Madame DeLadd is at it again on her blog:
Over the weekend, various media outlets—irresponsibly in our opinion—published unsubstantiated rumors that Mayor Chokwe Lumumba was murdered, but with no evidence attached.
Mayor Chokwe Lumumba's son, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, gave the following statement to R.L. Nave of the Jackson Free Press this morning responding to comments of Hinds County Supervisor Kenneth Stokes and others that his father was murdered:
"We know that our father was loved and appreciated by many and a number of people both in Jackson and around the world have inquired into the manner of his death. At this time, there has been no information provided to the family other than that provided at the time of his death by the doctors. The family will explore all possible causes of his death."
We urge other media outlets to act responsibly and not publish rumors before evidence is provided. This can have a very harmful effect and spread fear among a citizenry already traumatized by our mayor's death. Post
Meantime, we expect these reports to be Exhibit A in many media-ethics discussions in the years to come.
Then followed up with this comment:
Apparently, WAPT "broke" this rumor, and then Sam Hall followed up with a one-source story: Kenneth Stokes. Does The Clarion-Ledger seriously not know better than to do this!?!
New. Low.
Journalists are supposed to investigate rumors, not spread them. This is so irresponsible that I can barely see straight.
Let me help you out, Ms. Ladd. The story was not the so-called rumor. Not one reporter or editor thought the story was the alleged rumor for one second. Period. The story was...... an idiot politician getting in front of a bunch of cameras and making a complete fool out of himself. How about criticizing Stokes? Why don't you make that the story instead of conjuring up a flimsy story to attack your competitors? He is the one who made a complete spectacle of himself. This website even used the word "disgusting" to describe Stokes' tomfoolery and show how low Stokes would go. The story is Stokes, not any so-called rumor.
However, Calypso Louie is acting as an elder Stokes:
Chokwe, I’ve known him for nearly 40 years. He passed away about a week ago. His funeral will be on the 8th of this month. And he died under circumstances that we don’t know what it was. He became the mayor of Jackson, MS. And any of you who know Mississippi and know Jackson…a Black man being mayor and trying to do right by all the people is not a mayor that those people want.
He was in the hospital. He was on the phone doing mayoral business. He was laughing. He was in good spirits and within a few hours, he was dead. I understand that they’re guarding his body and I was so happy to learn that they are getting an independent pathologist because medical examiners…we can’t trust them when our babies are dead and they make it seem as if it were under ‘natural circumstances.’
They lie to protect the government. We have to have our own independent pathologists and whatnot to look after us, so I understand they’re trying to raise the money. I told them don’t even waste time, call me. I will give you whatever it takes to get our own forensic specialist to go in and make sure that our brother died under the right circumstances. Nation of Islam website with video
Ms. Ladd would be better served at aiming her fire at a certain radical segment in the black community such as Stokes and Farrakhan who promote this sick crap and believe it. The only reason this website published this information was to expose them to the ridicule they richly deserve and they deserve plenty.
13 comments:
"......He became the mayor of Jackson, MS. And any of you who know Mississippi and know Jackson…a Black man being mayor and trying to do right by all the people is not a mayor that those people want."
Let's see: the electorate of the Mayor in Jackson is, at a minimum, 82% black, so it only stands to reason that "a black man being mayor and trying to do right by all the people is not a mayor that those people want."
No twisting of logic there, right Louie?
Nice.
Nobody 'published rumors'. If anything was published, it was simply the suggestions made by Stokes. Stokes was the story. To ignore that, the press (and this blog site) would have been guilty of refusing to cover a black man representing black people with a theory about the death of a black mayor in a majority black capitol city in the poorest state in the nation.
Then the white woman at the Free Press could have a field day with THAT.
Does anyone else see a twist that intimates that Chokwe was the first black mayor of Jackson?
Who?
In an indirect way I kind of agree....nothing Kenny says is newsworthy......that's a better way to word it
um, rumor has it the duh mayor was kilt by Foghorn Leghorn..
All joking aside, would the doctors attending Mumba or the hospital put themselves in a position for a lawsuit? Hell no. Mumba wasn't kilt.
Never let it be said that Donna Ladd has any integrity.
Then after she realized the massive mistake that had been made but knowing she'd have to concede the same she quickly added:
Reports are conflicting, so hang tight for more information. And pray for him: Melton is clearly a very sick man at this point.
DonnaLadd
Jan 9 2009
A retraction was never issued.
Wow, apparently we were one heartbeat away from a personal appearance by Farrakhan himself....
"And any of you who know Mississippi and know Jackson…a Black man being mayor and trying to do right by all the people is not a mayor that those people want."
Wasn't Harvey mayor for twelve years total? When was he murdered? Melton was mayor for twelve years with several hospitalizations - he must have been murdered on election day AFTER losing his re-election bid.
Farakhan is a lying clown just like The Round Mound of Sound in Jackson.
Ladd is either so stupid as to miss the story or so deliberately misleading as to not be worth reading about.
Who ever said Ladd was a journalist?
Ms. Ladd's polemics apparently include a request that all media outlets, including the NYT, extend an apology to the City of Jackson and Lumumba's family for reporting the news.
NewYorkTimes
Few were shocked in this land walked by the ghosts of civil rights martyrs that a few days later the county supervisor, Kenneth Stokes, would blurt out on television: “Who killed the mayor?”
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