Congratulations to MOBster Kyle Whitmire, who won first place in Political Column (under 55,000 circ.) Saturday at the 2008 AltWeekly Awards for his War on Dumb column in Birmingham Weekly.
This is the newspaper’s first win in nine years, though it has picked up several runner-up honors.
War on Dumb wins AltWeekly Award
On Saturday, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and the Medill School of Journalism announced the winners of the 13th annual Altweekly Awards at the association’s convention in Philadelphia. Birmingham Weekly’s ‘War on Dumb’ took first place for best political column in the 55,000-and-under circulation division.
The weekly column by staff writer Kyle Whitmire examines political culture in Birmingham and Alabama.
Birmingham Weekly last received a first place award in 1999 for media criticism by then-staff writer Tom Spencer. In recent years, Birmingham Weekly writers have been runners up for commentary, political commentary and arts criticism.
You can find the rest of the 2008 Altweekly Award winners at www.aan.org.
The winning submission included three columns from 2007 — two about Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford and one about Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s Alabama PAC scheme to sidestep federal campaign finance laws.
You can read the winning columns by following the links below.
Media of Birmingham 
While I usually disagree with the editorial page at the Weekly, I make a point of reading Whitmire’s work. It makes for the sort of investigative reporting that takes much longer to appear in our remaining daily paper.
Looks like the secret’s out …
Congrats to Kyle! I can think of no other more deserving…I follow your column religiously, and your investigative insight is a true testament to what “journalism” really represents. It’s time we all ‘step up our game,’ and remember how fleeting independent reporting has become. We were unfortunately reminded of just how few political reporters are within our midst with the recent loss of Tim Russert. “Ask not for whom the bell toils…” I for one would like to recognize and emulate the efforts, input, and talents of Kyle, while he continues to share them with us and his readers. Damn Good Job!