Thread by @DonnerKay

It’s good that quality media outlets are starting to dump horserace coverage and bad concept of even calling someone a “political reporter,” but damn, the harm we could’ve avoided had they admitted the obvious sooner.

Will Mississippi media keep up? editorandpublisher.com/stories/holdin…

I think the worst threat on this front are the powerful corporate, (white male) donors and board members, and white men running newsrooms in Mississippi. They *like* game of politics among people who look like them with little apparent regard for people, issues, sanity left out.

It’s journalism-dictionary definition of “old school”—and Mississippi has always been hamstrung by old-school, fake-middle, political-game obsessed journalism. I’ve never made a more serious statement: Needles will not move in Mississippi until this media approach is mothballed.

Also: There are no old-school newspaper glory days to return to in Mississippi, so the wealthy men pining for Rea Hederman or Charles Overby’s time at Clarion-Ledger on wrong track. It was also time of political horse races and abysmal inclusivity in media coverage, leadership.

Today’s journalism must not, for instance, reduce important education funding debates into red-vs-blue-if-we-could-only-woo-or-outsmart-them paradigms. That journalistic approach turns education into a horse race, and thus nothing will change. Same with Medicaid, all races.

Horse-race reporting is easiest (and laziest) kind, no doubt. Rely on handful of sources and political strategists for “scoops!,” write “both sides” piece, don’t bother w real-people voices, let (mostly white male) pols dominate. Talk about polls and war chests. Get page views.

Oh and throw all history and context down a memory hole, as if it all is starting over yet again, when it’s the same old same old systemic cycles every damn time.

Seriously, this journalistic model is broken at its core and devastating for Mississippi. Let it go, boys.

To be fair, there are white men in Mississippi who are really starting to get that impactful journalism for our state requires innovation and a new model. Folks who want to use history and context to get to a better place. Cheers to them. Others, though, still stuck in old ways.