Friday, November 03, 2017
What Happened To The Alabama Political Reporter? - Donald V. Watkins
https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/10214555463622479
What Happened To The Alabama Political Reporter?
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) November 2, 2017
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) November 2, 2017
There was a time when I respected the fledging Alabama Political Reporter ("APR"). After all, APR published a March 28, 2016 article titled, "Bentley Ordered Law Enforcement To Target Critics", which described how former Alabama governor Robert Bentley targeted me for personal and professional destruction after I published my "Forbidden Love" and "Executive Betrayal" series of investigative news articles in 2015 that detailed Bentley's "sex for power" scandal with his married paramour, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
In April of 2017, Bentley pled guilty to state ethics charges and resigned as governor. The Alabama House of Representatives' Impeachment Report confirmed everything I reported about the Bentley-Mason love affair.
I was surprised when APR published an article in August that essentially defended accused rapist, Terry Jackson "Sweet T" Bunn, Jr. The one-sided article had the feel and smell of a slick PR spin for Sweet T.
While the article focused on the 2015 rape case involving University of Alabama honors student Megan Rondini, it was not presented in the context of any larger political or legislative issue. There was no discussion about suggested changes to Alabama's arcane rape laws or guidance on when and how law enforcement officers should test for the presence of "date rape" drugs in reported rape cases. This omission was odd for a political news media outlet.
On Monday, APR openly attacked me because of my consistent news reporting in the Megan Rondini rape case. APR's article that day quoted Matrix, LLC, founder Joe Perkins extensively. Perkins, who represents the Bunn family's interests in the Rondini rape case, called me a "financially broken, desperate man" who is "suffering from psychological and behavioral problems that have brought him to the brink of ruin."
The news media industry in Alabama is relatively small. I knew before APR's pro-Sweet T article was published that its founders, Susan and Bill Britt, enjoyed a close personal and business relationship with Joe Perkins. I also knew that Matrix serves as a news source and financial sponsor of APR.
After Monday's APR article was published, my readers flooded me with information on Susan and Bill Britt. Below are some snippets of the information that were shared with me:
1. Susan and Bill Britt have a background that is riddled with debts, lawsuits, federal tax liens, and failed attempts at other companies.
2. Over the past 15 years or so, Bill Britt has lived in three different towns in Alabama, three different towns in North Carolina (where he was arrested twice), and has lived in New York, Hawaii, Tennessee, and Dade City, Florida.
3. Susan Britt has also moved frequently as a result of evictions, lawsuits, and failed companies. Susan has lived at four different addresses in Huntsville after numerous evictions, three different addresses in North Carolina, and shared an address with Bill in New York City.
4. In total, Bill Britt has had over a dozen different addresses in six different states and Susan Britt has had over a dozen different addresses in four states – all since 1990. The lawsuits, federal tax liens, and arrests have caused Susan and Bill Britt to move from town to town, over and over again.
5. Bill Britt had several run-ins with the law in North Carolina. He pled guilty at least twice after being arrested for DUI. Other arrests appear on his record, but the details are murky. He was also convicted of disorderly conduct in Etowah County, Alabama several years ago.
6. Susan Britt has been convicted three times for writing bad checks in Huntsville, Alabama. She pled guilty all three times.
7. Susan and Bill Britt had a combined eleven lawsuits pending against them and/or judgments made against them totaling over $50,000. These lawsuits involved their failure to pay thousands of dollars in cell phone bills and computer rentals, banks to which they owed tens of thousands of dollars, and numerous evictions.
8. Susan and Bill Britt had tax liens filed against them by the State of New York and the IRS seeking $3,282 and $22,720, respectively.
Whether any of this information is true or not does not matter in the larger scheme of things. What matters is the fact that APR gratuitously trashed Megan Rondini, a reported rape "victim" who committed suicide after the man she accused of raping her escaped criminal justice with the help of a few crooked Tuscaloosa County law enforcement officials.
I do not trash rape victims. I support them.
I sincerely hope Susan and Bill Britt are able to regain some measure of credibility and respectability for APR in the future. They have engaged in some good, solid journalism in the past. They strayed from this path with their defense of Sweet T. As a result, they are now compromised as respected journalists.
As for me, I recognize that frontline journalists like Roger Alan Shuler, David Meck Meckley, and I must pay a heavy price in order to achieve some semblance of a "free press" in Alabama. In my case, Robert Bentley taught me of what that price is.
Nobody can "buy" my loyalty or favorable news coverage on my Facebook page. These outcomes must be earned by a clear and convincing showing of high quality leadership and a sustained track record of good behavior.
Thursday, November 02, 2017
World Series: Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw vows to press on after loss - USATODAY -“At the end of the day,’’ he said, looking at worn tan cover, “that’s why I play the game, to glorify Him in everything I do and to compete for Him.’’
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