The Maine Wire
  • News
  • Commentary
  • The Blog
  • About
    • Contact
  • Investigations
    • Data
  • Donate
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending News
  • Netanyahu Says Israel Will Continue Bombing Iran Until ‘Threat’ Removed
  • Angus King and Bernie Sanders Team Up To Codify One of RFK’s Priorities: Banning Big-Pharma Ads
  • Pingree Split with Golden and Votes Against Bill to Stop Non-Citizens from Voting in D.C. Elections
  • Socialist Bowdoin Grad Will Make New York City Grate (on America’s Nerves) Again
  • Red Flag Vigilante: Dixmont Woman Accused of Stealing Rifle from Home
  • 69-Year Old Garland Woman Arrested for Allegedly Murdering Her Older Sister
  • Portland Resettled Nearly 1,000 Migrants in City in 2024, Including Hundreds at $4.5 million per Year Shelter
  • Angus King Once Again Pushes for Laser Weapons on Navy Vessels
Facebook Twitter Instagram
The Maine Wire
Friday, June 13
  • News
  • Commentary
  • The Blog
  • About
    • Contact
  • Investigations
    • Data
  • Donate
The Maine Wire
Home » News » Commentary » Revisiting Portland Press Herald’s relationship with S. Donald Sussman
Commentary

Revisiting Portland Press Herald’s relationship with S. Donald Sussman

Steve RobinsonBy Steve RobinsonJuly 25, 20147 Comments5 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Reddit
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
Billionaire S. Donald Sussman and wife Congresswoman Chellie Pingree own the Portland Press Herald.
Billionaire S. Donald Sussman and wife Congresswoman Chellie Pingree own the Portland Press Herald.

It has become cliché to note that the Portland Press Herald newspaper is owned by a very wealthy Democratic donor. In light of recent events, however, a refresher seems appropriate.

S. Donald Sussman, majority owner of MaineToday Media, is a billionaire hedge fund manager who happens to be married to U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat.

Mr. Sussman is also a member of the secretive Democracy Alliance, an elite club of millionaires and billionaires who spend mindboggling sums influencing elections and culture. He has contributed a small fortune to liberal Democrat candidates, liberal super PACs and liberal activists. He also happens to be the single largest individual donor to the Maine Democratic Party.

[RELATED: Maine political players attend conference for shadowy Democracy Alliance…]

Regarding Mr. Sussman’s role in the Democracy Alliance, the New York Times, in January, wrote, “In Maine, a consortium of progressive groups financed by the hedge fund billionaire S. Donald Sussman, an alliance member, is looking to unseat Gov. Paul R. LePage this year and put both the governor’s office and the Legislature under Democratic control.”

That “consortium” of progressive interest groups includes several organizations that regularly find themselves in the news attacking conservatives.

Maine Equal Justice Partners, a non-profit that attacks the governor anytime he suggests a change to Maine’s welfare policy, gets money from Sussman. MEJP is currently suing the LePage administration because it has stopped the illegal flow of welfare to undocumented immigrants.

Sussman also funds the Maine Center for Economic Policy, a liberal think tank that attacks the governor’s economic policies and has lately taken to arguing that Maine’s falling unemployment rate is not actually a good thing.

And he’s also a donor to the Maine People’s Alliance, a controversial “dark money” group whose mission, it seems, is to disparage people who don’t agree with them, by hook or by crook.

There’s probably more, of course. We’ll never really know the full extent of his, er … philanthropy.

But the question I have for you, dear reader, is whether the Press Herald should be considered part of this progressive consortium looking to unseat Governor LePage?

Disclosure: I write a biweekly column for the Press Herald.

Let’s review some recent stories.

On Thursday, Kevin Miller reported on a lawsuit MEJP was filing against the LePage administration.

Put differently, a Sussman-funded newspaper wrote about a Sussman-funded group’s legal attack on Sussman’s enemy. Miller’s story failed to include a publicly available memo from Assistant Attorney General Tom Quinn providing the rationale for why LePage’s decision to enforce federal law is “probably legal.” The story included no disclosure about Sussman’s donations to MEJP.

Last month, Press Herald reporters wrote eagerly and at length about MPA blogger Mike Tipping’s incendiary political attacks on the governor. Reporter Steve Mistler uncritically reproduced the activist’s allegations and made no disclosure about funding ties. Translation: A Sussman-funded activist smeared Sussman’s avowed political enemy and a Sussman-funded newspaper splashed the story across the front page with nary a word of disclosure or skepticism.

My intrepid editor, Greg Kesich, even did an interview with Tipping which also failed to disclose that the pair are paid from the same hand.

The dust-up over social security was a real whopper, too. Acting like an arm of Congressman Mike Michaud’s gubernatorial campaign, the Press Herald leaped on a poorly phrased sentence in a press release LePage never saw (he was in China at the time) to conclude that LePage thinks social security is welfare.

They knew that probably wasn’t the case but printed it anyways. Who cares about the truth when we can cause LePage some headache, right? That’s the kind of thinking you might expect from a group that considers itself part of its owner’s anti-LePage consortium.

The list hit pieces goes on and on. But the stories the Press Herald doesn’t tell reveal more than the ones they do.

Typically, when the governor does something objectively good or kind, the Press Herald will run a short Associated Press blip; staff time is only expended when there is a negative angle.

