New Charges Filed Against Pacifica with California Attorney General

Whistleblower on Pacifica National Board Exposes Years of Fraud and Violations of FTC  Rules at Pacifica Stations Across the Country.

by Ed Murray

 

Dateline: Sacramento, California

 

Steve Brown, Whiostleblower
Steve Brown, Whiostleblower

On February 20, 2016, Steve Brown, a member of the Pacifica National Board, filed a very serious complaint with the State of California Registry of Charitable Trusts.  In his complaint, Mr. Brown asserts that there has been ” a continuing pattern of serious criminal activities at Pacifica (still going on) that has been condoned, abetted, and/or committed by members of Pacifica management and its board of directors during (at least) the past three years.”

Mr. Brown, after much agonizing, has decided to become a whistleblower, and expose the mail – order practices of several of the Pacifica radio stations and its management, who have chosen to look the other way and ignore Mr. Brown’s frequent demands that the practices stop.  He outlines a consistant pattern of fraud at Los Angeles station KPFK,  station WPFW in Washington D.C., and at WBAI in New York City.

The charges put forth by Mr. Brown relate to the millions of dollars these stations took in while promising the donors they would receive “premiums” in the mail, often they would be DVDs, or CDs.  These charges have been ongoing in the internet media for some time.  Other websites, such as www.PacificaInExile.com have also reported the anger of donors who did not receive product that they had ordered.  These violations have amounted to thousands of dollars over the years, leaving angry donors.

Here is the complete text of the charges filed with the California Attorney General’s Office. 

Julianne Mossler

Deputy Attorney General

State of California

Department of Justice

Registry of Charitable Trusts

P.O. Box 903447

Sacramento CA 94203-4470

February 20, 2016

Re: Pacifica Foundation Radio Complaint # CT011303

 

Dear Ms. Mossler:

I write to inform you of new and even more serious violations of civil and criminal statutes by the persons originally named in Complaint # CT011303. They make intervention by your office more critical than ever. It may be the last chance to save the Pacifica Foundation.

Complaint # CT011303 was filed by 8 former Pacifica board directors (with my approval and support as a current director) because the foundation’s executive director, Margy Wilkinson (and her successors) – together with the foundation’s corporate counsel, Dan Siegel, and the board majority faction they control – had been colluding in a pattern of illegal activities that could not be blocked by normal internal controls.

However, now the situation has worsened. Because your office has not yet taken action (perhaps because our foundation is too small?), those persons have been emboldened to behave even more recklessly – and illegally – thereby placing the assets and safety of the Pacifica Foundation at even greater risk.

For example, a lawsuit (civil action no: 1:16-cv-241, united states district court, eastern district of new york) has just been filed by Gary Null against the foundation and three of its executive directors for violations of the FTC Mail Order Rule (16 CFR Part 435) and violations of federal criminal statutes dealing with intellectual property theft.

Although the current and former executive director, and the majority board members of their faction, had been put on notice, numerous times, by myself and other minority directors, that illegal violations were occurring (and had been occurring for at least 2 years), they refused to stop these activities or fire those responsible, apparently because the violations increased foundation revenue. If the above-referenced lawsuit against the foundation and its officers and directors prevails (as I believe it will, because its causes of action are valid), the statutory fines and penalties that can be imposed on the foundation – especially by the FTC, Justice Department, and US Postal Service – could amount to tens of millions of dollars. This would absolutely destroy the foundation. That it is why it is so important that your office intervene.

Here are only a few recent violations of law that have been abetted and/or committed by Pacifica’s management and controlling board faction, which neither I nor the foundation’s minority directors have been able to block or roll back.

1. Violations of the FTC Mail Order Rule (16 CFR Part 435)

by Pacifica Radio Station KPFK

In a recent fund drive, Pacifica Radio Station KPFK solicited on-air donations of approximately $800,000 from about 7,500 California residents by promising to send them a variety of merchandise (value: $50 to $300) in return for their donations. The FTC Mail Order Rule https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/mail-internet-or-telephone-order requires that such merchandise be delivered within 30 days of receiving payment, unless otherwise stated in the solicitation; or, if it is known that delivery will take longer (but not more than 60 days), a specifically worded notice specifying when delivery will take place, or offering a refund, must be sent to each recipient.

