By Antonio D. French
Filed Monday, October 24 at 5:21 AM
[What you're missing. This story appeared in last week's print edition of PUB DEF Weekly. Subscribe today.]
October 18, 2005 -- The editorial staff of The St. Louis Argus was furious with the paper’s publisher last week after what they describe as a clear case of censorship.
In the three weeks prior to the October 13 edition, editor George Jackson [This is not his real name. He is a journalist that works for another newspaper while moonlighting at The Argus] ran two stories by contributor Peter Downs on Applied Scholastics International, a vendor to area schools, and their relationship to the controversial Church of Scientology. These stories caught the attention of executives at A.S.I., who soon contacted The Argus’ publisher, Eddie Hasan.
Mary Adams, Senior Vice President of A.S.I., contacted Hasan and complained about Downs’ story. According to documents obtained by PUB DEF, Adams and Hasan met on Tuesday, October 4. In an email to Hasan a few days later, Adams wrote “I am not really interested in revisiting the articles that were written by Peter Downs and will send you an article about a recent event held here at the campus that I think will be pertinent and of interest to your readers.”
In the email, Adams went on to tell Hasan about an event A.S.I. would be hosting featuring singer Isaac Hayes, who is a Scientologist. “Would you send a reporter and photographer to interview him at that time?” she wrote. “I would prefer that it is someone other than Mr. Downs. We met with him yesterday, but would like to have further dialogue before he writes concerning Applied Scholastics again.”
Read the full story
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home