Did Monterey County Weekly pay for access to an Obama/Biden fundraiser featuring a visit by Vice President Joe Biden?

No, it didn’t. But that didn’t stop local NBC affiliate KSBW from accusing the paper of buying tickets in order to cover the event, writes Mary Duan:

Despite the fact that [Monterey County Weekly reporter Sara] Rubin and [assistant editor Kera] Abraham told KSBW reporter Jacqueline Mazur at least a half-dozen times that they didn’t pay for the tickets, KSBW reported at 6pm that the Weekly paid for the tickets. And then, despite the fact that anchor Erin Clark corrected the report at 11pm, Heston piled on two days later with an editorial that compared the pool reporting process to the media control exerted in Libya and derided us for buying tickets. 


“Our news department considered this same move last week, but we dismissed it: KSBW will not be a political contributor to any political campaign,” Heston sniffed.