http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000920570In Unusual Agreement, 'Post-Dispatch' Will Remain Liberal Under Lee
By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: May 13, 2005 3:10 PM ET
CHICAGO When Lee Enterprises Inc. agreed to purchase Pulitzer Inc. for $1.46 billion, it also agreed that the flagship St. Louis Post-Dispatch will keep its longstanding liberal editorial slant for at least the next five years, according to the purchase agreement mailed to Pulitzer shareholders Friday.
"For a period of at least five years following the Effective Time, Parent (Lee Enterprises) will cause the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to maintain its current name and editorial page platform statement and to maintain its news and editorial headquarters in the City of St. Louis, Missouri," the agreement states.
The Post-Dispatch platform statement, adopted in 1911, includes the pledge that the newspaper "will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty." Over the years, the paper's editorials have taken a reliably Democratic or liberal view of issues, positions some worried would change under Lee's ownership.
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When I was a student at Washington University many years ago, there was a horrible, conservative St Louis newspaper, the
Globe Democrat, which we called the
Glob-Demagogue. Wonder if it's still churning out the sludge? Well, if so, its rival looks to be offering an alternative view for at least the next 5 years.