Truth matters.
Get local, investigative reporting in your inbox.
edited by Lorie Hearn | inewsource
Maybe the only certain thing about the final weeks of the 52nd Congressional District race is that an angry former campaign staffer without a nondisclosure agreement is a major headache for Republican candidate Carl DeMaio.
Todd Bosnich, DeMaio’s former policy director, says he was fired for telling DeMaio to stop sexually harassing him. DeMaio says Bosnich was fired for plagiarizing a pension report.
Ever since the sexual harassment allegations were first mentioned publicly by a reporter during a DeMaio news conference on Oct. 8, the DeMaio campaign has had to respond to accusations of sexual misconduct, bribery and attempts at a cover-up.
[one_half]
[box type=”shadow”]
Geography: Runs north from Coronado to La Jolla, and then east to include Carmel Valley, Scripps Ranch, Poway and Rancho Bernardo.
Party breakdown:
33.6% Republican,
32.1% Democrat,
29.2% independent
Source: California
Secretary of State
[/box]
[/one_half]
They’ve cast a shadow over a tight race that has DeMaio challenging Democratic Rep. Scott Peters. Both are former San Diego city councilmen, and their contest has gained national attention because it’s considered a toss-up. Millions of campaign dollars have poured into the race.
The accusations this month have caused old issues to resurface, including the plagiarized report and a mysterious break-in at the DeMaio campaign headquarters. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office announced last week that it does not have enough evidence to file criminal charges involving the sexual misconduct allegations against DeMaio or for the break-in at his campaign headquarters.
Even that pronouncement has not stopped new stories involving the DeMaio campaign from emerging.
For example, an NBC San Diego report said the FBI is investigating harassing emails sent to Bosnich. Bosnich, who is working with a law firm and intends to sue DeMaio, has also leaked emails about the campaign. Some of these leaks are getting reported by national news organizations, including an email allegedly from DeMaio that mocks a Peters staffer with a photo of an overweight woman in a bra eating a chicken nugget. All of the leaks seem selected to embarrass and damage the DeMaio campaign.
The news reports have forced DeMaio and his staff to play a sort of whack-a-mole game as they work to try to deflect, discredit and deny what’s being said. And yet his support among likely voters remains strong. The latest 10News/U-T San Diego poll shows DeMaio in a virtual tie with Peters.
DeMaio wants to move on from the negative publicity. When KPBS sent his campaign questions about the sexual harassment allegations, leaked emails and when Bosnich was fired, DeMaio spokesman Dave McCulloch replied with one sentence: “We are done responding to outrageous lies and believe the District Attorney’s statement last week rejecting this politically-motivated smear speaks for itself.”
Peters, meanwhile, won’t be interviewed about the issues swirling around the DeMaio campaign. Alex Roth, his spokesman, also wouldn’t answer a question about when the Peters campaign first learned of the sexual harassment allegations against DeMaio.
Roth instead gave a statement: “This is Carl DeMaio’s problem, no one else’s; it’s between Carl and his former staff member, and it’s now the subject of an FBI investigation. Carl needs to stop blaming everyone else around him and step up and take responsibility and answer all the unanswered questions swirling around him and his campaign.”
Who is Todd Bosnich?
Bosnich, who just turned 29, grew up in Del Mar and has always been a registered Republican. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 2008 with a major in political science, and then moved to Washington, D.C., to work for Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of Tulare. He was on Nunes’ staff until the beginning of 2009.
Bosnich also worked for a company called NCC Media in 2012, from Aug. 13 to Oct. 5, as a temporary sales coordinator for a political team. Neither former employer would comment on Bosnich.
On Sept. 5, 2013, about three months after DeMaio announced his congressional run, Bosnich posted on Facebook:
“Hey Guys! Just wanted to let the DC folks (know) that haven’t heard yet that I am moving back to the great city of San Diego on October 4th to work for the Carl DeMaio campaign. Going to miss this amazing city that I have called home, but am looking forward to reconecting [sic] with my southern California brethren.”
He followed up with a post touting a Republican agenda:
“Well, hopefully without Obama at the top of the ticket things will turn out differently in 2014. Also, the Democrats will be hard pressed to trot out their usual ‘war on women’ line because Carl’s pro-choice and will keep the debate focused on the bread and butter issues of the economy and jobs. It’s going to be a tough fight, but he represents a new generation of Republicans that I think, and hope, will be successful in making the GOP competitive in every area of the country”
A month later, Bosnich was living in Del Mar and working as DeMaio’s political director. He told KPBS he’d reached out to DeMaio about working for him because he thought DeMaio shared his moderate Republican stances. Bosnich is gay and was excited about the possibility of helping elect the first openly gay Republican to Congress.
