Was just reading Hampton's editorial from the other day about "Peace on Earth now, but politics on horizon" (aren't headlines capitalized?)

Um-mm... Mr. Hampton do you read what you write? Or is this a proclamation that you will begin to practice what you preach?

First his rules for the media:

Rules for the media:

We should do our homework.

We should be fair, be thorough and be respectful. We should get it right and admit it when we don't.

Don't fall for the sleaze. Don't report rumors and gossip, even if the competition does.

Don't call names. A reader rightly chastised me last week for an editorial he considered name-calling. Point well-taken.

"Don't report rumors and gossip..." You mean like when your paper says that Harvey Johnson and Chief Moore were manipulating the crime statistics in Jackson without any facts or investigation otherwise?!?

"Don't fall for the sleaze." I think ignoring the past and blindly supporting Melton qualifies as "falling for the sleaze!"

"Get it right? Admit it when you don't?" I'll defer to Ms. Ladd and iTodd on this one! Lordy, did he copy this from a Southern Living editor or something?

Mr. Hampton also gave us voters some advice. Of course, Mr. Hampton is also a voter, so maybe he should think about his advice.

Rules for voters:

Judge a candidate's conduct in the campaign. It will most likely mirror his or her conduct in office.

Don't pay attention to rumors. These are sometimes well-organized and orchestrated campaigns. Stick to the facts and know the source.

Judge a candidate on character more than on self-interest. You want somebody who will make a decision on what's right rather than what is politically expedient.

Don't support sleazy tactics. It's not a game. Tactics matter. We all lose when unethical behavior is tolerated just to win.

Need I even elaborate on this? If any one organization in this City is guilty of the violating the "Rules" Mr. Hampton has given us, the candidates, and the media it is his freaking paper, the Clarion Ledger. He has some nerve to try and tell us what rules we should follow when he is who should be offering up an apology to the citizens. It is he and his cronies editors (all men) who hid the Meridian lawsuit, blindly reported hyperbole as fact during the election, ignored the progress of Jackson, and ignored the declining crime rates so they could get Frank Melton into office.

Judge a candidate on character... Don't support sleazy tactics...

You know what Mr. Hampton? It is easier to forgive a preacher who cheated on their spouse than to forgive the editorial board at your paper for the crappy reporting on Jackson your paper does. You and the Ledge are the number one reason why Jackson is years behind other municipalities.

I could go on; but, I'm sure others here can relate and rant.

Agreed, it's arrogance of the highest order, considering his paper's record. Let's just say that Jacksonians don't need Athat paper, or its edit-boyz, telling us how to do a damn thing.

Or, maybe it's his list of resolutions of what all his paper needs to change because he realized how badly his paper has screwed up in this city—and that people know it.

Admit it? Why haven't they run an apology yet for the endorsement of Melton and all the things they did not report—many of which are sitting in their own archives—about Melton, not to mention Mr. Bluntson???

Too little, too late, Hampton. Folks are onto to y'all. Pretending to have the answers from on high won't solve The Clarion-Ledger's vast credibility problems.

Not only that, but Hampton never felt the need to even reply to my email asking him to change the poll so that it didn't (misleadingly) refer to the Foley and Haggard things as "homosexual scandals." I mean, he obviously knows exactly what his paper is doing wrong, and he obviously approves. This list of resolutions is so obviously far from his own agenda that it's laughable.


Cheers,

TH

Yes, and remember that Hampton is the one who told Todd that MIPA couldn't write a letter disputing the now-departed publisher John Newhouse's allegations about us printed in a full-page ad in The Clarion-Ledger. What kind of shop are the edit-boyz running over there?

Looking back, this pearl of wisdom from Hampton is particularly hilarious:

Judge a candidate's conduct in the campaign. It will most likely mirror his or her conduct in office.

Yes, Melton lied during the campaign, and he lies in office. Worse, Clarion-Ledger editors were privvy to that fact because Melton was lying in court documents about leaking a faulty document about MBN agents to The Clarion-Ledger. Then, The Clarion-Ledger didn't tell their readers during the campaign, instead enthusiastically endorsing him. That has to be one of the most disturbing and irresponsible journalistic lapses I've ever witnessed.

Maybe this column is a poorly disguised mea culpa, after all. Maybe he's trying to slip a disguised apology by corporate in Virginia in the form of advice to other media.

Probably not, but that's the best you could say about it. If Hampton wrote this with a straight face, I am speechless at those editors' inability to recognize how bad their paper has become. Of course, maybe that's why the same editors are still in place there. Who knows? I'd expected better out of Hampton, but he's become the biggest disappointment over there to me—precisely because he seems to be squandering potential to be a positive force in the city. As it is, his columns read like farces, and as if he's the lead editor in charge of covering up the paper's goofs.

I like what he writes about ignoring self interest.

At the risk of sounding juvenile here, I do have a self interest in a candidates position on crime, taxes, and services. I have this self interest in not being robbed, raped or murdered. Silly me.

Judge a candidate on character more than on self-interest

That is kind of a bizarre statement when you think about it. It is in our "self-interest" to choose candidates with good character. Too bad The Clarion-Ledger didn't realize that when they endorsed.

Hampton is nothing if not binary.