Last Wednesday the St. Louis Post-Dispatch led its news coverage – front page, above the fold, eyes right – with a thick, bold headline: “Dooley answers loss of lobbyist.”
The news nugget was that the lobbyist for County Executive Charlie A. Dooley, Darin Cline, had resigned that Monday.
This single shred of actual news emerges in the fourth paragraph. It is preceded by three overheated paragraphs in which, based on nothing but “unconfirmed rumors,” Dooley is portrayed as defending himself against “whispers” that Cline’s resignation is tied to an alleged “federal investigation into county government.”
Near the end of the copy on page A1, in paragraph eight, we are told that Cline “had a federal tax problem” – a personal federal tax problem. But that is only after the “unconfirmed rumors” about Dooley and “whispers swirling through county government headquarters” have been used in an attempt to connect the county executive to two state legislators who have pled guilty to federal charges.
“Darin left – that’s news; that’s fair game. But to drag Charlie’s name in with Steve Brown and Jeff Smith?” said Mike Jones, senior policy advisor to Dooley and a 30-year veteran of local politics.
“The facts of their crimes and guilty pleas have nothing to do with Darin leaving. And I hold accountable for that decision the news editors at the Post.”
Deputy Metro Editor Alan Achkar defended the Post’s insinuation that Cline’s resignation could be connected to an alleged federal investigation into Dooley’s administration, citing “multiple sources” in the County.
The reporter, Paul Hampel, named no sources in his piece, and Achkar provided none to The American. An automatic email response from Hampel’s address at the Post said he is on vacation.
In the tenth paragraph of Hampel’s story, at the very bottom of the A1 copy, Dooley finally is given an opportunity to squash the “unconfirmed rumors” unequivocally: “He said federal agents had not questioned him and had not subpoenaed him or any member of his staff.”
But even this comes only after we are told Dooley “insisted” that there was no federal probe, a verb that connotes something must be proven – when, by all sourced accounts, there is nothing to prove here.
“Neither Charlie nor I have been contacted by any investigative authorities,” Jones said. “Until the U.S. Attorney shows up, you don’t have a problem.”
That is, unless someone tries to create a problem for you. Which begs the question: Who started these “unconfirmed rumors”? Jones doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care. As a public official in the St. Louis area, he expects to face dirty plays.
“Sometimes politics is not elegant, sometimes it’s WWF,” Jones said, referencing the over-the-top World Wrestling Federation.
“But even in WWF, the ref stays out of the match. You expect to get hit with a chair by the guy in the other guy’s corner. I do not expect to get banged on the head by the ref.”
The “ref,” in one of Jones’ characteristic sports metaphors, is the Post (in this instance) or the media in general.
“You have to be real tolerant about the stunts your adversaries pull. People will do whatever they can and try to get away with it if they think it’s effective. You can’t complain about that – it’s in the game,” Jones said.
“But when the officials get in the game, you’ve got to call them out and be willing to pay the fine when the League office calls.”
Within the bounds of his metaphor, the fine from the League office would be further pointedly negative coverage of his boss and administration from the Post. But, after the A1 takeout piece last Wednesday, based on nothing but “unconfirmed rumors” and “swirling whispers,” Jones said the Post’s coverage of county government has nowhere to go but up.
“Do I think there will be repercussions?” Jones said. “It’s already as bad as it can get.”
Jones said this is the first time in 30 years of public service that he has stepped out to challenge a media report. Staying with the sports metaphor, he said he isn’t speaking out in hopes that he will influence the Post to be more fair or responsible in its coverage.
“Part of the reason you challenge bad officiating is not to change the officiating – it’s so your players know you are fighting for them,” Jones said.
“It’s not that I will change the Post’s news decisions. It’s because I have heard from a lot of people that this was one of the most egregious examples of journalism they had ever seen, and for us not to have a response would let those people down.”
Dooley wasn’t interested in guessing at the motives of the Post’s editors, other than trying to connect a modest news development – the resignation of an office staffer with personal tax problems – to the hot news of the day, public corruption busts. Jones said, “I see the Post searching for relevance and readers and buying into bias in the interests of circulation.”
