Anaheim Insider here.
KABC-AM conservative talk radio show host John Phillips blasted the Voice of OC this morning for its role in the smear campaign against Carl Demaio, the libertarian gay Republican running for Congress in San Diego.
Phillips was spurred by this post on the FlashReport for Republican activist and consultant Charles Moran, who also asked the question of why KOCE, the Southern California PBS affiliate, has allowed its news coverage to be co-opted by the Voice, which is dependent on the Orange County Employees Association funding for its existence:
To those of us active in Republican politics, we have seen many attacks, some even as hateful as these. But what was really surprising about this smear campaign was the fact that is was strangely connected to PBS. Yes, you read correctly – the same folks that bring us Sesame Street. According to a PBS affiliate’s website in Orange County (PBS SoCal), PBS entered into a “partnership” with the Voice of OC whereby PBS would receive its “investigative news” from the Voice of OC.
At this point, it is important to note that the Voice of OC is not a newspaper nor is it a magazine. The fact is that that the Voice of OC is merely website whereby they describe themselves as a “Non-Profit Investigative News Agency.”
So just who is this so-called investigative news agency that was PBS partners with for their news coverage, and more importantly who funds them? Well to find the answer, one only needs to review their federal tax returns – and so I did.
According to IRS documents filed just last year, the Voice of OC is a non-profit organization that is supported by five donors. And low and behold, their major donor is the Orange County Employee Association, a public employee union based in Santa Ana. They donated $230,000 to the PBS news partner. The second largest donation, in the amount of $60,000, was made by a law firm founded by the former Chairman of the Democrat Foundation of Orange County, trail attorney Wylie Aitken. Three other smaller contributions were noted.
It seems odd that PBS would allow its newsroom to be co-opted by the big public employee unions. But to my surprise, on the PBS SoCal website they proclaim and acknowledge their “investigative news partnership” with the Voice of OC. I find this partnership very troubling for PBS. I might be able to understand PBS allowing the Democrats and public employee union’s airtime to provide commentary, but only if they provided the same opportunity to Republicans, but to use them and label their information as “investigative news” is wrong.
Moran’s entire post, which is worth reading in full, can be found here.
Voice of OC gets nearly all its funding from OCEA and other Democratic interest groups They want to stop DeMaio from taking out a vulnerable freshman Democrat congressman. A grotesque smear appears in a news blog that doesn’t cover San Diego, but depends on union and Democratic funding.
The Voice had a field day raking the OC Register over the coals about its parent company’s ARTIC naming deal with Anaheim. The OC Register should return the favor.
Glad to see coverage on this is growing!
What the heck is PBS doing? We have all known the Voice of OC was just a blog funded by the Public Employee Unions, but for our tax dollars to be used is outrageous.
Seems like the IRS needs to investigate PBS and not just the Tea Party folks.
This is long overdue – VOC has been pulling this kind of “coverage” on OC officials for years and PBS turned a blind eye or enabled it. They got greedy and expanded into San Diego and fortunately are getting caught for their distasteful tactics. So glad mainstream media is picking it up and truly covering this sham blog site! I’ve long thought PBS and KOCE should be ashamed for affliating and legitimizing this tabloid, political blog site. Thank you John Phillips and KABC!
I just listened to the podcast on the KABC website? The host did a great job. Sounds like he invited PBS to be on the show. Would love to hear PBS try to defend this, impossible.
Great job John Phillips; and PBS and the Orange County Public Unions, you are scum!
Someone should figure out how to post a clip of today’s (9/12) coverage! PBS was properly called out for using tax dollars to endorse union blog smears.
Just heard John Phillips interview Mel Rogers KOCE PBS So Cal CEO – you need to post the pod cast. Phillips was amazing and Mr. Rogers either doesn’t read the VOC (benefit of the doubt) or has strong convictions in support of their tabloid journalism tactics. His comments were outrageous and he should be fired for his obvious and total bais for this union controlled and funded blog site. He is proudly degrading the PBS brand. Lets hope Rogers is held accountable and his board takes immediate action to sever its ties with Nick Beradino and the Voice of OCEA.
He was a horrible representative for PBS, i think he should start packing up his desk. The talk show host proved he is fraud.
I listened too. The PBS representative was so arrogant, clearly showed he was going to fight to the end for the union.