What Bosnich Says About Unwanted Sexual Contact
Two weeks ago, Bosnich’s description of unwanted sexual contact from DeMaio aired nationally on CNN. Bosnich then told the same story to KPBS.
He told KPBS that the sexual contact began in December 2013, when DeMaio grabbed Bosnich’s crotch after giving him a ride from a campaign social event at a bar.
Bosnich said DeMaio’s sexual harassment of him continued through February 2014, after the campaign staffer was given his own office and was more likely to be alone. DeMaio would massage his shoulders and kiss his neck, Bosnich said.
The campaign staffer said he didn’t know what to do. Bosnich said he wanted to preserve his career so he put up with the behavior. He said he began trying to time his schedule to be in the office when he knew DeMaio wouldn’t be there.
Bosnich told KPBS that the sexual harassment culminated on April 30, when he went to work early and found himself alone with DeMaio at the campaign headquarters. He said DeMaio called out to him and asked him to come into his office. When Bosnich opened the door, he said he saw DeMaio with his pants down at his knees, masturbating and smiling.
DeMaio told CNN none of this happened. His campaign declined to answer questions from KPBS about whether the incidents occurred.
What Bosnich Says Happened Next
A few days later, on May 5, Bosnich said he talked with Tommy Knepper, DeMaio’s campaign manager, about DeMaio’s behavior.
“I wasn’t saying (DeMaio’s) sexually harassing me,” Bosnich said. “I wasn’t making a threat or saying I was going to leave.”
Bosnich said Knepper didn’t acknowledge the problem, and nothing changed.
About two weeks later, Bosnich said he worked up the courage to confront DeMaio. He said he met alone with him on Sunday, May 18. He recounted the conversation to KPBS:
“I told him that if you can’t stop this behavior, you need to drop out before the primary and let the party get someone else elected who can handle it. I remember him looking at me like he was looking straight through me. I think the only word he said the whole time was, ‘OK, OK, OK.’ At the end he said, ‘OK, I understand,’ then he shook my hand and said, ‘Have a good night.’”
DeMaio’s campaign declined to answer a question from KPBS about whether these meetings happened.
Bosnich went into work the next morning, on May 19, and said he was immediately called into Knepper’s office. He said Knepper told him that DeMaio has lost trust in him and he was being fired. He said Knepper offered him a job with the San Diego County Republican Party plus $50,000, and asked him to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
“I was in a state of shock. There were a million thoughts racing through my head,” Bosnich told KPBS. “Then I said, ‘f* this,’ and I stormed out of the office. That was the last time I was in the campaign office.”
Bosnich said he refused to sign the agreement. He said access to his campaign email address and the campaign office was immediately cut off.
The DeMaio campaign declined to answer a question from KPBS about whether Bosnich was offered money or asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
What DeMaio Says Happened
DeMaio would not be interviewed for this story. When CNN interviewed him, he told them Bosnich was fired for a different reason: plagiarism.
On May 12, DeMaio’s campaign released a report on “pension double dippers.”
Within hours, the National Journal reported that the DeMaio campaign plagiarized the political magazine’s report.
By the end of the day, DeMaio apologized to the National Journal. He told them his staff had produced the report, but said, “I don’t throw my staff under the bus.”
The pension report didn’t come up again until two weeks ago in the CNN story. That’s when DeMaio said Bosnich had been fired for plagiarism and was retaliating by making up stories about sexual harassment.
DeMaio wouldn’t provide documentation showing Bosnich plagiarized and won’t say exactly what day Bosnich was fired.
If Bosnich was fired for plagiarism, it seems it didn’t happen right away. There are a few signs showing he was still working for the campaign after the plagiarism was reported on May 12:
- May 15, 2014: An email from DeMaio is sent to his staffers, including Bosnich, according to the Washington Examiner. It says “Thursday – busy week. lets push to get it all done” and then includes a list of tasks originally sent on May 12. Bosnich has several assignments, including “draft infrastructure plan” and “finalizing schedule for infrastructure press conference.” The infrastructure press conference was held May 20. DeMaio’s campaign wouldn’t respond to a question about whether this email was authentic.
- May 15, 2014: U-T San Diego published a letter to the editor from Bosnich praising DeMaio’s pension report.Voice of San Diego reported last week that the letter wasn’t supposed to have Bosnich’s name on it, but it shows Bosnich was likely still working for the campaign.
- Alison Rentschler, a former DeMaio campaign staffer who was later fired, told KPBS that Bosnich did not write the pension report. “I can confirm Todd was not fired for plagiarism,” she said in a statement. “(DeMaio) was very involved with the report and referred to it as his ‘baby.’”
- Rentschler said Bosnich continued to work for the campaign for several days after the plagiarism was reported.
