MHPC QUESTIONS MAINETODAY MEDIA TIES TO DEMOCRAT ATTACK MACHINE

MHPC QUESTIONS MAINETODAY MEDIA TIES TO DEMOCRAT ATTACK MACHINE

 

Press Herald Reporter Working on Same Smear Effort as Attack PAC with Financial Ties to Sussman

 

PORTLAND – The Maine Wire, the online news service of The Maine Heritage Policy Center, has exposed a simultaneous smear effort by the Portland Press Herald and a notorious DC-based Democrat opposition research organization with financial ties to Press Herald owner Donald Sussman.
 

Read the full story here: http://www.themainewire.com/2012/03/smear-machine-left-wing-superpac-portland-press-herald-chase-lepage-rumors/

Portland Press Herald reporter David Hench has refused to comment on his pursuit of a baseless rumor claiming that Governor LePage had been stopped for drinking while driving. Although no such incident had occurred, the Portland Press Herald filed a public records request with the Waterville Police Dept., seeking 1,566 radio transmissions and 1,336 texts that police made from February 26 to March 3.

Police would be required to transcribe seven entire days worth of radio calls and pore over 126 pages of texts.

The Portland Press Herald’s request did not happen alone. American Bridge 21st Century, a D.C.-based Democrat superPAC run by Media Matters president and well-known liberal attack dog David Brock, also issued a public records request to Waterville police, seeking information about the rumored traffic stop.

The parallel between the Portland Press Herald’s efforts and the liberal attack group is another troubling episode in a chain of events that has media watchers seriously concerned about the paper’s ability to report the news in any kind of objective manner. S. Donald Sussman, Maine’s most prolific Democrat benefactor and hedge-fund billionaire husband of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, recently invested $4 million into the ailing paper in exchange for an ownership share and a seat on the board of directors.

Sussman’s prolific political donations also tie him to the Media Matters superPAC.

 

“With its rabid desire to discredit Governor LePage, its ownership by a left-wing billionaire whose wife is a Democratic Congresswoman, its left-leaning, union-controlled editorial staff and its apparent complicity with a liberal attack organization, the Portland Press Herald has cast severe doubts about its ability to remain impartial,” said Lance Dutson, Chief Executive Officer of The Maine Heritage Policy Center. “This is particularly disturbing as Maine enters an important campaign season that could alter the political landscape nationwide.
 

“Media Matters’ vicious personal attacks represent all that is most despicable in politics today. If the people of Maine are to take them seriously, the editors and staff of the Portland Press Herald and its partner papers need to clarify their affiliation with this Democrat attack machine, and renounce any ties with them immediately.”

 

For complete story, see http://www.themainewire.com/2012/03/smear-machine-left-wing-superpac-portland-press-herald-chase-lepage-rumors/