On Monday, Alabama Political Reporter's (APR) Bill Britt published a piece claiming to "Fact Check" State Rep. Matt Simpson's (R-Daphne) "Claims on Alabama Ethics Law."
Simpson immediately responded to the piece on Twitter, calling it a "verifiably false article" and demanding an apology from APR and Britt.
APR immediately removed the article from their website, and due to it being up for such a short time period, the piece was not archived. The far-left-wing site also deleted a tweet linking to the article.
1819 News attempted to ask Britt about the fact check, to which a combative Britt argued about the framing of it being an op-ed and refused to apologize for the since-taken-down article.
He said he didn't apologize for his article, nor was it 1819 News' business for his reasoning behind its removal.
Partial transcript of the call as follows:
1819 NEWS: I just wanted to see if we could chat about the op-ed that you guys put up about Representative Simpson's bill and see if you would give me a statement on why y'all pulled down the op-ed and what issues you guys have with the bill?
BRITT: There was no op-ed.
1819 NEWS: There was one published, and he called it out on Twitter, and then it was removed.
BRITT: No, there wasn't an op-ed.
1819 NEWS: Well, what was it then?
BRITT: You obviously don't know what you're talking about, which I'm not shocked, but Bradley, there was no op-ed; there was a piece that I wrote this morning, and uh, quite frankly, it's none of your business why I took it down or what I did.
1819 NEWS: I mean, do you retract whatever was in there and apologize to Matt?
BRITT: Are you an idiot? Did you not just hear what I said, and you can quote me on that, because you are probably an idiot. I have not apologized for anything, and I am not. I didn't. It's none of your business what I publish and don't publish.
I know that you have to answer to your taskmasters and those people, that, those anonymous donors that supply y'all with copious amounts of money, but I don't.
So, Bradley, take your phony ass news and shove it up your backside.
Listen to the full phone conversation here [WARNING: LANGUAGE]:
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email Bradley.cox@1819news.com.
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