When an inflammatory editorial prompted the Alabama Press Association this week to suspend the membership of the Democrat-Reporter, a weekly paper in the small town of Linden, your first thought should be to question why anyone would object to a newspaper exercising its constitutional right to free speech.
Unfortunately, a little research makes it clear that the newspaper owner, Goodloe Sutton, went way too far when he wrote that the Ku Klux Klan needs to start nightriding again and string up “Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats” who are plotting to raise taxes.
Sutton’s editorial said the Klan “would be welcome to raid the gated communities up there,” but didn’t specify the location. He later told a reporter from the Montgomery, Ala., paper that he was talking about Washington politicians, adding, “We’ll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them.”
It’s sometimes tempting for an editorial writer to use an extreme example to make a point. This editorial is Exhibit A on the risks of doing that. Because whatever the United States needs today, the Klan is emphatically not on the list.
We have witnessed what the Klan has done in Mississippi and across the Deep South.
Sutton could be excused if this was a one-time error in judgment. But it isn’t.
A 2014 editorial in the paper said, “Dope heads know how to grow marijuana but not cotton,” adding that blacks dominate the drug market — because not too many whites use drugs, right?
And during the controversy over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, the paper observed, “That’s what black folks were taught to do two hundred years ago, kneel before a white man.”
Perhaps the saddest part of the story is that in the 1990s, Sutton and his reporter wife won national acclaim for their work exposing a corrupt sheriff, who wound up pleading guilty to extortion and soliciting bribes.
It takes courage and stubbornness to print those kind of stories in a small community. But now Sutton’s reputation is in tatters. The University of Southern Mississippi removed him from its School of Communication hall of fame this week, and Auburn University took back an award he received in 2009.
Sutton does have his First Amendment rights, and the actions taken by the Alabama Press Association are not an attempt to censor Sutton. However, there are consequences that come with your right to exercise your freedom, as anyone has the same right to speak against what you say or write.
But his editorials are far better suited for the extremist world of social media. Regrettably, he deserves the scorn of newspapers.
Since the editorial was written, he has stepped down from his position as editor and publisher. He turned the reigns over to Elecia Dexter, an African American woman from Chicago who served as the front office clerk for the newspaper.
We’re glad that he did decide to step aside and allow someone else to lead the newspaper.
It’s a shame that such a great career of a news man could be ruined with one editorial, but it was. No one will remember the good that he did as a journalist, but all we will remember is what he did last.
