Tangled web, check. Woven, check. Deceived…uh, not check.

There’s a newspaper in Alabama that has a reputation for promoting some incredibly racist garbage, the Democrat-Reporter, which was run by a good ol’ boy named Goodloe Sutton. “Was”. It’s been sold.


The new owners are CT Harless and Sabrina McMahan, nominally. The story has to be read to be believed. They are incapable of saying any word of truth, and lead a reporter who asked a few simple questions about their background on an amazing runaround. “Are you the CT Harless who said he was an Imperial Wizard of the American White Knights?” “No, that was my brother.” “Your name is Chuck Harless?” “No, Chris, my brother is Chuck, we were both called CT.” (sounds confusing.) “But you bought the paper?” “No, I don’t own it. I’m just helping out the owner.”

It goes around and around, and there’s a transparent charade where CT has a friend call up the reporter posing as “Chuck” of the KKK to disavow any connection. It’s so stupid, with constantly changing excuses, that it’s hilarious. And of course CT/Chuck/Chris/Sabrina are threatening to sue the reporter if he publishes any of it. I still don’t understand why they’re being so evasive, unless it’s just that they have the habit of lying.

I don’t think the KKK/American White Knights are recruiting the very best.


  1. Aaron says

    As we know from BlacKkKlansman, even “very incompetent” isn’t a death knell when all the institutions around you are gunning for your victory.

  2. lesherb says

    Of course this KKK/White Knights group didn’t recruit the best people. Donald Trump told all of us that HE knew all the best people & he’s placed them in his administration. You can tell who they are by the word “acting” in front of their title.

  3. says

    There is a precedent here. In the 1950’s a publisher with a track record of conservative right wing views acquired a small newspaper in Adelaide South Australia. He already had a string of publications noted for their conservative views. He is probably best remembered for his reporting to Australians in WW1. Most notably a very unsubtle campaign attacking an Australian General, Sir John Monash who didn’t have the right upper class credentials and worse still was Jewish.Unlike most British generals he enjoyed the support and loyalty of his troops because he wasn’t into the mass bloody sacrifices for the honour and glory of the empire they so loved. This publisher in collusion with an official Australian war historian kept Monash from promotion and command until desperation pushed the government to appoint him. The result was a series of well planned strategic victories which helped push the Germans back. So where am I going with all this? When that publisher died his son took over the paper. Not only did he continue to promote his fathers conservative views and push the world into pointless wars, he expanded it into the global empire of News Limited spreading front page hatred and televised confected rage around the world. Haters and bigots getting control of a small town newspaper is not a laughing matter.