Many in the media were slow on the Van Jones controversy
A number of us at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wish we had a do-over with the Van Jones story. The first story we published about the controversy was on Saturday Sept. 5, a six-paragraph Associated Press report about Jones apologizing for any statements he had made in the past that people might find offensive.
Late that Saturday night, the White House announced that Jone had resigned. The Post-Dispatch published a seven-paragraph Associated Press article on Sunday Sept. 6, but it made only the last edition and many readers didn’t see it. The next news story to appear was this past Sunday, an eight-paragraph article by John M. Broder of the New York Times.
(Three opinion pieces ran on the Other Views page in the weekafter the resignation.)
A number of callers and emails criticized the Post-Dispatch for being late to the story and for not displaying it more prominently. Fox News’ Glenn Beck had been calling for President Barack Obama’s “green czar” to resign since July 23, calling him a “self-proclaimed communist,” “a black nationalist” and many other things.
It appears from a column today by media critic Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post that the Post-Dispatch’s performance was better than many others in the media. Kurtz writes:
By the time White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned over Labor Day weekend, the New York Times had not run a single story. Neither had USA Today, which also didn’t cover the resignation. The Washington Post had done one piece, on the day before he quit. The Los Angeles Times had carried a short article the previous week questioning Glenn Beck’s assault on the White House aide. There had been nothing on the network newscasts.
Later, Kurtz writes:
In the Jones case, there is little question that the traditional media botched the story of an Obama administration official who, wittingly or otherwise, lent his name to those who believe that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney deliberately allowed thousands of Americans to be slaughtered. Some conservatives accused journalists of liberal bias; it is just as likely that their radar malfunctioned, or that they collectively dismissed Beck as a rabble-rouser.
New York Times Managing Editor Jill Abramson told readers online that the paper was “a beat behind on this story” and that while the Washington bureau was short-staffed during a holiday week, “we should have been paying closer attention.”
Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
Personally I think many people thought a lot of off based things during that period of the 9/11 up roar because people could see many of the distortions and lies. I think that it is awful that the White House threw this man under the bus by even allowing him to resign.
I am certain that many Conservatives would feel that Beck would be befitting for a position within a Conservative White House after all the stupid awful sick comments that he has made. Democrats must stop bending over for Conservatives and their craziness and most of the Republican leaders are extremely difficult people to the point of ridiculous putting it a little more lightly in words than Jones. Jones was very correct and honest when he stated what he stated.
I don’t know a lot about this story, but my immediate take on it is that this whole thing is an attack by right wingers to discredit anything or anyone connected to Obama. I mean Glenn Beck is involved. His credibility is non-existent as far as I am concerned.
O’Reilly called for Bush to appoint more czars. So I don’t understand the criticism about the czars unless it is because Obama isn’t Bush. All this is a GOP move to discredit the president. I think most of us see through this. (Please see media matters.)
You missed it in your newsprint.
You missed it in your blogs.
You’re still missing with this “we’re-late-but-not-as-late-as-others-were” tripe.
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He works for your Savior…He’s black…You’re the Post Dispatch…We expected you and others like you to “miss” the story. Try harder next time.
You guys missed it….clearly. And you issued the same B.S. statement that the NY Times printed after they “missed it” as well. You guys didn’t miss, you chose not to run it. AND, you’re currently missing the ACORN story about how, in 3 cities, they were caught trying to illegally fund a brothel and hide the revenue from it. News services like the Post Dispatch, NY Times, CNN, and mainstream news, are becoming increasingly irrelevant. I mean, look at the Nielsen ratings from Fox News on any given night, they trump anything else, and the ratings from websites (based on monthly hits) on sites like the Drudge Report and Breitbart.com show a public that has given up on what has traditionally been the news. Good luck to the post as they continue this downward slide - I had a student ask me the other day in my Current Events class whether or not the mainstream media would become irrelevant in their lifetime, and, after thinking about it, I had to say I thought that it would, given the professionalism of today’s reporters.
As to D. Walker and Beadle, who posted on here, Van Jones was a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, said a Columbine would never happen with black people, said that whites have been poisoning the water of urban areas for population control, was arrested during the Rodney King riots in LA, was, by his own words (not Becks) an avowed radical Communist, and supported a cop killer’s release from jail in California. It doesn’t matter…AT ALL…where this news came from - be it Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Bill O’Reilly, or ABC, NBC, or CBS - he has NO business anywhere near the President of the United States. Use some common sense - this was not a partisan issue, it was a common sense issue. Beck is NOT befitting of any job in any Republican administration (although you would know, if you ever actually watched him, that he dislikes Republicans almost as much as Democrats). You guys need to get your facts straight before making assumptions - he was NOT correct and honest as Walker stated, and it wasn’t just a GOP move to discredit the President. It was a move to get an extreme radical out of contact with the most powerful man in this country…and rightfully so. If you see through this, you need to be looking harder, and quit being naive.
Oh, I forgot to add that he worked as the “Green Jobs Czar”, whatever that means. Anything with the word “green” in it these days seems to get a pass. If meth cookers would just say they’ve “gone green” they would be OK in Obama’s World.
D. Walker never surprises me. Don’t know who you are Jennifer Beadle, but we know who you voted for and support!
Yep, NEVER MIND WHAT VAN JONES SAID OR DID, it was THE GOP’S AND GLENN BECK’S FAULT! God, what asinine reasoning.
Could you imagine this guy in the White House on 9/11, if he didn’t resign a week earlier?
Jones makes me raff. “A smear campaign?” Someone explain how someone’s reputation is “smeared” when the words of the “smeared” are on videotape.
Sorry Jones, videotape doesn’t lie.
Not surprising that the media was slow on this story. The P-D and almost every other news outlet in the country is in bed with the Obama administration.
And to correct a false statement here; Beck did not call for Jones’ resignation. He simply brought all of his despicable actions and statements to light. Glenn then was asking the White House for answers about why this was all overlooked and instead of answering they fired Jones. Nice try though.
And to Jennifer B., pull your ignorant head out of the sand.
Steve, here’s the deal. I knew about Van Jones last MARCH! I have patiently waited for the PD to cover “the czars” and other specious characters in the Obama Admin. You still have not covered the latest czars Ron Bloom (union boss now manf czar) and Cass Sustein (regulatory czar). That sounds like a pretty powerful czar to me. The PD? not a word!
Your job is to report the news, period. On any given day there are numerous important stories not covered in the PD and possibly because most of those are not favorable to the Obama administration.
For the most part, I thought today’s (Tues) paper was very good.
P.S. Has anyone else heard what Obama called Kayne West?
Wow. Carol gave the thumbs-up to today’s paper. Mr. Parker can finally get a good night’s rest.