FOCUS: 2022 Elections • Housing & Evictions • #MSWelfare Scandal • Jackson Water • Abortion • Race & Racism • Policing • Incarceration
It took several days for the media to start centering and leading with House Speaker Philip Gunn’s position that a 12-year-old victim of incest must give birth to her relative’s child if impregnated. Ashton Pittman’s follow-up report centering the news went viral.
The Mississippi Free Press was the big winner at the 2022 Society for Professional Journalists’ Diamond Awards in Little Rock, Ark, on June 30, 2022. Sixteen members of the MFP team took 15 honors total, eight of them first-place awards for journalism published in 2021.
Dr. Brian LaPierre, history professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, writes about the history of hooliganism in Russia. The term, he writes, has been weaponized to “demonize its domestic and international critics,” including Russian protesters against the war.
“So many people tell us that we represent the kind of excellence and honesty they didn’t quite think is possible in Mississippi,” Kimberly Griffin writes. “Myth-making and half-truths serve the powerful and encourage the powerless to lobby against themselves or just plain give up. I’m asking you not to give up on Mississippi.”
“This newsroom all of you helped build is, quite literally, a dream team,” Donna Ladd writes. “Now we’re ready to add another leader to it who wants what we have to offer and to grow with the MFP as all of these amazing human beings—all leaders, to a person—have done.”
Mississippi Free Press’ contextual and follow-up coverage of D’Monterrio Gibson’s allegations about Brookhaven men shooting at him is an example of how impactful journalism should work. The goal is not a “scoop,” Editor Donna Ladd writes.
Long-time newspaper editor Bonny Parham had a consistent presence and a personal stake in her community. Amory, Miss., was her home, and she documented its happenings for 40 years, from the 1960s to 2000. The perfectionist had to do good work not only for the newspaper’s survival but also because she needed the meager small-town newspaper salary for her and her son to eat and have a roof over their heads. Her photos live past her and now document the town through her eyes.
If you’re already an MFP VIP Club member, you’ll know that our founding editor Donna Ladd launches a series of writing talks on Tuesday, Jan. 25. This talk series is an excellent opportunity to hear words of wisdom and inspiration from one of the best in the country. She won’t be reading or editing any of your work, but her talks about her own writing journey and what she’s learned along the way are always inspiring.
Our new journalistic sheriff is on Mississippi criminal-justice beat to make sure that this problem, and related ones, stay front and center until solutions are engaged. No more closing of the eyes, kicking the problem down the road and media ignoring it. Reporter Kayode Crown is determined to not allow that to happen, and as of Jan. 15, he is a full-time reporter at the Mississippi Free Press.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
125 S. Congress Street #1324
Jackson, MS 39201
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601-362-6121
The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).