After Bosnich Says He Was Fired
On May 19, seven days after the National Journal plagiarism incident, Bosnich said he was fired. If that’s true, he still did a few things after his termination to support the DeMaio campaign:
- May 19, 2014: According to Bosnich, he regularly made edits to the Scott Peters and Carl DeMaio Wikipedia pages using the name “VickieJR” (his mother’s name is Victoria). If true, his last edit was on May 19. It’s against Wikipedia’s terms of service to edit pages to promote your employer’s interests. DeMaio’s campaign declined to answer a question from KPBS about whether staffers edited Wikipedia pages.
- May 21, 2014: Bosnich sent a few tweets, including one attacking Peters. Nothing is again posted on Bosnich’s Twitter account until Oct. 10, 2014.
About a week after Bosnich said he was fired, he said he began receiving anonymous phone calls and emails threatening him to stay quiet. He said his mother also received a threatening email.
Campaign Office Break-In
After 9 p.m. on May 27, a break-in occurred at DeMaio’s Miramar campaign headquarters. There are inconsistencies about what happened.
10News reported at the time that the break-in “might have been an inside job because of the entry point coming from an adjoining office and the fact that a file cabinet with files inside was untouched, while another was stripped of several hundred dollars worth of gasoline debit cards.”
But a couple of days after the burglary, DeMaio told the Armstrong and Getty show on KFMB that “nothing was taken, this was not an economic robbery, it was political vandalism.”
Armstrong and Getty asked DeMaio who might have done it, but DeMaio wouldn’t speculate.
Four months later, during his CNN interview about Bosnich’s sexual harassment allegations, DeMaio pinned the break-in on Bosnich:
“He got caught for the damage that he did to the campaign and now he’s manufacturing in essence a cover story to explain away his actions.”
Then on Oct. 17, during a debate on NBC San Diego’s “Politically Speaking,” DeMaio said a “campaign playbook” was stolen during the break-in.
DeMaio said of whoever committed the burglary:
“They were not trying to steal things from our campaign. They were only trying to limit our ability to communicate with voters. More importantly, something was stolen that day. And that was our entire campaign strategy book. And Mr. Peters, I just want to ask a very simple question, did your campaign come into possession of our strategy book with all of our direct mail pieces in the last five months?”
Peters responded that in early June, “information was forwarded to our campaign, which we immediately turned over to the police.” Peters said he never saw the playbook, that his campaign gave it to the police within 24 hours and that his campaign manager “looked at it enough to know what it was.”
Suddenly the Peters campaign was drawn into the drama and had to respond to questions about how the playbook was delivered to them. Spokesman Roth wouldn’t answer that, instead issuing the statement:
“We do not know what a campaign playbook is; nor has our campaign ever received anything that could be characterized as ‘a campaign playbook’ as Mr. DeMaio called it. To reiterate, our campaign staff received information in early June that we immediately transmitted in its entirety to the police. This is nothing more than an attempt by Mr. DeMaio to divert attention away from the Filner-esque sexual harassment allegations that have been made against him.”
The DeMaio campaign wouldn’t answer a question from KPBS about why DeMaio did not publicly mention the missing playbook at the time of the break-in.
The Slater Interview
Two days after the break-in, on May 29, KFMB radio host Mike Slater said he received an email from Bosnich asking if they could talk. Slater told KPBS this month that Bosnich hinted at the subject matter, saying “something like, ‘You would be upset too if your boss masturbated in front of you.’”
Slater said he booked Bosnich for an early morning interview on Monday, June 2.
Bosnich didn’t show up, Slater said. The radio host then rescheduled the interview for 4 p.m. that afternoon.
Looking back, Slater said of Bosnich missing the first interview, “I chalked it up as someone who was nervous to tell his story.”
Slater and Bosnich taped the interview with the intention of airing it the following morning, on June 3, the actual day of the primary election. In it, Bosnich described the same sexual harassment allegations he would later make to CNN.
Bosnich actually had to tell Slater the story twice, because the host said they taped it once for radio and once for TV.
Slater said he had “every intention of airing” the interview. “Those were quite the accusations,” he said. “It was definitely a newsworthy story.” But after the interview was taped, Slater said he emailed Bosnich to ask if he had any proof of his allegations.
“We needed something, otherwise it was just slander,” Slater said. “Maybe legally we could air it, but ethically we couldn’t.”
Slater said Bosnich responded to his email by saying he would get back to Slater, but he never did. Slater said he hasn’t spoken to Bosnich since.
The interview didn’t air, which Slater said was his decision. He said he is not a supporter of DeMaio’s, and that he liked Kirk Jorgensen, another Republican who ran for Peters’ seat and lost.
