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Mini Poll: Is Everyone A Critic?
Looking for a book? A new tune? A better look? A different way to spend an evening? St. Louis has no shortage of people who want to help you. Local newspapers and broadcasters employ full-time critics who write compelling reviews on books, arts, music, fashion, food – and almost anything else you might be thinking about reading, watching, seeing, hearing, wearing, eating, or buying. These well-compensated professionals are supplemented by dozens of stringers and other part-time pundits, who take time off from their day jobs to share an expertise in newspapers, magazines, journals, fanzines, and blogs. And most of these sources supplement their own critics and reviewers by allowing us - the reading, listening, watching public - to rate, vote on, complain about, and praise almost everything.
Yet, haven't you sometimes suspected that most "unfiltered consumer reviews" and "user comments" are really penned by a backroom of cyber-gnomes employed by a Washington Avenue PR firm? Or that even established critics have cranky days that color their reviews?
There has been a Pulitzer Prize presented for "distinguished criticism" since 1970. The NY Times won the first two (and five subsequent Pulitzers for criticism), but it was the erudite Frank Peters, Jr., of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who won the third such prize for his critical reviews of music. Finishing atop the "critical" standings in this week's Mini-Poll is not quite as prestigious as winning a Pulitzer, but we know that St. Louis' company of critics will appreciate the attention – and this may be your only real chance to turn the tables and review them!
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