The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Wakes Up and Smells the Bacon

February 04, 2019 at 1:59 PM

comment

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday A-1 heralded a new era.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday A-1 heralded a new era.

Well, we are just shocked. It’s not often that the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch makes us do a double take, but when we saw yesterday's issue we were left clutching our pearls.

Right there on the front of the Sunday edition, the venerable daily newspaper seemed to refer to members of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department as pigs. Yes, really!

(To the uninitiated, apparently “pig” is a derogatory term for a police officer. Who knew?)

To get to the meat of the issue, the paper's A-1 above-the-fold story looked at all the recent stories about St. Louis cops who have been pursued and charged with horrible crimes lately in our otherwise delightful city.

There sure have been a bunch in just the past couple of weeks. Let’s recap:

Seems fair enough to make that the banner headline, right? But where the paper really upped the ante was its second story. Just below its headline about a "spate of charges" against officers, the paper delved into people pursuing “invasive” and “feral” hogs that “cause damage," noting that the “on-the-ground fight to control them is an unforgiving scramble.”

Unforgiving scramble? Is that really fair to the Circuit Attorney's Office, the one place attempting to hold these officers accountable?

Beyond that, if you ask us, the whole thing seems a bit in bad taste. You'd certainly never see us make pig jokes at the RFT, much less kick a department when it's down. Why, that would be like knocking people to the ground for failing to comply without giving them an actual order to comply with. That would be like blasting people with pepper spray once they're already on the ground. That would be like macing a peaceful protester in her wheelchair.

We would never do that! The Post-Dispatch has some balls.

We’re keeping you informed…
...and it’s what we love to do. From local politics and culture to national news that hits close to home, Riverfront Times has been keeping St. Louis informed for years.

It’s never been more important to support local news sources. A free press means accountability and a well-informed public, and we want to keep our unique and independent reporting available for many, many years to come.

If quality journalism is important to you, please consider a donation to Riverfront Times. Every reader contribution is valuable and so appreciated, and goes directly to support our coverage of critical issues and neighborhood culture. Thank you.