Jackson Jambalaya

Terrible awful news. Jason ROCKED.

Taylor might have, as you say Kingfish, improved their digital numbers but I'm not buying your opinion for a second that he was committed to journalism beyond giving his commitment lip service. He may have been a staff favorite, as Publishers go, but the staff itself is a weak dilution of its former self.

They don't do journalism over there unless, of course, you consider featuring recalls of moldy donuts journalism.

He won't be missed.

They have done some great journalism lately. The MDOC series was outstanding and likely led to or at least sped up Epps' demise. They even got a condescending response from him.
On Sunday there was a great story about an drug enforcement agent abusing his power.

The staff isn't what it used to be, many greats are gone and it's smaller, but they have some true journalists on the staff now. They deserve some support. Most of the naysayers probably don't even read the paper.

Is that you Jerry?

The MDOC series did not lead or speed up Epps' demise. Bullshit.

Mitchell et al were caught completely unaware by Epps' arrest. Mitchell wanted badly to take credit and the C-L interjected references to his unrelated work in every story after Epps was arrested but their series had NOTHING to do with Epps getting bagged.

True journalists on staff now? LOL Yeah, right.

Fly weight paper, anyway. The sports is so bear slanted as to be a sick joke. If N/O can't warrant a daily how can Bagdad?

Who gives one whit about their digital footprint or his backpack and his trendy gimmick of 'pitching his tent' right among the troops. They probably even used the same latrine and he didn't require the first parking place inside the wroght iron 8-foot high fencing around the building. Next we'll be told he rode a bicycle to work, was last to leave each day and ate at Keifers most days with a group of concerned citizens who wanted an audience with the publisher.

After decades of doing so, we still 'take the paper' and it's still impossible to call somebody local about delivery service. And if we wanted USA Today, we'd have subscribed to it.

That said, it's mighty gracious of Kingfish to speak well of the departing gentleman. I'm in hopes that Kingfish will get an invite to the going-away-party and will be glad to loan him my fondue set since everybody 'pose to bring a dish (chips and sweet gherkins do not count).

On a positive note, those new titles sound pretty elevated and important. Lord have Mercy! Ceo, President, Publisher, Keeper Of The Black Book. Makes me wonder why he chose to stop off in this revolving-door, mud puddle on his way to stardom.

I second the motion on Mitchell being blindsided by the Epps story. His focus was on prison conditions, but I'm sure he'll gladly accept an award that somehow gives him credit for something for which he did nothing. Clarion has been and continues to be a small town rag that prefers gossip and innuendo over reporting real news. Kingfish kicks their butt daily with local news.

Clarion Ledger does still have some good journalists on their staff; however, the problem being, there are far too few of them. The majority of the ones that were let go were really good ones. And, then they keep Jerry Mitchell - shaking my head over that one. He obviously knows where the bodies are buried to be able to stay while they rid the paper of true journalists. The current Clarion Ledger is only a mere shadow of its former self.

Actually I would somewhat disagree. They got rid of some dinosaurs that needed to go. They need to bring back the copy editors but the editing is better. Emily Le Coz is pretty good and probably the best researcher they have had in a long time. They knew about Epps and his upcoming indictment but sometimes you don't disclose until it happens so as not to ruin the case or tip off suspects. Therese is pretty good when they let her cover crime. She's made me step up my game on crime. Overall, the reporters are better than they were five years ago. Don't believe me? Go back and see some of my early posts on the CL, especially Chris Joyner. There has been noticeable improvement.

KF, Jimmy Gates is still there.

Rats always jump off of a sinking ship.

Gates is ok when he covers a live event. Also is better covering the capital. Research required? different story.

Emily Le Coz is pretty good ...

She's just attractive to you and those Twitter pics of her toes (a la Ladd) put you over the edge.

Really read her analysis pieces KF without your blinders on. Le Coz is the queen of hyperbole and unsubstantiated exaggeration.

Apel made you step up your game? Does Apel have a business to run? Does Apel not eat if she doesn't achieve ad sales? Holy shit man, you are comparing grapefruits to tiny crab apples.

What the C-L has now is a bunch of "journalists" without nearly the real-world experience of the departed cadre but one with all their former brethren's arrogance and attitude.

