The “controversy” over the OC Register modifying its advertising policy is one of the most over-hyped trivialities I have read in a long, long time.
It was started by the Voice of OC putting itself in the position of being publicist for a temper tantrum thrown by a noisome gadfly named Jason Young, a blogger and long-time Anaheim resident who recently moved to Fullerton.
Young, a wedding videographer with a checkered past, delights in buying ads in the Anaheim Bulletin to make personal attacks on Councilmembers Gail Eastman and Kris Murray. The problem is he lets his penchant for personal attacks get in the way of being truthful.
The OC Register modifies its policy for political ads and now Jason can’t buy ads personally trashing Eastman and Murray and making false accusations. So he has a temper tantrum, and the Voice of OC acts as his bullhorn and alleging the OC Register is knuckling under to pressure from two councilmembers and Disney.
There’s no actual evidence to substantiate that allegation, but absence of evidence no longer seems to be an obstacle.
Let’s review what actually is true:
The Orange County Register has every right to set whatever advertising guidelines it likes. If an advertiser doesn’t like it, he or she can lump it.
There is nothing in the modified guidelines preventing Jason Young from buying ads in the OCR attacking council policies and action he dislikes. He’s just mad because the Register owners will no longer allow him or anyone else to use their newspaper as a platform for character assassination.
Jason Young is an inhabitant of fantasyland. He is claims Disney exerts some form of control over the OC Register, and that is why the ad policy was changed. Which begs the question: if that is true, then how was the OC Register editorial page able to loudly and repeatedly endorse the council candidacy of John Leos in part because he would “stand up” to Disney — and against those candidates supported by Disney?
OC Register reporter Martin Wisckol pointed as much out to Young, who dismissed it:
Young acknowledged that the editorial page has shared his criticism of the hotel subsidies, of Murray and Eastman, and that it endorsed the opponents of Murray’s and Eastman’s allies in November’s City Council races. But he maintained that the ad policy change was designed to benefit Murray and Eastman, two pro-Disneyland members on the council.
“Disney spends a lot of money on advertising in the Register,” Young said. “The Register clearly has an interest in keeping Disney happy.”
Kushner said Disney advertises very little with the Register.
Pffft! Don’t Jason Young with pesky facts! The beauty of being a conspiracy theorist is that the absence of proof is proof the conspiracy is real!
At some point, if the Voice of OC is interested in a follow-up, Young could be asked why he failed to file the campaign report for his Save Anaheim PAC — which paid for the ads in question — until a week after the filing deadline? After all, he only entered single expenditure — completing the report should have taken about 30 minutes. And Young signed it and attested under penalty of perjury that he executed the campaign report on the January 31 deadline — even though it wasn’t received by the Anaheim City Clerk until Friday, February 8 at 4:10 p.m. How to explain that gap?
Oh well. Jason needn’t worry about a news outlet writing about that, since it involves verifiable facts and all.
How the Register ever allowed that in the first place is the issue we should be discussing. It’s like they wanted a libel suit. I think proving actual malice (required with public officials) would be a slam dunk. Jason better be much more careful in the future.
Does Jason actually know if Disney spent money in the register? Of course he does not. His line of thinking and attacks are ridiculous. Clearly consistent with his criminal record. People….he is a FELON! Why does the Register cover this crap from a FELON??!?
It’s simple. The Register feels like it has to show it is a “responsible news organization” by reporting on itself. But it is letting the Voice of OC use that ethic against itself.
Adam Elmahrek has a target on Kris Murray. That is obvious. It doesn’t matter how thin the story is, he will write it if it puts her in a bad light, but ignores stories about Tom Tait or his allies or the OCEA that pays his salary. He is dragging VOC down to the level of just a blog. Norberto Santana should either send him to reporter school or fire him.
Jason Young was convicted of identity theft, for crying out loud! As Matt Cunningham points out, he can’t even follow campaign laws and probably perjured himself on his report. Does Adam care? Does Adam really consider Young credible? That he apparently does shows that Adam has an agenda.
I’m just shocked that the Register gave this man any time at all. He is a criminal who has no standing in the Anaheim community and now we’ve learned he doesn’t even live in Anaheim anymore. To call him an Anaheim activist because he formed a blog to run character assasination against council members, community leaders and businesses in Anaheim is laughable. So if I form a blog to attack Tait and call him corrupt will that make me an “Anaheim activist” worthy of press coverage in the Register. Do reporters conduct any investigative reporting anymore? What a joke.
Matt – please thank Kris and Gail on behalf of Save Anaheim. Without their continual missteps we wouldn’t be getting so much press.
That’s bunk, Jason. This press is due to the reality that you have a willing accomplice in the Voice of OC, which has — for whatever reason — virtually placed a bounty on Kris Murray, Gail Eastman and Disney.
I think it says a lot that the VOC has accorded this ridiculous “story” MORE coverage than it has ever given to the record-shattering amount of money the OCEA has spent promoting John Leos — a difference in emphasis which is especially pronounced when one considers how marginal your impact on city politics is compared with OCEA’s.
I think the OC Register did the right thing, a little late, but still the right thing. Hopefully the new owners will clean house.
The editorial staff and others at the Register are starting to look more like the OC Weekly and the Voice of OC (and by the way, the Voice of OC is not news, its a blog funded by the public-employee unions).
Good luck to the new OC Register owners, you have a big job to accomplish if Orange County is ever going to trust you again. We need you to succeed.
There was absolutely nothing untrue, unfactual, in Jason’s ads. The Register was asked that their ads not name politicians’ names, and the Register buckled. But I say it was important to have those names in there. When Jason is forced to just write, “The Anaheim Council majority,” most Anaheim citizens don’t know who that is, don’t know who to complain to (or possibly thank) and who to vote against (or for) not time.
Not a cool change.
(“next” time, I meant.)
Thank you Vern. The rest of these folks have clearly drank the Disney/Pringle koolaid.