Mel Gibson's rants on tape provided Tuesday's Talk of the Day topic on STLToday.com

But the tapes have received minimal coverage in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. To date, Gibson's recordings have been reported three times in the People column and once in a commentary by Leonard Pitts.

On July 2, this item topped the People column on Page A23:

Gibson recorded using epithet: Oksana Grigorieva, caught up in a bitter court case with former boyfriend and father of her child Mel Gibson, played for radaronline.com recordings of phone calls that include threats, improper language and the statement that the way she was dressed would get her "raped by a pack of" people for whom he used a racial epithet. Gibson was recorded in 2006 making anti-Semitic statements during a traffic stop.

On July 10, this item led the People column on Page A18:

Website posts alleged Gibson rant: Celebrity website RadarOnline.com has posted audio of a recording it says is Mel Gibson engaging in a racist and sexist rant toward his ex-girlfriend. The recording includes segments in which a man's voice that sounds distinctively like the actor who is in a bitter custody dispute with his former girlfriend, Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva. The website reported that the recording was made by Grigorieva. A spokesman for Gibson was not immediately available for comment.

On July 12, this item led the People column on Page A19:

Agency drops Mel Gibson: Actor Mel Gibson has been dropped as a client after 30 years by his agents, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, reportedly because of recent racist remarks, purportedly by him, caught on tape.

Media critic Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post today notes an absence of coverage in other newspapers:

I found no reference to Mel Gibson in the news columns of the New York Times and Washington Post. How can that be? One of the most famous stars in Hollywood is caught on tape in an abusive, racist, threatening conversation with a girlfriend whose teeth he has already damaged, and it doesn't qualify as "real" news? This is not something being claimed by sources; that's his voice on those horrifying audiotapes.

So readers of the Post-Dispatch know that the tapes exist and know the nature of the tapes -- but they've received only descriptions of the actual threats and epithets. Is that enough?