SacBee Misleads: OC PAC “Hasn’t Spent A Dime on Arena Campaign”
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. That might be the motto of the Sacramento Bee’s coverage of the Sacramento arena deal.
Last Thursday, the Sacramento Bee featured a scintillating story under the headline, “PAC pushes Sacramento arena vote but won’t say where it is getting money.” The story claimed that Taxpayers for Safer Neighborhoods, an Orange County-based political action committee, had been “working alongside a group of Sacramento activists gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would require voters to approve public subsidies for sports facilities.” According to the Bee’s version of events, the group wouldn’t disclose its funding.
The story of an out-of-town PAC secretly bankrolling the arena measure stirred hundreds of comments on the Bee’s website. It also spawned a formal complaint with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission. There’s just one problem: It’s completely false.
“The truth is the PAC has $144.50 in the bank and has done absolutely nothing more than lend its name to a press release in support of the Arena vote petition drive,” said James V. Lacy, the principal officer of Taxpayers for Safer Neighborhoods, who also serves as publisher of California Political Review. “The Bee has manufactured this story in a deliberate effort to undermine the public’s right to vote on the arena deal.”
The Bee asked the political action committee to release its donors since July 1, a move that isn’t required by state or federal law. The group declined to share such
- See more at: http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2013/08/07/sacbee-misleads-oc-pac-hasnt-spent-a-dime-on-arena-campaign/?fb_comment_id=fbc_444567115642071_2402366_444903442275105#f1c4504efc68d02
Last Thursday, the Sacramento Bee featured a scintillating story under the headline, “PAC pushes Sacramento arena vote but won’t say where it is getting money.” The story claimed that Taxpayers for Safer Neighborhoods, an Orange County-based political action committee, had been “working alongside a group of Sacramento activists gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would require voters to approve public subsidies for sports facilities.” According to the Bee’s version of events, the group wouldn’t disclose its funding.
The story of an out-of-town PAC secretly bankrolling the arena measure stirred hundreds of comments on the Bee’s website. It also spawned a formal complaint with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission. There’s just one problem: It’s completely false.“The truth is the PAC has $144.50 in the bank and has done absolutely nothing more than lend its name to a press release in support of the Arena vote petition drive,” said James V. Lacy, the principal officer of Taxpayers for Safer Neighborhoods, who also serves as publisher of California Political Review. “The Bee has manufactured this story in a deliberate effort to undermine the public’s right to vote on the arena deal.”
The Bee asked the political action committee to release its donors since July 1, a move that isn’t required by state or federal law. The group declined to share such