A reporter at the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting might want to actually investigate before she writes a story.
"Reporter" Anne Marie Cunningham told the horrible story of a Canton woman who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. The article appeared last night on the Clarion-Ledger's website. Article. Unfortunately, Ms. Cunningham stated as fact:
Oh really? Perhaps Ms. Cunningham should investigate the law. Section 97-3-7(3) spells out the crime of misdemeanor domestic violence in Mississippi. The sentence is a fine of no more than $500 and/or a prison sentence of up to six months in the county jail. If the reporter had bothered to keep reading the Mississippi Code, she might have discovered that contrary to what she reported as fact, Mississippi does indeed have a felony domestic violence statute.
Section 97-3-7(4)(a) of the Mississippi Code states someone convicted of aggravated violence faces the following penalties:
Upon conviction, the defendant shall be punished by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for not less than two (2) nor more than twenty (20) years.
The aggravated domestic violence charge applies when the abuser attempts to cause serious bodily injury, use a deadly weapon, or strangle the victim. The sentence classifies the crime as a felony.
Section (4)(b) enhances the minimum penalty if the abuser has two prior convictions for domestic violence in the previous seven years:
(b) Aggravated domestic violence; third. A person is guilty of aggravated domestic violence third who, at the time of the commission of that offense, commits aggravated domestic violence as defined in this subsection (4) and who has two (2) prior convictions within the past seven (7) years, whether against the same or another victim, for any combination of aggravated domestic violence under this subsection (4) or simple domestic violence third as defined in subsection (3) of this section, or substantially similar offenses under the laws of another state, of the United States, or of a federally recognized Native American tribe. Upon conviction for aggravated domestic violence third, the defendant shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than ten (10) nor more than twenty (20) years.
Section (5) further enhances the sentence upon a fourth domestic violence conviction:
upon conviction, be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than fifteen (15) years nor more than twenty (20) years.
The victim's consent is no longer required to prosecute felony domestic violence.
Mississippi does indeed have a problem with domestic violence as this website has reported on numerous occasions. However, the problem is not the law but the application of the law by prosecutors and judges who don't take domestic violence seriously.
Miss Cunningham should investigate the law before she plays to stereotypes. Unfortunately for Mississippi, the reporter tried to make it seem Mississippi operates in ignorance as she wrote in ignorance.
She owes a correction and apology to her readers.
Kingfish note: Does anyone want to guess where the reporter is from?
41 comments:
The narrative is all that matters. Anything they can do to blame Republicans is what's on the menu. They'll never retract it.
@7:51 is correct. Instead of investigating and writing a story on the results of the investigation, now reporters know the results they want, and investigate only things that fit their agenda (if they investigate at all).
A good example is Anna Wolfe of Mississippi Today writing about the Jackson water situation. Her bio at Mississippi Today designates her as "an investigate reporter writing about poverty and economic justice." So why did she even write a story about water infrastructure? Infrastructure is about engineering, construction, management, maintenance, employee qualifications, etc. As it turns out, Ms. Wolfe's story was extremely well-written if you were interested in a work of fiction. Lee Child, Stephen King, John Grisham, etc. couldn't have done it better. But if you were looking for fact-based information about why Jackson's water system is failing, you got nothing from her article. Quite frankly, while I assume she is a nice person and is certainly talented with her storytelling, she should have been fired for the article (but there is zero accountability in journalism, which is a story for another day). Meanwhile, Kingfish was getting the factual information on the Jackson water situation and letting the facts and truth speak for themselves.
This is your typical "confirmation bias" in journalism.
Still waiting for Megan West to apologize for her faux Annandale HOA story. It could happen...
The majority of "reporters" today, have no idea what investigative journalism is -- but, it sounds impressive, so what the heck. They've had 4 years of posting unmitigated opinion hate pieces that were published regardless of the facts to support one political narrative or the other. It's all bought and paid-for.
