Barbour takes it on the chin

Gov. Haley Barbour‘s recent remarks to The Weekly Standard about the White Citizens’ Council touched off not only a number of rebukes from political opponents but squarely focused the glare of the national media square upon his shoulders. And probably a lot sooner and much more harshly than the Governor had intended…

• Commercial Appeal guest columnists call the White Citizens’ Council a racist creed.
• Despite Barbour’s comments, a childhood friend of the governor says, yeah, Yazoo City was pretty bad back in the day.
• Politico takes the opportunity to pick at the wounds and excoriate Barbour’s preferred method of travel.
• And, from the American Spectator, a writer posits Barbour wasn’t entirely off-base.

Bylines

Don Hudson, most recently managing editor of The Clarion-Ledger, has been named executive editor of The Decatur Daily in Alabama… Justin Purdy has been named editor of the Holmes County Herald in Lexington. He is a 2010 journalism graduate from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Justice Dept. files suit against shopper

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against a Gulfport-based shopper product and a landlord and her agent for violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against families with children.

Buzz off

Days after cutting its global workforce by 4%, Yahoo turned the axe on its product portfolio. Yahoo said Friday that it is killing Buzz, a two-year-old experiment in community news curation.

Hurst new publisher of Clarion-Ledger

Leslie Hurst, former publisher of The Hattiesburg American, has been named President and Publisher of The Clarion-Ledger. She succeeds Larry Whitaker, who was in the position for four years. Hurst most recently had been a Lafayette, La.-based publisher and vice president for Gannett.