The following day, June 3, DeMaio and Peters easily advanced to the general election.
Police Get Involved
In early June after the primary, Bosnich said two San Diego police sex crime detectives came to his home in Del Mar to ask if he’d been the victim of a sex crime. Bosnich provided the detectives’ names to KPBS, which verified they were in fact assigned to sex crimes.
The Police Department would not confirm whether the meeting Bosnich described happened.
Around the same time, Bosnich hired the Gomez Trial Lawyers firm. The firm has handled high-profile cases, including a $10 million settlement with Toyota in 2009. The firm’s founder, John Gomez, has also donated to several Democratic campaigns, including $1,000 to Scott Peters in 2012.
Bibi Fell, the lawyer assigned to Bosnich’s case, told KPBS that on June 14 she asked Bosnich to take a polygraph test about the sexual harassment claims. He did, and it showed his answers were “truthful,” she said.
Soon after that, Bosnich said he was approached by different San Diego police detectives who asked about the burglary. Bosnich cooperated with the detectives, his lawyer said. The Police Department would not confirm whether this meeting happened.
The Leaked Slater Interview
After the Slater interview didn’t air, Bosnich said he thought he was finished talking about DeMaio.
”I was planning to just move on with my life at this point,” he told KPBS.
But then Chris Frates, a CNN reporter, approached Bosnich in early August. Frates had a copy of the Slater interview, Bosnich said.
Bosnich said he didn’t give the Slater interview to CNN. Slater said he didn’t release the interview either.
Slater said he thinks he gave Bosnich a copy of the interview after they taped it but doesn’t remember. He said if a guest on his show asks for a copy of the interview, he’ll give it to him.
“I don’t remember (Bosnich) asking for it, but that had to be what happened,” Slater said.
Slater said he doesn’t think anyone else at KFMB would have released the interview.
“It was in our files, in our computers. It would have been in a folder in a folder in a folder. No one would have been able to find it,” Slater said.
Bosnich said he “inferred from (CNN reporter) Frates that I could either cooperate and do the story or he was just going to run (the Slater interview) without me.” So he taped an interview with CNN.
In August and September, Frates tried to get DeMaio to respond to the allegations. He describes the sequence of events in his story: First, DeMaio’s campaign asked for time to respond, then sent Frates to “high-powered Washington attorney Ben Ginsberg,” who also asked for more time to respond. Ginsberg then sent CNN back to the DeMaio campaign, which issued a statement denying the allegations. Frates then caught DeMaio at a news conference to get his response.
Sexual Harassment Allegations Air
Before CNN could air its story, the sexual harassment allegations surfaced at the Oct. 8 DeMaio news conference that was supposed to be about denouncing negative campaigning.
Tony Perry, the San Diego bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, peppered DeMaio with questions about the allegations, including whether DeMaio was interviewed by sex crime detectives. DeMaio confirmed he was.
DeMaio said that after detectives interviewed him, Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman called him and said, “Thank your for your full cooperation and we consider this matter closed,” according to a transcript from an NBC San Diego reporter.
That same day, other news outlets indicated they had previously heard about the harassment allegations, including Politico, which reported it had received a copy of the Slater interview.
Two days later, on Oct. 10, the story was blown wide open on CNN. Bosnich’s descriptions of what he said DeMaio did to him were heard for the first time. Also heard for the first time was DeMaio’s claim that Bosnich was fired for plagiarizing the pension report in May.
Three days after that, San Diego CityBeat posted the full Slater interview.
Bosnich Begins Leaking Emails
The DeMaio campaign’s headaches didn’t end once the sexual harassment story aired. That’s because Bosnich began leaking old campaign emails. The DeMaio campaign responded differently to each new leak, and sometimes differently to the same leak.
• A set of emails from April 19 that Bosnich sent to the Washington Examiner showed DeMaio campaign manager Knepper advising staff on how to spot “trackers” — staffers who show up at the opponent’s events and report back on them. Knepper wrote that “red flags” included people who are young and at a Saturday morning event, and people who are black.
DeMaio responded in an email: “Drop black from the criteria.”
The DeMaio campaign didn’t deny the emails were sent. Knepper later apologized for them in a statement sent to Talking Points Memo.
• The DeMaio campaign responded differently to an email published by San Diego CityBeat. The Jan. 22, 2014, email appears to show DeMaio making fun of a Peters campaign staffer with a photo of an obese woman in a bra eating a chicken nugget.
DeMaio’s campaign didn’t respond to CityBeat. The story was then picked up by several national media outlets. A day later, the campaign responded in a U-T San Diego story. “DeMaio said the email was fabricated by Todd Bosnich,” the story reported, but didn’t explain what “fabricated” meant.
