Welcome back for the second half of my interview with The Locust Fork News-Journal‘s editor and publisher, Glynn Wilson. So, Glynn, if, according to you, it takes a huge investment of time and energy to understand a story, that explains why the mainstream press has not done its job on many important stories. You, on the other hand, are eminently qualified to discuss the Siegelman/DoJ case. So, if Rip Van Winkle approached you and said, “Ever since I woke up, I keep hearing the name Siegelman. What’s up with this guy?” could you walk him through it so he would grasp why the Siegelman case is so significant?

Hmmm. Well, as you know from researching the case yourself, it is a complicated deal. It’s hard to boil it down to a sound bite for TV, but this is what I can say.

Like any politician, Don Siegelman is certainly no perfect human being. This may be hard for people who live in so-called blue states to grasp, but just identifying yourself as a Democrat in a red state like Alabama invites irrational attacks from the right. And in what I like to call “the Bush years,” they really didn’t care about the Constitution or the abstract concept called “the rule of law.”

People who believe the Bible fundamentally and get their news from Fox and Rush Limbaugh and conservative Big Mule rags like The Birmingham News don’t care about facts or the truth. Many of them still believe George Bush was “the man.” They didn’t get the OpEdNews memo.

Here’s what you need to keep in mind.

When Bob Riley stole the election from Siegelman in 2002 in the closest race in Alabama political history, (according to whistle-blower Jill Simpson, a Republican operative with close ties to the Rileys at the time) the Rileys threatened to use the legal system to investigate Siegelman if he ever ran again. So when he announced in 2004 that he would run again in 2006, the Karl Rove-Bill Canary political machine kicked into high gear to go after him. Canary’s wife, Laura Canary, the U.S. Attorney in Montgomery, then launched the investigation of Siegelman.

Even though the career prosecutors in the Department of Justice could not really find enough evidence to bring charges, and told attorney Doug Jones nothing was likely to result from the case, a “top down” review of the case was ordered from Washington after Rove, Bush’s political adviser, had communications with people in the DoJ. That we know, even though the Birmingham News editorial page editors continue to deny it.

I have been asked numerous times by average people not on the hard right or left how it could be possible that the courts could be so corrupted in a case like Siegelman’s that politics would trump truth and justice. It is perhaps hard to fathom, but just ask Paul Minor in Mississippi or any of the U.S. attorneys who were fired on orders from the White House for not being politically loyal enough. Rove was a student of Machiavelli, who wrote and told King Henry VIII that kings either rule by love or fear. Bush was not the kind of man who inspired love, so he had to rule by fear by demanding absolute loyalty.

The point of prosecuting Siegelman was not about the law. It was about politics from the start.

Even if he had not been convicted, Siegelman would have lost the Democratic primary in 2006 because of the cloud of the case. He was convicted, but not by what I would call objectively a “jury of his peers.” In fact, and in contradiction to most newspaper and even AP coverage of the case here, at the end of the trial the jury was hopelessly hung and full of reasonable doubt. But the Republican judge, a Bush appointee, demanded a verdict by keeping the jury intact over the weekend and telling them he had “a lifetime appointment” and could wait for a verdict as long as it took.

Now anyone who has ever watched a trial, even on TV, knows that if a jury is given that kind of “dynamite charge,” chances are they are going to reach some kind of a verdict so they can go home to their families.

In this case, what happened was that the jurors went home and violated their oath not to read news coverage and communicate with each other outside the jury deliberation room. A couple of the jurors began reading the Mobile Press-Register‘s biased coverage online and sending stories around by e-mail, pressuring jurors to come to a guilty verdict: Explosive New Story Lends Credence to Siegelman Appeal.

That’s how Siegelman’s political career was ended and how he ended up in prison for nine months. He may end up back in jail again, unless the Obama Justice Department intervenes, which is why some Democrats in Alabama bent the ear of Attorney General Eric Holder on his recent trip to Birmingham.

Where does the case go from here?

Siegelman has an appeal up for consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court, and a motion under consideration for a new trial. There is no way to know whether the Supreme Court will even hear his appeal, since the 11th Circuit already denied it. And it is hard to imagine the same judge who locked Siegelman up the first time will grant a new trial.

There is still an ongoing investigation before the House Judiciary Committee, a criminal probe and a civil case that could impact the outcome. When or if this clear injustice will ever be corrected is beyond prediction. One can only hope and follow the case.

As for the fate of Richard Scrushy, Siegelman’s co-defendant, your readers should know that the people of my home sweet home Alabama don’t seem to care that he was convicted in the wrong case for the wrong thing. They hate him for how he mishandled the books and the stock at HealthSouth, and believe he should spend the rest of his life in jail and lose all of his considerable fortune.

Somehow the press in this country has failed to communicate what it means for people accused of crimes to receive due process and a fair trial. Maybe if we keep trying, we can get that point across on the Web Press.

One last question, Glynn: Why should anyone outside of Alabama, the South, or the Democratic Party give a fig about what’s happened to Don Siegelman?

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere…”

Well said. I think that’s as good a place as any to wrap this up. Thank you, Glynn, for talking with me and for laying out the Siegelman case so clearly. We’re all lucky to have you on the job. I look forward to following your coverage on this and other issues in The Locust Fork News-Journal.

Part One

Cross posted at OpEdNews.com.

