Not long after we started the JFP, a man who had worked in the public domain in the state for many years warned me about something: "You'll have all sorts of weirdos lining up to tell lies about you." The truth is, there haven't been that many. I'm thrilled at how the entire community, including many people whom I disagree with on some major issues, have opened their arms to the JFP and our truth-telling mission. But there have been a small handful (usually who have been kicked off this site for racist or personal attacks) who will try anything to discredit the JFP. The other night a man at a party who is a fan of the JFP laughed and said, "I hear you have some sort of relationship with Robbie Bell."
Huh? That one came out of left field. But this morning I clicked over to the Ronnie Agnew column about Orley Hood and other employees getting fired to see if they had listed the other names, yet. And I saw this in one of the anonymous comments below it:
The "truths" that Ladd hasn't told you are too numerous to catalog here. Let me pick just one. Has Ladd and the JFP told you the truth yet regarding the coverup of Robbie Bell's reckless actions in the death of Heather Spencer? Has Ladd told you about her personal relationship with Robbie Bell?
Ah, that must be my friend's source. Well, this one is so ridiculous that I had to share it with y'all. Someone, some critic of the JFP has decided to create some mythical "relationship" between me and a woman whose son brutally murdered his girlfrienda story that my paper led on, including getting hold of police reports from his first beating of her from our sources. (PDFs of police reports linked to that piece.) We also ran a very unattractive mugshot of her when she was arrested for being an accessory and in subsequent stories.
The funny part is, I knew Robbie Bell exactly the way many hundreds of business people in the state know her: she was the administrator of the Mississippi Business Journal's "Leading Businesswoman Award" (along with their "40 under 40," and similar award programs). I have probably been in her presence five times: for three or four events the week of the awards, and I recall running into her at an ArtMix or other Fondren event one time. Oh, and I wrote her once wanting the addresses of the other award winners so I could write them.
My paper gave made her a "Chicks We Love" sometime after I got the awards and had watched her, a model of efficiency, in action during that awards week. Beyond that, I knew nothing about her, her family or that she was even linked to the George Bell carpet folks.
But because someone doesn't like the JFP, or me personally, I have some sort of "personal relationship" with her? This is trash talk, and cheapens a very important story about violence against women.
As far as her "reckless actions" the night of Heather's death, we have heard rumors, but as a news outlets cannot, and do not, report rumors as fact as blogs run by anonymous people do. It's not ethical, and we wouldn't be in business long if we did.
This case has been frustrating in many ways because everyone with first-hand knowledge of the case, and what happened that night, have been told by attorneys not to talk to us until lawsuits are settled. So, to date, we have reported everything we have been able to about the case, which has been more substantial than any other media outlet.
I will say that I personally find the way Heather's first case handled despicable and what looks like pressure on her by her boyfriends' family to drop the case. I believe that had it been taken more seriously by the police, as well as George Bell's friends and family, that Spencer may still be alive. This case has been a major fall from grace for a family and a woman who had a very different public persona that the one we saw in the mugshot that we ran. The whole thing is horribly tragic, but the most so for Heather Spencer, her family and friends.
I also find it truly despicable that anyone would choose such a tragedy to try to use in a dishonest way to attack a media outlet that they do not like. A beautiful woman died in that case; her memory shouldn't be used to play a childish game.
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