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In every way, the papers reflect their publishers' tastes, though Pulitzer is not so much involved in day-to-day operations as is Amberg. Maintaining a competent seven-man Washington bureau and often dispatching correspondents overseas, the Post-Dispatch fills long, long columns with national and international news. It supplements its own correspondents' efforts with the New York Times News Service. With two men in Washington, the Globe concentrates on St. Louis. Its current motto, displayed on its delivery trucks, is "Fighting for St. Louis"—with the implication that its rival is too preoccupied with the rest of the world. That was not always the case. In times gone by, the Post-Dispatch kept its readers in an emotional turmoil over civic misdoings, while the pre-Newhouse Globe seemed to strive for soothing vapidities.
Hawk v. Dove. The papers are equally at odds over national policies and politics. Once again they have reversed their roles. Post-Dispatch editorials used to thunder, while Globe editorials put people to sleep. Today's angry Globe editorials, many of them written by Amberg, inveigh against Vietniks, beatniks, and handcuffing the police. The more thoughtful, sedate Post-Dispatch editorials plead for individual rights, consumer protection and dissent. Scarcely any other U.S. daily is as hawkish on Viet Nam as the Globe, or as dovish as the Post-Dispatch. The Globe wants to mine Haiphong harbor and stop talk about negotiations; the Post-Dispatch wants to stop the bombing of North Viet Nam and negotiate with the Viet Cong. "We've considered every means to extricate the U.S. honorably from Viet Nam," says Pulitzer, who was in Geneva last week to observe the hapless Pacem in Terris conference. "My hero is anyone who is going to win the war," says Amberg, who recently returned from a meeting of the board of consultants to the National War College.
Often the papers agree on local issues; both, for instance, have given enthusiastic backing to the city's extensive redevelopment program. "Yet much of the time," says a local TV newsman, "if one paper has a story, the other disputes it or ignores it." Each has its pet crusades, conducted with special zeal for issue after issue. The P-D has recently been exposing irregularities in contract-letting at city hall. The Globe is hounding the criminally tainted Steamfitters Union. Does the Globe want to tear down the massive, Victorian post office building? The Post-Dispatch wants to save it. Did the Post-Dispatch approve of Mayor Cervantes' plan to bring the Spanish Pavilion from the New York World's Fair to St. Louis? The Globe did not think much of that idea. Why not trade the post office for the pavilion?, the Globe suggested.