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.

If you haven’t visited our favorite Libertarian blogger in awhile, Loretta Nall, click here now! She’s exposing a major loophole in the campaign of Artur Davis who says he is running for governor of Alabama to make change.

Somehow we don’t think continuing to let Alabama Power make environmental policy in Alabama is much of a change. We don’t think allowing ATnT to continue cooperating with the NSA in spying on innocent American citizens makes for change. And we don’t think ignoring a large block of Alabama’s progressive voters is much change from the politics of the past in this state.

What power brokers is Davis talking about who he blames for criticism of him in this election so far? Certainly he is not talking about his and Karl Rove’s buddy Bill Canary over at the conservative Business Council of Alabama, where they fight tooth and nail for the status quo. Is he talking about Paul Hubbert and/or Joe Reed at AEA? The trial lawyers? I mean hey, Artur, why don’t you just come out and say it?

And here’s a note to The Birmingham News…

which we assume will wholeheartedly endorse Davis in the Democratic primary and then promptly stab him in the back in the general election. Did you know Davis is using your reporters who have joined his Facebook cause in his Facebook ads — as supporters of his campaign?

Now in any other state in the union, that would be the subject of a major media ethics controversy. But not in Alabamaland, where there’s no such thing as media criticism and the Newhouse press owns most of the presses.

They even managed to ignore the criticism of them and the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club. I mean, what gives? Not one word about it in the paper? On the al.com Website?

What, do you guys think if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, it didn’t make a sound? Or, since you are killing all the trees, maybe you think it doesn’t make a sound just because it wasn’t printed on ink and paper?

A majority of Alabamians may still not be online, but more and more every day are beginning to realize they’ve been hoodwinked by your paternalism for way too many years. Get on with the truth-telling program, or get out of the fucking way…

If Regina Nummy, the director of Roebuck-Hawkins Park, has not already resigned her position — for her ignorant order telling Birmingham city workers to illegally excavate wetlands without a permit and to remove a dam on a Village Creek spring pool — she should be fired immediately.

Glynn Wilson

A yellow-crowned night heron feeding on the section of Village Creek that intersects the Roebuck Golf Course, just down stream from the destroyed dam.

It may take the discovery phase of a lawsuit and depositions to find out who came up with the dimwitted idea to remove the dam in the first place, as well as how the order was carried out, since city officials have now clammed up and are not talking in expectation of a lawsuit.

What is clear is that what Ms. Nummy told The Birmingham News about the need to remove the dam to prevent damage to the tennis courts due to flooding is just a lie. What is not clear is why she would concoct such a story. But ignorance is no defense in a court of law.

What we know is this.

Last Friday, Ms. Nummy somehow obtained a work order for a crane operator to drive into a protected wetland that was home to the largest population of endangered watercress darters on the planet. Without a federal or state permit or permission of any kind, the heavy equipment operator removed a beaver dam built on top of a small man-made dam that helped the Roebuck Springs pool hold water in part of Village Creek.

Over the weekend, most of the water ran out of the pond downstream through a drainage pipe leading under the Roebuck tennis courts. The shock of all the water rushing out of the pool forced at least 1,000 darters, most likely way more than that, to hide in the grass, where they died of suffocation.

There is no doubt that this constitutes a blatant violation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and the Locust Fork News-Journal is calling on the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alabama Department of Conservation to move with all deliberate speed both to restore the habitat and to hold the responsible parties legally accountable.

This story is not just about some little rare fish. The destruction of its habitat will no doubt have a ripple effect throughout the ecosystem and have a negative impact on bird populations as well.

In recent times this independent online news organization has focused more on national issues and crimes of the Bush administration, specifically on the Bush Justice Department’s political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, than local stories such as this. But we have extensive experience covering science and the environment going all the way back to the 1980s.

And this particular spot holds a special place in our hearts. It is a remarkable place to experience the wonders of nature in the very center of an urban area.

For the past four years, I have joined other wildlife photographers to keep a watchful eye on the special population of yellow-crowned night herons that nest in the area around the Roebuck Golf Course along Village Creek. We have taken hundreds of photographs of these beautiful creatures during that time frame.

And right now, in addition to being concerned about the endangered fish, we are also concerned that the destruction of this dam and the habitat for the fish will have a negative impact on the bird populations in the area.

In addition to the herons, there are often wood ducks feeding in the area as well as great egrets, kingfishers, red-shouldered hawks, great blue herons, and red-winged blackbirds.

In fact, my photograph of a red-winged blackbird on Village Creek just downstream from the destroyed dam was recently chosen for an educational poster showing the 50 most common bird species in Alabama. Of 50 pictures chosen, submitted by birders from all over the state, nine or 10 are mine.

You can see a picture of the poster and order free copies from this link on the Legacy Partners for Environmental Education Website.

We would also like to see the local television news shows and the local newspapers do more to get to the bottom of this environmental tragedy.

For the past three days in a row, The Birmingham News environmental reporter has published the same lie about the tennis courts flooding, apparently by taking information on the phone from the office and not actually visiting the site in person.

Any empirical observation by any lay person will show that the tennis courts have not flooded and have not been damaged by flooding. It is not enough for a news organization to take the word of a city official in a case like this. There is a responsibility to get off the phone, away from the e-mail, and out of the office to go look at the scene. Anything less is irresponsible journalism.