State officials have yet to respond to an 1819 News report about the inordinate amount of taxpayer money spent on advertising with a small, left-wing outlet, Alabama Political Reporter.
1819 News' Craig Monger reported that state agencies paid nearly $100,000 in tax money to APR during the 2024 fiscal year. Of that, $12,700 came from the Secretary of State's Office, $17,820 from the Department of Corrections and $63,750 from the Department of Transportation (ALDOT).
Contrast that to the Alabama Media Group (AMG), the parent company of the state's largest news site, AL(dot)com, which received just over $13,000 in the 2024 fiscal year, compared to the $192,000 state agencies paid AMG in the fiscal year 2023.
SEE ALSO: State taxpayers bankrolling Alabama Political Reporter's anti-GOP screeds
Monger appeared on "The Dale Jackson Show" Friday to further break down what he found looking into APR's public financial records.
"The difference between them and other places that accept advertising dollars from state agencies, it pretty much seemed to correlate with the type of coverage that they were giving," he said.
He pointed to the nearly $64,000 from ALDOT, which he said "seemed excessive" for a single fiscal year.
"When you look at the coverage, they [APR] were very glowing and very supportive of especially the ALDOT director, John Cooper, during his arrest," Monger said.
On June 12, 2023, Cooper was arrested after allegedly threatening to shoot a neighbor over a land dispute. Despite also being the subject of a lawsuit over a toll bridge in Baldwin County at the time, APR's coverage of Cooper upon his arrest included the land dispute but left out the threatening allegation. APR's Bill Britt also published an op-ed the same day titled "Where will John Cooper go to get his reputation back?"
"I will let the reader decide whether or not they think this type of thing is OK or acceptable for their taxpayer dollars to fund," Monger said.
To connect with the story's author or comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.
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