A Twitter conversation spanning multiple days and involving the story’s editor and reporter ensued, with the U-T editor suggesting the email could have been “faked,” or that Bosnich could have sent it from DeMaio’s account.
Two days after the first U-T story, DeMaio’s campaign told the U-T it was filing a complaint “with authorities” alleging someone broke into one of the campaign’s email accounts. The story didn’t report what email account was compromised or whether emails were falsely sent.
• A third email leaked to NBC San Diego appears to show DeMaio taking credit for writing a U-T editorial that strongly criticized Peters. DeMaio’s campaign did not respond in the story. The editorial board and the editor of U-T San Diego said the email was fake.
DeMaio’s campaign declined to answer any questions from KPBS about Knepper’s or DeMaio’s emails.
Bosnich also returned to social media at the end of October, tweeting embarrassing claims about the DeMaio campaign. Among them that the campaign edited the Peters and DeMaio Wikipedia pages, and that DeMaio runs the Twitter account @4SanDiegoNews, which among other things makes fun of a Peters campaign staffer for his weight.
The DeMaio campaign declined to answer questions from KPBS about whether DeMaio staffers edit Wikipedia pages and whether DeMaio tweets from the @4SanDiegoNews account.
Bosnich said he still plans to sue DeMaio, but that may not happen until after the Nov. 4 election.
- Editorial Standards Page
- Ethics Policy
- Diversity Statement
- Diversity Staffing Report
- Corrections Policy
- Ownership Structure, Funding
- Founding Date
- Masthead
- Mission Statement with Coverage Priorities
- Fact-checking Standards
- Unnamed Sources Policy
Editorial Standards Page
- Our Mission
- Ethics Policy
- Diversity
- Ownership Structure, Funding and Grants
- Financial Documents
- Fact-checking and Verification Standards
- Unnamed Sources
- Corrections and Clarifications
- Actionable Feedback and Newsroom Contacts
- Masthead
- Byline Policy
- The Trust Project
- Privacy Policy
Our Mission
inewsource is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to improving lives in the San Diego region and beyond through impactful, data-based investigative and accountability journalism.
Our Vision
Betrayals of the public trust are revealed and rectified, wrongdoing is deterred, and inequities are illuminated thanks to inewsource’s deep, dogged, fact-based reporting.
Our Values
Truth: Above all else, we value the importance of a free and credible press. Truth is the cornerstone of democracy and the core value for inewsource.
Transparency: We build trust with our readers by adhering to the highest standards and ethics, and to reporting with facts, precision and context.
Collaboration: Our newsroom prioritizes collaboration over competition. We regularly partner with media outlets on reporting projects and to share content.
Community: Our reporting serves the San Diego region, and we strive to build relationships with our audience by getting out into the community to listen and engage.
Ethics Policy
inewsource will conduct its business with the highest standards of decency, fairness and accuracy. These standards shall apply equally to inewsource employees, freelancers and all others engaged in gathering information on behalf of inewsource. All receive a copy of these ethical standards.
In the course of our reporting, we will consistently:
● Identify our organization and ourselves fully and avoid false representations of any kind to any source.
● Obtain consent from all parties before electronically recording any interview or conversation except in extraordinary cases authorized by the Managing Editor and Editor. If a source refuses to be taped, that must be honored; no recordings are to be made without consent.
● Respect the individual’s right to privacy. inewsource will never manipulate or barter private, personal, health, financial or other extraneous information in the course of preparing its reports.
● Any source we describe or write about in any significant manner must be contacted. The employee should document all efforts to contact the source, and if unsuccessful, should summarize these efforts at contact in the body of his/her writing.
In addition, inewsource follows the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists. The latest version, revised in 2014, can be found here.
Editorial Independence Policy
We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) as follows:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We will maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support. Our organization also may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $1,000 or more. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.
Diversity
Diverse Voices
Inclusiveness is at the heart of thinking and acting as journalists, and it supports the educational mandate of inewsource. Race, class, generation, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and geography all affect point of view. inewsource believes that reflecting societal differences in reporting leads to better, more nuanced stories and a better-informed community.
inewsource is committed to employment equity and diversity.
