Online petition claims Joplin Globe is trashing our neighborhoods

During the time I was working at the Carthage Press, we published a shopper every Wednesday called Southwest Missouri Scope.

It was not much of a publication. It repackaged advertising from the Press, offering special rates to the advertisers because of its expanded readership.

Copies of the Scope were thrown in the yards in Carthage and surrounding communities, offering readers a free newspaper.

And they hated it.








I can't tell you how many complaints I received about the shopper. It was a hastily put together publication that did not offer much of anything to anybody, but even worse people did not want it thrown in their yards.

Not only did they have to go to the hassle of picking them up and usually tossing them without reading them, but when people were on vacation and two or three of those piled up, it let prospective burglars know they were not at home.

Southwest Missouri Scope, so often an addition to the trash bins of local residents has long been consigned to the trash bin of history, much like its parent publication.

The tradition of throwing unwanted newspapers in people's yards is still being carried on by the Joplin Globe.

The Carthage Press' trash publication was Southwest Missouri Scope. The trash publication the Globe distributes throughout Joplin and neighboring committees also has a name.

It's called the Joplin Globe.

Apparently, efforts have been made to convince the Globe to stop distributing sample and leftover copies, but the Globe is having none of it.

Because of this, an online petition, Demand the Joplin Globe Clean Up Its Act,  was launched this morning with a goal of 5,000 signatures.

The reason for the petition was offered in an accompanying message:

Having only lived in Webb City, Missouri for a few months, I immediately noticed all of the litter that was scattered throughout yards, driveways and even the streets. I finally realized that most of the litter I was noticing was actually newspapers from the Joplin Globe. 

I contacted the Globe directly and asked them about what I was seeing. I was told by the circulation department that because the newspapers have "value" that the Globe was allowed to throw them into any yards that they wish. 

They also informed me that they will take their extra papers and put them on the properties of non-subscribers. The guise is that they want to introduce these households to the newspaper when my gut tells me that this is a way for them to avoid having to recycle the extra newspapers and thus save on the costs associated.

I then contacted Webb City direct and was told that other towns have sued various newspaper outlets for the same behavior and ultimately they either lost or it became too cost prohibited to fight. That these newspapers argue that the First Amendment allows them to distribute their news in any format that they wish and that no municipality has the right to deter that.

With all of that said, sometimes it takes social media and peer pressure for an organization to do the right thing. 

While the First Amendment may very well give you the right of distribution, I do not believe that it gives you the right to put out thousands of plastic bags every single week into our environment. Every single newspaper they throw has been wrapped in a plastic bag that ultimately ends up in the sewer or in the belly of animal. Every day we are hearing more and more about the harm that plastic bags cause to the environment yet here we have a local company completely ignoring those statistics all in the name of corporate greed.

So far, the petition has only a handful of signatures.

What do you think? Do these copies of the Joplin Globe have value or are they trash?

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Message from the Turner Report/Inside Joplin

The Turner Report/Inside Joplin blogs provide news, commentary and free obituaries and never leave plastic bags in your yard. Consider supporting the Joplin area's alternative news operation by contributing at the button below or sending your contribution to Randy Turner, 2306 E. 8th, Apt. A, Joplin, MO 64801