Anna Wolfe’s Backchannel series wins a Pulitzer…
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I hereby nominate JacksonJambalaya to be considered for his nobullshittery expose’ on the Jackson Mayor’s water n’ sewer crawfish pie file’ gumbo
Well deserved.
They will become an even more powerful voice when they can see past some clear bias and begin to expose politicians of all stripes evenly because many, many of them are lying crooks who deserve to be outed.
Again, congrats on a well deserved honor.
They will become an even more powerful voice when they can see past some clear bias and begin to expose politicians of all stripes evenly because many, many of them are lying crooks who deserve to be outed.
Again, congrats on a well deserved honor.
I look forward to Tater inviting her to the Capital for some type of ceremony**
Who says we can't recruit students nationally?
Wolfe is a Washington native that moved across the country to attend our fine institution and goes on to win a Pulitzer before she turns 30...
@STATEgrad04 this is what you share with your friend in Jacksonville who's daughter is considering Ole Miss. Tell him she can get a real education or go to Oxford and have her greatest career accomplishment be when she becomes the social secretary at the Pontotoc Junior League ten years after she drops out her junior year and marries Cornwallis Buttermilk IV when he flunks out and goes home to work for his father's insurance agency.
Congratulations to her. She deserved by doig what is lacking in journalism today, good old investigative journalism, digging and finding the facts. It ain't over yet. Now that the feds are involved ol Tater Tot won't be able to quash anymore investigations, no matter where they lead.
Anna gave an update and answered readers questions not long ago.
Anna Wolfe answers questions about welfare scandal - Mississippi Today
Anna gave an update and answered readers questions not long ago.
Anna Wolfe answers questions about welfare scandal - Mississippi Today
Donate a little bit to Mississippi Today....it pays for objective reporting.
They're not objective at all. She did a good job on this scandal. But they completely whitewash everything that goes on in the City of Jackson local government. If this had been a Democrat scandal, you'd have never heard a peep from them about it. Again, that does not change the fact they've done a great job covering this scandal.
From what I’ve seen in the past from Mississippi Today, it isn’t objective. I agree with @patdog, excellent investigative reporting on this but if it were Democrats I highly doubt you would have seen this.
You don’t think a $77 million scandal wouldn’t have made news if it were democrats misspending the money? This isn’t your run of the mill story. It’s incredibly hard to speculate on that as well because republicans are in total control of every aspect of state government and have been for a good long time. I’m not sure you could find an example in the last 20 years or so where a democrat could be in a position with enough power to lose that much money at the state level.
That is not her job. She did her job well. Now we will find out some more truth about justice in MS.
We all have some bias. Except, Tucker and Fox News. They are absolutely fair, balanced and unbiased.
The reality is that Phil Bryant should be in prison. If this state has balance politically, he would be.
Not in Mississippi Today it wouldn't. More money than that has likely been lost to fraud and/or abuse locally right in their own backyard and it's nothing but excuses and blame the Republican state officials from them.
You may or may not be right about it being covered if it were a democratic scandal but the fact is, it’s not. And democrats don’t have the power in the state to have a scandal of this size. I could be very wrong, but I have to believe a scandal of this size would be covered regardless of the party affiliation.
Just a few scandals right here in Jackson that are bigger than the welfare scandal that could stand some Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporting:
The Water Crisis and scandals that led up to it (this is at least 2 separate scandals if not more)
The Convention & Visitor Center
The Farish Street Project
The 1% sales tax for infrastructure improvement.
The garbage collection scandal.
No outlet today is free from claims of bias. I was just pointing out it is mighty difficult to say it wouldn't have been covered the same if it were a democrat because democrats haven't been in charge of much for a very long time. That's speculation. I imagine if it were democrats they would still have their eyes on a pretty big prize for their outlet.
With regard to Jackson, I don't really know that fraud or abuse is the issue. It is decades long neglect of infrastructure. If you have a tip, I am sure they or Magnolia Tribune or Jackson Jambalaya or any news entity would be interested in following up on it. If you think there is something there, file some public records requests and dig into it. You'd immediately discredit the mayor and that might be able to get rid of him.
I think these have been covered over the years and none are near the scope of the welfare issue. I mean the justice department has never gotten involved in one. All of these may have been a bad idea, but I don't think it is nearly as bad as taking federal money and sending it to friends aroudn the state - and not even for lawful purposes.
(Are you upset the convention and visitor center is not making the money they thought it would? Or, do you think there is some sort of fraud?
How long has it been since Farish Street project was even a thing? As far as I know, it was an idea that never got off the ground with significant money.
I think the 1% sales tax has a commission on top of it that prevents certain expenditures.
The garbage collection has been extensively covered in a number of arenas - seems to be a political fight between the council and mayor, not a willful misuse of money.)
Another angle to the welfare issue is "privatization" or block grant sort of mentality. This generally means politicians routing contracts and money to supporters, collecting campaign funds from that routing, and then repeating the cycle.
Mississippi Today is not neutral at all. If they were they would not report the mess in Jackson the way they do.
The federal government is literally running the municipal water system because the municipal government failed to run it and collect the necessary revenue to do so.
And thats before you dig into the Seimens contract and see who got rich off that.
We will just have to agree to disagree that any of those listed about Jackson are near the scope of this welfare scandal. For the record, I don’t disagree that Jackson needs to be investigated. However, Jackson is one place that has its residents impacted because they keep electing incompetent officials. This welfare deal impacts the whole state and is a ton of money that was intended for the poorest of poor in MS but instead was abused by well known (supposedly rich) residents.
There's literally a link at the top of the Mississippi Today page about the Jackson water scandal. It links to their coverage of it. There are at least 12 articles about it. There are also several articles about the garbage issue.
They cover it.
I think many of us would simply like to see them dig into the possibility of massive corruption and incompetence within the Jackson mayor's office having something to do with the severity of the crisis. I don't think he's such a pro that the evidence would be hard to find if a reporter was determined to prove it.
If only they would cover the right part of the scandal. All they cover is the fact a crisis exists and ways to try to shift blame to the state government Republicans. Nothing at all about the years of waste, neglect, and corruption that led to the crisis.
Honest question. Has Mississippi today ever seriously criticized or investigated a Dem politician ? I'm asking because I don't read very it often and don't know. ALSO Ms Wolfe did a great job and deserves more than a Pulitzer.
This is in an article about the water crisis on their website:
"Reporters combed through more than a century of newspaper archives, decades of the city’s annual financial statements, water quality reports and studies of the municipal system over the years, as well as recent lawsuits and orders against the city for violating drinking water standards. They also interviewed more than a dozen residents, city and state officials and former workers of the water system who shared firsthand knowledge of the problems.
The reporting found a complex story of population decline, poverty, racism, politics, mismanagement and theft. But key details emerged that, when pieced together, paint a portrait of a water system that was flawed from the start and worsened exponentially over the years as those in power seemingly lost control.
The system was cobbled together over the course of several administrations into a needlessly complicated operation with several moving parts. Complaints about bad water were rampant early on, and the system, unlike most Mississippi communities, relies mostly on surface water instead of cleaner, simpler wells."
Nah. Not really.
News follows events.
Covid was 2020.
Ukraine was 2022 - and it was really going to only win the international reporting Pulitzers as well as maybe Public Service (which it did - kind of surprisingly I thought — they usually go to something local or National with a local focus like when the Sun Herald and Times Picayune won for Katrina coverage).
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