However, the station did not deliver any of the merchandise within 30 or 60 days, nor did it send the required delay notices. Instead, the station manager privately informed her staff – and also let it be known to the foundation’s executive director and board – that she had already spent the money intended for acquisition of the promised (and paid-for) merchandise, and therefore would not deliver that merchandise until a year(!) past the order date (with a good chance that it would not be delivered at all). This violates 16 CFR Part 435 in numerous ways, for which the station can be fined as much as $16,000 per violation. These statutory fines apply even if the merchandise is eventually delivered. And each late and/or undelivered item of merchandise counts as a single violation, making Pacifica’s possible exposure $16,000 x 7,500 = $120,000,000.)

2. Violation of the FTC Mail Order Rule (16 CFR Part 435)

by Pacifica Radio Station WPFW

In a recent fund drive, Pacifica Radio Station WPFW solicited on-air donations of between $300-$400,000 from approximately 4,000 Washington, DC, resident by promising to deliver a variety of merchandise (value $50-$300) in return for their donations. In this case, it is my understanding that — not only was no merchandise delivered and no notices sent — but station management knew, in advance of solicitation, that it did not have the money to acquire that merchandise, and would probably never deliver it to any of those who had paid for it. Because this is a “knowing violation,” in addition to the statutory fines (of up to $64,000,000), the matter could be referred to the Justice Department for further prosecution and penalties.

3. Violation of the FTC Mail Order Rule (16 CFR Part 435)

by Pacifica Radio Station WBAI

In a recent fund drive, Pacifica Radio Station WBAI solicited approximately $500,000 in donations by promising to deliver a variety of merchandise (value $50-$300) to approximately 5,000 New York City Metro Area residents in return for their donations. However, only a fraction this merchandise was delivered, and that was long after the 30- or 60-day limit allowed by the FTC. Moreover, no FTC-mandated delay notices were sent, and the balance of the merchandise has not, to my knowledge, been delivered, and may not ever be.

Hundreds of complaints about non-delivery of merchandise by this station have been received personally by me and others, after the donors were unable to elicit a response from the station. To verify for myself the station’s illegal delivery practices, I sent $200 to WBAI on February 2, 2015, in response to one of its numerous on-air fundraising solicitations; in return for my donation it was promised that I would receive a book and a DVD by Webster Tarpley (approximate value $50). It is now one year later, but I have not received this merchandise, nor do I expect that I ever will.

I estimate that, in the last 12 months, at least 5,000 orders have been unfulfilled by this station, and many more fulfilled late, in violation of FTC regulations. Those 5,000 orders alone risk statutory fines of up to $16,000 x 5,000 = $80,000,000. If solicitations from the past 36 months are included, the number of unfilled orders – merely at WBAI alone — could rise to 15,000 or more, risking statutory fines of up to $240,000,000.

 

The only way to determine the exact number of delinquent orders is to examine the records at all 5 Pacifica stations. However, when I requested these records at WBAI – and by law, as a director, I am entitled to examine all foundation records without exception – my requests were ignored and the records withheld. Absent action by your office, these records will remain hidden, and the defrauding of tens of thousands of residents in the foundation’s five broadcasting areas – Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Washington DC, and New York – will continue.

4. Violation of federal criminal statutes against intellectual

property theft by Pacifica Radio Station WBAI

Much of the merchandise used by Pacifica radio stations to solicit donations consists of commercially produced CDs and DVDs, mostly feature-length films, documentaries, and self-help videos. Normally, the stations would purchase these items from reputable vendors at wholesale prices ranging from about $10-$20 each, and then deliver them to donors. But at Radio Station WBAI, in some cases (I do not know how many, because records have been withheld) the station manager would purchase only a few copies from vendors, then illegally duplicate tens or hundreds or thousands more to fulfill the balance of orders. This has been going on at WBAI and other Pacifica stations for many years. Because the practice can save the foundation up to $100,000 or more a year, it is not stopped by the foundation’s officers or the board faction in control, no matter how often the practice is brought to their notice and protested. Not only does this break the law; it also cheats the donors by sending them fraudulent substandard copies instead of the genuine merchandise they were promised in return for their money.

