CITY ATTORNEY BULLIES PUBLIC TV STATION AFTER IT DROPS HIM AS GUEST

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SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE - San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre has
expanded his investigation into the city's public-television station
three months after the station canceled a public-affairs program that
sometimes featured him as a guest.

Aguirre's latest demand for documents came several weeks after he issued
a report accusing the station of "abrogat(ing) its duty to maintain
objectivity and balance in its local public affairs television
programming" by canceling "Full Focus," a public-issues program.

In recent months, Aguirre has suggested the station might have committed
civil or criminal violations by canceling the show, on which Aguirre
appeared as a guest 15 times from July 2003 until it left the air Aug.
1. . .

"Just about the last thing you want in a free society is a government
official going in and mucking around in a newsroom and making
programming decisions," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. . .

On Aug. 24, Aguirre asked the station to turn over "any and all emails,
documents and other public records of KPBS' board members, officers or
employees related to the decision to cancel the KPBS program 'Full
Focus.'" Five days after that, he asked for documents showing how KPBS
selects guests for its radio program, "Editors Roundtable.". . .

In an Aug. 29 letter to KPBS, Aguirre demanded "any and all emails,
documents and other public records related to the selection of
participants on the Editors Roundtable program during 2006 and 2007."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071115-9999-1m15aguirre.html

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