Diverse Staffing Report
Below is a breakdown of staffing data at inewsource. We determine the composition of our staff by asking them to self-identify. It is based on a newsroom of 11 and a total staff of 15 as of August 2020. Percentages are based on 15 total survey responses. The numbers include full-time and part-time staff, full-time fellows and full-time and part-time interns.
| All Staff Percentages are based on 15 total survey responses. The numbers include full-time and part-time staff, full-time fellows and full-time and part-time interns. | Newsroom Percentages are based on 15 completed survey responses to this question. | Business Percentages are based on 15 completed survey responses to this question. | |||
| Gender Identity | Gender Identity | Gender Identity | |||
| Women | 80% | Women | 82% | Women | 75% |
| Men | 20% | Men | 18% | Men | 25% |
| Sexual Orientation | Sexual Orientation | Sexual Orientation | |||
| Straight | 87% | Straight | 82% | Straight | 100% |
| LGBTQ-identifying | 7% | LGBTQ-identifying | 7% | ||
| Not specified | 7% | Not specified | 7% | ||
| Speak a language beyond English at home | 33% | Speak a language beyond English at home | 18% | Speak a language beyond English at home | 75% |
| Race/Ethnicity | Race/Ethnicity | Race/Ethnicity | |||
| White | 67% | White | 73% | White | 50% |
| Hispanic or Latinx | 20% | Two or more races | 18% | Hispanic or Latinx | 50% |
| Two or more races | 13% | Hispanic or Latinx | 9% | ||
| Age | Age | Age | |||
| 20-29 | 40% | 20-29 | 45% | 20-29 | 25% |
| 30-39 | 47% | 30-39 | 45% | 30-39 | 50% |
| 60 or older | 13% | 60 or older | 9% | 60 or older | 25% |
* The percentages in the charts have been rounded and may not add up to 100.
Ownership Structure, Funding and Grants
inewsource is a nonprofit organization, whose legal name is Investigative Newsource. It does business as inewsource. The business was incorporated on Aug. 4, 2009 in the state of California. Tax-exempt status as a 501c3 was granted by the IRS on Sept. 15, 2010. inewsource is funded primarily by individual contributions and foundation grants. We are guided by a board of directors.
Editorial independence: Journalists employed by inewsource take no editorial direction from donors whose contributions may support the organization. inewsource will not hesitate to report on its donors when events warrant. Our Editorial Independence Policy details the firewall between journalism and revenue.
To be transparent with the public, inewsource lists its donors on its website. In cases where a donor is the subject of an inewsource story, additional disclosure will be made.
Financial Documents
We do our due diligence to earn your trust in our reporting, as well as in our governance and financial sustainability. All of our financial documents are made available to view so that our supporters can trust we are sound stewards of your philanthropy. Review our IRS Form 990s, audited financial statements and annual reports:
Tax Returns
Financial Statements
Annual Reports
Fact-checking and Verification Standards
Transparency is one of our core values. Today, there is a need to build trust with our audience because new media and ways of communicating spread lies and slanted news faster than “real” news. At the same time, this era of new technologies makes it easier than ever for news organizations to be transparent. People don’t just have to believe us, they can investigate our investigations with our source materials.
Transparency is key to building credibility.
inewsource reporters have primary responsibility for reporting, writing, and fact-checking their stories. But before a story is published, the reporter reviews all facts and sources with an editor or another reporter. Facts must be traced to a primary source.
In addition, we “transparify” certain investigative stories. This process involves publishing a version of the web story with hyperlinks to all the story’s facts. This is proof that all facts have been documented with primary evidence. We do this to build trust with our readers and to be as transparent as we hope the public figures and institutions that we hold accountable will be.
Unnamed Sources
Not all sources are created equal. Some sources cannot speak authoritatively, provide proper analysis or speak specifically to every inquiry placed before them. To maintain the integrity of our reporting, inewsource reporters must select sources who can speak with validity to the topic at hand, and avoid presenting unqualified or underqualified sources as experts.
If an interviewed source has a conflict of interest, or whose qualifications may be tangential or limited, reporters will note that within the context of the story.
It is incumbent upon reporters to fully background their sources to uncover conflicts of interest or slant prior to using them in a story.
Unless discussed prior to an interview, all subjects talking to inewsource journalists are on the record. Specifically, the source is identified by name and title, and their exact or paraphrased words are attributed to them for publication. If journalists speak with sources who are not politicians, public figures or those not commonly interviewed by journalists, staff should explain clearly that information discussed will be on the record and for publication.
There are times, however, when information may be critical for a story but cannot be found or verified by other means. For example, a source may be able to confirm specific information about a series of events they may have witnessed, but have legitimate concerns about using their name or title. The repercussions to the source could be legal, job-related retribution or personal safety. The source and journalist must discuss these potential dangers and terms of use should be agreed upon by both parties.
If inewsource publishes information from an anonymous source, inewsource will explain to readers, in as much detail as possible, why we agreed to anonymity.
Corrections and Clarifications
inewsource strives for accuracy in everything we do, which is why we are committed to fact checking our content. But sometimes we make errors. When that happens, we correct them. We also clarify stories when something we’ve written is confusing or could be misinterpreted.