I and two other minority directors have first-hand personal knowledge of illegal CD and DVD duplication at WBAI. I collected some of these fraudulent copies myself, and know of two specific vendors whose copyrighted products have been illegally duplicated in this way. One of them, Gary Null (whose lawsuit I referenced at the beginning of this letter), has acquired some of these illegal copies on his own and identified them as fakes. Intellectual property theft is one of the causes of action in his lawsuit. I understand that statutory fines for theft of intellectual property are $250,000 per violation, and include prison terms of 5 years for first offenders.

I do not know how many vendors have been defrauded, or how many illegal copies have been made. The documents and records that would reveal these numbers have, as I noted, been withheld from me — either with the acquiescence of foundation officers and board members, or their active cooperation.

5. Pacifica’s attorney provides deceptive and destructive

advice to management and staff members

In response to one of my frequent protests against Pacifica’s ongoing FTC violations and illegal duplication of copyrighted material, a staff member at KPFK said she would cease to solicit donations for the station because of the risk of civil or criminal penalties against her and/or the foundation. In response, the foundation’s attorney, Dan Siegel, issued an email announcement saying that she should continue her solicitations, because Pacifica was exempt from punishment under the FTC Mail Order Rule. This was false and misleading advice, which Siegel had reason to know – as an attorney – since the statute explicitly states that non-profits and charities such as Pacifica are not exempt.

Siegel is not an FTC lawyer; he is an employment lawyer. Had he exercised reasonable fiduciary diligence and called the FTC for a Staff Opinion, he would have quickly been told that Pacifica is not exempt, and that its practices are indeed actionable violations of FTC law. Nor is there any exemption for Pacifica from federal criminal statutes that prohibit the theft of copyrighted material.

Sadly, Dan Siegel’s deceptive and (what I must regard as) self-serving advice to foundation staff members carried great weight, because Siegel, in addition to being the foundation’s attorney, has also served as its executive director. This willingness to wink at or deliberately violate state and federal law seems to be just one example of the recklessness with which Siegel and his faction have been running (and running down) the foundation.

In the earlier filing of this complaint, it was noted that the goal of Dan Siegel and his faction was apparently to bankrupt the foundation, so that its licenses and assets (estimated to be worth $100 million or more) could be acquired by a shadow corporation named “KPFA Foundation,” which Siegel and another board member had created for this purpose 27 months ago. This shadow corporation, I might add, was created in secret, its existence deliberately withheld from the foundation’s executive director and board of directors. However, as our corporate attorney, was not Siegel legally obligated to disclose to the board (1) the existence of that corporation, (2) its purpose, which was inherently antithetical to the welfare of Pacifica, and (3) his controlling interest in that corporation? But he never did so, until its existence was uncovered, accidentally, 4 months ago, by the secretary of the Pacifica board, to her great astonishment.

After its discovery, Siegel then admitted that the purpose of his shadow corporation, whose legal address is that of the law firm he owns, was indeed to acquire the licenses and assets of the Pacifica Foundation, in the event that it went bankrupt (an event that he and his faction were uniquely placed to engineer, and towards which they have apparently been working). Therefore, the only way Siegel’s secret corporation could succeed, is if Pacifica were to fail. Is this not an unacceptable conflict of interest for Pacifica’s attorney, and a reason for him to be severed from the foundation? Yet because his faction controls the board, he is impossible to remove, and therefore continues to exert what seems to be a deliberately destabilizing influence on the health of the foundation.