‘Context, atmosphere, environment’
Achkar at the Post did not stoop to discuss fiscal issues such as circulation, a major revenue generator for the flagging paper. But he did justify the decision to view developments in Dooley’s office “in the context, the atmosphere, the environment” of recent corruption convictions and ongoing corruption probes.
Both outgoing FBI Special Agent in Charge in St. Louis John V. Gillies and his successor, Roland J. Corvington, have told The American that public corruption is that office’s “No. 1 criminal priority.” Gillies told The American there are ongoing investigations, and Corvington confirmed that he would continue them.
The American asked Achkar at the Post if “the context, the atmosphere, the environment” of federal investigations into public corruption had been brought to bear on the paper’s coverage of the recent resignation of longtime communications staffer for Mayor Francis G. Slay, Ed Rhode.
Rhode has no known tax problems or any other legal concerns. Like Cline, he has not been connected to any wrongdoing in office or corruption investigation. Achkar was asked if Rhode’s resignation was covered on the front page of the Post and used as “the context” for asking his former boss to deny rumors of corruption investigations.
“Sure, we mentioned it online on Political Fix,” Achkar said of Rhode’s resignation. “I don’t know if it made it in print.”
Certainly it did not make it onto the Post front page, in the context of “unconfirmed rumors” of a federal investigation into city government that were issued as a challenge for Slay to deny.
The City and the feds
In fact, there is at least one recent federal investigation into St. Louis city government, though it is not connected to Rhode or directly to Slay. Still, it is more to go on than “swirling whispers.”
The Division of Corrections, part of the Department of Public Safety – headed by Charles Bryson, a Slay appointee – has been investigated in recent months and produced two guilty pleas and an indictment for corrections officials.
In August, St. Louis corrections officers Peggy O’Neal and James Lamont Moore pled guilty to charges involving the attempted distribution of heroin to inmates at the St. Louis City Justice Center.
Another corrections official, Marilyn Denise Brown, was indicted in June by a federal grand jury on one felony count of attempted distribution of heroin and is facing trial.
Yesterday, Bryson told The American, “To my knowledge, the Department of Public Safety is not under any investigation,” suggesting that if the federal authorities continue to investigate the Corrections Division it is without Bryson’s knowledge or assistance.
Also, the day after the Post takeout piece on Dooley ran, state Rep. T.D. El-Amin pled guilty to bribery charges in a sting that allegedly involved an unnamed alderman and City department head. It is reasonable to presume that this unnamed City department head, who also would be a Slay appointee, is being investigated.
Bryson told The American it is not him.
This would mean St. Louis city government is or recently has been the subject of two documented federal investigations, while Dooley is left to dodge “unconfirmed rumors” on the front page of the daily paper.
Of course, federal investigators are notoriously silent about their work until it produces an indictment or plea agreement, so just about any rumor on the subject can mushroom and remain “unconfirmed” indefinitely.
Mike Jones knows this game, too – and earlier versions of it.
“Fifty years ago, people used to ride around in crowded elevators and talk real loud, and then get out on a floor and keep talking about what they had been talking about as if it was something they had just heard on the elevator,” Jones said.
“Now, instead of riding up and down elevators, we’ve got blogs. The reason people know things are true is they have seen them on six blogs. It’s the 21st century equivalent of riding up and down on elevators.”
Jones is saddened that the front page of a once-great newspaper that helped to inspire his career in public service has been reduced to the equivalent of operatives talking loud in an elevator. He compared the current Post to a physical structure so lacking in support it deserves to be condemned.
“I have a structural engineer’s definition of corruption. I’m not talking about people taking money to do something. I’m talking the way engineers talk about something being structurally corrupt,” Jones said.
“A building can look like a building, but if its infrastructure, its foundation, its timbers aren’t solid enough to hold it up, then it’s not sound. Then a structural engineer would condemn that building, because it’s corrupt. Just because it looks like a building doesn’t mean it will stand. Just because it looks like a story or a newspaper – if there is insufficient support to hold a structure up, I wouldn’t let anyone go in there.”