Jackson Free Press

The Clarion-Ledger today pleased its suburban readers immensely by endorsing Wilson Carroll for D.A. In so doing, it wrote one of the most blatant examples of under-statement we've seen from the C-L, and we've seen plenty. "Carroll has far less prosecutorial experience than does Peterson," the paper admitted. Er, he's never tried a criminal case. Not one. The C-L also just seemed to take Mr. Carroll's campaign at face value—a campaign that has been built on exaggerated claims, old statistics and out-of-context media statements—usually taken from the C-L's own overblown crime reporting. Whatever happened to "truth in advertising"? Doesn't matter in this campaign, it seems. Most egregious to us is how Mr. Carroll and his supporters have talked down Jackson on a regular basis, just as Mr. Barbour has been doing to both Mississippi and Jackson in his campaign. As we said in our endorsement of incumbent Faye Peterson, Mr. Carroll has some good ideas, and some supporters we admire, but he is also backed by some very political and worrisome forces who want to re-arrange power in the city to their own agenda. We don't need that type of baggage associated with this office, or any office in Hinds County. We urge you to take the Clarion-Ledger's endorsement for what it is: inadequate.

http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0310/31/leditorial.html

Previous Comments

ID

173086

Comment

But we need to get the "baggage" off the streets and Faye just ain't cutting it. Go back and re-read your "lessor evil" speech and re-think your endorsement. Inadequate!

Author

Huh?

Date

2003-11-03T18:46:33-06:00

ID

173087

Comment

We're certainly not re-thinking this endorsement. I became much more convinced that Carroll is not the man for this job after interviewing him. As I said, Wilson Carroll seems very nice, and has some good-if-vague ideas, but it is not going to solve any crime problem to put a man who is wholly unqualified for this office in there -- he's never tried a single criminal case. Add to that the fact that he has talked down Jackson at every turn, using exaggerated and old crime statistics, rather than focusing on exactly what crime is there and what can be done about the criminals who are there (and a new Excel spreadsheet might help, but it ain't the end-all). He seems to be doing just enough homework to find dirt on the current D.A., and then is perfectly willing to lift it out of context and use the information in a sensational way to try to scare voters into voting for him. This is no way to convince thinking Jacksonians that we should elect him district attorney. (And this isn't to mention the false and nasty rumor campaign that a few Carroll supporters have waged against Peterson. It's all VERY distasteful and disheartening.) I strongly urge Hinds County voters to re-elect Faye Peterson and then focus our energies on seeing exactly what the problems are with the system and how resources can best be directed at fixing them. And please no more silly and immature scare tactics: that's not going to solve a single problem.

Author

ladd

Date

2003-11-03T19:36:44-06:00