Alabama Newspaper Publisher Admits to Spanking Employee, Believes He Has Served 'Honorably'
LatestA prominent Alabama newspaper executive has admitted he “spanked” a former employee in the 1970s. He has refused to step down. In a report in the Anniston Star, at least two former employees allege that H. Brandt Ayers, the Star’s former publisher and current chairman of Consolidated Publishing (which owns the Star), “spanked women against their will, with sexual overtones.”
When contacted by the Star, Ayers admitted to spanking former police reporter Wendy Sigal, who worked at the paper in 1973 and 1974. Former Star editor Trisha O’Connor recalled receiving a phone call about the incident, describing Sigal as “very, very upset,” and said Brandt had stopped by her home and “told her she had been a bad girl and she needed to be spanked—and he spanked her.”