Ala. mayor dies days after conservative site posted photos of him in womens clothes

Publish date: 2024-08-22

Journalism professor A.J. Bauer felt a pit in his stomach last Wednesday when he opened an email newsletter from 1819 News. The Alabama-based conservative media website was promoting its story alleging that a small-town mayor who was also a pastor wore women’s clothing and makeup while posing online.

Bauer, who teaches at the University of Alabama, had watched as some in the state grew increasingly hostile to those who don’t adhere to traditional gender norms — in recent years, an avalanche of anti-transgender bills and others targeting the LGBTQ+ community had hit the state legislature. He feared that F.L. “Bubba” Copeland Jr., the mayor of Smiths Station and a senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Phenix City, could face a strong backlash following the right-wing site’s allegations.

“I knew this wasn’t going to end well,” Bauer told The Washington Post.

On Saturday, Bauer opened another email newsletter from 1819 News, the outlet’s fourth in as many days promoting stories about Copeland. This time, Bauer’s heart dropped. The outlet was reporting that Copeland had died by suicide the afternoon before.

Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones, who has known Copeland for at least 15 years, said he was worried about his friend and called him hours after the 1819 article published. Copeland was “very upset and concerned,” Jones said, and after they hung up, the sheriff was worried about his friend’s “state of mind.” But Jones said he didn’t think Copeland was suicidal and was shocked by his death.

The 1819 story never should have been published, Bauer said. Even though Copeland was a public figure, the clothing he allegedly wore in his private life would have no bearing or effect on his duties as an elected official or church pastor, the professor said.

1819 News, its president and CEO Bryan Dawson, Editor in Chief Jeff Poor and reporter Craig Monger did not respond to requests for comment from The Post. But the online publisher told the Alabama Baptist, a weekly Baptist paper, that 1819 News stood by its original story and, in reporting Copeland’s death, offered condolences to his constituents, his congregants and his family.

“Our prayers are with the residents of Smiths Station, the parishioners of First Baptist Church of Phenix City and Copeland’s family,” an 1819 article about Copeland’s death stated.

And on Nov. 2, Monger appeared to defend his article in a post to X, formerly Twitter: “‘Digging up someone’s personal life’ is reporting on what someone posts publicly on social media? Interesting take,” he wrote.

Media sites like 1819 have emerged in recent years as traditional newspapers have closed. Since 2005, more than a quarter of the newspapers in the United States have closed, and the country is on track to lose a third by 2025, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism’s 2022 report on the state of local news.

In Alabama, the numbers of newspapers and newspaper readers have decreased even as the state’s population has ticked up. Between 2004 and 2019, the number of newspapers fell from 125 to 105 — a 16 percent drop — while the number of people reading them plummeted 34 percent — from 1.4 million to 910,000, according to the University of North Carolina journalism department’s “Expanding News Desert” project.

From 2010 to 2022, Alabama’s population grew 5 percent to just over 5 million, U.S. Census Bureau data shows.

The media websites replacing traditional newspapers don’t always adhere to the same ethical standards, such as the Society of Professional Journalists’ guidance to act independently and “avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived,” Bauer said.

1819 News, which touts itself as “an independent news organization operated by people with Alabama values,” launched in October 2021 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Alabama Policy Institute. Although the institute bills itself as nonpartisan, it released in 2022 “A Conservative Platform in Alabama” that it described as “a fully developed legislative to-do list for true conservatives in the legislature or seeking elected office.”

In January, 1819 announced it was separating from the institute, not because of any ideological rift, but because the plan all along was to “stand on its own feet.” In June, it promoted Executive Editor Jeff Poor to lead 1819’s newsroom as its editor in chief. In announcing Poor’s promotion, 1819 lauded his work for several prominent right-wing media figures and publications, including Tucker Carlson at the Daily Caller and Stephen K. Bannon at Breitbart.

“They’re operating according to an ethical standard that is rooted not in journalistic professionalism, but in right-wing political ideology,” Bauer said.

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At 5:32 a.m. on Nov. 1, 1819 News sent out its morning newsletter promoting an article with the headline “The secret life of Smiths Station Mayor and Baptist pastor F.L. ‘Bubba’ Copeland.” The story alleged that Copeland had posted photos of himself on social media wearing women’s clothing, including lingerie.

That night, Copeland addressed the story at a service at First Baptist.

He told his congregation that he’d been the target of an “internet attack” and that the article had taken “a lot of things” out of context, according to a YouTube video of Copeland’s remarks. He described his online persona as an “attempt at humor” as he knew he was neither “a handsome man nor a beautiful woman.” And while he apologized for any embarrassment he caused, he said that he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“I have nothing to be ashamed of,” he said.

The next morning, 1819 sent out a newsletter linking to a story recapping what Copeland had told his parishioners. And on Friday morning, it sent another. Quoting the Alabama Baptist publication, 1819 reported that the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions had issued a statement saying that the organization had learned of Copeland’s “alleged unbiblical behavior.”

Larry DiChiara, Copeland’s longtime friend and former superintendent of Phenix City Schools, said he watched the online “feeding frenzy” that followed as some in the community reacted to the reports.

“It just got very, very ugly,” he told The Post.

DiChiara reached out to Copeland to tell his friend that he was a good man with a big heart and urged him to weather the storm until it passed, according to text messages reviewed by The Post.

Copeland thanked him for the encouragement. DiChiara told The Post that he seemed “distraught.” One of the texts Copeland sent included the message: “It’s been some very dark days.”

Around 4:15 p.m. Friday, two sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Copeland’s home after someone called saying they were worried about his welfare, Sheriff Jones told The Post. As the deputies headed to Copeland’s, the sheriff’s office received updated information that the mayor was driving his SUV in the northern part of the county. Deputies in that area spotted him and started to follow his SUV in what Jones described as a “very short, low-speed pursuit.”

After about two minutes, Copeland pulled over. He got out of his SUV and soon died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Jones said.

About 12 hours later, 1819 delivered news of the mayor’s suicide to its readers in its morning newsletter. That’s how Bauer learned of it.

“I was heartbroken,” he said.

Bauer said that 1819’s stories about Copeland failed to adhere to basic journalism ethics, such as the ones by the Society of Professional Journalists advising reporters to weigh “the consequences of publishing or broadcasting personal information.”

Tom Arenberg, an instructor at the University of Alabama’s journalism department, agreed in a blog post he published Sunday. Reporters must weigh the possible public good of publishing a story against the harm that it might cause.

“But as with any media dilemma, you also have to answer the next question: Was he harming anyone inside or outside of the congregation?” Arenberg wrote in the post.

Reporting on Copeland’s private life was irresponsible, Bauer said. In his blog post, Arenberg agreed.

“Carefully deciding when private matters deserve public attention is one thing,” he wrote. “Deciding you’re the morality police is another. When politics gets put ahead of ethics, people get harmed.”

Jeremy Barr contributed to this report.

If you or someone you know needs help, visit 988lifeline.org or call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.

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Ala. mayor dies days after conservative site posted photos of him in womens clothes