But maybe you believe Taylor's wholly fabricated garbage that he conducted a nationwide search for an Exec Editor and found Sam Hall as the best qualified.

If JJ closed shop tomorrow how many stories on Hinds County corruption would the C-L run?

I enjoy their choices on the website. I can choose which articles are of interest to me, read them, and then go about my way. I don't agree with every viewpoint in the editorials and some of them literally make me want to puke, but what those editorials presented were true voices of Mississippi. I also enjoy Marshall Ramsey's cartoons.

I'd heat up the investigative journalism and leave the localized editorials. I really enjoyed the prison piece. I don't think it led to any indictments.

In my worldview, the press is charged with being watchdogs of government; weather it's a crazy candidate or an out of control government agency or municipality.

I enjoyed the JFP untill it turned from a classical liberalist paper to a pushing political agendas paper. Some of that goes on here, but at we're least allowed to dissent if we disagree with an issue or see it differently.

But in all honesty I enjoy JJ more than the rest.

TO: 6:21 PM

The only reason the Clarion Ledger reported on the Oxford House mess was because it was being discussed extensively on this website and NextDoor and on our neighborhood listervs days before the first newspaper mention. Then they only ripped off what they read online and reported on it. No different than what the TV stations do except they send people out to take some gratuitous video footage. Clarion-Ledger reporters troll NextDoor discussions to generate stories nearly every week. Anthony Warren does more in-depth reporting than the Clarion-Ledger. But if I got robbed, raped and killed in my home tomorrow they'd send a reporter for that and then drop the story when the Hinds County justice system botched the rest. I subscribe to the Clarion Ledger and your boosterism Mr. Kingfish doesn't ring true to the newspaper that lands in my driveway.

Hmmmmmmmm.... I didn't even know Jacktown still had a paper, with all the huge "educated" reader base living there!

In my worldview, the press is charged with being watchdogs of government;

How'd the C-L do on Airwave?

The public safety and emergency responder radio system is so f*%ked up that Jackson has had to move to an emergency backup system and the other municipalities in HindsCo don't know if from one hour to the next their officers and first responders will be able to call for help in a real emergency situation. Did you even know that before sharing your happy spin?

How's that for you? Your house could be on fire and the Hinds system is so screwed up that nobody receives the dispatch to put it out. Don't doubt me, IT IS THAT BAD. If it wasn't for some spare parts Hinds is buying from another county that is mothballing their antiquated system the HindsCo radio system would be flatlining right now. Do you even know what that means?

So how good has the C-L done on reporting all about the Airwave ripoff and Robert Graham's extensive role in the fiasco? What have they done to expose the corruption? Because Graham's graft, incompetence and malfeasance is at the very center of the problem.

Screw Jerry Mitchell and his MDOC series, what is Jackson's paper of record doing to expose Robert Graham and Airwave? What has the C-L done to expose Graham's repeated and documented nationwide serial impersonation as that of a sworn Jackson Police Officer?

Appreciate your worldview and cherish the ability to depart from reality while gandering at Marshall's wonderful little cartoons but how does that stop the Hinds and Jackson corruption cesspool from filling with more fecal waste?

I really enjoy reading stories from Therese Apel and Emily Le Coz.

At least they were the historical record of their demise.

7:52 did you actually take 15 minutes out of your "life" to write all of that. Good lord goober get laid and a semblance of some type actual life.

So how much did they invest in investigative research?

Sam, you best realize what is left of the CL - it MUST have ads. Otherwise, you are going to find yourself begging folks to deliver your papers out of the back of Uber cabbies.

Your printing presses are an albatross. Write them down, figure out how to make money as a valued content provider. Oh, and ask your parent Co. to figure out how to invest in subscription model like WSJ before they toss you off to the hyenas.

The C-l continues to shrink. Print numbers are down and they don't care. Print is not in their future. Three circulation people were let go this week. The presses are now in a separate company. Gannett handed off the presses and kept the media. The presses now have to hunt or starve. They were handed off with no cash following them. The C-l presses are old (dating to the Hedermans) and parts are hard to find, many having to be tooled. Copy editors are ancient history. Therese Appel is a good reporter, but a sloppy writer. Her continued misuse of the word 'alleged" is an example of why editors are needed. The institutional and community knowledge of the departed gray-haired editors has been lost. It's just a matter of time before Gannett completes its announced decision to go totally digital. They refer to themselves as a media marketing company. Got that? a media marketing company.

