COVERING GREENVILLE Cain Madden

Covering Greenville scar Wilde once said that in America the President reigns for four years, but journalism governs forever and ever. An example of journalism influencing public policy played out in Greenville under a newspaper dynasty, the Carter father-andson team, Hodding Carter Jr., known as “Big,” and his son, Hodding Carter III, a duo who published the Delta Democrat-Times backto-back from its founding in 1939 until “Little Hodding” became involved in the Jimmy Carter (no relation) administration in 1976. o BY CAIN MADDEN

“That is a benchmark,” said Dominick Cross, who was editor of the Delta Democrat-Times until August of this year. “It is something to behold and to try to emulate. I was not living in Mississippi at the time, but I know it won the Pulitzer Prize and was a great place to work.”

In its time, former Washington County Attorney Josh Bogen said, the Carter newspaper was a conscience for Greenville, which liked to call itself “Queen City of the Delta,” a city that peacefully integrated its schools, kept the Ku Klux Klan in check and avoided racial violence.

The paper also aggressively covered the community, probing everything from civic clubs to backroom political deals to racial injustice to water meter scandals.

“The Carters played a key role in what Greenville was,” Bogen said. “The newspaper is extremely important to the lifeblood of a community, particularly the columns and editorials written by the editor and publisher. It is often the first thing people read.”

Hodding Carter III believes that the DD-T helped the community prosper.

“We helped a lot,” Carter said. “We put out a paper that wanted to cover the town heavily. Also, because we were tireless

community boosters.”

Buster Wolfe, a 36-year journalist who has served multiple terms at the DD-T, remembers Carter’s influence on the paper.

“He demanded perfection, Carter did,” said Wolfe, a Greenville native. “That put a lot of pressure on you — not stress, but pressure. I always tried for perfection.”

Wolfe recalled how, fresh out of college, he was alone at the sports desk at lunchtime.

“Carter was in. He was pacing around the newsroom reading over copy, cursing, and was obviously upset. I sat over in sports, hoping that he didn’t look at me. But, he did.”

Wolfe said he will always remember how important getting every “little” thing

right was for Carter.

Greenville has been without the Carters’ editorial presence for 35 years, and to view the Pulitzer Prize won in 1946, a Delta Democrat-Times reporter would have to go to the public library. But the newspaper is still being published, two ownership changes later.

In 1981, a few years after the death of “Big Hodding,” the paper was sold for a reputed $15 million-plus, at the time an outstanding price.

When Wolfe heard of the sale, he was surprised.

“I was not necessarily confounded because he sold it, but because he sold it to Freedom (Communications), a highly conservative group,” Wolfe said. “The Carters had been so liberal.

“But then again, maybe it was what the community wanted. The community was mostly conservative.”

When the paper was sold, the circulation of 17,900 subscribers extended into what Hodding III called the MidDelta – Washington, Bolivar, Sunflower, Humphreys, Sharkey and Issaquena counties. Thirty years later, press foreman Dennis Hemme said the newspaper’s circulation is 6,500 on weekdays, and 8,200 for the Sunday edition. Greenville has shrunk as well. Today, its population stands at 34,927 people. Thirty years ago it was approaching 45,000 people.

Mayor Heather McTeer said that a newspaper is critical to the wellbeing of a town.

“A newspaper, and all media, are responsible for getting information out to the citizens,” McTeer said. “But a strong newspaper can certainly be an asset to a community.”

Now owned by Emmerich Newspapers, the Delta Democrat-Times still seeks to be a publication of record, Cross said.

“There is the merging of information and entertainment going on in the media industry, like Fox News,” Cross said. “This ‘infotainment’ is not something we will do here.”

Cross found his way to the Delta Democrat-Times in the same way that some of his reporters did, on journalismjobs.com. His most recent post was in Louisiana, but through his career he has worked across the country, including Virginia, Colorado and Texas.

“Working in newspapers is a great way to see the country, and to really get to know it,” Cross said. “You are not just visiting these places, you get a chance to stay and get to know a place.”

While Cross said he does not think

NORMAN SEAWRIGHT Pressman Jonathon Hemme sees to it that the Delta Democrat-Times looks good when it comes off the press.

PHOTOS BY NORMAN SEAWRIGHT Despite a staff that is a mere fraction of the staff the Democrat-Times had years ago, the newspaper tackles major issues in Greenville and takes local officials to task.

it is necessarily the responsibility of the newspaper to help a town improve, he does see how it could have an impact.