Summary

Although I am not an attorney, I would think that if a corporation’s officers and board of directors are made aware of illegal activities under their control, but refuse to use their authority to stop those activities, they are in effect abetting those activities – and are therefore accessories after the fact. As such, do you think they are appropriate custodians in whom to entrust the care of such a valued public asset as Pacifica?

The fines and penalties that Pacifica might suffer due to the reckless and illegal behavior of its management would be a number with so many zeroes that it could not fit on the output screen of my calculator. It would mean the death of Pacifica. I hope your office will not stand by and allow the current management faction to wreck our foundation. I hope, as well, that if you decide to act, it will not be too late.

Sincerely,

Stephen M Brown

sbrown13@nyc.rr.com

Director, Pacifica National Board

*************

When contacted about this story Rachele Huennekens, Press Secretary of the Office of Attorney General Kamala D. Harris stated “We don’t comment on any potential or ongoing investigation, as a matter of law and policy.”

edmurray1955@aol.com

 

The Los Angeles Times – The Shameful Showboat of a Powerful Press Monopoly May Be For Sale

An Historic Mouthpiece for Downtown Financial Interests, its Monopoly Status Has Led To Unnoticed Corruption in Local Southland Cities, The Tragedy of Bunker Hill, The Chavez Ravine Scandal, Secret Deals, and Suppression of Big Stories.  Now in the Hands of Out of State Business Interests, the Local Pols and the Wealthy Elites Want it Back in Their Hands.

by Ed Murray

Dateline: Los Angeles

Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch says the Los Angeles Times may be sold soon to some local wealthy investors.  The Tribune Company denied it, but Mr. Murdoch may be right, he knows a lot of important people, and he hears things:  the whispers of the high and mighty, the beeping digital sounds of huge amounts of cash flowing into investment accounts, the rustling of papers as they are being readied by high powered lawyers.  Mere mortals can’t hear things like that.  Only a demi-god, only The Murdoch can detect these things.

Since achieving near monopoly status in the City of Los Angeles in the 1950’s, the Los Angeles Times has used its influence to push the agendas of the City’s wealthiest players, and also to push around poor people, Hispanics, and anyone else who got in their way.  The tale of social destruction spans through the last six decades, and it is now an opportune time to explore a little of the sordid history of this once-powerful media giant, now that rumors are floating around that the paper might once again be sold to some interested wealthy elites and brought back under control of the downtown Moguls of Business and Real Estate.

The Destruction of Bunker Hill

tumblr_m72vhr49tr1ruh4lto1_500Bunker Hill, just west of City Hall, used to be a stronghold of working class people in the 1940’s.  The City bigwigs hated the area, they saw it as having a blockade effect, preventing them from expanding westward.  They thought that Bunker Hill was, well, too damned big and way too tall.  So Mayor Fletcher Bowron and the Los Angeles Times started a campaign to “clear the slums” from Bunker Hill.  Having poor and working class people living up there on the Hill was just not right.   Why,  all those poor folks were literally looking down on the rich Moguls and Real Estate Kings who headquarted out of the L.A. City Hall.   What would be next, having some of them run for City Council?

The plan that was eventually put out was to launch the largest “redevelopment” project in the nation.  Everything up on that damned hill was to go:  The people, the buildings, even the Hill itself was to be cut way down.  Millions upon millions were to be spent. It was a tough fight.  There were around 10,000 people living up on the Hill, and they did not want to move.  Many worked in the downtown area, and were quite happy up there.  Things really heated up in the 1952 City elections.  Norris Poulson ran for Mayor against incumbent Fletcher Bowren.  Looking back on it, both men wanted to say “bye bye” to Bunker Hill, so one wonders what all the fuss was about.  Probably over spoils, but who keeps track of that in this City?  Not the L.A. Times.  In fact, incumbent Fletcher Bowren claimed that the Times wanted to control City government and have their own puppet in the Mayor’s office by supporting rival Norris Poulson.  It turns out Bowren was a psychic, as well as a politician.

