Deadline USA

In the movie "Deadline USA," Humphrey Bogart plays a newspaper editor investigating local corruption amidst a newspaper that is going out of business.

Today, our St. Augustine WrecKord, MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS, and other elements of the news business are being mismanaged by MBAs, union-busters and soulless publishers who no longer appreciate that their product is vital to democracy.

Last week, a WRecKord reporter appeared to fall asleep in a meeting, then drove away in a reckless manner, with his car noisily brushing the fence gate at AMCD (See below).

Like a hot caught under a gate, the WRecKord is too often feathering the nests and covering up for its pals, to include greedy developers, Congressman JOHN MICA, City and County Commissioners and other minor politicians.

Our democracy deserves better, as Tom Wicker so eloquently in his 1977 book, "ON PRESS," about how dupily newspaper publishers are in cowering to local officials and businesses.

Newspapers must choose between mindless Babbitry and boosterism, or real news.

MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS, the St. Augustine Record (and much of American journalism) have a "deadline," as suggested by Frank Rich's column (below)-- they must either straighten up and fly right, or expire into irrelevance.