What Will The Birmingham Noose Endorse Next?
July 6th, 2009Sarah Palin for President and the early release of Eric Rudolph?
Under the Microscope
by Glynn Wilson
I’ve said it before and I will say it again here today. Sometimes I am profoundly embarrassed to be from Alabama. Today is one of those times.
Why? Because the staff of my hometown newspaper continues to stick its head in the sand and ignore the facts, the truth, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why it is in their fiduciary interests to do so.
The most obvious possible reason is that the publishers are so conservative and in league with big business interests that the staffers just know which side their bread is buttered on. They want to keep their safe little jobs as long as possible before the entire print publishing business collapses.
The other possible reason is that when you work for a print newspaper, it is easy to just ignore all the information out there on the Web that contradicts your limited world view.
I don’t know for sure what motivates the Birmingham News editorial page editor or his staff, but I doubt they really are as ignorant of the facts as their work often appears. Maybe they just know a majority of the people of Alabama are undereducated, religious conservatives, so they pander to that to try to stay in business.
But they must know that conservative Republicans don’t read newspapers anyway. They get their information from Fox News and talk radio.
The decline in circulation for newspapers probably has as much to do with managers going after the wrong audience as anything else. Research shows that older, more liberal people are more apt to read a newspaper — but not a newspaper that ignores their point of view.
I don’t often link to the Newhouse press in Alabama’s Website, al.com, because I usually find their coverage seriously lacking. But for the smart, elite Web audience in this state out there working to try and get Alabama to rise up and get beyond its ignorant, racist past, you need to see and read this nonsense to believe it. You need to rise up and protest it if you want to create a better media and a more informed electorate here.
This is some of the most smarmy, ignorant newspaper editorial writing in the country.
Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy continue fighting…
It leaves me wondering what the Birmingham Noose will come up with next. Will they endorse Sarah Palin for president? Or, since they are such a “pro-life newspaper,” why don’t they just come on out and champion the early release of abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph? He would seem to be their natural hero.
Now I have work to do for an investigative piece I’m working on for The Huffington Post this week. But if you are a liberal, progressive, Democrat or independent in this state with a college education, and you pay for a subscription to this right-wing rag or their sister papers in Huntsville or Mobile, why don’t you call them up and demand that they start balancing their coverage — or cancel your subscription.
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Tags: Birmingham News, Eric Rudolph, Sarah Palin
July 6th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I found out long-time ago with Elvis, the press can make you or break you. Our papers are really biased in Alabama. Especially with Scrushy/Siegelman case.
They have a one-sided view on what they will print. One paper even went so far as to tell me she was not printing another editorial that I wrote about Siegelman/Scrushy case, that I had already got my point across!
This was a local paper. (I think privately owned)
Even though I have to admit I was sending an editorial to her about twice a month and about 40 newspapers across the state. Only very few got published!
A very good source for news is the Internet, but for the people who can’t afford a computer or are disabled, they have to sadly rely on the newspapers in Alabama and elsewhere!
July 6th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Well, at least we have the Web Press now. Libraries have Internet access for those who can’t afford it at home…
July 9th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Corporations sued for citizen status under the Fourteenth Amendment. Using a statute that was supposed to free slaves, they instead began taking away the rights of citizens with their excessive financial powers, as individuals instead of their as public servants as discussed in promotional advertising and journalism school. The natural result is a propaganda machine focuses on corporate agenda, corporate profits and supporting campaign finance donors. The vast majority of Americans have been stripped of their voice.