Would the Acorn Exist Without Government Funding?

One year ago, The Conejo Guardian reported that the Acorn newspapers received around $450,000 in forgivable federal “COVID” loans and $262,000 in County COVID money via advertisements — and that the Acorn’s coverage of public health policy was universally positive and affirming during that time.

The infusion of around $750,000 to the paper was made possible in part by a roughly $2 million campaign by the County of Ventura, fueled by federal COVID “relief” money, to buy positive local media coverage regarding public health mandates.

“In 2022, the Acorn received by far the most COVID cash — $71,299 in the first 8 months alone — from County COVID coffers compared to other papers.”

A year later, the Acorn and other local media outlets continue to receive significant amounts of County COVID money, raising the question: Are the Acorn and other local newspapers quasi-governmental entities? And does reliance on government ads and grants affect a news source’s objectivity?

The Guardian has now extended the scope of this investigation and examined 2022 general ad spending by local cities and public agencies, demonstrating that a significant amount of the Acorn’s weekly ad revenue comes from local governments.

For example, the City of Thousand Oaks spent $3,932 per month for Acorn ads between July 1, 2020, and November 2022 — accounting for 48 percent of the City’s total advertising expenses. The grand total from this one source: $114,045.

The embattled Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD), which recently took out a rare two-page spread in the Acorn, spent 43 percent of its advertising budget on the Acorn over the past nearly 2 years. The Acorn’s coverage of CVUSD controversies has been almost completely tilted in favor of the school district.

The Conejo Recreation & Parks District — which is separate from the City — has spent $1,511 per month on Acorn advertisements since January 2020 for a total of $42,321. Moorpark College runs a half-page or quarter-page ad in nearly every Acorn issue for a total of around $1,000 per month based on published rates.

“Virtually no mention has been made in local newspapers of adverse reactions to COVID shots, people losing jobs or disagreements with the County’s intrusions on medical privacy.”

These are just a few of the discovered government sources for the Acorn and other local newspapers.

Another apparently significant source of ad revenue for the Acorn in 2022 was local hospitals, urgent care clinics and medical insurance providers, many of whom received millions of dollars in COVID funds from the County of Ventura.

These ad purchases tell a tale of government influence and local media’s reliance on taxpayer dollars to stay in business.

While the Acorn was taking $2,000-$3,000 per week from the County over the last 2 years for a total of $283,382 thus far to promote things like COVID “vaccinations” for children, it did not disclose this to readers, according to the Guardian’s investigation. Neither did other local media sources.

The money came from $1,000,000,000 of federal money funneled to hundreds of local newspapers — like the Acorn, the VC Star and the Santa Paula Times — plus TV stations and major players like Fox News, CNN, Newsmax, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, to promote the federal government’s message about COVID mandates, COVID shots and more, according to public records obtained by TheBlaze media company (“Exclusive: The federal government paid hundreds of media companies to advertise the COVID-19 vaccines while those same outlets provided positive coverage of the vaccines,” by Chris Pandolfo, March 2, 2022, Blaze Media).

The explicit purpose of the huge infusion of dollars into local media was to “strengthen vaccine confidence in the United States,” according to TheBlaze.

In 2022, the Acorn received the most COVID cash by far — $71,299 in the first 8 months alone — from County COVID coffers compared to other papers (see summary chart). It banked $283,382 of COVID cash in total from the County — and this does not include COVID money coming from other sources.

Earlier this year, the Guardian published detailed research showing that the Acorn did not run a single story critical of County mask mandates, school closings, business closings or other measures undertaken for nearly 2 years during COVID despite significant local opposition to such actions. This was true of nearly all local media, which parroted the County’s pro-vaccine, pro-mask and pro-shutdown policies with hardly a quibble. Virtually no mention has been made in local newspapers of adverse reactions to COVID shots, people losing jobs or disagreements with the County’s intrusions on medical privacy and basic civic freedoms.

Public records of County COVID spending show that:

— Vida newspaper of Oxnard received $144,495 in COVID cash.

— The Santa Paula Times, with a circulation of just 9,000, received $95,092.

— The Ojai Valley News, with an even smaller circulation of 3,000, received $46,168. Public health officer Robert Levin lives in Ojai and owns a winery there.

— The Fillmore Gazette received $53,150.

— El Latino newspaper received $51,636

— The Ventura County Reporter received $41,132.

— The Ventura County Star received just under $30,000.

Former Newsmax reporter Emerald Robinson called the federal buy-off of local media “the largest and most comprehensive breach of journalistic ethics that has ever occurred. Almost everybody took the money. … Almost everybody refused to report anything negative about the vaccines — because they were paid to close their eyes.” (See Substack article, March 5, 2022, “Entire Mainstream Media Bribed To Promote Deadly Jab Bioweapons!”)Fox News & Newsmax Took Biden Money To Push Deadly COVID Vaccines To Its Viewers

But even as COVID cash starts to dry up, the Acorn and other local media are still being funded by governments to the tune of thousands of dollars — perhaps tens of thousands — per week.

The Conejo Guardian does not accept government money in any form.