The Journal

Issue date: 3/1/07 Section: News

When the St. Louis Post-Dispatch fired its editor-in-chief and managing editor in 1996, the St. Louis Journalism Review was there to find out why.


For the past 37 years, the St. Louis Journalism Review has put St. Louis media under a microscope. Since its inception in 1970, the SJR has served as a watchdog to all local media, pointing fingers when needed, telling stories the mainstream media left out and keeping an eye on all areas of journalism.


In 1995, Webster University began subsidizing the SJR. The publication was housed at Webster for the next 11 years. In December 2006, Webster and the SJR parted ways. The SJR, which founder Charles Klotzer said he would continue to publish, is currently looking for a new home.


"We have three different possibilities we are dealing with right now," he said.


The February issue of the SJR was the last to be published at Webster.


According to Ed Bishop, editor of the SJR, the firing of the two top editors at the Post was the first big story the SJR broke when it came to Webster. William Woo, then-editor of the Post-Dispatch, and managing editor Foster Davis were fired for, ostensibly, declining circulation. The new editor hired to replace Woo was Cole Campbell, a known supporter of public journalism, a genre of civic journalism that encouraged readers to take an active role in determining the content of the newspaper. Bishop loathed public journalism.


"I had already started speaking out about public journalism," said Bishop, a lecturer in the communications and journalism department. "Everybody at the SJR was shocked. Our home newspaper became a sinner of this - it was like Christmas."


Shortly after Campbell was appointed editor at the Post, he sparked controversy when he hired a new editor for the editorial page of the paper, someone Bishop said had been a columnist and never even written an editorial.


The SJR decided to write a feature on this new editor for the cover of the SJR. However, rumors had been circulating at the Post about an alleged affair between Campbell and this new hire. Worried the SJR would print something about this; Campbell sent a letter to Bishop threatening a libel suit if he printed anything in relation to the rumors.


"Well, that pissed me off," Bishop said.


He decided to send a letter to Campbell that essentially said, "If it's true, it can't be libel." Bishop said Campbell's letter to him had made its way around the newsroom at the Post and the Riverfront Times called Bishop because it too had a copy of the letter. Bishop said he decided to talk to the RFT about the letter - and then took his own course of action.

Continued...

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