Plenty of local leftwing activists have been fuming about the Post-Dispatch not covering the union rally last Friday, and plenty of them wrote the P-D to complain. Those of us who did got this reply from editor Christopher Ave:

We had a reporter at the rally, but he was called away to help cover local reactions to the tsunami.

The Riverfront Times has picked up the story, linking to our site and to St. Louis Activist Hub. I especially appreciated RFT’s response to Ave’s form letter:

Pardon me, but who gives a rat’s ass what Joe Hoosier in south city thinks about the tragedy in Japan?

Apparently the Post still doesn’t get it. We feel as if it will cover Tea Partiers if they drop an extra lump of sugar in their drinks. But cover people fighting to preserve a middle class? How boring.

Activist Hub deconstructs Ave’s lame excuse and illustrates the disparity in the Post’s coverage of us and the TP:

Furthermore, compare this non-coverage to the fact that the Post-Dispatch bends over backwards to write a 600 word article about a tea party rally with 1/8 as many people last April. Would they even dream of ignoring a 1,000 person rally from the tea party, let alone a 4,000 person rally, in St. Louis? Of course not.

St. Louis Activist Hub has a posting praising the good coverage from some media outlets of Friday night’s 4300 strong rally at Kiener Plaza and decrying the inexcusable lack of coverage from others, especially KMOV and the Post-Dispatch.

And the Post-Dispatch ignoring this story? Ahhh, where do I start? Perhaps Post-Dispatch political director Christopher Ave needs to meet with some union members just like he invited Dana Loesch to coach him on how to cover the tea party. Of course, we don’t need to ask how the Post-Dispatch owners feel about workers: they quite clearly do not care at all about them, to the point where they’re willing to break written agreements and drop health care coverage for people with cancer in order to save a few pennies.

When the story of the strikes in Wisconsin broke, the Post was silent about it for the first couple of days. I wrote at the time about activist Marilyn Morton calling the paper to complain about that. She was told that the Post focuses on local news. It’s pitiful enough that the paper founded by Joseph Pulitzer would have ignored such a crucial story, but at least if the P-D wants to focus on local news, then by god let them DO it. Ignoring a rally 4500 strong called about an issue that is sweeping the nation–corporate greed and the war on working people–is hardly “covering” local news. After all, Jo Mannies, who used to write for them and now works at the online newspaper, The Beacon, was at the rally and did a fine piece about it.

If it weren’t for Kevin Horrigan and the other fine op-ed writers at the Post-Dispatch, I’d drop my subscription yesterday.

The union organizers of Friday night’s Rally against corporate greed at Kiener Plaza in St. Louis estimated a crowd of 4300. A large part of the reason this weekend was chosen was that the 34 members of the Missouri Senate are scheduled on Monday to vote on the right-to-work-for-less bill, SB 1. Union official Jeff Aboussie, in the video, assumes he can count on the eight Democrats in the chamber and only singles out for mention the five Republicans who’ve openly opposed the idea. That’s short of the 18 votes it would take to kill it. But a filibuster is almost certain. Robin Wright-Jones mentioned on her Facebook page that she’s looking for filibuster material, and she may well be joined in the effort by one or more Republicans. The opposition in both chambers enjoys strong bipartisan support.

Crossroads, alarmed at Gov. Scott Walker’s falling poll numbers, has joined the fray with a one minute attack ad against unions that will run on national cable for a week.

This is war, folks, and you damn well know it. Join the fray. There’s a rally Friday afternoon in St. Louis organized by the local heroes of the AFL-CIO. Get to Kiener Plaza at Seventh and Market Streets in downtown St. Louis. The rally is from 4:00 to 7:00.

Wisconsin is just one front in war. There are 49 others. Let’s make Missouri look strong.