The owner of the Los Angeles Times in those days was Norman Chandler.  He championed the Bunker Hill “slum clearance”, and also pushed for folks to vote for proposition bonds to get the money to do it.  The downtown bankers liked that a lot, Bonds are a good business.  In 1959 the Bunker Hill Project was approved.  The only long-faces were the thousands of ordinary working-class people who were pushed out of their homes and apartments, not to speak of the many businesses, shops, hotels and other commercial entities.

With the coming of the 1960’s the destruction began.  It also marked a change in leadership at the Times – Otis Chandler took over.  To get the feel of what Bunker Hill was like, here’s a great video of author Jim Dawson, with an illustrated lecture on the Lost Realm of Bunker Hill, which was at Book Soup in 2012.  It’s a wonderful history lesson.

And just in case you are wondering, yes, the “redevelopment” project was still chugging along last year, 2015.  The Hill is now dotted with massive condo projects, office buildings and other monuments, including the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion (yep, Norman Chandler’s wife), the Disney Music Center, art museums and churches, and super rich guy Eli Broad’s Museum, one of the men whispered about as a possible buyer of the Times.  In addition, we have the huge occult Aztec type layout of Grand Park which runs westward from City Hall, and is lined with City and County Offices and Courts.  It has more than a symbolic reference to the Aztec pyramid and sacrificial grounds.  It’s where the working and poor people sacrifice their hard earned wages to pay the fines and tributaries to the various courts and government buildings.  The centerpiece, the Los Angeles City Hall, with its Egyptian style pyramid atop it, was designed by John Austin, a 33rd Degree Mason.

Bait and Switch Tactic Wiped Hispanics out of Chavez Ravine and Built Dodger Stadium.

chavez revineAnother pet project of the Times and Norman Chandler was Chavez Ravine.  In the 1940s and 1950s it was home to several thousand working class hispanics and whites.  The “slum clearance” slogan was pushed here also during the Bowren regime.  Some progressive folks in the Los Angeles Department of Housing  had a plan to spend over 100 million dollars to build a series of public housing structures in Chavez Ravine.  This was the excuse to move in and buy up the housing from the working class who lived there.  The City acquired most of the property on the cheap, promising the folks the grand new public housing they were going to get.

fair priceAfter Poulson took over as Mayor in 1953, the Times and the Elites decided to put an end to the socialist virus called public housing.  They accused a few housing department employees of being “reds”, and having communist affiliations.  These accusations caused a big uproar and a surge of anti-communist feeling.  So in 1957 the City gave a shout out to Walter O’Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, inviting him to come to Los Angeles, where the City would build him a swell ball park.  This was a much better solution – who would want some public housing full of Mexicans and communists?  A major league baseball team would be so much better, and bring more cash into the pockets of the wealthy moguls, so the bait and switch worked, and on May 8, 1959 an army of County Sheriffs forcefully removed the remaining Hispanic hold-outs and a convoy of bulldozers flattened the houses and quaint farms that had dotted the hillsides in Chavez Ravine.  A big win for the Times.  A big loss for the 3,800 folks who were pushed out of their homes with nowhere to go.

Here’s a video that tells the truth of this ugly incident. One wag said that maybe the Chavez Ravine operation is what Donald Trump is referring to when he wants to “make America great AGAIN”.

L.A. Times Monopoly

Although the Times did not become the “official” monopoly newspaper in Los Angeles until the Herald-Examiner went out of business in 1989, it was basically the defacto monopoly by the mid 1970s.  What happened was a devastating strike hit the Herald in the late 1960s and lasted until 1977, but by this time the Hearst owned paper was in dire straits, with circulation plunging to around 350,000 daily.  The Times took full advantage of the Hearld’s woes, and boosted its ad revenue and circulation.  With power and money, the paper went on a binge, buying up competition papers in small towns in the early 1990s.

