Meek’s millions go from Ole Miss to CREATE

We are delighted to learn that Ed Meek’s millions have been moved out of the Ole Miss journalism school and transferred to the CREATE Foundation of Tupelo.

We have said before that we believed Meek was treated shabbily by the Ole Miss Chancellor John Vitter and the J-school’s dean, Wilbert Norton, Jr., in their hasty and gutless reaction to a Facebook post Meek made about a year ago.

No need to review the content of Meek’s Facebook post here.  However, suffice it to say it was not obscene, not illegal, not in bad taste and not untruthful. It was, though, in the minds of a some people, Vitter and Norton included, a bit “politically incorrect.”

Meek School of Journalism and New Media, University of Mississippi

Meek immediately took the post down and apologized profusely to any who had put themselves through the moral contortions that would have been necessary of take offense. Yet Vitter and Norton moved to take Meek’s name off of the journalism school, to which he and his wife had donated $5.3-million.

We speculated when it happened about a year ago about how long Vitter would last at Ole Miss, at $600-thousand plus perks annually, after such foolishness. The answer is: he’s gone.

As to Wilbert Norton, Jr., he’s still on the payroll of the taxpayers of Mississippi. Norton is about 78-years old and has not actively worked in the news business for 30 years. The news trade has changed so much in 30 years — and especially in the last 10 years — that it’s hard to see how Norton could have any relevant experience to share with students of the news business in 2019. Perhaps that’s partly why so many of the recent graduates of Old Miss’s “Not-Ed-Meek School of Journalism” can’t find jobs in recent years.

In any case, a Mississippi Chancery Court Judge has ruled that Ed Meek can pull his money — now over $6-milllion with accumulated interest — out of Ole Miss and give it instead to CREATE.

Congratulations to CREATE.

Best of all, congratulations and thank you to Ed Meek for his long service to Mississippi, which will continue through the CREATE Foundation long after most of us are gone to dust and ashes.

Here’s what NAnewsweb.com said a year ago about the treatment of Ed Meek