GUIZERIX: There’s nonsense afoot, but not under my byline

Published 4:00 am Wednesday, April 13, 2022

During Monday’s working session of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, it was insinuated — actually, right-out stated — that there has been “use of media to give wrong information.”

The statement was made by District 3 Supervisor Shawn Jackson as part of her case against supporting the new Port of Vicksburg, due to some outstanding issues she labeled “nonsense.”

As a professional journalist, and someone who takes the charge to provide news that is of importance to readers in an accurate and timely manner, that accusation didn’t sit right with me. It’s easy to pile on “the media” and lump a hardworking community newspaper staff in with the TV talking heads, but to state on record that the local media has printed “wrong information” in order to advance one entity’s interests… Well, I resent that implication.

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Whether discussing the new port project or something as comparatively trivial as a school picture day, the idea that all the working hours The Post’s news team pours into our print and digital products would be knowingly based on “wrong information” is frankly, insulting.

No other news outlet in the area has devoted more time to researching the aspects of the new port project. From phone calls to interviews to public records requests to the proofing process and everything in between, one would hope readers of The Post would be able to understand such precious resources would not be wasted on “wrong information.”

On the rare occasion something has seemed amiss, The Post has worked diligently to verify the information and fact-check its reporting.

Any time an interview has been conducted regarding the new port project, documentation has been provided by interview subjects — and the information from that documentation has been shared with readers. What’s more is, the extent of reporting on the new port is not limited to myself; other members of our staff have been involved in this storyline as well.

Reporting on the new port project is ongoing, and will likely be a topic of discussion for the next couple of decades, if not longer.

It is a guarantee of continued economic success for our area, of progress and growth in the right direction. We want the best for Warren County, and it’s fair to say the new port project is part of that vision.

But in this instance, the new port itself is secondary to the questioning of the journalistic integrity of Vicksburg’s longest-standing news source. To put it plainly, the accusation that Anna Guizerix or the fine reporters with whom I’m privileged enough to work can be bought or manipulated into printing falsehoods is the only “nonsense” I see here.