Jackson Jambalaya

Poor little Adam Lynch of The Jackson Free Press. He just can't seem to understand WHY anyone would want to get rid of Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy:
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=14723_0_27_0_C.

Mr. Lynch extols his virtues:
"With McCoy at the helm, the House led an aggressive progressive agenda in the last session, pushing for more unemployment benefits and a state minimum wage hike. Under McCoy, the House also passed bills advocating an increase in the state’s cigarette tax—the lowest in the nation of any state that doesn’t depend on tobacco as a cash crop. McCoy also battled for a lower state grocery tax and vehemently opposed the governor’s removal of 65,000 elderly and handicapped Mississippians from the state Medicaid rolls."
while ignoring any criticism that is just as specific. He just can't imagine why people would want to depose Mr. McCoy unless they are evil mean-spirited Republicans who want to kill women, starve children, and take us back to slavery. (yes, those are MY sarcastic comments).

Mr. Lynch, it might have something to do with a FIFTY-MILLION DOLLAR Beef plant fiasco which you TOTALLY IGNORED!!!!!!!!!!!! It was McCoy and Holland who thought up the idea while driving on the Natchez Trace. The funding was stuffed into a conference committee bill, thus helping it avoid scrutiny. When asked how it appeared in the conference committee bill by The Clarion-Ledger, no one ever could offer an explanation as to how it happened. However, McCoy's folly cost the state fifty million dollars. That might be one reason Mr. Lynch why some people might want Mr. McCoy thrown out of the speaker's chair. Don't give me this kinder, gentler, he cares about working folks crap. The money he wasted on that plant (and if this was in Louisiana, I would be saying this was definitely a payoff to someone) could have paid for MANY teachers. Hey Adam, how many teachers will $50 million buy? Or preschool programs for kids? Or additional training for unemployed? Or health insurance for kids? However, these facts are VERY conveniently ignored.

Mr. Lynch ALSO ignored the fact that when Mr. McCoy had health problems, he appointed an interim speaker who drew the same pay, which is over $100,000 annually. When Mr. McCoy returned to office to resume his duties, he led a fight to keep his friend on the same level of pay so for quite some time Mississippi has paid for TWO speaker's salaries at the same time. However, since its just evil Republicans who want him gone, anything is ok as long as he is on your side, right Mr. Lynch?

It was also Mr. McCoy who ran our state finances into the ditch. You do remember how he and his buddies would complete ignore Governor Musgrove's realistic budget projections and completely bankrupted the state with their spending, don't you? Believe it or not Mr. Lynch, some people may want to replace Mr. McCoy for other reasons than the fact he is a Democrat.

Mr. Lynch recently made another sensational claim in one of his stories:
The city administration updated an earlier estimation of a $3.9 million budget deficit at last week’s budget meeting. “The city is currently out of budget about $13.1 million,” said city Director of Administration Rick Hill last week, before recommending the doomed debt-restructuring plan and drastic cuts to the Department of Parks and Recreation and JATRAN.
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=14695_0_4_0_C

Wow. $13 million dollars. That is alot of money. In fact, based partly upon Mr. Lynch's story, I wrote a post about the budget crisis: http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2007/08/melton-no-friggin-clue.html and stand by its content. However, when I saw a story about the budget in The Clarion-Ledger later, I asked the reporter why the larger number was not included in the story. He said that the figure was for NEXT year's budget (called "budget intentions") which is due pretty soon as well. Such a deficit is still a disaster and Melton must be held accountable for this further display of his fiscal mismanagement. However, Mr. Lynch used the word "current" making it seem that the $13 million deficit was in the current budget. It may have been that was what Mr. Hill told him. It is not Mr. Lynch's fault if city officials give him bad information. However, the Clarion-Ledger reporter said it was for next year's budget. If so, I am curious as to why Mr. Lynch missed that crucial fact. Since Mr. Lynch's story, there have been several reports of the budget deficit in local media outlets. However, they have not used the $13 million figure, which makes it more clear that it does not refer to the current budget. One must ask once again if Mr. Lynch was reporting the facts or engaged in sensationalistic advocacy journalism against Mayor Melton.

Unfortunately, I am not surprised at such from Mr. Lynch. He penned one of the slimiest paragraphs I have ever seen in local journalism:
Melton inadvertently got his 17-year-old live-in companion subpoenaed before a 2nd District grand jury this morning. Melton told reporters at a press conference that alleged carjacker Michael Taylor told him that inmates are liberally using drugs at the Hinds County Jail, in Raymond. Sheriff Malcolm McMillin acted quickly, requesting that the Hinds County District Attorney issue a subpoena, dragging Taylor before a grand jury to explain the details...." http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=14167_0_27_0_C

This is nothing but a smear. Everyone knows what the phrase "live-in companion" means. In this case Mr. Lynch is referring to young Michael Taylor, Jackson Thug Extraordinaire (I like that word but I really need to think of another one to use). That phrase is always used in the media to describe sexual partners who live together, as Mr. Lynch surely knows. Anyone who reads my blog knows exactly what my thoughts towards Melton are. However, there is no excuse for this kind of garbage, which is exactly what it is, implying that Melton has a sexual relationship with an underage minor by using the right code words and then claiming, oh, that is not what I mean. Everyone knows EXACTLY what was meant by that statement. There were plenty of other descriptions Mr. Lynch could have used such as "Mr. Melton's young ward" or "the juvenile who is currently in Mr. Melton's custody" instead of that crap. Such slime has no place in competent journalism.

I don't enjoy criticizing Mr. Lynch. He has talent and when aimed in the right direction, he covers stories more thoroughly than do most local reporters. However, he ruins it with slime such as his reference to Michael Taylor or advocacy journalism such as his story on Billy McCoy where Mr. McCoy is promoted as a thoughtful, conscientious liberal working for all Mississippians while his opponents are charlatans who just want to give Barbour more power to ruin our state.

Reporters do make mistakes which is why the budget story itself wasn't that troubling. However, there is somewhat of a pattern here and if left to his own devices, Mr. Lynch tends to pull journalistic stunts that demean the profession. It is hard to see how such writing passes muster under the so-called best practices of journalism.

Note: by the way, Ms. Ladd just referred to Mr. Lynch as the best reporter in town:
Oh, and I wholeheartedly agree with you about Adam Lynch being the best reporter in town. However, it is important to realize that he has a large support network and very strong editors here. Reporters at the JFP don't operate in a vacuum; we work strongly as a team. So every story you see in the JFP, on some level, is a group effort. That includes mine, his, Brian's, Matt's, Ronni, Maggie's, Casey's in the past, and so on.
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=9693_0_18_0_C#95903