EVERY WRITER NEEDS AN EDITOR. Some are fortunate to have good ones; others have bad ones, and many have none at all. If you are in the latter two categories, Dick Weiss can help.
Dick offers workshops and provides one-on-one coaching in person or by e-mail for journalists, freelance writers, students, communications professionals, and those who have simply got a story to tell.
Dick has 30 years experience as an award winning reporter, editor and writing coach, most of them at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Visit "About WeissWrite" for a bio and writing samples.
Media Highway To Nowhere
Saturation coverage of the closure of Interstate 40-64 in St. Louis County comes with mixed results -- plenty of updates, but less news about everything else. Elsewhere, is Hillary getting a raw deal? Dick Weiss and McGraw Milhaven discuss this and other issues on the McGraw Show on KTRS-550 AM.
Dick's media segment airs each Monday at 11:05 a.m.
Click on the link above to listen to or download the podcast.
Click here for a list of all podcasts
The Best Stories You've nEver Read #32
The images we have of drug houses are those in ravaged inner cities or perhaps in a rural outpost. But read this story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune about $300,000 suburban homes that marijuana dealers are snapping up and using to grow their crops. Their neighbors are entirely unaware, but not, as it turns out, unaffected.
Click on the link above to read the story.
-- Dick Weiss
Throw Year-End Reviews Under The Bus
This is the time of year when the media rolls out their year-end reviews and prognostications ... boring useless material, says Dick Weiss who sticks to talking about what's happening NOW on the McGraw Show on KTRS-550 AM. Case in point, the New York Times has just hired Bill Kristol who once said the newspaper should be prosecuted for disclosing government secrets and was irredeemable as a first-class paper. Dick does review the best buzzwords of '07, including "thrown under the bus."
Dick's media segment airs each Monday at 11:05 a.m.
Click on the link above to listen to or download the podcast.
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The Best Stories You've nEver Read #31
A serial killer lectures a forensics class.
Hunter Jesperson was the guest lecturer at Duquesne University's Forensics Investigation I class during the fall semester speaking on the topic of murder. Jesperson is quite the expert . He is the imprisoned serial killer of at least eight women in six states between 1990 and 1995. He spoke by phone from the Oregon State Penitentiary to the students in Pittsburgh and also provided letters. This three part-series tells the story of how the students at Duquesne got in touch with Jesperson and what they learned from him.
Click on the link above to read the series in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
-- Dick Weiss
Guess What's on Page One In the PD? An Ad
The Post-Dispatch's page one ad and Katie's burning question.
The Post-Dispatch runs an advertisement on page one for a casino. It's the first ad out front for the P-D in what must be decades, but all part of a nationwide trend that has newspapers fighting for their financial lives. A big deal? Yes to some journalists and purists, but not to guest host Bill Clevlen who hasn't picked up a paper in months. Weiss discusses this and a burning question asked by Katie Couric on the McGraw Show on KTRS-550 AM.
Dick's media segment airs each Monday at 11:05 a.m.
Click on the link above to listen to or download the podcast.
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The Best Stories You've nEver Read #30
In the last doll, the memories live on...
Today's entry comes from a collection of holiday stories appearing in the Charlotte Observer. "The Gift" is a series about the things we've received, the things we've given, the things we remember, says the Observer. Here's one of them: Every Christmas Penny Standridge's father gave her a doll. When she was 20, he gave her one unlike all the others.Be sure to click on the video that accompanies this story. Very moving.
-- Dick Weiss
St. Louis Sports Media: Asleep During the Steroid Era
St. Louis Sports Media Snoozed During Steroid Era
Fox 2 caused a stir and drew criticism when it went all out in reporting a rumor that Albert Pujols was named in Baseball's Mitchell Report. The rumor was wrong. But Dick Weiss argues that the greater misstep came when the St. Louis sports media all but slept through the steroid era as Mark McGwire bulked up and set the all-time single season home run record.Weiss discusses this and other issues with McGraw Milhaven on the McGraw Show on KTRS-550 AM.
Dick's media segment airs each Monday at 11:05 a.m.
Click on the link above to listen to or download the podcast.
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The Best Stories You've nEver Read #29
Emotional trek to Sierra crash site for man who lost his legs at age 10.
It was one of the more miraculous rescues ever accomplished. A 10-year-old boy survived a plane crash in the Northern California wilderness in the midst of a deadly winter storm. He remained trapped in the plane with his two dead parents for five days, sucking on handfuls of snow to stay alive. Searchers figured they were probably on a recovery mission, not a rescue. But they found Donnie Priest alive. That was 26 years ago. Recently Priest returned with the men who saved him to the mountain where he lost his parents and life began anew. He climbed to the rescue site on two prosthetic legs. Click on the link above to read this compelling tale in the San Francisco Chronicle.
-- Dick Weiss
Save lives: Don't Name the Killer
Should the media stop identifying mass killers?
Jon Friedman of Market Watch, a Dow Jones news service, had this provocative take on the Omaha shootings:
"I want the media to stop the practice of identifying crazed fame-seekers, such as the gunman who killed eight people Wednesday in an Omaha mall before taking his own life. Don't release their names or photos. By taking such a bold step, television, print and Web executives could help society and maybe even save lives."
Oh, really? Dick Weiss discusses this and other issues with McGraw Milhaven on the McGraw Show on KTRS-550 AM.
Dick's media segment airs each Monday at 11:05 a.m.
Click on the link above to listen to or download the podcast.
Click here for a list of all podcasts
Meet Me In Forest Park
History and facts about Forest Park -- The Jewel of St. Louis.
Sally Altman and Dick Weiss discuss their new pictorial history of Forest Park -- a great holiday gift -- with McGraw Milhaven on the McGraw Show on KTRS-550 AM.
Dick's media segment airs each Monday at 11:05 a.m.
Click on the link above to listen to or download the podcast.
Click here for a list of all podcasts
