Campaign committee reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission reveal a pattern of payouts by a political committee with close ties to Mayor Francis G. Slay to two media outlets owned by African Americans and marketed to the black community in St. Louis.
The committee that paid money for “media” (not advertisements) to the St. Louis Argus and Gentry Trotter’s MultiMedia PR Group is Citizens for a Better St. Louis. Its treasurer, longtime Democrat operator Bradley Ketcher, serves as treasurer for one other political fundraising group, Proponents Group Committee, that was formed solely to oppose the recall effort against Mayor Slay.
Citizens for a Better St. Louis seems to have paid for the positive editorial treatment that Slay and his recently appointed Public Safety Director Charles Bryson received in the Argus surrounding the 2008 Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, when Slay was chanted down at the ceremony held at the Old Courthouse.
That protest was led by supporters of Fire Chief Sherman George, who was demoted in October 2007 by Charles Bryson, an African-American Slay staffer who was promoted to director of Public Safety when a public threat of disciplinary action against the fire chief was pending.
On Jan. 11, Citizens for a Better St. Louis paid the Argus $3,000 for “media” (not advertisement).
On Jan. 17, the Argus ran a front-page story titled “Truce proposed between firefighter factions” that admits to presenting events in the fire department from the point of view of Bryson and Dennis Jenkerson, who was promoted from battalion chief n an unprecedented promotion, skipping the position of deputy chief n to permanently replace Chief George.
The Jan. 17 story in the Argus made public a proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality, the black firefighters’ association, and the white-dominated Firefighters Local 73.
F.I.R.E. officials objected that Slay and Bryson leaked the Memorandum of Understanding to the media and through the media to its members, without prior approval from F.I.R.E. n and rejected the proposal.
On Jan. 21, Slay was shouted down at the Old Courthouse, primarily because of his treatment of Chief George (though public school activists were also visible in the protest).
On Jan 24, the Argus ran another front page story “Bryson appeals for unity in STLFD.”
The Argus was paid another $3,000 for “media” by Citizens for a Better St. Louis on March 12 and then another $770 on March 13 for a total payout of $6,770 on the April campaign report.
Citizens for a Better St. Louis paid the Argus another $3,600 in the months covered in its July campaign report, also for “media” (not advertising).
“Black men are still slaves,” Sherman George said when presented with the pattern of payouts.
Out from The Shadow
Though he has long denied any association with the Evening Whirl and its venomous political gossip column The Shadow, Gentry Trotter recently identified himself as the paper’s “publisher at large” after the St. Louis American repeatedly pointed out his ties to the column.
Trotter’s company was routinely paid on average $2,000 a month by Slay’s personal campaign committee, with the last direct payment appearing on Slay’s April 2008 filing. That filing records a $2,000 payout to Trotter on January 9, 2008 and a $4,000 payout on Feb. 29 n an average of $2,000 a month for the quarter.
During this period his campaign was paying Trotter, Slay was regularly featured on the front page of the Evening Whirl and his interests vehemently defended each week in The Shadow. The remainder of the Whirl is mostly devoted to the police blotter told in street slang, scantily clad black women and sex advice columns.
Citizens for a Better St. Louis reports no payments to Trotter on its April report, when Slay was paying him.
The committee’s first payment to Trotter, according to filings, was on April 18 n a $2,000 payment for “media.” Another payment for “media” of $2,000 follows on May 13 and then another $2,000 on June 10 n which adds up to $2,000 a month, exactly what Slay’s campaign had been paying Trotter. Slay records no direct payouts to Trotter in that quarterly report.
In its October 2008 filing, Citizens for a Better St. Louis reports no contributions and precisely three expenditures, all to Trotter’s company, for “media,” for $2,000 each. Slay records no direct payouts to Trotter for that quarter either.
“I don’t know where we would be today if Martin Luther King Jr. had behaved as these men,” George said of Trotter and Eddie Hasan, who was publisher of the Argus at the time of the payouts.
“Readers deserve to know what is news and what is a paid political advertisement. Unfortunately, in these two black papers n whether because of financial desperation or an all-out lack of journalistic ethics n readers have been duped,” said 21st Ward Committeeman Antonio D. French, who formerly edited the Argus.
“The sad effect is that at a time when Slay’s policies have undercut the black community and denied our neighborhoods millions in investment and jobs, he’s able to buy the silence of two popular black voices for what amounts to pennies.”
Dave Drebes first pointed out on the Arch City Chronicle website that Citizens for a Better St. Louis began paying Trotter when Slay’s campaign stopped paying him, though he did not make the connection to Ketcher and Ketcher’s service as treasurer on the political committee formed to raise funds to keep Slay in office.
Slay spokesman Ed Rhode previously declined a request for comment on Slay’s relationship to Trotter and the Whirl. A request for comment regarding Slay’s relationship with Citizens for a Better St. Louis and the appearance of payment for editorial space in the black press also was ignored.
Bradley Ketcher did not return calls after messages were left at both of the numbers provided on campaign filings for Citizens for a Better St. Louis and Proponents Group Committee.