I really hate when I have to do this. But when someone says “bring it” and then paints a perfect bullseye on their forehead, I cannot resist.
See if you can follow this. Today, Ms. Donna Ladd, of Jackson Free Press Fame, came out with a growling retort to a Clarion Ledger blog post on her earlier feature print piece about shopping local. That seems harmless enough, huh? Truthfully, it’s a bunch of nyah nyah that no one really cares a lick about.
But here’s the rub.
In Ladd’s rather snarky retort, she states,
One more, this one from the caption under the cover of our local issue he has reproducted on his site:
Big stores, such as Lowe’s & Walgreen’s are as much part of local communities than any small mom & pop type store. One could argue that these national-local retailers contribute a lot more to local towns in the way of jobs and tax revenues than owner operated businesses.
One could argue that, but one would be wrong. The, er, “national-local retailers” that Gannett and The Clarion-Ledger and Mr. Flanagan love to pander to actually decrease wages and jobs, as they force “mop-and-pop” stores to close. You can’t just make stuff up like that, Mr. Flanagan. Even we hicks know how to do research. Better than you’d ever guess, probably.
But then I scroll down on that same page and guess what I see? An ad for Crate and Barrel. Now I have lived in Jackson for all of my 38 years. I’ve never seen a local Crate and Barrel store. So here we have a publication (and I use that term loosely) in the JFP extolling their “local” credentials vis a vis a paper that traces its roots here a century or so, while on the same page taking advertisements from a national “big box” store. In fact, one could argue that it doesn’t get more “big box” than Crate and Barrel. She might as well have had a WalMart ad on the same page. And certainly there are some fine local bedding stores that I am sure Crate and Barrel takes dollars away from.
It would be different if she hadn’t historically accused a Pulitzer finalist like Marshall Ramsey of copying the cartoon equivalent of stick figures or historically hurled personal insults at every Clarion Ledger employee from the Publisher to the janitor. It seems that she is just literally incapable of controlling herself when it comes to anything dealing with the Clarion Ledger. Shrill and angry doesn’t even begin to describe it.
I can hear the defense of, “well those are ‘network’ ads and we can’t control that content”, etc. etc. Again, folks in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
It’s not that people disagree with them editorially, polically, socially or any other way. Of course, they do, and that’s OK. But, there’s a difference between advocating and polarizing. It’s that they individually and collectively come off so damn abrasive and just, well, “anti”. If they’d get out of their own way, they could actually help Jackson instead of helping to polarize it.
