“ Birmingham: newspapers in a crisis
Out of the anti-segregation demonstrations in Birmingham in April and May has come still another episode in the old North-South dispute over the role of journalism and journalists in domestic crisis. One Southern view was immortalized by T. Eugene Connor, until recently Birmingham's Commissioner of Public Safety, Health, Education and Welfare, when he said: "The trouble with this country is communism, socialism, and journalism." ”

“ Until that time, however, there was little recognition in the papers that the demonstrations had caught the world’s eye. The News, in this period, used much more outside comment than the Post-Herald.
2. The failure of the papers to report in detail on the demonstrators’ objectives is apparently part of a general lack of contact with the Negro community, which comprises 34 per cent of the Birmingham area population. On Sundays, the News runs a small section of Negro news and photos—less than one page. ”

“ Hanson also pointed out that the two newspapers supported strongly the change in the city government and the election of a moderate mayor. The demonstrations, he said, took place in a "political vacuum," before the commission government had been finally ordered by the courts to surrender its posts. "People had to try to do quietly what otherwise would have been done publicly. That is why names of those working on possible terms of agreement were not published in our newspapers. But they will be." ”