By Antonio D. French
Filed Wednesday, February 21, 2007 at 7:48 AM
Mayor Francis Slay is once again using his blog to call out our city's daily underachiever. Labels: Mayor, Media_Watch
"Based on an interview with one person," wrote Slay (or his regular ghost writer, Richard Callow) on MayorSlay.com, "the St. Louis Post Dispatch ran a headline that asserted that the Mardi Gras celebration this past weekend in Soulard was 'the worst year yet.'"
"Aside from the fact that the one person who believed it was a bad event also suggested that the Christian calendar be re-worked so he could sell more beads, what about the thousands and thousands of people who had great times in Soulard and other nearby neighborhoods despite the winter weather?"
"Mardi Gras is a fun event," concluded the mayor. "There is no such thing as a 'worst' year."
28 Comments:
but, honestly, it WAS the worst year ever. I was down there for about 45 minutes and talked to several friends who's lot it was to work booth. They said attendance was down to a quarter of what it was last year.
2/21/2007 9:36 AM
it was BY FAR the worst.
The weather was to blame, but I guess Mayor Slay will have his minions like Callow "get something" on God so that it won't be cold on future Mardi Gras saturdays.
2/21/2007 10:53 AM
No it's not Slay's job to blame things on god it is Bourisaws job to blame things on religion. She seems to have replaced Slay with the blame game.
Star jones who do you like?
2/21/2007 12:00 PM
Slay is doing this inconsequential criticism of the pd as a favor to them-----kind of a cover for their assskissing soft treatment of the slps takeover farce.
2/21/2007 12:30 PM
Jim H, what's your take?
2/21/2007 9:04 PM
yo idiots
i had a great time,
not the best year, but not the worst either
everyone i saw was having a great time
2/22/2007 12:42 PM
Anonymous said...
yo idiots
i had a great time,
not the best year, but not the worst either
everyone i saw was having a great time
2/22/2007 12:42 PM
Congratulations on the slps takeover, governor.
Looking forward to your appointment---hope it is as brilliant as Slay's choices have been.
2/22/2007 1:34 PM
Anon. on 2/21 at 9:04,
The mayor has a point about labeling anything "the worst year ever". That is another example of editorializing, something the Post seems unable to stop doing. A more appropriate headline would have stated the facts and leave out the word "worst". That is a subjective word that is open to interpretation. (Witness the anonymous entry after yours who said he/she had a GREAT time)
IT IS NOT THE POST DISPATCH'S PLACE TO JUDGE WHAT WAS "WORST" OR "BEST" ON ANY ISSUE. A newspaper is supposed to print THE NEWS except on the editorial page. (I haven't yet seen the story but I am assuming it was not an editorial.)
The mayor is correct on this one, I think.
2/22/2007 10:35 PM
Correction: "worst year yet" not "worst year ever"
2/22/2007 10:39 PM
I don't think that the Post is in any position to be calling anything else out as "the worst"...
Now what I'd like to know is, are there any Mayor Slay blog posts written by the actual guy?
2/23/2007 12:30 AM
Jim Heger
I think we need to find funding for you to own your own paper to give the Post a run. It's been too many years since they've had any real competition. You did want to originally be a journalist, correct? Why not go all of the way? It's a big undertaking but you seem to have the right passion.
2/23/2007 9:12 AM
ex-Globe customer,
Thanks for the kind words. I would be lying if I said it wasn't a dream. I started off in Journalism and switched to teaching when I accidently took an education class and got hooked. (I grew up in a family that delivered the Globe Democrat, the Post, Journals, etc... so I was surrounded by newspaper and ink-stained hands from the beginning) I know I am hard on the Post...I think they may be trying to sensationalize a little just to survive. A sad commentary on what some people think is news.
It is TOUGH for newspapers right now and I gotta give the Post credit for simply still being in business!
As far as finding funds...FIRST fund our schools...then we can start another newspaper with what is left!
