Jackson Free Press

Many, Many Instances I Can't Remember
I often read your paper and sometimes even enjoy it. However, I have a problem with your extreme bias. I consider you as biased in one direction as The Northside Sun is in the other. For all of its faults, and it has many, I feel The Clarion-Ledger is the only local paper that attempts an unbiased viewpoint. Although I find many errors and inaccuracies in the CL, I do not feel they are deliberate or the result of a bias that permeates the paper as I feel is true with both weeklies.

For example, I point to your editorial in the Jan. 18-24 issue. There seems to be a dichotomy in your writing. You claim that you want Mississippians to be the best, but you state nothing good about the state. You only point out weaknesses: racism, under-funded education, crime sensationalism and infant mortality. You do not mention one positive quality about Mississippi. Orley Hood often finds positives to write about in his column. Perhaps this is why he was voted Best Local Columnist (in the JFP Best Of Awards) for the fifth year. Even without doing research, I know Mississippi ranks high in generosity year after year. You will never get people to change by pointing out only negatives. Good parents and teachers know this. Good journalists do also.

You first aroused my doubts years ago with a criticism of the governor. You wrote that he required Highway Patrolmen to put the Confederate flag on their cars. Technically, this is true; he required the patrol to put the Mississippi flag, which contains the Confederate flag, on the cars. Any long-time Mississippi resident knows the long and difficult struggle with the state flag. However, a newcomer might be misled by your writing to think that the governor required the Confederate flag alone. The flag is the official flag of Mississippi and until it changes, we are stuck with it. Misleading journalism helps no one. This was not the only instance in which I have had a problem with your statements, but it was the most blatant and the only one I remember.

I can find no letters to the editor in your paper. I know you have ways to write to the editor on your Web site, but you are a printed paper and you should have printed responses. Do not think that I need to see my name in print; if I do, I will write to The Clarion-Ledger which has printed my letters in the past. I simply hope you will read my letter and reflect on your style of journalism.
— Sue Pitts, Jackson

Editor's Note: Ms. Pitts refers to "Ask the $34,000-A-Day Questions," a column from May 2004 on how Gov. Haley Barbour had already shown his true colors. The full paragraph:

"The agenda: Shrink the budgets available for health care, public education and social services. Pass the costs onto school districts and municipalities. Generate business for donors like private-prison companies. Pat companies on the back that sent our jobs "offshore"; then talk a lot about "creating" (low-paying, non-union) jobs. Throw bones to the far right by signing off on abortion bills that likely won't withstand judicial scrutiny. Hedge the race-conscious vote by ensuring that the Confederate battle emblem shows up on places like Highway Patrol cars. Ensure that corporate donors can cut safety costs and keep marketing deadly products, because they know exactly how much, or how little, the people can collect in lawsuits—and thus can do reliable cost-benefit analyses before investing in safety. Have a "company" jet to fly back to D.C. whenever needed to, er, network with those uppity contacts we were promised during the election—the high-rollers who were going to come on down and rescue us from the No. 50 reject pile."
E-mail letters to the editor to [e-mail missing], fax them to 601-510-9019 or mail them to P.O. Box 2047, Jackson, Miss., 39225. Please include phone number.