When it was announced that David Hampton was leaving the Clarion Ledger, there was a brief moment where conservatives across Mississippi, especially around the Capitol city, breathed a sigh of relief and saw a glimmer of hope for the newspaper’s future.
Perhaps the powers that be would see the light and realize just how skewed and liberally bent the paper had become. Perhaps the Capitol newspaper would begin to align their ideology with the majority of Mississippians, stop their obvious attacks on conservatism, and be a fair source for news.
We now see that such notions are wishful thinking. It seems the Clarion Ledger has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Longtime Democratic activist and former Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Director Sam Hall appears to have joined the Clarion Ledger staff as a Community Engagement Editor. He even got a lengthy piece in on Voter ID over the weekend where he pitted current Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Director Rickey Cole against Republican Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.
Hall’s history with Mississippi politics is well documented. Other than being a former Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Director, he was also the first VPAC Executive Director. You remember VPAC, right? It was former Democratic Speaker Billy McCoy’s House Democratic Victory political action committee.
Most recently, Hall was former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Johnny DuPree’s campaign manager. After DuPree’s failed run, he co-founded a new liberal blog site called MS Political Pulse.
Hall even tried to start a blog war with my predecessor here at Yall Politics back in 2009.
With Sam Hall joining the Clarion Ledger, it appears the paper’s leadership still doesn’t get it. They will continue to flounder and remain out of touch with the majority of Mississippians, and apparently given Hall’s hiring that is indeed the direction they truly want to go.
How unfortunate.
