work, the right to know and learn, and medical care for the sick. Until a bed existed in every hospital for every sick and needy person, or until a desk was provided in every schoolroom for every child, Bovard felt that the question of a symphony orchestra for St. Louis should remain relatively unimportant. Thomas B. Sherman, the paper’s music and book critic, might argue that music should be classified as a necessity, but Bovard would not have agreed. This concept of news values explains in part Bovard’s desire to minimize the entertainment features of the paper and his eagerness to replace them with more solid stuff. He told Marguerite Martyn, who wrote about fashions and women’s activities, “Always remember, your work is not important. It is merely interesting.” When men were unemployed and starving, he grew impatient with the “fluff” and trivia that filled great quantities of newspaper space.” – James W. Markham, “Bovard of the Post-Dispatch (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1954) pp. 137-138

Read more of this post

Mayday!

‘Worst in the world for discovering genius’

“Your newspapers are really wonderful in many ways; they are positively audacious, astonishing, but they are the worst in the world for discovering genius. … It was an awful shame that a second-rate critic from England should have to be called in to tell Americans who their poets are.” — John Cowper Powys (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 29, 1915)

Read more of this post

Understanding lettuce

“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.” — Thích Nhất Hạnh

Happy in Ząbkowice Śląskie

https://vimeo.com/90680375

Formerly Frankenstein, Silesia.

Sunday A1 2015

Residents are tired of talk from EPA. (Jacob Barker, Jan. 4) http://bit.ly/1LrDTre

GMO wheat. (Tim Barker, Jan 11) http://bit.ly/1u017wo

Stadium site far from empty. (Tim Bryant, David Hunn, Jan 18) http://bit.ly/1CCG9bM

Struggling to recover. (Jim Gallagher, Tim Bryant, Feb. 8) http://bit.ly/1wdHpnL

Prison services are profitable niche for Bridgeton company. (Tim Barker, Feb. 15) http://bit.ly/17dzeeR

St. Louis has a jobs problem. (Jim Gallagher, Feb. 22) http://bit.ly/1vYimzk

Health care subsidies hinge on four words. (Jordan Shapiro, March 1) http://bit.ly/1E6JQuD

Traffic fine limits could turn screws on cities’ budgets. (Jacob Barker, April 12) http://bit.ly/1cL3Ojn

Chesterfield is flexing muscle as a retail hub. (Lisa Brown, April 19) http://bit.ly/1yH40d3

Medicaid missteps gave reluctant lawmakers a line of attack. (Jordan Shapiro, May 10) http://bit.ly/1dUcIeT

Doe Run damage gives neighbors a sinking feeling. (Jack Suntrup, June 7, 2015)  http://bit.ly/1IroN9j

Learning to adapt. (Jacob Barker, July 5, 2015) http://bit.ly/1IYxvpS

‘Schoemehl pots’ in thick of debate over street closure. (Leah Thorsen, July 12, 2015) http://bit.ly/1g9pPu6

Tax Bill Brawl. (Jim Gallagher, Aug. 30, 2015) http://bit.ly/1KeYeD9

The ‘gig economy.’ (Tim Barker, Sept. 6, 2015) http://bit.ly/1OGaigq

Giant Illinois shooting range hopes for a shot at reloading. (Tim Barker, Sept. 13, 2015) http://bit.ly/1KjssF1

Washington U. to remake its front door. (Tim Bryant, Oct. 4, 2015) http://bit.ly/1FNXPru

Pointing fingers. Many players, theories in contamination of landfill. (Jacob Barker, Nov. 1, 2015) http://bit.ly/1N474AY

Sustainable farming means full-time commitment to learning — and teaching — for Illinois couple. (Tim Barker, Nov. 8, 2015) http://bit.ly/1MEe7Qp

(Lisa Brown, Nov. 22, 2015)