FOCUS: Medicaid Expansion • Pauper’s Field Burials • State Legislature • National News • Fact Checks • #MSWelfare/TANF Scandal • Jackson Water • Race & Racism
Black and Brown women go missing every day in the United States. Black and Brown women die at the hands of partners every day in the United States. Yet, we’re rarely afforded the same media attention that white women get when these tragedies strike, particularly white women who are pretty, thin and at least middle class. Perhaps you’re wondering why. I’m not.Â
“What we need is innovation in Mississippi journalism, not nostalgia for the way it used to be done (and for whom),” Mississippi Free Press editor and co-founder Donna Ladd writes.
Acknowledging that journalism can inflict wounds unnecessarily, AP will no longer name those arrested for minor crimes when the news service is unlikely to cover the story’s subsequent developments. Often, such stories’ publication hinges on an odd or entertaining quirk, and the names are irrelevant. Yet, the ramifications can loom large and be long-lasting for the persons named.
The issue is not about who posted the photo. It has more to do with a lack of understanding about race and how patterns of systemic racism and other injustices toward ADOS communities amplify the need to think critically about race in America. The misinformation that exists in regards to ADOS extends well beyond our online media outlets.
The Mississippi State Department of Health says there is no evidence that a Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine caused a St. Martin, Miss., man to suffer a stroke. Still, a plethora of Mississippi television stations, owned by Gray Television in Atlanta, and at least one daily newspaper pushed that narrative without talking to a single health expert before publication.
Fox News is not the only source of racial division in America, nor is it the only influence on the racial views of white evangelicals. But with its millions of daily viewers, droves of whom are white evangelicals, Fox news is broadcasting a narrative about race that exerts a massive cultural influence.
Whichever candidate or party they support, many Latinos want media outlets to do more to go deeper on both the candidates’ ethics and the issues they say they represent.
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The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).