Bill McClellan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch proud his paper is hated:
We are not liked. We are a liberal paper, and these are conservative times. What’s more, many of the people who you might think would normally like a liberal newspaper don’t particularly like us.
It bothers the new owners from Lee Enterprises because they have to keep a business afloat. Apparently, it doesn’t bother the actual employees of the Post-Dispatch, though, because they’re on a mission.
Brian,
I think you missed the pain, no, the torture the editorial staff was put through. Did you know they had to be introduced to the public? They had to have their pictures put on the page, and now people have an image to go in their heads. They might be singled out at cocktail parties, or benefits for anti-circumcision groups, or maybe even in the privacy of the Left Bank book store! Imagine trying to determine whether you should pay full price for the paperback edition of Impeach Bush, when all of a sudden a reader, a filthy member of the general public comes up and asks you if you wrote an editorial.
The horror! The shock! We can’t be far away from locking up editorial writers in camps and saying they need their own schools. What’s that you say? They already have their own schools? Oh heaven! The purge has already begun. When did this nation turn into shallow, profit-grubbing fascist state where newspaper editors are asked to be accountable and represent the communities they are supposed to be reporting on.
Can’t you just pay for the paper, and keep your mouth shut?
I don’t even pay for the paper.