State Watchdog Agency Opens Inquiry Into U-T San Diego’s Political Ad Rates
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/apr/08/state-watchdog-agency-opens-inquiry-u-t-san-diegos/
State Watchdog Agency Opens Inquiry Into U-T San Diegos Political Ad Rates
This story was updated at 5:33 p.m., Monday, April 8.
By Amita Sharma and Ryann Grochowski, inewsource
The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) announced today it is looking into whether U-T San Diego offered an improper discount on political advertising during last years election.
At first, calling it an investigation, and later revising it to a review, the FPPC, a state watchdog agency, said its reviewing whether the U-T San Diego violated campaign laws.
The probe was prompted by an inewsource/KPBS Investigations Desk analysis, which found that an anti-Bob Filner political action committee paid just over $1,560 per full-page ad in the U-T during the San Diego mayoral race.
Filners campaign consultant Tom Shepard said the U-T quoted him a price more than five times higher for one full-page ad. State law allows newspapers to offer such discounts but they must report them as in-kind political contributions, said Gary Winuk, chief of the Enforcement Division at the FPPC.
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