Jackson Free Press

He-Said-Bimbo-Said
Sometimes life has a way of spiraling in on itself. Last week, I was asked to speak about advanced reporting and media ethics during Journalism Week at Ole Miss. Apropos to both topics, I spoke on the "myth of objectivity," among other things. I zeroed in on the problem of he-said-she-said journalism, where an important story and its facts and context get lost (or left out) in a battle of sound bites between two "sides" or, more likely, "spokesmen" with polar-opposite agendas. So "objectivity" ends up as opinion-vs.-opinion, and neither is very enlightening.

The next morning before returning to Jackson, I ended up in a coffeehouse in Oxford to check my e-mail. I was bummed to see that FOX News was on TV loudly in the background, pushing its blatant neo-con agenda as students were studying and others chatting with friends.

I tried to tune it out. But suddenly, a blonde bimbo—not dissin' the blonde part, mind you—introduced a segment about the dude who sold the Virginia Tech gunman his weapon, a guy who is now hawking weapons to other students just in case they have to defend themselves from an attack from a a buyer of his guns, I guess.

I turned to watch, wondering how FOX would handle such, er, nuance—I mean, there could be no defense for the hubris of this guy, right? How would they handle a story not easily divided into two little us-vs.-damned-liberals segments?

First, Ms. Bimbo interviewed a man from the Brady Campaign, predictably talking about the ridiculous and distasteful sales campaign and how it might not save lives. Then she turns to a representative of Gun Owners of America. "Eric, is that blaming the gun instead of the gunman?"

My head dropped into my bagel. First, real journalists don't ask yes-or-no questions—especially one so sensationalistically leading. Beyond that, I was amazed that FOX was twisting this story into a he-said-she-said rant about the efficacy of toting guns for self-defense (with no contextual research either way, of course). Clearly, the whole point was the rant, as the two men started yelling at each other, and the audience couldn't tell what was being said, as Ms. Bimbo sat smiling in the middle like the puss cornering two canaries.

Case in point, students. Case in point.

Penetrate This
Speaking of Oxford, did you know that, in 2005, The Clarion-Ledger only reached 6.4 percent of households there? This number came from a diversity report for the Gannett daily that we found posted on The Knight Foundation Web site last week. In SNARK's continuing effort to figure out just how The Clarion-Ledger's circulation figures really break down, we were intrigued by the chart at the bottom that broke the Ledger weekday sales down by ZIP code for the whole state (and showing the racial makeup of those zip codes). SNARK math shows that, in 2005, the Ledger was reporting 25,546 weekday sales in Jackson ZIP codes—which we assume is subscriptions plus newsstands. (In 2007, they reported 22,000 subscribers in Jackson.) Then adding up the reported non-Jackson metro ZIP codes for 2005 yields 26,925 in weekday sales.

That adds up to 52,471 weekday metro sales in 2005; it's probably dropped since then, considering the woes of daily newspaper sales. (It's no wonder that they are adding together all their freebies in order to say they reach 79 percent of the metro. Sounds like a lot of freebies.)

The report showed that, as of three years ago, the Ledger's "penetration" was 39.9 percent of households in Ridgeland, 47.5 percent in Clinton, low 40s in Brandon and 27.7 percent in Pearl. They did great in the small 39216 Jackson ZIP with 92.2 percent (or 1,478 households), and 68.1 percent in Madison (5,561 households), and so-so with 55.8 percent (5,908 households) in Jackson's 39211. Except for wacky percentages in the Jackson 39201/business district (494.9 percent or 975 because so few people live there) and 87.7 percent in Fernwood (57 households), the penetration in every county is under 50 percent, most way, way under. Vicksburg is 10.2 percent, Meridian 3.2 percent.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Ledger's highest penetration tended to be in majority-white ZIP codes, and lowest in areas with higher percentages of people of color.

Of course, this chart didn't count all those freebies mailed to or thrown at people of whatever race that help them reach that magical 79-percent number. Nor should it.

Bye-Bye, Birdies
SNARK is saddened to see that two more young, promising reporters at the Ledger—state reporter Leah Rupp and city reporter Katherine Crowell, are flying the journalism coop and landing in public relations (Rupp to the Department of Education; Crowell to MEMA).

We're not keeping tabs on this one, but it sure does seem like The Clarion-Ledger runs a lot of aspiring reporters out of our business, eh?