Recent reports have claimed that St. Louis is now not just in the top four finalists for the location of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, but in the top two, up against Charlotte, N.C. Despite the newsworthiness of this claim, there have been some strange goings-on in its reporting. The news originally broke two weeks ago on the popular politics site, Politico and the St. Louis FOX 2 (KTVI) site, stating, "St. Louis may be edging closer to hosting the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Sources tell both FOX 2 and Politico.com that of the four cities bidding, the choice seems to have narrowed down to St. Louis and Charlotte, North Carolina." Then, yesterday, The Charlotte Observer reported the news, stating, "A popular political website and a St. Louis television station are reporting that Charlotte and St. Louis have emerged as finalists in the competition to serve as host of the 2012 Democratic National Convention," and adding, "Both the website and the St. Louis station said the issue of unionized hotels could tilt the competition against Charlotte. Most of the major hotels in St. Louis are unionized, while Charlotte's are not." This report was posted today by STLTweets, which was then re-tweeted by dozens.
While researching the report, the editors here at SLM clicked on the link to the story from The Charlotte Observer, only to find that the the URL now redirects straight to a story on North Carolina unions supporting Charlotte's convention bid and can no longer be found anywhere on their site. We could only find a cached version here. We contacted the senior online editor at the The Charlotte Observer, who explained that after they did some further reporting with sources in St. Louis, they couldn't confirm that the claim was true or made sense the way it was originally posted on the site, so they removed it. Further, the news has not been tweeted or responded to by the St. Louis DNC campaign's site or Twitter account. Also, on Monday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted an article on corporate support from the DNC, which also did not mention St. Louis being one of the top two finalists.
So, is this report fact or fiction? It most certainly doesn't look like St. Louis is "officially" in the top two, but it might be considered as a top two finalist. What do you think about St. Louis' prospects for getting the DNC? Leave your thoughts about that and the recent top-two rumor in the comments.
