A Letter to The American

From today’s St. Louis American:

“Reed’s running for aldermanic president opens up his 6th Ward seat. It was rumored that Reed was ready to hand the job to lobbyist and perennially defeated candidate Patrick Cacchione (who, so long as we’re keeping track of apples and oranges, is a white male). Then here comes Kacie Starr Triplett…

“…if you want the political support of folks old enough to be your father or grandfather, next time talk to them about your candidacy before you quit your day job.

Triplett also may not have a pitch-perfect ear for friends, as she is close friends with an avowedly independent local journalist [Antonio French] who seems to have at least one leg in the Republican Party, if attracting exclusive ads from the Jim Talent campaign are any indication.”

St. Louis American editors,

What the hell is wrong with you folks over there?

Have you completely forgotten how to build young people up, so now all you can do is take anonymous shots at us every week? Me, Kacie, Jamilah, Talib, Rodney, Yaphett…

What is you guys’ problem over there?

At least be man enough to sign the rubbish you write. I have about as much respect for your editorial board as I do an anonymous blog commenter that jabs politicos on their rumored sexual orientations or the number of “baby mamas” they’re supposed to have.

In the absence of any kind of real reporting (have you broken a single story this year?) you’ve turned a once-great newspaper into a gossip rag, something people pick up just to see which local African-American you spit at this week.

And to editor Chris King in particular (”who, so long as we’re keeping track of apples and oranges, is a white male”), how do you feel so comfortable tearing down black people, telling us how we are supposed to think politically, when you hide your own race from your readers? I see everyone else’s picture in the your paper but yours.

I don’t know what you guys think you’re doing over there, but it is not journalism. If it were, you might have mentioned in your latest shot at me for allowing Jim Talent to advertise on my website that he has spent much more money advertising in your paper during this campaign.

The American used to be the tool with which blacks on the bottom of the economic and social ladders told their stories to the world up top. Now it’s the tool elites use to tell poor and working-class blacks what to think and who to vote for.

And it’s a shame. We sure could use a newspaper we trusted in these times.

Antonio D. French
Pub Def Weekly
www.pubdef.net