LONG BEACH–As of midnight yesterday, cable channels in the 70th Assembly District will no longer air a false and defamatory ad attacking Patrick O’Donnell and sponsored by the dark-money PAC StudentsFirst.

In response to evidence clearly disproving StudentsFirst’s allegations, the Time Warner and Verizon cable systems pulled the ad from their airwaves and required StudentsFirst to provide evidence proving claims made in any subsequent ads.

StudentsFirst, a Dark money PAC funded by an anonymous $1 million donation and supplemented with Wal-Mart money, had accused O’Donnell of “transferring public wetlands to a developer without protecting them.”

In fact, according to StudentsFirst own citation, the exact opposite occurred: O’Donnell voted to acquire wetlands from a developer, and authored a motion to protect those wetlands in perpetuity.

StudentsFirst has spent well in excess of $100,000 promulgating this Orwellian attack with a barrage of false and negative mailers and television ads – much of it spent after the dark-money PAC had been notified of the misleading nature of their attack.

“This sort of lying and disinformation is a disservice to voters and detrimental to the democratic process. StudentsFirst should be ashamed of themselves. What might originally have merely been incompetent and irresponsible is now clearly dishonest and deliberately meant to mislead. StudentsFirst gets an F. Their underhanded tactics should be rejected by the voters,” said Mike Shimpock, spokesperson for the O’Donnell campaign.

Backup:

According to Rich Ambrose, VP of Political Media for Time Warner Cable:

“This is notice regarding the Parents and Teachers, Putting Students First spot currently airing on TWC and other affiliated Cable systems in the the Long Beach area.

“Effective midnight tonight Wednesday 5/28, we will no longer air the spot for this advertiser. This includes spots airing on all Time Warner Cable systems and affiliated systems where TWC represents them in a Media Sales function. If the Parents and Teachers, Putting Students First supply a new spot we will accept it with prior substantiation that supports the claims in their commercial.”

According to Verizon FIOS Associate General Counsel James Stroo:

“Time Warner Cable is Verizon’s sales representative for commercials on FIOS TV in the Long Beach area. Time Warner Cable through Mr. Ambrose responded to you directly on its behalf and on behalf of other affiliated Cable systems in the Long Beach area, which includes Verizon.

“In accordance with that response, Verizon has stopped running the ad by Long Beach Parents and Teachers, Putting Students First.”

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Posted by brian on Thursday, May 29th, 2014 @ 10:38AM
Categories: Uncategorized