BirminghamWatch

A Universal Action: When PR’s Goal Is to Hide the Truth

Very few people knew just how devastating was the June 2008 fire at the Universal Music Group’s archives that destroyed the master recordings of thousands of musical artists – from Count Basie to Snoop Dog, Chuck Berry to Nirvana. The company made sure. In fact, it took 11 years before the public began to fully understand the loss. The New York Times Magazine revealed the losses in its story published June 11, 2019.. The story is worth reading for many reasons – as an accounting of what happened, and insight into the magnitude of the losses that go beyond the mere millions of dollars and cents. But there’s another way to read the story — as an example of public relations scheming. The Times’ story points out many places where Universal’s public relations staff did its best to hide the extent of the losses — to itself, to the music makers who entrusted their original master recordings to the company and to the public. Only with insurance filings did it seem to reveal the losses. Read more.

by Chris Roberts

‘The Weekly,’ and the Power of News (Done Right)

How much do average news consumers care about how stories actually come to be? The New York Times is banking on them caring enough to invest 30 minutes of television time a week to watch those stories come to life. “The Weekly,” which debuted last week on FX, chronicles the work of Times reporters as they chase down stories. Read more.

by Clay Carey

Should We Hear the Lies and the Hate?

Whenever White House adviser Kellyanne Conway appears on a TV news or talk show, I switch the channel to more useful programming, such as the Home Shopping Network selling something in which I have no interest. Conway, who traffics in distortion and lies, is among the media circuit regulars who has spawned industry debate as to whether some people deserve an interview and appearance ban. A combative December appearance by Conway on Chris Cuomo’s CNN news talk show, for instance, produced a live, long and lively argument between Cuomo and CNN news anchor Don Lemon.  A more recent repeat of the same issue, but involving a more offensive individual, occurred two weeks ago when conservative commentator and author Ben Shapiro, who could less politely be described as a hateful troll, was aggressively questioned by an interviewer on a BBC politics show. Shapiro, who unlike Conway does not advise a national decision maker (but who is popular enough that he filled the lecture room at a February appearance at the University of Alabama), abruptly walked out of the interview on live TV. Nesrine Malik, a columnist for The Guardian, wrote: “No matter how much those with regressive, prejudiced or simply dishonest views are challenged, it is pointless if they are constantly provided a venue. It is the platform that legitimizes them, not how they perform when they are on that platform.” Read more.

by Tom Arenberg

Huntsville Area Leads the State in Population Growth

The Birmingham-Hoover MSA grew by just 2,116 people in 2017-2018. The area ranked 251th out of 383 MSAs in terms of population growth rate, according to an analysis of census data conducted by the Public Research Council of Alabama. The Huntsville MSA led the state in percentage of population growth, ranking it 64th in the country. It added 6,952 people to its ranks in the period. Other large metros in the state fell below Birmingham-Hoover in terms of growth, with Mobile ranked 324th and Montgomery 327th. However, those two areas lost population in 2017-2018, as did some other metro areas in the U.S. Read more.

by BirminghamWatch

Reactions to Alabama’s New Abortion Ban

The Alabama Legislature’s passage of a law to make almost all abortions in the state illegal drew attention across the country. Here are a few of the angles being addressed by the press: Alabama Aims Squarely at Roe, but the Supreme Court May Prefer Glancing Blows (New York Times) Televangelist Pat Robertson: Alabama’s Abortion Ban Is ‘Extreme’ and Has ‘Gone Too Far’ (Washington Post) Alabama’s Extremist Abortion Bill Ruins John Roberts’ Roe Plan: SCOTUS was all teed up to quietly gut America’s abortion rights. Then Alabama happened. (Slate) What Alabama’s Abortion Legislation Could Mean for the Rest of the Country (Video) (Washington Post) 23 Ways Anti-Abortion Activists Are Attempting to Erode Roe v. Wade Without Repealing It (Business Insider) Abortion Laws Are Changing Across US. Here’s a State-by-State Guide and What It Means (Miami Herald) What the Alabama Abortion Bill Really Aims to Do (CNN) Alabama’s Lawmakers Want to Challenge Roe v. Wade (The Economist) Read more.

by BirminghamWatch

The Louisiana Purchase (Journalism Edition)

The New Orleans newspaper war ended Thursday with the owner of The New Orleans Advocate buying The Times-Picayune, or, as one writer put it, with David conquering Goliath. That’s true — if Goliath were missing one arm and one leg. Read more.

by Tom Arenberg

Hank Black Inducted Into UA Student Media’s Wall of Fame for His Service in Journalism

BirminghamWatch’s Hank Black was inducted into the Wall of Fame for the University of Alabama’s Office of Student Media during an event April 26. Black, who covers the environment for BW, was honored for his role as editor in chief of the Crimson White during one of the most turbulent years in the university’s history. Black was editor in 1963, when Vivian Malone and James Hood became the first two black students to successfully enroll at UA, following Gov. George Wallace’s infamous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.” Read more.

by BirminghamWatch

Crenshaw Wins Award for BW Story ‘Jefferson County’s Blue Wave’

BirminghamWatch’s Solomon Crenshaw Jr. recently won a first place award from Alabama Media Professionals for his story “Jefferson County’s ‘Blue Wave:’ How the First Black Sheriff and District Attorney Won Election,” which he co-wrote with Virginia MacDonald, another writer for BirminghamWatch. Read more.

by BirminghamWatch

Doug Jones’ story about the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and the prosecution of the Klansmen who did it, provides perspective on the past and present.

“Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights” by Doug Jones with Greg Truman (St. Martin’s Press, 2019) “Maxine McNair’s screams were primal,” Doug Jones writes in Bending Toward Justice. As McNair searched for her daughter Denise in the rubble of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church she knew, the way a mother would know, that the unthinkable had finally happened. The 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing that killed Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins happened because white Americans were angry. Birmingham’s public schools were integrated the week before the bombing, and as whites saw dents and cracks appearing in the wall that separated them from black Americans they became resentful and afraid. And a few whites, bitter losers clinging to the bottom rung of the white racial hierarchy, were willing to do more than just gripe about it. They were willing to commit murder. "Bending Toward Justice" accomplishes what good history should accomplish. The book helps readers understand the past and the present. And the events of 1963 are relevant now because sometimes history does backflips. That’s not to say that history repeats itself, because it doesn’t really. But occasionally, without looking where we’re going, we jump back to a spot we thought we had left behind. And then we have to retrace our steps to see how it all turns out this time. Read more.

by James L. Baggett

Reading Birmingham: True Believer Tells Christmas Stories of Joy and Peace and Lots of Presents

“Christmas in Birmingham” by Tim Hollis (History Press, 2015) I was six or seven years old. After visiting my grandparents’ house on Pearson Avenue one December afternoon in the late 1960s, I persuaded my parents to stop by McDonald’s so I could talk to Santa Claus. Our usual Santa was at Eastwood Mall, but the McDonald’s Santa was giving away Ronald McDonald hand puppets. And I wanted one. Read more.

by James L. Baggett