Columnist
Otis Sanford is a political columnist, author and professor emeritus in Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis.
There are 260 articles by Otis Sanford :
Trump’s use of the word “lynching” in his tweet was designed to change the conversation from damaging testimony that is shifting public opinion toward the conclusion that he is unfit for the presidency.
On the night Mississippi voters are deciding between two degrees of conservatism, Shelby County Democrats will gather in Germantown to ask the question, “How Liberal Are You?”
The landmark lawsuit accusing the City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department of spying on citizens returns to court 40 years later.
Rage and guns are a bad combination. In Memphis last weekend, eight people were shot, one of them killed, in altercations at a strip club, a convenience store and outside a Beale Street honky-tonk. On Monday, one discount store customer shot another four times.
It wasn’t just the insulting language that cost Berlin Boyd his council seat. Many voters were upset that he tended to favor big business over the needs of neighborhoods.
Blighted property on Union at B.B. King Boulevard became AutoZone Park. A new hotel occupies the site of the bus station. Now Union Row has the potential to remake Downtown Memphis.
U.S. Attorney Michael Dunavant voiced support when the attorney general criticized communities that fail to show proper respect for law officers. Were they also concerned when Trump attacked FBI leaders?
Partisan anger for and against President Donald Trump will drive voters to the polls in high numbers. But other factors, such as health care, will play a role.
This political tempest involves the thorny issue of whether Tennessee should continue to participate in a federal refugee resettlement program.
Republicans for the Rule of Law is advertising in Tennessee to drum up support for a fair Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump. The group hopes to put pressure on Sen. Lamar Alexander to vote to have witnesses during the trial.
State legislators and the Memphis and Shelby County mayors are among elected officials who have endorsed a presidential candidate and plan to campaign for their choice.
Instead of the word salad that came from Tennessee’s senior Republican senator late on the evening of Jan. 30, all we really needed was a single sentence.
The unspoken sentiment behind objections to relaxing residency rules appears to be the prospect that white officers from small towns in North Mississippi, West Tennessee and Eastern Arkansas would be policing unfamiliar territory in North Memphis, South Memphis and Orange Mound.
Far too many of this state’s political leaders have a paternalistic and chauvinistic attitude toward women. And what’s worse, these guys just don’t care how it looks.
Election commission records show Robertson has participated in every presidential election going back to the 1970s – and no doubt long before that. And she rarely misses a Memphis municipal, county or state election, including primaries.
Voters are yearning to be free – of the nutty, crude and corrupt. They want moderation in our national politics, and a center-left leader at the helm of the executive branch whom everyone knows and a majority of Americans trust.
Gov. Bill Lee sticks to his guns, unmoved by pleas from law enforcement officials, mayors, gun merchants and firearms trainers.
A Tennessee legislator's tweet that "the national media is promoting fear and sheer panic" earns well-deserved criticism.
Many Memphis churches, particularly those with mostly African American congregations, have not suspended in-person worship, underscoring the importance the church has in African American life. But the ritual of gathering to worship, even in a spotlessly clean building, is now much too risky.
I knew that former Sen. Bob Corker briefly served as a Tennessee commissioner of finance. What I didn’t know is that Corker cares more about finances than human lives. I knew he had guts. I also thought he had a heart.
The governor of Arkansas opposes allowing cities to issue their own stay-at-home orders, but that's not stopping Mayor Marco McClendon from moving forward with his curfew for West Memphis.
The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on African Americans shines a spotlight on racial disparities that translate into different health outcomes for whites and blacks.
The dissension has filtered down to statehouses and into the streets, with thoughtless protesters thumbing their noses at social distancing and demanding that states end stay-at-home orders.
Watching Alisa Haushalter, director of the Shelby County Health Department, explain our new reality in a calm, measured and fact-based tone, I came away with more optimism than pessimism about our prospects for overcoming this ruthless pandemic.
I cherish the competitive newspaper environments that marked the early years of my career — in Jackson between The Clarion-Ledger and Daily News and in Memphis between The Commercial Appeal and Press-Scimitar.