I guess all the old people like my momma who lived to see what Jimmy Ward and Lydel Sims had to say every day are either warehoused somewhere or under shade trees. She subscribed for seven decades to the Jackson paper and The Commercial Appeal. And she clipped almost every column of those two guys as well as Paul Harvey. And my Dad, rest his soul, a military man, would shit his pants if he opened a Clarion Ledger today.

Them days is gone. Sadly.

The copy editing is atrocious. Summer interns cycling out of Donner's place could do a better job.

I put the over/under on C-L leaving the print edition at 30 months and dropping statewide circulation/delivery 18. Places like JJ will continue to outwork them and gain market share.

JJ, why don't you drop (or go easy on) the Jackassery, pick up one of the C-L's young talents, double your output and increase your market? It's got to be about time, right?

I think Sam Hall deserves a lot of the credit for their aggressive digital posture. I think he’d tell you they were caught flat footed when the digital wave hit, and they played catchup for a long time. But he’s made some good hires. Pender and Chandler bring a lot.

If the Clarion Ledger goes all digital it will go out of business within two years.

C-L lost my subscription when the paper started to look like a USA Today insert. The website lost my eyeballs when they decided to limit access without a subscription. There are plenty of other local news sources available:

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/29269176/jpd-officer-injured-in-crash-to-be-released-from-hospital?clienttype=generic

I rest my case.

3:40 - you can use any web browser in incognito/private mode to get around paywalls like the CL has. It's not like you will find a lot of great content on the CL, but it's a good trick to know nonetheless.

Kingfish says, "Actually, I somewhat disagree." What a whimp ass comment.

More please, on how to 'get around' the issue of not being a paid subscriber. Can't even read an obituary from some far away city after googling the death. This is insane. Who wants to (or will) subscribe to a remote rag in order to read an obit?

Most web browsers have a private mode that makes it appear as you have never visited CL before. Google Chrome is the easiest to use as you can right click on a CL link in JJ and there is an option to open up in an incognito tab.

CL has begun to force you to answer a survey question to read content by masking but easy enough to complete.

Some big time journalism here Kingfish.

In 1978 or so, ...
.....
Vail wrecked his Honda motorcycle in Riverside, winding up in the hospital, she said. “A lot of skin came off his body.”

Discharged, he returned to her condo in Costa Mesa to recover, ...[Proof?]
.....
The Clarion-Ledger was unable to find a record of that marriage in Mexico, but did find a record of Vail's 1978 divorce from Carolyn.
.....Weeks later, Christiansen discovered she was pregnant.

The baby arrived stillborn, she said. [Proof?]

No doubt the Sam R Hall "edited" Clarion-Ledger is so defective they will run hard with this story tomorrow, probably front page, even though it is filled with the same weak ass unsubstantiated sort of reporting that Hall claims disallowed the Clarion-Ledger from reporting anything about Thad Cochran's infidelity and his multi-decade long globetrotting of special assistant, now wife, Kay Webber to foreign countries near and wide where Kay was conveniently and frequently mistaken as Mrs. Thad Cochran.

Jason Taylor wasn't committed to journalism. He was only here to say the right things, do the right things like budgeting and targeted layoffs, kiss Ben Allen's prodigious ass, blow smoke to the eroding C-L readership(i.e. nationwide search for Hall BS) and bide his time with a landing spot while he found a new job and escape route for his family from the Gannett sinking ship.

Gannett is only sending another stooge to replace the stooge that gamed them, and the community, for an exit plan.

I was a slow learner, I suppose, but, when David Hampton took over and ran the place into the ditch, I paid attention. What was the name of that goober who lived up at Lena and had an American Indian name who called himself a champion of the earth? Gannett let that stupid urchin run wild for five years. And now I see he's back.

Jim "Pathfinder" Ewing. PhD in 'Edible Plants', Masters degrees in 'Twilight Toking', 'Building Habitable Huts From Styrofoam Takeout Boxes' and 'Hide-Stretching Your Way To A Tighter Drum'.

He seems to have relocated from Lena to Pelahatchie. Ohmmmmmmm.