WTOK, Channel 11 of Meridian, Mississippi, ran a short profile of Judge Marcus Gordon, the judge for the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen, which is slated to start June 13. The print version on the news story has a link that allows you to view the news segment on your Windows Media Player.
Meridian, Mississippi is the city where James Chaney was born and where Michael Schwerner had been doing civil rights work for four months before Klansmen murdered the two young men, along with Andrew Goodman. Killen is accused of having been the ringleader of the murder plot.
Apparently, reporter Wade Phillips did a quick google search to gauge the opinions of Judge Gordon from people "on the fringes of both sides." They mention me as the counterpoint to the Nationalist Movement (sorry, no link: you can google 'em if you're really curious). Here's the passage where HungryBlues makes its television debut:
"I've always been impressed with his fairness and unbiased conduct of trial," said Stanley Dearman, the former editor of the Neshoba Democrat newspaper.
But not everyone agrees with Dearman. A quick Google search of his name brings up more than a hundred references. People on the fringes of both sides have less than kind things to say about Gordon.
The white supremacist Nationalist organization has called him the self-proclaimed embodiment of communist agitators, and branded him the re-incarnation of Michael Schwerner, one of the three civil rights workers killed in 1964.
On the other side, the liberal website, Hungry Blues, questioned how badly Gordon wanted to try the case after he delayed it when Killen was hurt in a tree cutting accident. That kind of criticism doesn't seem to faze the judge.
"I have a job to do and I recognize the law, and in doing so I think sometimes people don't understand fairness," Gordon said.
This is the post they refer to, complete with a quick camera pan of a computer monitor while my post is on screen (screenshot above).
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Is that what your blog looks like when you’re typing? You writing has never been on the fringe to me. Most importantly, the reporter’s highlighting of the blog foregrounds the dogged manner in which you have following this story, a tale told in movies, books and I bet a video game yet still no substantive justice. Bigots and their followers are like stone. Your blog has always had a critical social and artistic importance. Such importance is the only good thing about a public voice in an age where rosie.com exists.
Mazel tov! Wow, so you are the left’s equivalent of the white supremacist fringe? That’s pretty repulsive. It’s also pretty funny to be included on the evening news as a screen shot. Couldn’t they have called to ask for further comment? Though I suppose that if they think you are the left-wing version of some skinhead crazies, they might not want to do that.
Jonathan, I am always humbled by your praise. Forgive me if I have little to say in reply. I do have something in the works, however, as a small return for all your thoughtful and supportive comments. Ruthie, you should watch the video: it’s even funnier than you think. They train the camera on a computer screen as someone, Wade Phillips, I suppose, types “Judge Marcus Gordon” into the Google query field. If I remember correctly, the camera pans across a screen of hits, then across the Nationalist page, then across my post… Would have been interesting if they called, but there’s no reason why they would. Both the Nationalists and HungryBlues were strawmen for the message they were trying to hammer home (like taking a sledgehammer to thumbtack) that Judge Marcus Gordon is “tough, but fair.”