We endeavor to always be transparent about our commitment to correcting errors and clarifying misperceptions. When staffers see, hear or read about a possible issue with the accuracy of any inewsource content, they are expected to bring it to the attention of an editor and the web producer so it can be evaluated to determine how to proceed.
Including the web producer is key because inewsource is a multimedia news organization and shares its content with multiple partners on multiple platforms. The web producer must alert these partners about corrections and clarifications.
Corrections and clarifications should be included at the bottom of stories and dated.
Actionable Feedback and Newsroom Contacts
Our audiences know the region we cover and have a stake in maintaining and improving the quality of life in San Diego and Imperial counties. We know your knowledge and insights can help shape what we cover and how we cover it. We invite your comments and complaints on news stories, suggestions for issues to cover or sources to consult. We rely on you to tell us when we get it right and when we need to keep pushing.
Your comments, questions and suggestions can be sent to the team as a whole at contact@inewsource.org or you can contact a specific member of our staff.
Masthead
CEO, Editor and Founder: Lorie Hearn, loriehearn@inewsource.org
Lorie Hearn is the chief executive officer, editor and founder of inewsource. She founded inewsource in the summer of 2009, following a successful reporting and editing career in newspapers. She retired from The San Diego Union-Tribune, where she had been a reporter, Metro Editor and finally the senior editor for Metro and Watchdog Journalism. In addition to department oversight, Hearn personally managed a four-person watchdog team, composed of two data specialists and two investigative reporters. Hearn was a Nieman Foundation fellow at Harvard University in 1994-95. She focused on juvenile justice and drug control policy, a natural course to follow her years as a courts and legal affairs reporter at the San Diego Union and then the Union-Tribune.
Hearn became Metro Editor in 1999 and oversaw regional and city news coverage, which included the city of San Diego’s financial debacle and near bankruptcy. Reporters and editors on Metro during her tenure were part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stories that exposed Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham and led to his imprisonment.
Hearn began her journalism career as a reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times, a small daily outside of Philadelphia, shortly after graduating from the University of Delaware. During the decades following, she moved through countless beats at five newspapers on both coasts.
High-profile coverage included the historic state Supreme Court election in 1986, when three sitting justices were ousted from the bench, and the 1992 execution of Robert Alton Harris. That gas chamber execution was the first time the death penalty was carried out in California in 25 years.
In her nine years as Metro Editor at the Union-Tribune, Hearn made watchdog reporting a priority. Her reporters produced award-winning investigations covering large and small local governments. The depth and breadth of their public service work was most evident in coverage of the wildfires of 2003 and then 2007, when more than half a million people were evacuated from their homes.
Managing Editor: Laura Wingard, laurawingard@inewsource.org
Laura Wingard is the managing editor at inewsource. She has been an editor in San Diego since 2002, working at The San Diego Union-Tribune, KPBS and now inewsource. At the Union-Tribune, she served in a variety of roles including as enterprise editor, government editor, public safety and legal affairs editor, and metro editor. She directed the newspaper’s award-winning coverage of the October 2007 wildfires and the 2010 disappearance of Poway teenager Chelsea King. She also oversaw reporting on San Diego’s pension crisis.
For two years, Wingard was news and digital editor at KPBS, overseeing a team of four multimedia reporters and two web producers. She also was the KPBS liaison with inewsource and collaborated with inewsource chief executive officer and editor Lorie Hearn on investigative work by both news organizations.
Wingard also worked at the Las Vegas Review-Journal as the city editor and as an award-winning reporter covering the environment and politics. She also was the assistant managing editor for metro at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside. She earned her bachelor’s degree at California State University, Fullerton, with a double major in communications/journalism and political science.
Assistant Editor and Senior Reporter: Brad Racino, bradracino@inewsource.org
Brad Racino is the assistant editor and a senior reporter at inewsource. He has produced investigations for print, radio and TV on topics including political corruption, transportation, health, maritime, education and nonprofits.
His cross-platform reporting for inewsource has earned more than 50 awards since 2012, including back-to-back national medals from Investigative Reporters and Editors, two national Edward R. Murrow awards, a Meyer “Mike” Berger award from New York City’s Columbia Journalism School, the Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism, San Diego SPJ’s First Amendment Award, and a national Emmy nomination.
In 2017, Racino was selected by the Institute for Nonprofit News as one of 10 “Emerging Leaders” in U.S. nonprofit journalism.
Racino has worked as a reporter and database analyst for News21; as a photographer, videographer and reporter for the Columbia Missourian; as a project coordinator for the National Freedom of Information Coalition and as a videographer and editor for Verizon Fios1 TV in New York. He received his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 2012.
