Scott Horton In Huntsville ::

Scott Horton, adjunct professor of law at Columbia University and prolific writer, was in Huntsville yesterday evening to present a talk titled “Watchdogs or Lapdogs, Politics and the Alabama Press”, and the evening turned out to be much more interesting than I had ever anticipated given the persons in attendance. Let’s see: we had Don Siegelman, subject of much of Horton’s recent writings along with a related cast including Dana Jill Simpson and Eddie Curran, a Mobile Press Register writer who seems to have been instrumental in offering up Siegelman for prosecution. Curran was, to put it mildly, in a combative mood while encircled by a hostile crowd! Curran seems to have had a distorted view of what this forum offered and several times challenged Horton, much to the displeasure of the crowd. Much of the time was taken up with discussion of the malfeasance of Alice Martin, the U.S. District Attorney for north Alabama and the lack of local Alabama press coverage. I'm not going to go into a long narrative of the night's events. For that I recommend Left In Alabama which also has some video.

I came away from the event with the thought that someone should sponsor a symposium: something of a debate of the press coverage of controversial events in the state of Alabama. I was interested that The Huntsville Times' John Ehinger was in attendance, but declined to make any statements regarding the night's topic. I thought that this was more than a bit cowardly, but I was not terribly surprised.

At the evening's end I was able to spend a few moments with Scott Horton offering my thanks for his efforts in keeping the Siegelman story alive and offering my thoughts that I will miss hiatus from blogging.

[note] I'm typing this on my ancient laptop which drives me nuts. The keyboard, at times, seems to have a mind of its own. The upside to all of the frustration is that I can sit on my back porch on such a wonderful evening as this and enjoy the twilight without being tethered to my desktop.

Democrats meet at the roundhouse this Saturday! I'll be there and I hope that you will be also!