2/24/2007 1:17 PM
Jim Heger,
Amen to that. Sounds like you're on a great mission. Tough mission, but your passion is admirable.
2/24/2007 8:36 PM
OK, so I've been thinking about this quite a bit in the past few days which, by the way, I don't typically do.
I stumbled on this site on accident. I am 39 with no children. I am a professional in "corporate america" who is results driven. I have at least 7 other female friends in St. Louis around the same age who do not have children and are business professionals.
We do not have first hand experience of any schools, and certainly not St. Louis public schools. I understand we need more funding in schools, but tell me how? Where will it go? Who will monitor it? Other than the obvious (human kindness) why should I help (decreased ratings in our schools may draw businesses out of St.Louis and therefore risk my job, lower property values, etc)? How can I help?
That's what an unbiased newspaper can do. It can reach those of us outside of the circle with facts.
I can gaurantee my friends do not know of pubdef.net to read different view points but we read newspapers. We are a strong, smart, untapped source who are always searching for our own cause to support. But we need to be appealed to, informed and targeted.
So what comes first the chicken or the egg? ;)
2/25/2007 11:59 AM
Alicia...:)
I think you already know that the obvious reason (human kindness) is not only enough of a reason, but the only real reason to help. Take away everything else and that is all that is ever left.
Jim.
2/25/2007 1:24 PM
Alicia/Jim,
What about the fact that improving our neighbors' lot in life improves society as a whole. Fewer gangs, less drug abuse, and basically more productive lives. I want to live in a city where these things are improving. We owe a free public education to every American child. My take is that the earlier we offer it, the better. Maybe daycare needs to be replaced with educational programs or at least print rich environments, but I do not believe that a state takeover is the answer to the problems our schools face.
Adric
2/25/2007 1:42 PM
Adric,
No, the state is not the answer.
St. Louis has been searching for "the one big thing" to break out of mediocrity for a long, LONG, time. A CLAIM TO FAME! Why not make it public education?
(I love the Arch as much as the next guy, but is it enough?)
Alicia,
The egg...if you're a good egg you can go far. A good chicken runs away!
2/25/2007 3:16 PM
Jim,
Would love for kindness to be the only reason, but think back, before you entered the education field what would have moved you to take more notice? Or did you already pay attention to what was happening in the schools outside of your children's district? That is my challenge. Move me.
Adric,
I agree the state is not the answer, although as we know I'm not an expert on the subject. I think everything should be run like a business in the background, putting the educators in the forefront to take care of the kids. Return on our investment being the children's success no matter how it has to be achieved.
2/25/2007 4:12 PM
Alicia said...I think everything should be run like a business in the background, putting the educators in the forefront to take care of the kids. Return on our investment being the children's success no matter how it has to be achieved."
Business decisions include how many teachers should be hired to do what. They include purchases of textbooks.
In the corporate culture envisioned by Slay and Blunt, the less teachers have to say about these matters---which have a huge impact on how and whether they can do a good job----the better things will be.
The priorities often have more to do with their business connections than what is in the best interest of the children.
Roberti is an excellent example of how well this hard-nosed business attitude really works.
2/25/2007 4:29 PM
KJoe,
In my book there are poorly run and well run businesses. What you have described is likely poorly run business (again I am no expert). Businesses that do well hold their employees interests and feedback as assets. Present me with a business plan that I believe gaurantees a positive ROI and I will invest. Present a poor business plan where the experts (the educators dealing with the issues) have no input I won't invest due to insufficient "buy in" of all parties and therefore no ROI.
2/25/2007 4:42 PM
Alicia, you have to figure out for yourself just how much you trust the business instincts of Matt Blunt, Jim Shrewsbury, and Mayor Slay.
I think the specific actions and decisions of Diana Bourisaw are worth taking a look at. I trust her more than I do the three men mentioned above-----honorable and well-informed people disagree with me.
