St. Louis News Blog

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Look into the mirror. Do you like what you see?

Sweet, sweet justice.

By the narrowest of margins Daily RFT readers nominated themselves (or at least those among them who can't take a joke) as Ass Clown of the Week for June 12-19.

The tally wrapped up a special edition of the weekly ass clown competition in which readers were asked to vote on players (and bit players) in a story last week involving the beating death of Willard Bryant Payne in Forest Park.

A headline I wrote about Payne's murder ("Don't You Hate It When You Go To the Park to Smoke a Joint with Two Lesbians and They Beat You To Death?") garnered dozens of angry comments from readers -- some of whom demanded my firing while others wished for my death.

But in the end, it was these commenters who Daily RFT readers considered most out of line. When the poll closed this morning at 7 a.m., the commenters lead the race by a four percent margin. 

Second place went to yours truly with 35 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, the two women charged with brutally murdering Payne, received just 22 percent of the vote. (Funny how that works, eh?)

Payne, himself, came in a distant fourth with just 4 percent of the vote.

So, what can we learn from this little exercise? I'm not sure. Perhaps it proves the old adage: If you don't have anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all.