I'll tell you another little tidbit: When police are called to these domestic disputes, they make it real clear that both parties can be arrested and generally, magically, people start to get along better.
problems of poverty and economic disadvantage are real.
but relief and solutions aren’t coming from “white saviors” -it starts with places like Jackson Public Schools stepping up and providing an adequate education (not a D or F level..). community leaders stepping up and make gang culture a thing of the past. churches stepping up to help single mothers and pre school age children.
money can be thrown at it-already is. look at JPS spending per student.
poverty and all these problems didn’t happen overnight. no one alive today will see it resolved. but at some point people in the community have to start the change.
for the record. 50 yr old white dude who had physically and mentally abusive parents and welfare fed me. life after a certain point is choice. if you have to, position yourself for success and climb a ladder out of the basement. may be slow but it’s your own journey
No reasonable reader would read that article as "playing to stereotypes." No reasonable reader would read it as a smear of this state. JJ and the preceding commentors aren't happy unless they are being mistreated. Since they are rarely mistreated in real life, they seek out vicarious mistreatment or simply make it up. It's sick.
If you were as outraged about the horrible death of a woman as you are about this journalistic oversight I'd respect you more.
8:16, I beg to differ. Any thief, or person of violence, is not a nice person. A lie isn't harmless. The person that produces the lie has stolen the truth from you, regardless of how good their intentions may have been. It is extremely rare that a reputation isn't damaged by a lie. There was a time when the ruining of a person's reputation was a serious matter, not so anymore. That is evidenced by some comments on this board. The liar has made a destructive action, or a violent move, against who ever is on the receiving end of the lie. This could be either directly, or indirectly. After all, all a person has is their reputation.
Shoddy second rate reporting in Mississippi? Is anyone surprised?! There is no media outlet within the state that is worth the time to read anything that comes from it. There is no accountability for "reporters" these days. Sensationalism and drama sells. The truth and facts, many times, do not matter.
Oh really.
Rush Limbaugh said it right when he said most journalists were “drive by journalists” meaning they would fire off a lie and then run away. Never to be held accountable. Want to know why people distrust the media? Here is reason #75273848
How will I ever live? Some anonymous poster on a comment board says they don't respect me. Would you like for me to tell you where you can put your respect?
The Clarion-Liar is wrong? Shock!
@8:16 Anna Wolfe is nothing more than the mouthpiece for certain political officials who need at times to push a narrative on a variety of topics. She passes herself off as an expert on various topics and while she appears to be a talented writer ("storyteller", as you put it is a better description), she does little more than piece together mischaracterizations and half-truths (also known as lies) to further the narratives certain folks want told.
One day not long ago, Mississippi was blessed to have top notch, professional reporters. These reporters would have gotten the entire story before publishing and they would have checked and double checked their facts. Today, we have easily triggered children who are more interested in feeding their egos and promoting their Twitter feeds than they are in reporting an accurate story. Unfortunately, the low standard of Mississippi reporting is just a microcosm of reporting nationwide. There is very little professionalism and zero accountability.
8:40 am is correct.
Note : This site is designed for clicks which = money to KF…..so it’s someone expected that he needs shock and drama to move traffic.
Not every journalistic error is an attack on anyone….sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
What do you expect? We live in the poorest and most ignorant / uneducated state. This is par for the course.
There is a price to be paid for our access to hundreds of sources of "information". That price is our own ability to investigate and differentiate between basic fact and fiction. News sources now sell themselves to certain special interests that they indirectly promote to gain a certain share of the commercial market. That promotion supercedes any notion of accuracy. Who cares about accuracy? You don't make money by just being accurate. It's a sad fact, but it's modern reality. Learn to fact-check. It's your only hope.
another fake news story from the feminist left. proving yet again , they love their propaganda BS.
So a reporter comes down from New York, doesn't read the law, smears the state by saying Mississippi doesn't have a felony domestic violence law for the first or second offense, and if I point it out, I'm doing it for clicks.
Guess you like being portrayed as a wife-beating redneck.
Who cares about accuracy?
Before the field leveling that came with the internet the news wasn't accurate nor without bias. We've never been told the whole truth nor provided with only the unvarnished facts.
@ 8:45 AM - You went off topic just to condemn others. Bless your heart.
KF
She came from where???
