Miles Files
Fly on the Wall was convinced that WMC reporter Jason Miles was fearless. Time and time again, he’s illustrated how far he’ll go to get a story. He’s crawled under cars. He’s crawled under buildings. He’s stuck his head through pet doors. Once upon a time, he even chest-bumped a police officer on Beale. Last week, Miles showed the limits of his bravery by choosing not to visit the Streets Ministries headquarters on Vance to report on a colorful mural that artist Erin Miller Williams had spent the last three days painting. “Well, I’m not standing right next to that mural tonight because, quite frankly, we wouldn’t feel completely safe,” Miles said. Williams’ mural is 25 feet tall, 35 feet wide and says “Hope will lead us there.” Jason won’t, apparently.
Headline News
There’s a famous moment in the classic detective film The Thin Man when the glamorous Nora Charles turns to her dashing husband and says “I read where you were shot in the tabloids.” Nick answers “That’s not true. They never came anywhere near my tabloids.” WREG similarly reported that a woman was “recovering after she was shot in the Nutbush area.” Some people were outraged when pictures of the suggestive report circulated online because, no matter how ill-considered the teaser might have been, the story was serious. A similar situation resulted when Commercial Appeal reporter Ron Maxey waxed poetic in his story about a North Mississippi family marking the mysterious disappearance of a relative by releasing balloons. According to Maxey, the family “watched the 30-odd balloons drift slowly away until they vanished into a clear blue sky, much as James Irby Jr. did three years ago Wednesday.”
