Sometimes even the media doesn’t like the media.

Last Wednesday, one of the biggest Mississippi news stories of the year broke — an arrest was made in a 40-year-old civil rights era killing.

The murders happened in our backyard, but much to my personal chagrin this newspaper wasn’t the first on the scene when the arrest was made. The nature of this case, the potential for political publicity and the involvement of the U.S. Attorney’s office meant much bigger media outlets were standing ready.

They deserve the credit for breaking the story.

But they got it wrong.

It’s easy for writers to get swept up into a good opening line when it comes to big stories. Mention the words race and Mississippi and your story is sure to be picked up by all the national news wires. Stretch beyond that and your words can plaster the world in seconds. Even if your motivations aren’t world fame, flashy sentences just flat sound good.

James Ford Seale — the man arrested in the killings — was never a Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy in any official capacity.

He was also not locally considered to be dead or in hiding, by most people in Franklin County.

Yet, the lead sentence and headline for most of the world’s media outlets last Thursday said the opposite.

“A white former sheriff’s deputy who was once thought to be dead…” appeared everywhere.

ABC 7 News in California reported it. National Public Radio read the line. The Washington Post printed the headline, and so did the Kalamazoo Gazette in Michigan. Police News in California had the story. Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia did, too.

Internationally? Try the Hamilton Spectator in Canada and any number of British publications.

Within seconds, incorrect information about Mississippi was all over the world.

In all fairness, none of the reports actually said Seale was an “official” sheriff’s deputy. A writer from the North Carolina national Associated Press office made sure to point this out to me after The Democrat ran a story disputing the deputy claim.

Writers such as the North Carolina one ran with reports from Franklin County that Seale was an honorary deputy, or, as some of you may be familiar with, a “little colonel.” It was a title the county sheriff handed out to his buddies. No national news story explained this; they just said “deputy.”

The national AP said he didn’t know if his office would make any attempts to correct the facts. I took that as a “no.”

What’s the big deal? Mississippi’s credibility, in my mind.

Our state already struggles with age-old stereotypes. The last things we need are headlines saying our sheriff’s deputies were arrested for killing black men in the 1960s.

And, perhaps even closer to home for me, incorrect facts damage the credibility of the media. Whether the Washington Post says it or The Natchez Democrat says it, the average American judges each newspaper equally.

The brother of slain Charles Moore truly believed Seale was dead. He shared his belief with reporters in Jackson and North Carolina. But those reporters never asked the residents of Franklin County about Seale. If they had, most everyone would have turned a collective finger to Seale’s Meadville mobile home and said “he’s over there.”

National and state writers did a bang up job breaking a major story last week. Their writing was award-winning. Their timing was excellent.

But their facts were wrong.

Mistakes happen. I make them daily.

It’s how you make up for them that matters.

Julie Finley is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com.