“You just report the news, good and bad,” Cross said.

“What you can do is use your columns and editorials to make the community see what it can do to make itself better.”

When the Carters ran the paper, readers often groused that the editorial pages were too liberal, the reporters too troublesome. But after years of shrinking newspapers, says former state Republican chairman Clarke Reed, “a lot of people would be glad to have them back. They covered the news.”

The quality of the Delta DemocratTimes has improved under Emmerich ownership, since its purchase in 2001 for an undisclosed amount of money, Bogen said, especially when compared to the newspaper’s previous owners, Freedom Communications, a libertarian-owned company based in Santa Ana, Calif.

“The newspaper under Freedom had a pathetic voice,” Bogen said. “It really provided no voice for the community specifically, which the Carters had provided.”

Bogen said today’s DD-T, unlike the Freedom-owned version, takes stances on issues that affect the community. As an example, he cited a scandal involving the ousted police chief.

“In one story, he allegedly went down a street in Greenville in a police car, while intoxicated, and harassed three women,” Bogen said. “He pointed a pistol at them, confused them, and brought them into the station, where they were released.”

The city council voted to fire the chief, but Bogen said Greenville’s mayor, Heather McTeer, continued to support him. Cross and his editorial staff criticized the mayor.

McTeer said the chief’s case was under investigation, and that she was careful about what she said in print.

“Sometimes you have to make a statement at a later date, and I’m not sure that they understood that,” McTeer said. “I am sure there are things that they would like me to say that I could not, or would not, but you have to be careful. You can’t say something that will impact an investigation.

“Other papers I spoke with on the issue, such as the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, they understood the legal ramifications.”

Later, a circuit judge upheld the city’s right to fire the chief.

McTeer said in her eight years she has worked with three different publishers,

and Cross is her fifth editor.

“And I have been through a lot of different reporters,” she said. “Some of them have been awesome to work with, and some have left a little to be desired.”

The DD-T, in its current leadership incarnation, has room for improvement, she said.

“I understand that we are not always going to agree,” McTeer said. “I know we will not always be on the same side, but it is about reporting accurate information in a fair way. That has not always been done.”

While she is still trying to feel out the current leadership, in the past, McTeer said leadership teams at the paper have gone to the same places to get information, information that is not always accurate.

“It is important to get all aspects, all

sides and really have a good thought process involved,” McTeer said. “I know there has been change in the way the communications business works. I know they can’t hire reporters and can’t always do the background that is needed. But at the same time, you have to be willing to have a partnership in the community, play a role that is fair and unbiased.”

Still, she said, there are former DD-T editors that she keeps in touch with.

“Despite our battles, we always remained very civil, and I appreciated that,” she said. “That is what is important, that there is a level of respect. There are folks who did not respect me.”

Adversarial relationships between newspapers and government officials are fairly common, and Greenville certainly has its share.

“The mayor has a pet TV station, that she always gives tips to herself,” Cross said. “She has told people in city hall to not give story tips to us. But we get them. Someone will always give us something.

“It is not a working relationship, but it is not our problem, it is their problem.”

McTeer said she does not feel like it is her versus them.

“It should not be Heather versus the Delta Democrat-Times,” she said. “This is about the city of Greenville, and how to move to meet in the middle.”

The Delta Democrat-Times does not try to write to any particular racial audience, Cross said.

“A story is a story is a story,” Cross said.

Greenville’s population is about 70 percent black. While Cross said he would like for race to not be an issue, sometimes it is — just as it frequently was in the Carter years, an era that saw segregation

NORMAN SEAWRIGHT Former editor Dominick Cross says the paper’s Web following is small but growing. “Nowadays,” said Cross, “reporters don’t just report and write. They proof layouts, design sections. “It is not like it used to be. We get here early, and we leave late.”

and its aftermath.

“I can’t wait until the day that race is not an issue. I can’t wait until people get past this stuff,” Cross said. “News is color blind, and so are we.”

Cross said people in the community will play the race card.

“We live in an area that is 70 percent black, so when writing about someone doing wrong in office, it is likely to be about someone black because black people hold most of the major offices,” Cross said. “The same goes for crime.”

He has heard of black officials, including the mayor and black preachers, urging people to avoid the newspaper, said Cross, who is white.

“Preachers have told their congregations to not read the Delta Democrat-Times,” Cross said. “They have urged members to cancel their subscriptions over some columns.”

