H. Brandt Ayers

News

Longtime Anniston Star publisher H. Brandt “Brandy” Ayers has died

H. Brandt “Brandy” Ayers, the longtime publisher of The Anniston Star and a number of weekly papers in Alabama has died. He was 85. Ayers was the President of Consolidated Publishing. The company and Ayers are best known for the Anniston Star, but the company also owns and publishes: The Talladega Daily Home, The Cleburne … Continued

Brandon Moseley

May 5, 2020

Opinion

Yeah, people are ‘disgruntled’

We have to give credit to the staff at the University of Alabama’s Crimson White newspaper. They carefully and accurately reported a difficult story about the hiring of the university’s new director of the Office of Student Media. That’s what good journalism is all about. One of the top candidates for UA director of student … Continued

Joey Kennedy

July 25, 2019

Opinion

The Ayers factor: A disturbing lack of compassion

When former Anniston Star publisher H. Brandt Ayers admitted last year to assaulting women who worked for him — including my wife Veronica when she was a young reporter — Ayers resigned as chairman of Consolidated Publishing, the company that owns the Star and other newspapers. Ayers was supposed to have nothing more to do … Continued

Joey Kennedy

May 9, 2019

Opinion

The fallen Star

At the beginning of last year, when former Consolidated Publishing chairman and Anniston Star publisher H. Brandt Ayers basically admitted to abusing at least two of his former female employees by spanking them decades ago, those of us who followed the story knew this was just the cliché’d tip of the iceberg. When my wife, … Continued

Joey Kennedy

March 7, 2019

Opinion

Brandy Ayers stole “normal” from the women he abused

Shortly after the Anniston Star posted a story that Washington Post Executive Editor Martin “Marty” Baron was coming to Anniston to deliver the annual Ayers Lecture, the rumblings started. On the surface, it appeared to be an insult to the many women, including my wife, Veronica, who were abused by H. Brandt Ayers, former publisher … Continued

Joey Kennedy

February 28, 2019

Opinion

Men are pigs; yes, they are

So it’s happening again. A woman accuses a man of sexually assaulting her many years ago, this time while she and the man were in high school, and the voices, mostly those of men (but a few women, too) declare openly that she should have come forward earlier. Why wait years, even decades, before making … Continued

Joey Kennedy

September 19, 2018

Opinion

Alabama “corrupt?” Well, it does add up

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Hello, from one of the most corrupt states in the nation. That’s according to a variety of studies – Harvard University among them — on both illegal corruption and legal corruption. Like the University of Alabama in college football, the state Alabama is a national Top 10 in corruption; … Continued

Joey Kennedy

January 25, 2018

Opinion

This is why women don’t come forward

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Alabama Political Reporter Editor in Chief Bill Britt and reporter/columnist Josh Moon have done a fine job exposing state Attorney General Steve Marshall’s lack of action when a woman who worked in his office was aggressively sexually assaulted by an assistant district attorney who also worked there. Men who … Continued

Joey Kennedy

January 18, 2018

Former Anniston Star reporters say paper’s former publisher and current chairman sexually assaulted them

By Eddie Burkhalter Special to the Alabama Political Reporter As news articles broke throughout 2017 of men and women coming forward, sometimes decades afterward, to say they’d been sexually assaulted and harassed, former Anniston Star reporters took notice. Some of these former female Star reporters say H. Brandt Ayers, the paper’s former publisher and current … Continued

Eddie Burkhalter

January 1, 2018

Opinion

Journalist Eddie Burkhalter’s principles are intact; the Anniston Star’s, not so much

By Joey Kennedy Alabama Political Reporter Journalist Eddie Burkhalter did what few in our business will ever do. Burkhalter quit his job on at The Anniston Star in November on principle because the newspaper wouldn’t allow him to pursue a story about allegations that former Star Publisher H. Brandt Ayers spanked some of his women … Continued

Joey Kennedy

January 1, 2018