New Yawk City!
Get the rope!
You have got to be kidding me?
You aren’t even from Mississippi…..and now you feign some type of outrage at those carpet bagging Yankees?
Anna Wolfe is actually a pretty good writer.
8:55 AM
I'm open to suggestions, but people who live in glass houses shouldn't cast stones.
This isn’t directed at any specific writer/reporter, but there is a big difference between being a good writer and being a good reporter.
@10:58 I agree. She is an extremely talented writer. But she usually writes fiction. She is a great writer, but a poor reporter. Because truth and facts do matter.
this is the type of shit you get when you let cultural marxists, and cosmopolitan globalists, take control of your media.
I agree with some of the commenters above. Kingfish is trying to play “gotcha” journalism.
Sounds like there are two levels of abuse. Run-of-the-mill and aggravated, the second of which requires an attempt to inflict “serious” bodily harm. “Serious” bodily harm is not defined in the language quoted in this article and neither is the standard for proving it. The bar might be high enough that virtually all but the most serious cases are treated as run-of-the-mill abuse, which is, as the reporter said, treated as a misdemeanor for the first defense. If, realistically, all but the most serious abuse cases are treated as misdemeanors, then what’s the (unfabricated) problem with what she said?
Admittedly, I haven’t done the legal research on how high the bar is for elevating an abuse case from run-of-the-mill to aggravated. And I’m not going to take time out of my day to do that because posting an anonymous comment on Jackson jambalaya is only so important. And from the comments, I have a feeling that facts don’t matter to your base anyway. However, if you (Kingfish) are going to write an article in an attempt to tarnish another’s reputation, maybe you should close the loopholes in your article so that people don’t have to get on WestLaw to see if something is actually there.
The world where only reporters who write for entities not named Jackson Jambalaya put words together for stories to push agendas must have a total population of 1.
The story was about a woman who was shot in the head. I would call that pretty friggin serious bodily harm.
The writer said there was only misdemeanor domestic violence in Mississippi. Absolutely not true and you damn well know it.
Loopholes? I posted the code for you to read.
1:23 PM
You heard it here folks. Getting shot in the head isn't "Aggrivated serious bodily harm".
I don't want this comment to be about writers today who claim to be journalists. Mississippi does have a pretty good law concerning domestic abuse. The law clearly states law enforcement SHALL make an arrest. I've been in this 25 years and my people will tell you they have no choice in the matter. If they have evidence of domestic violence people go to jail and we press the charges. And I do mean plural when I say people if the case shows that evidence. I can't control what the court does but I rest at night.
I once read somewhere that Walter Cronkite, upon hearing they would start to have an HOUR of nightly news, said: "Will we have enough news to fill the hour?"
And thus began the advent of creative writing and the present state of journalism that is NOT reporting, but rather the creation of conflict as bait for readers.
KF isn't perfect, and does have to eat - but he's the ONLY thing even close to journalism in Mississippi. The rest are total sellouts.
Sounds like ...
Admittedly, I haven’t done the legal research ...
... I have a feeling that facts don’t matter to your base anyway.
Another troll who admits to knowing nothing stopping by to pay the bills. Thanks!
There is a very long gap between the error in reporting here and an intentional misrepresentation to portray the entire state as full of "wife beating rednecks." Kingfish bridges that gap with the rote white persecution complex that has made the moguls of right-wing infotainment into billionaires and amoral conservative propagandists into martyrs and celebrities. To paraphrase Charles Simic, the new American Dream is to become extremely rich and still be regarded as a victim. Kingfish and his like are so soaked in that mentality, they no longer know contentment without the self-negation of seething, bloodfaced resentment.
@6:51
Now imagine if you replaced "conservative" in your diatribe with "dude in a dress"
A misdemeanor DV conviction is all that is required to lose firearms. See Lautenberg Amendment.
9:28 Thanks for proving my point.
10:58- Yes. Anna is a great FICTION writer. Just like her idol Donna.
Say a lie enough times…well, you should know the rest.
"Today, we have easily triggered children". . .
Precisely. Where have all the adults gone?
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