Alabama

Late Tuesday night, longtime New York Times editor Howell Raines joined MSNBC’s The 11th Hour to gush over the “historic night” in his home state of Alabama and declare that Democrat Doug Jones’s victory put the state on “the indisputably right road” “for the first time in 175 years.”

Since Tuesday night, many lefty pundits have been mostly (though not completely) distracted from President Trump by Roy Moore’s win in Alabama’s Republican U.S. Senate primary. Their message: Just when you thought the GOP had hit bottom, the bottom dropped out. Two especially noteworthy commentaries came from Esquire’s Charles Pierce and New York’s Jonathan Chait.

As they so often do, Wednesday’s network morning shows all read from the same script of liberal talking points as hosts and correspondents warned viewers that “ultra-conservative” candidate Roy Moore was a “staunch conservative” who won Alabama’s Senate primary despite his “extreme conservative views.” Did they mention he was “extremely conservative”?

Would an Attorney General Jeff Sessions wreck civil rights? Several newspapers seem to think so, including Monday’s New York Times, which tried to poison the well against him as his confirmation looms. The long front-page profile of Sen. Sessions of Alabama, Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, hid its hostility and labeling slant under the benign headline, “Bonding by Bucking the…

In a narrow sense, the item discussed here really shouldn't be newsworthy, because it's based on history which has for all practical purposes long been settled. But now that it's being treated as news, let's look into the can of worms at least two media outlets have chosen to open, perhaps without fully grasping the consequences of their doing so. Leada Gore, an AL.com reporter who says she's "…

On Tuesday's All In, MSNBC host Chris Hayes devoted a segment to the recent announcement that Alabama will be closing a significant number of the state's DMVs -- some in majority black counties -- as he fretted that Alabama may be making it more difficult for black voters to get the required voter ID cards.

In an effort to resolve the ongoing debate about whether or not to fly the Confederate flag, Studio 30 -- a weekly public radio program -- commissioned 70kft, a Texas-based design firm, to come up with a new flag to represent "the modern South." According to an article by John Hammontree – who writes features and opinion pieces for the AL.com Alabama website, the result of the project was a…

The New York Times isn’t the only iconic media outlet to ignore George and Laura Bush’s visit to Selma as they obsess over the Obamas. On page 12 of the March 23 edition of People magazine, in the “Star Tracks” section, there’s a whole page devoted to “THE FIRST FAMILY IN SELMA.” In chronicling the events of March 7, there was no picture and no mention of President and Mrs. Bush (or any other…

What was supposed to be a report on a constitutional battle in Alabama by CNN’s Elliott C. McLaughlin quickly transformed into what can only be described as gushing celebration of a triumph over traditional marriage advocates who are stuck living in the past.   McLaughlin began his piece on CNN.com with the story of a father of a gay man calling his son’s wedding "disgusting."  He then poured…

On Monday night, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC each devoted a segment of their Monday evening newscasts to the news that Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and some local government officials chose not to carry out a federal ruling that calls for gay marriages to be permitted despite a voter-approved ban. Naturally, the networks provided favorable coverage to those in…

Recent job cuts at Alabama newspapers have been steep. The Birmingham Business Journal, which (ahem) apparently is not among the participants, reports that "Three of Alabama’s largest daily newspapers, including the Birmingham News, will lay off about 400 employees as they cut back their printing schedules and increase their focus on digital." The other affected publications include the…

Wednesday's CBS Evening News featured a report by correspondent Mark Strassmann playing up the reservations that some are having about the new law to strictly enforce immigration laws in Alabama. After noting that a poll supposedly shows that Latino voters are dissatisfied because the Obama administration has deported record numbers of illegal immigrants, substitute anchor Jeff Glor introduced…

Campbell Robertson cranked the melodrama up to eleven in his New York Times story on Tuesday on the upholding by a federal judge of a tough new immigration law in Alabama: “After Ruling, Hispanics Flee an Alabama Town – Fears Rise Over a Tough Law on Immigrants.” Robertson talked of “the vanishing” and dabbled in a little Creative Writing 101: “In certain neighborhoods the streets are…

Matching the pattern set in coverage of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law, the broadcast network evening newscasts on Thursday night all framed their stories on Alabama’s “severe” new law around its victims, with ABC anchor Diane Sawyer and NBC anchor Brian Williams both describing it as “Arizona on steroids.” They didn’t mean it as a compliment. Sawyer mischaracterized it as an “anti-…