2/25/2007 5:59 PM
Alicia, you have to figure out for yourself just how much you trust the business instincts of Matt Blunt, Jim Shrewsbury, and Mayor Slay.
I think the specific actions and decisions of Diana Bourisaw are worth taking a look at. I trust her more than I do the three men mentioned above-----honorable and well-informed people disagree with me.
2/25/2007 5:59 PM
Alicia
You said...
"think back, before you entered the education field what would have moved you to take more notice? Or did you already pay attention to what was happening in the schools outside of your children's district? That is my challenge. Move me."
Hmmm...I never really could figure out what motivated me but I was "moved" when I became aware of the situation. Newspapers were a part of that I suppose but mostly I just kind of let fate take over and here I am. Very naive. (Sounds like you might have a bug in your ear too, telling you to find out what is really happening in the SLPS.)
You scare me a little with your business-like approach (always did:) Let me try to give an example of why education and business should not be applied to each other, or even compared.
If business produces a widget that is too small, too big, too slow, too fast, mis-shapen and unmarketable that widget can be discarded or melted back down into raw materials. If you produce a defective widget you can throw it away to cut your losses.
But in (public) education you can't discard a child who is too small, too big, too slow, too fast, mis-shapen, and unmarketable You must INCREASE your investment in "defective" (sorry, for lack of a better term) children. That is not a good business model.
I haven't got a clue if that makes any sense.
I extend an invitation to you to visit my school for a day. That may move you a hell of a lot more than I can and give me a chance to give you a better answer.
Jim.
2/25/2007 7:42 PM
Jim,
I definitely think you are as uneducated about all business as I am on education. All businesses are not about products, but services as well, and to provide a good service, you cannot simply discard it. You must modify your process and modify and modify until you get it right.
I believe you must have misunderstood me (or my intentions) as well :). When you don't have a lot of choices you make the best of what you have. Which is why you are definitely an egg!
Thank you for the invitation and the thoughtful conversation. In order to achieve a greater impact I would like to also extend it to some of my counterparts at some point. I think it would provide a greater good.
I began my college education in early childhood education but changed majors for reasons I'd rather not blog! Recently a friend of mine explored volunteering which is what has brought me here.
I don't know what school you are at, but would love to tour it sometime.
By the way, all us business folks aren't as cold as this sounds. Some of us would love nothing more than to sip an Ameretto Sour, listen to some Marshall Tucker and watch the sun rise over a cabin in the mountains, all the while planning the next innovative way to make the world a better place!
Good luck to us all!
2/25/2007 9:06 PM
Alicia,
Ashland School
You know you are being drawn in...it happens to the best of us...surrender now.
I can see it now, school board meetings, parent assemblies, public forums, rallies, protests...
Jim.
2/25/2007 9:34 PM
Jim,
I love an optimist! I'll schedule a visit it soon.
2/26/2007 6:14 AM
I honestly wondered about the young gentlemaen story by Giegerich in this morning's Post.
There has been a steady drumbeat of negativity about slps from the pd----lately, some of the positives have been reported.
I guess the takeover is such a forgone conclusion, that it is no longer necessary to bash the schools.
2/26/2007 11:06 AM
Anon.
I hear you, the Post ran a couple of features by Mr. Giegerich about some students in music classes not too long ago. The one this morning is along the same lines.
Do you think it is remotely possible that the negative feedback the Post has received (about bias reporting) had any part in the decision to print the series of more positive stories?
I'm not certain how much attention they paid to it, but they have been criticized fairly extensively.
This may be a stretch, but I also noticed the headline, "Taking Manners Into Own Hands" is a play on words giving the impression that "the schools are failing so people must take matters into their own hands and so on and so forth".
Like I said, it may be a stretch (or it may be deviously clever) but the impression is there. This is the same impression the Post has been promoting for some time now.
Help, I'm seeing conspiracies everywhere...or am I?
2/26/2007 10:18 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home