Jackson Free Press

OK, The Ledger's David Hampton has really wigged out this time. In his column about crime today, he divides all of us Jacksonians into two offensive categories. Don't get too excited trying to figure out which of these extremes you fit into. Enjoy the money quotes:

In Jackson, people seem to fall into two camps when it comes to dealing with crime. There are those who see it as rampant, out of control, with bumbling elected officials in the criminal justice system. Then there are those who are defensive, who dismiss crime as just another part of modern urban America and something we tolerate, especially as long as it doesn't affect us personally. Neither of those positions we hear is accurate nor helpful without action to address specific problems.

No kidding, David. It is also not helpful to divide everyone into simple little boxes so you can criticize them both. Please start trying to not show such contempt for the intelligence of Jacksonians, please. This absurd reduction is not going to help your paper's credibility in the capitol city.

Previous Comments

ID

108642

Comment

Hampton really, really needs to read the chapter in Deborah Tannen's "Argument Culture" book about today's corporate media and their tendency to divide all stories into two inaccurate "sides" that they can then pit against each other. His columns are bad at doing this. This one is particularly absurd, as I can't think of anyone who fits into his latter category. This mess of a column harks back to the Ledge's Perception-Gate™ scandal when they tried to make it sound like anybody who didn't climb onto their sensationalistic crime bandwagon was saying that "crime is just a perception!" They are so dumb on the crime issue that it just leaves me speechless. But, hey, their leadership helped get us Frank Melton. Thanks, Ledger edit-boyz.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-12-03T18:47:02-06:00

ID

108643

Comment

That is quite possibly the most idiotic thing I have ever seen David Hampton write, and that's saying something. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-12-03T18:47:41-06:00

ID

108644

Comment

...and an example of the horrid, thoughtless, incoherent, pseudo-moderate, advertiser-friendly condescending suburbanite tone the C-L so often takes on issues like this. Besides, the C-L criticizing crime sensationalism is like Penthouse criticizing pornography. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-12-03T18:49:57-06:00

ID

108645

Comment

Well said, Tom. It is truly offensive to all the Jacksonians who are working very hard to find solutions to our crime problems—who don't buy into their half-backed "perception" narratives. My suspicion is that it's just another attempt to cover their own bad reporting on the crime issue of late—by making it sound like anyone who would dare qustion their hype are, how did he put it, "defensive, who dismiss crime as just another part of modern urban America and something we tolerate, especially as long as it doesn't affect us personally." He just has to be smarter than this, doesn't he? Maybe the Korporate Koolaid makes them come up with so drivel. I don't know. But this city deserves better than being insulted on a regular basis by the boyz on that editorial board.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-12-03T18:54:34-06:00

ID

108646

Comment

When David Hampton ignored my email about the nasty wording of that "homosexual scandal" poll a month ago--didn't respond saying it was too late to change it, just ignored it--that told me all I really needed to know about his editorial priorities. I mean, he's performing up to expectations for me. He really is. I don't get disappointed when I read stupid stuff from him anymore because that's what I expect to see. I'm glad y'all are covering it, to raise visibility about the problems the C-L has, but it won't get better until there's a change in management because the people at the top simply don't care about things like journalistic integrity and credibility and so forth. If they did, they would have reported their co-defendant status on the libel suit during the mayoral campaign, to make their conflict of interest clear. The C-L is the only daily paper in Jackson. As such, it has many great writers, editors, designers, copyeditors, and so forth working for it, because if you want to live in Jackson and be a full-time journalist, that's the only employer large enough to have an opening. But the editorial board is made up of people who obviously do not care about this city and obviously do not care about the quality or objectivity of their paper. They just don't. So all of this falls under the same general heading as "Pigs found rutting, wallowing" or "Dog eats own shit." It does not disappoint me, because I don't really expect any better. It would be like going to a casino and being shocked at all the gambling, you know? Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-12-03T19:08:42-06:00

ID

108647

Comment

The CL has always been about sensationalism over truth. That's the gannett position.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-12-03T21:07:04-06:00