Ferguson Civil Disobedience has unexpected repercussions

Last night the main topic on local news casts was the story of the major decline in tourism to the City of St. Louis since the Michael Brown shooting.  The chamber of commerce is trying to take steps to reverse this trend as well as the St. Louis Tourism Guide.

Many tourist sites report major cancellations and a significant drop in visitors from outside of the St. Louis area. This is bringing a decline in visitors and thus a decline of income for many businesses. In St. Louis we have The Hill which is home to many excellent Italian Restaurants.  Most of the time you have a long wait to get into these places. But right now, the wait is gone!

The reason, well many tour groups and outside large parties have called to cancel their reservations because they are afraid of bringing their groups into a riot torn city. Hmmmmm, that is an interesting issue since The Hill is 18 miles away from Ferguson.

It is also an interesting issue since the "Rioting" (which is really the wrong term) that has happened in Ferguson is relegated to just three blocks of W. Florissant Ave. So, the odds of a tourist getting into danger visiting the City of St. Louis is pretty nil. They might have more problems with a pick pocket or being taken advantage of by overpriced parking. The odds of getting into a riot are nil, especially since there has been no major issue in the last week.

I will give credit to KMOV (the local CBS affiliate) because I believe that they correctly diagnosed the problem. They state that the problem is the fact that national news sources have blown the issue way out of proportion to the actual civil disobedience that has been happening. The news media have sensationalized the issue and made it appear larger than life.

I personally have been on W. Florissant helping with clean up and have been there when the crowds have been peacefully marching. There was no fear of being caught up in violence. The police were very restrained. My daughter-in-law and granddaughter even came out to help with the clean up.

Now, I will admit that I have not been on W. Florissant after dark, but I doubt that any tourist would be there after dark.

So, if you are a tourist, please understand that the Art Museum, The Hill, The Loop, Busch Stadium, The Zoo, Botanica, Grants Farm, The Arch, The Budweiser plant tour, etc. etc. etc. are all open, safe and waiting to serve the tourist.

So, let's call on the National News Media to re-tell their stories and point out that St. Louis is a great place to visit, to stay overnight and to spend your vacation dollars.

This once again points out how a sad situation can have consequences that no one really wants to see happen.

I'm just saying, when will the News Media learn that sensationalizing a story is not in the publics best interest.