Byline Policy
Most of our articles carry a byline to identify the author. In some cases, inewsource will use a brand byline such as “Staff” or “inewsource” for internal or editorial information about the newsroom. In these instances, inewsource‘s Editor and Managing Editor are responsible for content that uses a brand byline.
The Trust Project
inewsource is proud to be a member of The Trust Project and support efforts to increase transparency in journalism by displaying the 8 Trust Indicators on our stories. We launched the Trust Indicators on Sep. 16, 2020.
Privacy Policy
inewsource has prepared this Privacy Policy to explain how we collect, use, protect, and share information when you use our inewsource.org website (the “Site“) or when you use any of our services (the “Services“).
By using the Site or Services you consent to this Privacy Policy.
Log Data
Like many site operators, we collect information that your browser sends whenever you visit our site (“Log Data”).
This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our site that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages and other statistics.
Cookies
Cookies are files with small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a web site and stored on your computer or mobile device.
Like many sites, we use “cookies” to collect information. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our site.
Certain pages on our site may set other third party cookies. For example, we may embed content, such as videos, from another site that sets a cookie. While we try to minimize these third party cookies, we can’t always control what cookies this third party content sets.
Additionally, we may use third party services — such as those that provide social media conveniences, measure traffic, send newsletters and facilitate donations — that may place cookies on your computer. We don’t have any way of knowing how such services handle the resulting data internally. inewsource makes no claim, nor takes liability for the insecure submission of information via these applications.
Here are the services whose cookies you can find on inewsource.org:
- Sharing buttons for Facebook and Twitter. These use the standard scripts provided by each company.
- Google Analytics, which we use to measure site traffic. Google Analytics gathers certain non-personally identifying information over time, such as your IP address, browser type, internet service provider, referring and exit pages, time stamp, and similar data. We also use Facebook Pixel to measure, optimize and build audiences for advertising campaigns served on Facebook. In particular it enables us to see how our users move between devices when accessing our website and Facebook, to ensure that our Facebook advertising is seen by our users most likely to be interested in such advertising by analyzing which content a user has viewed and interacted with on our website.
- Stripe, which allows us to accept donations through our website.
- Salesforce to manage newsletter subscriber, donor, and other identifiable user data.
- Mailchimp, to manage newsletter distributions. We collect your email address if you choose to subscribe to one of our email newsletters or email news alerts. Other optional information that you enter when subscribing – such as your first and last names or city are simply so that we can deliver more personalized email newsletters. We DO NOT sell, rent or market your information to any other parties. We retain your information only as long as necessary to provide your service. When we send emails, it collects some data about which users open the emails and which links are clicked. We use this information to optimize our email newsletters and, as aggregate information, to explain what percentage of our users open and interact with our newsletters.
Personal Data
We only collect personally identifiable information such as your name and email address when you sign up for a newsletter, donate to our organization, or otherwise submit it to us voluntarily. We do not share your personal data with any third parties other than some common service providers, whose products use your information to help us improve our site, deliver newsletters, or allow us to offer donation opportunities.
inewsource limits access to all user data for the purposes of newsletter, fundraising, and customer service only. User data is not sold to or otherwise shared with anyone not working with or for the inewsource.
You may unsubscribe or opt-out of our email and mail communications at any time by hitting the “unsubscribe” button in any email you receive from inewsource, or by emailing us at contact@inewsource.org or calling us at 619-594-5100.
Donor Information
The identities of all donors will be listed on our website. inewsource does not share, trade, sell, or otherwise release donors’ personal information to any third parties.
Refunds
If you encounter errors when donating on the website, please contact us at members@inewsource.org. For example, if you submit a donation for an incorrect amount or make a duplicate transaction please email us immediately so we can reverse the charges.
Cancellation of Recurring Donations
You can cancel your monthly recurring donations free of charge by notifying us at members@inewsource.org.
Links to Other Websites
Our site may contain links to documents, resources or other websites that we think may be of interest to you. We have no control over these other sites or their content. You should be aware when you leave our site for another, and remember that other sites are governed by their own user agreements and privacy policies, which should be available to you to read.
Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability
Although we take reasonable steps to prevent the introduction of viruses, worms, “Trojan Horses” or other destructive materials to our site, we do not guarantee or warrant that our site or materials that may be downloaded from our site are free from such destructive features. We are not liable for any damages or harm attributable to such features. We are not liable for any claim, loss or injust based on errors, omissions, interruptions or other inaccuracies on our site, nor for any claim, loss or injust that results from your use of this site or your breach of any provision of this User Agreement.
Contact Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, please contact us at contact@inewsource.org or call us at 619-594-5100.
IF Demaio should win he will be taking to Washington with him, a FBI investigation, a pending Civil sexual harassment lawsuit and possibly more victims that will come forward. Fit for office??