Jackson Jambalaya

I prefer an Albuquerque wire service to Hampton's claptrap. Good riddance and well worth it.

+1 @7:46.

So what is your position KF on Reeves and his entourage harassing an off-duty JFP photographer @ Fenians?

Why do so many "conservatives" (more likely reactionary neo-Confederates) like to hide under their rocks and refuse to even listen to points of view different from their own? This isn't a rhetorical question.

David Hampton is a blessing to the world. He is a decent, God fearing man, but simply is a liberal in his thinking.

BFD. I disagree with his views, but admire him as a person. Grow up 7:46 and 9:08.

If what I'm reading is 100% true, and keep in mind Ladd loves to engage in histrionics and blow things out of proportion- remember the listing of the Levee Board in the blue book was a plot by the state to take over the levee board or "her candidates are going down in flames" was a threat to firebomb the JFP?, he shouldn't have done it. You're a politician, you go out in public now, the cellphone camera is always present. Throw in a bar where alceehol is involved and all kinds of opportunities present themselves, especially to reporters. Heaven knows I've posted similar pics on this site.

However, if someone asks me why I am taking pictures or who I am while doing so, I tell them. Never had a problem after I did. If she did indeed tell them who she was and she was with the JFP, they should have said ok, have a nice evening, and left it at that. Actually such encounters can be very useful to both parties at times as that is where you can get into a real conversation and find out what is really going on or why something took place.

Isaac Asmiov wrote a story about someone who invented a tv that would let the viewer see all history- but in the last fifty years and history meant up until the last minute. It meant there was no more privacy and everyone lived in a goldfish bowl. A new world was created. That is what cellphone cameras and social media have done and there is alot of adjusting that has to be done.

I wonder what would have happened if I had done that at a bar in Canton and the subjects were McNeil, Truly, and their cronies?

Hampton is sorely missed, even though I rarely agreed with his positions. He at least provided a thoughtful viewpoint that allowed you to think a little deeper about your own point of view. Even the smallest newspapers usually write their own editorials about issues relevant to their communities. That's mandatory for any newspaper that wants to be taken seriously.

Bill, it's not that we don't listen to others' points of view. We do that every day, most of the time with more patience that it deserves. What you intended to say is why don't we agree with those points of view. Lack of agreement isn't equal to lack of consideration. Bill Billingsley

I continue to be amazed that so many find any opinions that challenge their own opinion so personally threatening.

If one's opinion is valid, defending it is not difficult. If one is confident their opinion is well founded, challenges aren't threatening.

New ideas, constructive changes, and innovation all come from challenging the prevailing view.

If this were not so, we would all still believe the earth is flat. And, one should remember that the prevailing religions at the time pronounced the round earth theory to be heretical.

Neither conservatives nor liberals have been without scandal or stupidity in their ranks. Neither party can walk on water and claim perfection .

David Hampton writes well. I might not agree with his interpretations or conclusions but it was obvious that he was thoughtful and honest about his point of view. And, readers had a fine consercative writer, Sid Salter, to provide the alternative view.

I agree with KF that a newspaper where the editors and reporters are invested in the community is important. There has been a deterioration since Gannett took over and the objective focus solely on profit.

I also think that any paper or media outlet which doesn't present all points of view is just a propaganda organ and not a news outlet.

B. Billlingsly, joy at Hampton's departure equates, to my mind at least, with refusal to listen to differing points of view. That's all I meant, and I think that sentiment applies to this thread.

I'll give you that, Bill. It's probably little disingenuous for someone to say how much they hated him because that's admitting that they read his columns in the first place. I rarely agreed with Mr. Hampton, but I read him every week and followed his blog. I think there are far too many people on both sides of any political discussion who have their arms crossed and aren't prepared to do anything but glare across the table and disagree with whatever is said. BB

Spare us the crapola about the focus on profit. Show me one business that doesn't focus on profit -- or that thinks it somehow can produce just enough profit but not too much -- and I'll show you 1000 businesses no longer operating that were just as stupid. Hell we have a truckload of non-profits in Jackson who bathe in red-ink. How's that for profit fine-tuning?

The Clarion-Ledger offered for-profit products to the marketplace and, more specifically, to only addressable parts of the marketplace with the interest and mean$ to pay for their product.

It doesn't matter what a great guy Hampton may, or may not, be. He lost complete touch with the composition of the readership (customer base) paying for the product and in turn advertisers right-sized their spending downward to compensate for Hampton's blind spot.

It is extremely simple. The people who remained receptive to Hampton's incessant drumbeat of an omnipotent big taxing, big spending, big borrowing, high intrusion big government steadily became dwarfed in size, DWARFED, by the people who concluded that they were no longer interested in purchasing a Hampton led for-profit product that wasn't meeting their needs nor reflective of their beliefs and interests.

Then you have a standard-bearer named Kingfish of Jackassery fame blabbering about "community support". What a vague notion and empty phrase. What are you saying? That more people should stop purchasing the paper or advertising until Hurst relents? Do you want the C-L's financial woes to accelerate? Are you channeling Ladd now with this high and mighty holier-than-journalist-thou shit?

In the end Hampton didn't give a damn about the readers or local coverage or community journalism or the rest of the claptrap posted above. Such a journalist who held those principles paramount would have gone down with the ship.

The writing was on the wall. Hampton drove the newspaper into a ditch and stubbornly refused to admit that he was at the wheel. Then when shown the escape hatch Davey put on his meager golden parachute and his for-profit ass jumped.

I also think that any paper or media outlet which doesn't present all points of view is just a propaganda organ and not a news outlet.

You must live in Naivetown.

9:22, I read Ms. Schreiber's account of the incident. I did not see any claim that Tate Reeves did anything--not even so much as looked at her.

Assuming the truthfulness of the account, the evening should have ended with Parks McNabb (whoever that is) having a beer bottle shoved up his ass.

From this thread I am gathering you have a new reader and "anonymous" commenter. Might do some good the Tex to take a moniker.

And, couldn't agree more with Crowley.

Does Hampton's departure mean the CL will post full descriptions of criminal suspects?

My objection to Hampton is not so much that I disagree with his ultra-liberal positions (which I do), but that his "thoughtful viewpoint" was typically simply false and revisionistic.

Further, when called out on the issue of accuracy, Hampton lies about his lies. And yes, I can prove that. Although he writes well, writing false things well is the domain of a novelist or cartoonist, not an editor. Hampton is a master at his craft, which is NOT journalism.

So, I don't refuse to read opinions that I disagree with, but I do refuse to not call a lie a lie.

Curt - Parks is Tate's KOB. He doesn't do ANYTHING without Tate telling him too. So yep - if Park's told her that - it would only be because Tate told him too. I figured since you were such a Tate lover you would know that . . .

Politics aside, love him or hate him, Hampton enjoyed the bully pulpit pedestal as much as any editor in America. He loved deciding which sentences got deleted and which letters got his special approval to exceed the 1500word limit. Some letters resembled guest columns if they matched his liberal mindset and those letters were sometimes novellas.

12:22 pm The " crapola" is comes when maximizing profit is the ONLY consideration.

Gannett wasn't interested from the beginning in having the best reporters, or putting out a quality newspaper or keeping the community well informed or maintaining the integrity of The Fourth Estate.

The difference between a selling a product and earning money by providing professional services is indeed a distinction that is no longer understood.

But, even if you see a mewspaper as a product there are more than a few examples of a corporate takeover killing the acquisition that Gannett should not have ignored. At some point, bean counters will run out of beans if they keep eating them.