I spent some time catching up on all things Mississippi across the media spectrum yesterday and what I found was rich. Let’s start with some hypocrisy:
Non-profit journalism ~ Wyatt Emmerich
Emmerich’s piece reveals to his readers the new not for profit kid on the Mississippi Media scene, Mississippi Today as he pans the nonprofit news model:
For decades, traditional media outlets have struggled to resist editorial pressure from advertisers. This pressure will be far more intense from direct contributors.
It is at that point that I started giggling because Emmerich revealed the basic weakness in both journalistic business models. That said there is no denying Patsy Brumfield and others did a fantastic job covering state government in detail over the past legislative session, a very worthy journalistic beat which lends itself well to what is called “enterprise reporting”.
It is that bit of sunshine shown by Mississippi Today that I think has given the far right wing media heartburn because there is a new kid on the block that does not necessarily drink the Mississippi GOP Koolaid and when this past legislative session was stripped naked with the specter of GOP legislators being told how to vote via text message it was not a pretty sight. Add to that the fact Mississippi Today is a new competitor to the for-profit outlets so there is going to be a natural tension between some of the market participants. It is rich. Continue reading “What we have here is an old fashioned media brawl, let’s jump in”