John Archibald with Spencer Collier day of accident: correcting the record and why it matters

0
86
Spencer Collier; John Archibald

Earlier today we reported a story that last week Spencer Collier listed AL.com’s John Archibald a passenger in his car on the day of his 8/14/17 car accident on a new witness list in the Robert Bentley defamation case. I went on to talk about it on News Talk 93.1.

Originally, we wrote that Archibald was a passenger in the car during the accident. That was incorrect. We updated this within moments of Archibald clarifying that he was not in the car during the wreck, but rather earlier in the day.

Again, my apologies for the inaccuracy.

That said, it doesn’t take away from the larger fact that AL.com did not report on the accident whatsoever. I want to reiterate that I believe the accident itself was newsworthy, and we still cannot find any coverage of this accident on AL.com.

AL.com’s coverage of Spencer Collier from June 5 – Nov. 7, 2017. Collier’s car accident took place Aug. 14, 2017.

While— Times DailyLagniappe MobileSelma Times JournalWSFA-12Montgomery AdvertiserDecatur DailyAlabama News Net  all covered it.

Over the past year and a half, since the day of the accident questions have continued about the cause of it, and from my vantage point Archibald has valuable information relevant to Collier’s state of being that day.

Again, it is relevant that Archibald, a journalist who talks about the events of the day for a living, was with Collier. And questions linger: When was he with him? For how long? Was he lucid? Was he tired? All of which could be answered with this “good footage” from Archibald.

Which is why I’m calling on John to answer those questions now and release the footage. Help us create a timeline of what happened, and give those of us who were not with Collier that day a small glimpse of what happened sometime before the accident.

My back and forth with John on Twitter this morning:

“Are you saying I was a passenger in Collier’s wreck? I was not. We filmed him in his cop car earlier in the day,” Archibald tweeted.

“We are responding to a tweet that says you will “discuss the @JohnARchibald-Spencer Collier accident.” WTF?” Archibald tweeted.

“You did,” said Archibald.

“My apologies for wording. Updated headline to reflect you were with him that day,” I replied.

“And got some good footage, too,” Archibald replied.

“We have updated that headline. To reflect an error was made,” I added.