The Democrat-Reporter

On February 14, 2019, The Democrat-Reporter publisher Goodloe Sutton wrote an editorial titled "Klan needs to ride again", calling for the return of the Ku Klux Klan to "clean out Washington D.C." with lynchings.[9][18] "We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them", Sutton said. He also specified that he was only referring to hanging "socialist-communists", and compared the Klan to the NAACP.[19]

The editorial led to calls on Sutton to resign by senators Doug Jones and Richard Shelby, while other local politicians stated that they were not surprised by the comments.[20][21] The editorial was first discovered and shared by the student-run Auburn Plainsman.[22]

Sutton had previously been criticized for running offensive headlines and editorials, including comments about the Obama family and Hillary Clinton, but they did not get as much attention.[3][11] Subscriptions to the newspaper declined as Linden residents responded negatively to the editorial and its widespread attention.[17] Sutton's alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, removed him from the School of Communication's Mass Communication Hall of Fame over the editorial,[23] and he was also stripped of a distinguished community journalism award he had been presented in 2009 by Auburn University's Journalism Advisory Council.[19] Sutton responded to the criticism by saying that he was not sorry that he wrote the editorial, and that he would do it again if he had the chance.[24]

On February 22, Sutton announced that he would resign from his positions as publisher and editor, giving control of the newspaper to Elecia R. Dexter.[25] Dexter, an African-American woman with a degree in speech communications from Eastern Illinois University,[26] had been employed at The Democrat-Reporter as a front-desk employee for six weeks at the time of the editorial, but had no journalism experience.[27] Sutton retained ownership of the newspaper.[28][29][30] Dexter resigned the editorship on March 11, two weeks after taking the position, due to editorial changes made by Sutton without her permission.[27] In an interview with The New York Times, Dexter said that Sutton had emailed a version of the February 28 issue of the newspaper that replaced an article about his retirement with a defense of the KKK editorial and attacks against the Montgomery Advertiser for publishing an interview with him.[27][31] She stated that her resignation was made after further changes to the March 14 issue, but was delayed over concerns for Sutton's cognitive well-being.[31]

The Associated Press reported in late March that Sutton had sold the newspaper to an unnamed buyer, who were later identified as out-of-state residents C.T. Harless and Sabrina McMahan in a front-page editorial on March 28.[32][33] Online news outlet Alabama Political Reporter published an investigation into Harless, who was using a pseudonym, and linked him to a group aligned with the Ku Klux Klan from Tennessee.[34][35] Linden mayor Charles Moore expressed skepticism over whether the newspaper had actually been sold, while Sutton stated that he would continue operating the newspaper because the new owners lacked experience.[36] In July, the Associated Press reported that Sutton had retired and sold the newspaper to Tommy Wells, a sports publicist from Texas who had previously shown interest in acquiring the Democrat-Reporter. Wells and his wife published their first edition on July 5, 2019, with the announcement of Sutton's retirement.[37]