The Times bought the Glendale News-Press and the Burbank Leader, both local Southland papers, and merged them into a once a week couple pages of the Times local editions.  They purchased other Southern California papers as well.  The effect of this was not only to increase their monopoly on news, but the merged papers carried little more than local puff and news-release type stories.  Gone were the good old days free-swinging local papers investigating scandals and keeping their eyes on City Halls and corrupt influences.  When the Tribune Company bought both the Times and later the San Diego Union it just made the situation worse.  Not only were the reporting staffs cut back for economic reasons, but only the biggest national scandals can barely be covered, the local wrong-doing in City Halls and Redevelopment Agencies across the Southland are hardly ever mentioned.

The Underground Press Bursts Forth

About the time of the Herald strike in the late 1960s a counter-culture revolution developed in the big cities across America.  Fueled by the peace movement against the war in Indochina, and a general rejection of the status quo values, the youth and a big chunk of the working class wanted something different, the truth in news reporting for a start.   Pot smoking and mind-altering drugs came into general use.  This cultural revolution also give birth to an array of alternative newspapers and comix.  Most big cities eventually had so-called “underground” newspapers, publishing stories that the young generation really wanted to read, not only in politics, but also music, art, poetry and human psychological exploration.  An arts and crafts movement began, packaged food was rejected for fresh, healthy vegetarian fare, and suddenly folks wanted to grow their own food and their own dope.

Art Kunkin, founder of the L.A. Free Press
Art Kunkin, founder of the L.A. Free Press

Los Angeles became a cultural battleground, and a small fledgling underground called The Los Angeles Free Press, exploded on the streets.  The stories were all the things that the Los Angeles Times refused to print or just ignored.  In the alternative world view the cops weren’t always so good, the Black Panthers were heroes, pot was almost necessary to deal with the lies of the establishment, and rock n’roll electrified the soul.  The Freep, as it was usually referred to, fielded armies of hippies to sell the weekly paper on major corners, supplying the long-haired vendors with some extra money to live on, and greatly increasing the status of the Freep and other undergrounds, like Open City, The Staff, and the Los Angeles Star.

Did all this bother the Times?  Sure it did.  They had lost a big portion of the young generation as readers.  This is the generation that later piled into the internet.  The hippies hated the Times, and carried those feelings forward as they aged. The working class never trusted the Times, and the Herald was in a decades long strike on its own road to oblivion, so no support from labor on that front. The effects on the Times was really felt 15 -20 years later as their once loyal readership finally started to age and wane.  No fresh blood to replace them, partly because of the memories of the youth of the 1970s.  The Times also got caught in a moral vice of its own making.  Because it was so opposed to the counter-culture revolution, it missed out on millions of dollars of advertising revenue.  A big part of that revolution was the sexual awakening, when “free love” ruled the day.   Massage Parlors opened everywhere, many actually nothing more than low level cat houses, but their ads were refused by the Times.  The Freep, on the other hand, had a different policy, called the “show me the money” policy, and soon the massage parlor and  personal sex ads were fueling the growth of not only the Freep, but many of the undergrounds.  The money was enough to sustain the entire movement for years.  And the Times never got a dime of it.

The Times Fails to Defend Real Freedom of the Press

Ships restaurant sign in mid-city Los Angeles.
Ships restaurant sign in mid-city Los Angeles.

Freedom of the Press had exploded onto the streets of Los Angeles by the early 1970s.  Scores of new alternative papers were published and distributed in metal newsracks that were placed on busy corners.  Some of the hippy Freep distributors got into newsrack distribution, flogging sexual freedom newspapers like Swing, Saturday Night Swinger, Impulse, His and Hers, and many others.  Hemp related and a stunning array of other odd political and religious newspapers appeared out of nowhere.  Rolling Stone started its life as a newsrack paper selling for 25 cents.  In front of the old Ships Restaurant in Westwood, for instance, there were somewhere around 50 newsracks at one time, making it difficult to even get on the bus at the corner.  This was a huge burst of actual freedom of the press, but neither the Herald or the Times liked it one bit.  The phalanx of alternative papers were cutting into the big boys, and that had to end.

