Dixie Flamethrowers

After learning that Senator Robert F. Kennedy was planning to address the University of Mississippi Law School in mid-March, Columnist Tom Ethridge of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger expounded on Southern hospitality. "It is hoped that Mississippi authorities can guarantee the safety of Senator Kennedy when and if he visits Oxford," Ethridge wrote. "Or is it really possible to guarantee anyone's personal safety here or anywhere else? There are men in our state who might take fantastic risks to get even for the 1962 military occupation of Oxford by federal troops. We do not predict an attempt on R.F.K.'s life, but merely suggest that it could happen with no end of unfortunate repercussions for our state and people."

For the Jackson press to show such solicitude for the health and welfare of a Kennedy was novel indeed. The biggest papers in Mississippi, with a combined circulation of 120,000, the morning Clarion-Ledger and the afternoon Daily News indulge in more Yankee-baiting and race-baiting than any other papers in the South. During the Watts rioting, Ethridge wrote: "What the cops need . . . are plenty of flamethrowers . . . Nothing could stop bloodthirsty savages quicker than reducing them to cinders."

Jested Daily News Editor Jimmy Ward on the front page: "Did you hear about the Negro marine who is serving his country well in Viet Nam? He received a telegram on the battlefield which read: 'We regret to inform you that your mother and father were killed "in action" in Los Angeles.' " When a Mississippi anti-poverty program folded, Ward bade farewell to the "slew-footed, unsoaped ragtag of human flotsam who were roaming Mississippi to create hate and provoke a killing."

Unabashed Boosterism. Many Southern papers now cover local racial news with considerable accuracy and balance. The Jackson papers, which were founded in the 1800s, have not changed their attitude in half a century. Bob Hederman, who publishes both papers, and his cousin Tom Hederman, who edits the Clarion-Ledger, are descendants of the powerful Jackson family thai bought the Clarion-Ledger in 1920, took over the Daily News in 1954, and has always quickly crunched any competition. The Hedermans also own the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, a sizable chunk of local real estate and an interest in TV and radio in Jackson.

They are quite content with things as they are in Mississippi--which does not mean they believe everything they read in their own newspapers. On the contrary, they are considered to be reasonably malleable Mississippians who go along with segregation because that's what the community seems to want. To them, the newspapers are, above all, a highly profitable business venture.

In addition to championing segregation, the two Jackson papers practice a boosterism that would make a Bab bitt blush. The Clarion-Ledger regularly runs a Page One color photo of a local maiden or matron gushing something like "It is patio time again." The Daily News runs a front-page cartoon of a donkey named Hinny who brays verse on behalf of some local cause: "It's the first night for football in the high schools of the state/ And ol' Hinny hopes each one'll win its game--won't that be great."

Too Close to Criticize. Exasperated at not being able to get to see Governor Paul Johnson, Los Angeles Times Reporter Jack Nelson asked the Clarion-Ledger's political reporter Charles Hills why he didn't raise some "hell" with the Governor. "Oh, no," replied Hills, "I worked so hard for him in the campaign I can't afford to criticize him now."

When it comes to past political figures, however, the papers are less sensitive. "Speaking of John Wilkes Booth, history may have done him wrong," Tom Ethridge wrote recently. "Mrs. Lincoln had accused Honest Abe of flirting with a cute actress in the play he was watching. There was an argument. Mary Lincoln drew a .44 derringer from her handbag and fired the fatal shot. John Wilkes Booth happened to pass the presidential box at that moment. Being a true Southern gentleman, he gallantly took the rap for the first lady."

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