There seems to be a spate of stories about Bad Old Alabama of late; but some of them really involve scraping the bottom of the barrel of sensationalism. It seems that there is a default condition going on: If it involves Bama and it can be construed as bad, play it up.
Three come to mind lately.
(1) That infamous sorority video from Alpha Phi at The University of Alabama. Yes, it went viral; but it was basically harmless showing of pretty girls acting, well, like 18-year-old girls and including -- horrors! -- wearing bikinis! Anyway, it was labeled by al.com as worse for women than anything Donald Trump said.
(2) All kinds of wild speculation about the why of Governor and Mrs. Bennett's divorce. Hard facts are few; wild speculation is more interesting.
(3) The closing of some driver's license places, predominantly in southern Alabama. It was immediately ascribed to racist motives, with little mention of it possibly being driver by a budget shortfall that the legislature is unable or unwilling to deal with.
Anyway, the truth is seldom pure and never simple, as Oscar Wilde once observed.
I wonder if this kind of thing happens in other states.
Oh, it does. Because journalism is often done half assed.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't seen the video. Thanks.
ReplyDelete