The age-old Mississippi problem of racial differences is not the only obstacle the newspaper faces. There are also the difficult economic trends that have forced newspapers across the country to slash their reporting staffs.

While Cross would like to see his newspaper staff live up to the Carter benchmark, he said it is nearly impossible to do what they did, given the manpower he has today. In the 1970s, the Delta Democrat-Times had 15 reporters spread throughout the Delta and even in Jackson. Today, the newspaper has three reporters for his news section, and they all cover broad beats.

Daryl Bell, the city news editor, has been with the paper for two years. He said he does a little bit of everything. His city beat includes Greenville, Leland, Hollandale, Indianola — government and police. He reports, he writes, he edits the copy of other reporters and then he lays out his section, also grabbing stories from the wire services to bring in broader news from Mississippi. When the sports editor is on vacation, Bell is also tasked with laying out the daily sports section.

“The job is a draining experience, it really is,” said Bell, originally from Philadelphia, Penn. “But it can be rewarding at times.”

He cited a story about a woman in Leland, whose son was killed by police.

“There were many questions surrounding his death,” Bell said. “I talked to the mom and really got her rage into the story. It was really moving.”

Another story involved a mother’s quest for answers.

“Her son was pushed out of a moving

bus and killed,” Bell said. “She is very frustrated and wonders why no one has been apprehended for his murder.”

Cross said the newspaper industry has changed a lot over the years.

“At one time, you had people who only wrote headlines, you had people who just read copy,” Cross said. “The reporters here are proofing layout, some are designing their sections. It is not like it used to be. We get here early, and we leave late.”

Deadline at the DD-T, an afternoon paper, is 10 a.m., so Cross said often the staff arrives as early as 6 a.m., and stays late the night before working on completing stories.

“When I come in at 7 a.m.,” Wolfe said, “I feel late.”

Wolfe said the current state of the newspaper industry induces a different kind of pressure, unlike the 1970s, when Carter demanded perfection. Now, it feels like getting the story in comes ahead of perfection at times. “There is pressure in knowing that if you don’t write something, someone else will have to,” Wolfe said.

In the old days,” he said, there were more people to share the load.

“It is tough to do this,” said Wolfe, who reports and designs the business and outdoors sections. “And I always feel like I could do more.”

McTeer said the deadline mode of thinking has often opened rifts between her office and reporters.

“Some think that they should always be able to pick up the phone and get the mayor to give an immediate statement,” she said. “But it does not always work like that.

“I know you have a deadline, and I will work with you to give you what you need. But at the same time, I can’t be expected to give something on the spot when I have a responsibility to make sure everything I say is accurate at all times. I find that sometimes that understanding is not always there.”

Cross said the staff is spread thin, and that if he could get the paper to hire two additional reporters, the product he produces would improve, as would circulation and revenue.

“If we had more reporters, we could do more thorough and consistent coverage, and everything that spins off of that, such as editorials and columns,” Cross said. “It would help us create a better informed community, and it would boost circulation…If we could get away from the bottom line mode of thinking.”

Cross said two positions would really help – a reporter who exclusively covers schools and one who solely covers religion. Cross said the newspaper has to cover four school districts, and making that a beat in its own right would free up reporters to do more thorough coverage.

The ever-increasing importance of the Internet has also added a layer of complexity to the newsroom. In many cases, the Internet has created a 24/7 deadline period, where reporters constantly scramble to update online information, though in Greenville, Cross admits that they don’t yet do much with the website beyond publishing what goes

Cross into the print edition online.

Once, the online edition was free of charge, but the website recently became a subscription-based service. Cross said the move was tough, and that many don’t want to pay it. Most of the customer base is Greenville expats, Cross said.

“Mostly, it is people wanting access to the obituaries and gossip,” Cross said. “I don’t have a problem charging them. The way I see it, if you were living in town, I’d expect you to buy a physical copy of the paper.”

Cross said online subscriptions are less than 1 percent of revenue.

Another obstacle the paper faces, Wolfe said, is a change in community attitude. Before, he said, the newspaper would report the news and raise hell and sometimes get action. Now, many people aren’t listening, and he thinks apathy is partly to blame.

“How do you make people want to care? Everyone has their own lives,” Wolfe said. “And they are self absorbed.

“If I knew the answer, I wouldn’t be here.”

NORMAN SEAWRIGHT