Thug Life Army

The law enforcement officials who are campaigning to become the head of the world’s largest Sheriff’s Department are finding themselves in an uphill battle to get any media attention.

If at least two of the public cable channels have their way, the only one hour television Forum produced to discuss the campaign issues prior to the June 6th election was the Full Disclosure Network’s L. A. County Sheriffs Candidates Forum will be blacked out totally and partially.

The Adelphia Cable studio in Eagle Rock, CA and now the Los Angeles City Cable Channel #35 are attempting to keep the public in the dark about the candidates & the issues in the race for L. A. County Sheriff.

The Candidates in the race for L. A. County Sheriff are: Captain Ray Leyva, Captain Ken Masse (ret), Lt. Don Merrideth and Sgt. Paul Jernigan and the incumbent Sheriff Leroy Baca.

First it was the Adelphia Cable studio in Eagle Rock and now the Los Angeles City Cable Channel #35 are placing obstacle after obstacle to keep the public in the dark about the candidates and issues in the race for L. A. County Sheriff.

Cable Channels partially shut down production and are blacking out the only one-hour Forum produced for television to discuss Sheriffs Department issues prior to the June 6th election. The Forum produced by Full Disclosure Network was entitled the L. A. County Sheriffs Candidates Forum. featuring challengers in the race for L. A. County Sheriff Captain Ray Leyva, Captain Ken Masse (ret), Lt. Don Merrideth and Sgt. Paul Jernigan.

Ted Lihn, Assistant Station Manager at Los Angeles City View Channel #35 informed Leslie Dutton, Forum producer of the Full Disclosure Network™ that he was requesting a City Attorney opinion, before he would allow the Sheriffs Candidate Forum to run on their regularly scheduled time slot on Saturday, June 3rd from 12 noon to 1 p.m., just two business days prior to the election.

According to Dutton, Lihn informed her on Wedneday, May 31st that he was questioning whether the program should be aired because it pertained to a “County election” issue rather than a “City election” issue. Although the station had been informed several weeks before that the Candidate Forum was going to be featured on the Saturday before the election.

“This smells of dirty politics, attempting to keep the television viewing public from being informed on the issues,” Dutton said. “Full Disclosure aired a program before the last election (2004) on a state wide issue.” According to Dutton, such an action would effectively prevent the Sheriffs Candidates Forum from airing completely. “It will take the City Attorney’s office weeks, if not months, to get around to addressing this issue and our regular time slot is one day away,” she said. “People will never know what were the compelling issues that motivated these credentialed law enforcement officials to run for office.”

"Thank goodness we have the Internet," Dutton said. "The two-part, one hour Candidate Forum can be viewed free, 24/7, on demand on the Internet by clicking here:http://www.fulldisclosure.net/flash/464-465_Sheriff_Candidates.php as a public service of the Full Disclosure Network."

The L. A. Channel problem was the second time in less than a week that the Full Disclosure Network’s L. A. Sheriff’s Candidate TV Forum ran into trouble with a public cable channel. On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 the all Hispanic studio crew at Adelphia Eagle Rock stopped the videotaped production just as the final segment on Illegal Immigration was about to start. Claiming they ran “out of time” the studio crew had locked the Sheriff candidates and the Emmy Award winning production team out of the studio for almost 20 minutes while they were “on a break”.

The candidates were prevented from presenting their proposals on illegal immigration and sent them scrambling in the next few days to other locations to get their statements on videotape, too late to be included in the one hour Forum, but can be view on the Internet FREE, 24/7, on demand, at the following URL: http://www.fulldisclosure.net/flash/VideoBlogs/VideoBlog30.php. as a public service of the Full Disclosure Network

Seventeen time Emmy Award winning Director Harry Kooperstein, who directed the Sheriff Candidates Forum for the Full Disclosure Network said “no one is covering this race, it is amazing.”

In the nation’s largest county, in the heart of the television industry, veterans of the industry wonder at the dearth of coverage on the L. A. County Sheriff’s election where a budget of multi billions of dollars and thousands of Deputies are at stake.

Please visit their website at: http://www.fulldisclosure.net