Cities across the Southland started to pass ordinances, coincidentally all alike, limiting newsracks to only 2 per corner.  Many cities demanded that the owner register the newsrack and pay a yearly fee.  Since the Herald and the Times held most of the good spots and were thus protected they had no interest in joining any lawsuits to defend freedom of the press and fight these laws.  Many of the newsrack dealers in fact suspected that the Times was somehow pushing these laws, using its power and influence behind the scenes with various city officials, something never proven.  Times and Herald newsrack dealers put many of their racks on private property locations, where the sometimes controversial, and often randy alternatives could not go.  Denny’s and Bob’s Big Boy coming to mind. These ordinances killed freedom of the press as far as newspapers go.  Yes, you can PRINT a newspaper, but you can’t realistically DISTRIBUTE it, thus nullifying true freedom of the press as far as distributed newspapers go.  The Times failed to protect and fight for that freedom, a shameful stance that may someday come back to bite them.

Times Secret Loans to Control Newspaper Market

A little known episode in 1998 sheds light on how the Times has striven to keep control of the Los Angeles newspaper market.  When the Daily News came up for sale, the Times was afraid that the Orange Counter Register would buy it and give the Times some tough competition that it didn’t want.  Really, just how much “conservative” news can there be?  It would have been like Cheech and Chong fighting over a doobie, whoever wins, the doobie goes up in smoke.

So the Times did the only thing that true gentlemen of the wealthy elite always do, they financed another media group to buy the Daily News on the condition that they wouldn’t give the Times a lot of grief.  A secret $50 million dollar loan helped the other group buy the paper, and to make sure the new owners didn’t get too full of themselves and think they could move in on the Times main territory, the Times got an option to buy the Daily News, as reported by Editor and Publisher and by the Times itself in a special edition published years later when snoopy accountants found out about it.

Things have since become even stranger,  when the Orange County Register filed for bankruptcy late last year.  The same company also owns the Riverside Press Telegram.  So here comes the Tribune, now owner of the Times and San Diego Union, offering a 3 million dollar loan at zero interest rate to the company that owns the Register and Press-Telegram.  This would give them a crack at buying the two papers out of bankruptcy, and thus increase their monopoly over all of Southern California.  If that works out, the Tribune will own the Times, the San Diego Union, The Riverside Press-Telegram and the Orange County Register.  Any beginning psychic can see more layoffs, consolidated printing, consolidated news, and immense power over the entire Southland.  Oh, and the big hurt on real freedom of the press.    

The Dawn of a New Monopoly?

If this big business deal plays out in favor of the Tribune Co., then they could really ask a high price for the group if they indeed want to sell.  On the other hand, maybe the money losing papers will drag the whole mass of their Empire down the drain, including all the local newspapers they also own.  The Dawn of a New Monopoly or the Black Hole of all Southland Newspapers?  Only the Times will tell.

edmurray1955@aol.com

MINDEPENDENCE_Eric_Drooker

 

Flint, Mi ex-Dictator Fails to Show at Congressional Hearing on Drinking Water Contamination

Congress to U.S. Marshals:  “Hunt Him Down!”

Dateline:  Washington, D.C.

Darnell Earley Wanted by U.S. Congress
Darnell Earley Wanted by U.S. Congress

Congress:  When You Are Invited to Testify You ARE Going to Show Up!

Identify Yourself

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Democrats to Committee Chair Chaffetz:  We want Gov. Rick Snyder Subpoened to Testify.

Gov. Rick Snyder
Gov. Rick Snyder

Gov. Snyder:  “I’m very sorry that this happened”

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Flint Rep Daniel Kildee
Flint Rep Daniel Kildee

Rep. Daniel Kildee – 5th District including Flint:  “Let’s be clear about one thing – Every decision that was made for the City of Flint  was made by a State Appointed Emergency Administrator.”

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Susan Hedman
Susan Hedman

Congress to EPA:  We want UNREDACTED documents.  Subpeona issued for Susan Hedman, former Administrator for EPA Region 5.

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Stay tuned for more…..Watch the hearings on CSPAN3 – click here.