Thread: Legal minds question Arizona Republic’s campaign activities

Legal minds question Arizona Republic’s campaign activities April 10, 2011 By American Post Gazette Lawyers: Arizona Republic may be violating campaign finance laws and facilitating criminal activity Recent trend towards scrutinizing media outlets for illegal campaign activity Wonder why you’re getting news like this from us, instead of the Arizona Republic? Because it’s gotten so bad at reporting news there is little coming out of it but Democrat Party type of coverage. We received an email from an attorney who told us that a group of attorneys he is part of is investigating the Arizona Republic for multiple campaign finance violations. Here is the email: We have been noticing that the Arizona Republic is increasingly morphing into a wing of the Democratic Party, so much that many of its articles merely seem to be repeats of Democrat talking points. For too long, the paper has hidden behind an exception in Arizona law shielding media from campaign finance laws (ARS 16-901.8.A) This law states that campaign expenditures do not include newspaper articles. But if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck! This is analogous to a criminal saying he wasn’t really stealing, he was just “borrowing,” so we’re expected to believe him. Several of us have started meeting together to discuss how to deal with this problem. The Arizona Republic doesn’t serve the people of Arizona like it pretends, it serves the Democrat Party and should be required to comply with campaign finance laws. The Republic is creating news, not reporting news. We remember seeing a tweet from a Republic reporter fishing for people who had been booted off the welfare rolls. They were trying to gin up a story about how sad it was that the legislature was reducing welfare benefits. Other media outlets are finally being investigated for this kind of unethical behavior. Earlier this year, the Maine Ethics Commission looked into allegations that the Portland Press Herald violated campaign finance laws by using $47,000 in donated advertising space for a political campaign. That donation probably played a decisive factor in the results of the election. The FEC has started cracking down on news media outlets for electioneering. A couple of months ago, the FEC barely voted to exempt Sean Hannity from an elections complaint. Just a few months prior to that, a vote like that would have unanimously exonerated him. The Arizona Republic has spent years propping up corrupt politicians like the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The level of corruption at that county agency is so vast that we believe there may even be criminal complicity on the part of the Arizona Republic and in particular one of its reporters, Yvonne Wingett. The Republic’s behavior may rise to the level of criminal facilitation, which can range from a misdemeanor to a Class 5 felony depending on the seriousness of the offense they are helping cover up. ARS 13-1004. Now the paper is under investigation over its publisher and CEO’s role in the Fiesta Bowl scandal. That may also rise to the level of criminal facilitation, since the Republic is deliberately omitting any coverage of his role in the scandal. Momentum has been building in recent years to investigate the Arizona Republic over these kinds of violations. The legislature is expected to take up legislation next year to fix this. The Republic’s coverage of partisan issues and candidates has been so biased it has clearly crossed ethical lines. We expect to do something about it, before the newspaper is able to dictate any more election results. It does not represent our community, it represents the Democrat Party and far left interests, and should be treated as such. If political organizations and candidates must comply with election laws in order to exercise their free speech rights, then they should not be allowed to hide behind the guise of a “newspaper” to skirt those laws. We will keep you updated when we take action with our investigation.

http://sonoranalliance.com/2011/04/10/legal-minds-question-arizona-republics-campaign-activities/

A wing of the Democratic Party? Does this mean they take their taking points from the SPLC and the ADL only?