Al.com’s ‘dark money’ hypocrisy costs Alabama taxpayers millions

Apparently frustrated by their unsuccessful attempt to stoke racial tensions at the University of Alabama late last year, Alabama sports website and liberal political blog al.com is back with another shot at the UA System. With an “investigative report” titled, “How the University of Alabama System funneled $1.4 million through a ‘dark money’ web,” an al.com blogger takes great pains to give readers the impression that the System is just plain up to no good.

Here’s the gist of it:

The UA System is a member of an organization called the Alabama Association for Higher Education (AAFHE), a 501(C)(6) non-profit group whose stated goals are as follows:

• Inform the citizens of the State of Alabama and its leaders on important issues in Alabama’s higher education.
• Foster an ongoing rational discussion of higher education among the people of the State of Alabama and its leaders.
• Promote higher education as a driver of economic success in the State of Alabama.
• Maximize the impact higher education has on Alabama’s economy.
• Promote higher education as a catalyst for recruiting industries and creating jobs in the State of Alabama.
• Advocate for the advancement of healthcare research in Alabama.

According to the al.com report, “the UA System has contributed more than $1.4 million to the AAFHE since 2014, defending the payments as beneficial to the system’s interests.”

“The University of Alabama System has a close relationship with AAFHE as a founding member,” said UA System spokesperson Kellee Reinhart. “We are actively involved in the association’s efforts to support higher education in Alabama.”

The report also notes that AAFHE has donated several hundred thousand dollars to a political action committee called Innovation PAC, which unlike AAFHE is able to make campaign contributions to state-level political candidates.

Mrs. Reinhart told al.com AAFHE “makes independent decisions about expending resources” and added that the UA System is one of “numerous members in the association.”

“[W]e are not using AAFHE to make campaign donations. That organization makes its own decisions about any campaign donations, which such organizations are allowed to make by law,” she said. “The UA System’s goal as a member is to support the association’s advocacy of education issues.”

The al.com report does not accuse the UA System of breaking the law. In fact, it concedes that the whole structure is “keeping pace with a rapidly evolving campaign finance landscape.”

But the writer bemoans the existence of so called “dark money” arrangements that shield from public view the names of donors.

In a country where the Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate calls out private citizens by name hundreds of times for donating to candidates and causes with which he disagrees, it’s no wonder donors don’t always want their names dragged through the mud for their beliefs.

But the money in politics argument is a debate for another time.

Today’s topic is hypocrisy.

You see, the Alabama Media Group, which owns al.com and its associated print publications, is a member of an organization called the Alabama Press Association (APA). The APA is a 501(C)(6) non-profit organization, just like the dreaded Alabama Association for Higher Education, whose stated purpose is to “represent the interests of the newspaper industry,” which is does by employing at least three lobbyists.

And what do these lobbyists do for the APA and its members, including the Alabama Media Group?

Well, for one, they fight off any changes to a system in which the State of Alabama (i.e. your government) pays print publications millions of dollars to publish legal notices. Since 2014, almost $2 million of your tax dollars — $1,827,789.80, to be exact — have been paid to the Alabama Media Group to publish such notices, a major stream of revenue for a company that has desperately struggled to survive in the changing media landscape.

So, to recap, the University of Alabama System is a paying member of a 501(C)(6) non-profit organization that advocates for higher education and donates to a PAC that supports candidates who presumably do the same. Alabama media group is a paying member of a 501(C)(6) non-profit organization that advocates for the print media and lobbies government officials to keep millions of taxpayer dollars flowing into their coffers.

Again, the central issue here is not whether these types of arrangement are good or bad, but that al.com is calling for transparency while conveniently leaving out that they themselves benefit from a pretty sweet little “dark money” setup of their own.