And when was the last investigative report into Congresswoman Pingree or, for that matter, any Democratic politician?

[RELATED: National media chimes in on Sussman-Pingree media conflict…]

In fact, although Press Herald reporters have submitted countless Freedom of Access Act requests to LePage and GOP lawmakers, they have not submitted a single one to Democratic lawmakers.

(Steve Mistler disputes this claim. Mistler said on Twitter today he “FOAA’d” “Alfond’s staff” “for LePage-dinner invite story” — which presumably is this groundbreaking investigative report. But regardless, he added, comparing requests to lawmakers with requests to the governor is a “phony equivalence b/c lawmakers’ working papers shielded.” He’s referring to the statutory exemption for lawmakers “working papers,” i.e. documents or emails related to pending legislative matters. He’s right about the exemption, but this doesn’t mean requests cannot be submitted when the exemption no longer applies, as The Maine Wire been done numerous times. Obviously this column has struck a nerve. I’ve filed a FOAA of my own with Senate President Justin Alfond and House Speaker Mark Eves to obtain any other requests Mistler has submitted to Democratic leaders.)

Far be it from me to tell the capitalists over at One City Center how best to get clicks and subscriptions, but I would hope the paper aspires to be more than a Democratic advocacy group or a sensationalist click hole.

There may come a time when the people of Maine need a strong 4th estate to hold a Democratic elected official accountable. When that time comes, let’s hope the Press Herald puts away its pom poms.

Note: A version of this column originally appeared in the Portland Daily Sun newspaper.

Steve Robinson
Editor, Maine Wire

Chellie Pingree Maine Center for Economic Policy Maine Equal Justice Partners Maine People's Alliance Opinion press herald S. Donald Sussman Steven Robinson
Previous ArticleReport: Eliot Cutler was Maine Democrats’ first choice (updated)
Next Article Poliquin: Time to fix immigration problem
Steve Robinson
  • Twitter

Steve Robinson is the Editor-in-Chief of The Maine Wire. ‪He can be reached by email at Robinson@TheMaineWire.com.

Subscribe to Substack

Related Posts

Netanyahu Says Israel Will Continue Bombing Iran Until ‘Threat’ Removed

June 13, 2025

Angus King and Bernie Sanders Team Up To Codify One of RFK’s Priorities: Banning Big-Pharma Ads

June 13, 2025

Pingree Split with Golden and Votes Against Bill to Stop Non-Citizens from Voting in D.C. Elections

June 13, 2025

<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="8719 http://www.themainewire.com/?p=8719">7 Comments

  1. John C. Alfano on July 25, 2014 6:06 PM

    Don’t want Susan to own the paper? You buy it.

  2. John Frary on July 26, 2014 4:36 AM

    Selwyn Donald doesn’t need to dictate editorial policy since he can rely on the innate bias of the majority of journalists. My theory is that one of the defining characteristics of a majority of “moderates” is that they believe in what they read in the newspapers., That is, politics does not interest them much, so they are content to do a quick check of the headlines and go to the sports news.

  3. Representative Lawrence E Lockman on July 27, 2014 7:36 PM

    Outstanding piece, Steve! Thanks for being one of the very few investigative journalists left in Maine. Amazing that reporters who have filed hundreds of FOAA demands with the Governor’s office haven’t once made freedom of access requests of either Speaker Eves or senate Pres. Alfond. Wretched, shameful bias.

  4. Nina Sage on July 29, 2014 10:52 AM

    If you control the message, you control the vote.

  5. Courtney Leigh Turner on August 31, 2014 1:22 PM

    Can you write an piece for the people of Maine so that they know about Mr. Lockman’s comments condoning rape? I think the people there deserve to see exactly what their representative represents. It’s disgusting, and he should be ashamed of himself, as should his wife.

  6. Wholesale NFL Jerseys Online on October 4, 2014 8:32 PM

    Is that true? I’ll spread this information. Anyway, nice posting.You can check my post here Purchase NFL Jerseys.

  7. zoritoler imol on May 30, 2023 7:10 AM

    Great blog here! Also your web site loads up fast! What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host? I wish my web site loaded up as quickly as yours lol

Leave A Reply

Subscribe to Substack
Recent News

Netanyahu Says Israel Will Continue Bombing Iran Until ‘Threat’ Removed

June 13, 2025

Angus King and Bernie Sanders Team Up To Codify One of RFK’s Priorities: Banning Big-Pharma Ads

June 13, 2025

Pingree Split with Golden and Votes Against Bill to Stop Non-Citizens from Voting in D.C. Elections

June 13, 2025

Socialist Bowdoin Grad Will Make New York City Grate (on America’s Nerves) Again

June 13, 2025

Red Flag Vigilante: Dixmont Woman Accused of Stealing Rifle from Home

June 13, 2025
Newsletter

News

  • News
  • Campaigns & Elections
  • Opinion & Commentary
  • Media Watch
  • Education
  • Media

Maine Wire

  • About the Maine Wire
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Submit Commentary
  • Complaints
  • Maine Policy Institute

Resources

  • Maine Legislature
  • Legislation Finder
  • Get the Newsletter
  • Maine Wire TV

Facebook Twitter Instagram Steam RSS
  • Post Office Box 7829, Portland, Maine 04112

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.