TOMS RIVER, NJ – A bogus complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission alleging conservative-leaning Shore News Network news company violated federal elections laws has been cleared by the Federal Election Commission.
The complaint, filed by New Jersey Ocean County and State Republican operatives, sought to defame and libel Shore News Network, proving that the New Jersey Republican Party is just as big of a threat to New Jerseyans as the New Jersey Democrat Party.
Operatives for the New Jersey GOP claimed Shore News Network and its partners were officially working for the political campaign of conservative Republican candidate Hirsh Singh and being paid as a political consultant in a U.S. Senate campaign. That claim alleged Shore News Network’s contract for display advertising campaign was in return for nefarious political favors alleged by disgruntled GOP operatives working for Singh’s opponents. At the time, Singh was challenging the GOP establishment-backed candidate in the election.
New Jersey GOP political operative Monica Brinson, who describes herself as “the next President of the United States in 2024” claimed, “I find it shameful, disgusting and quite frankly embarrassing that Hirsh Singh ran what appears to be an illegal campaign for U.S. Senate by misappropriating resources put behind the Phil Murphy Recall petition for political and personal gain. Even more egregious is that Mr. Singh conspired with the Shore News Network to push blatantly false information and propaganda about other GOP candidates without disclosing their mutually beneficial relationship to the FEC.”
The complaint filed against Singh by Brinson was also dismissed by the FEC.
After providing contracts and emails regarding the payments made to Shore News Network, the FEC on May 26th closed the complaint, stating there was no reason to believe the company or its owners or employees violated any federal laws.
“This is just another case of a very corrupt political establishment in New Jersey trying to shut down our investigative reporting because it hits close their own wallet,” said owner and editor Phil Stilton. “I wish I could say this is the worst the GOP has done in recent years to attempt to discredit our company, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Republicans in New Jersey are just as dangerous to the everyday New Jerseyan. We’re proving that daily, and that’s why they are working so hard, but with no success for nearly a half-decade now to try to put us out of business. It’s why the NJ GOP loses important election after election in New Jersey.”
“On August 7, 2020, the Federal Election Commission notified you of a complaint alleging that you, Shore News Network, and Recall Murphy/Conservative NJ had violated certain sections of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended,” wrote Mark Allen, Assistant General Counsel for the Federal Election Commission. “On May 24, 2022, the Commission considered the complaint but was equally divided on whether to find no reason to believe that Shore News Network and Recall Murphy/Conservative NJ violated 52 U.S.C. §§ 30102, 30103, and 30104 by failing to register and report as a political committee. Accordingly, the Commission closed its file in this matter on May 26, 2022.”
“The FEC did the right thing. This was another nothing-burger thrown out there by morally bankrupt and politically corrupt operatives of the New Jersey Republican establishment who hate to see that Shore News Network,” Stilton said. “We have uncovered the ties between New Jersey Democrats and Republicans who treat us all as one big piggy bank for them to raid day in and day out. They work together to maintain the status quo here in New Jersey because it’s more profitable for them.”
Stilton said over the past few years, the GOP has paid operatives, specifically in Ocean County to personally attack him and his family, using criminal actors at times to spread false information about the company, himself, and his family in an effort to silence him and defame the company.
“It won’t work. They can keep trying. They’re going to keep failing and exposing themselves. They can pay off our competitors, they can hire as many ex-convicts and ethically destitute Patch reporters to slander us, but it’s not going to ever stop us from exposing the illegal and unethical actions of both Democrats and Republicans in New Jersey,” Stilton said. “The New Jersey political establishment is not two political parties. It’s one big party, paid for by the taxpayers, and the taxpayers aren’t invited to the party.”
Last year, Democrats aligned with Republicans in Toms River filed a fraudulent complaint with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, claiming the network has yet another nefarious working relationship with a Toms River councilman.
“Just like the FEC complaint, this one is driven by a corrupt group of people who want to keep the public in darkness. We have absolutely no financial or political relationships with any candidates for office in Toms River, Ocean County, or beyond,” Stilton added. “To use the ongoing battle between Orthodox Jewish people and the local governments, which include a multitude of civil rights lawsuits against the laws these towns enacted is not only disgraceful, it cheapens the value of anti-semitism in a very sensitive area here in New Jersey. Luckily, two of the three signers of that false complaint have been voted out of office since then because our readers and the voters know the truth. Next year, we will enjoy covering the loss of Toms River Councilman Kevin Geoghegan, a former cop, who went bad and crossed a horrible ethical line when he signed his name to that dishonest politically motivated complaint with the state.”
Records show Singh’s advertisement in 2020, Shore News Network has taken $0 in political advertising from political candidates.
“After the fiasco in 2019, we made the decision to refuse all political campaign advertising at our company,” Stilton said. “It’s not worth the few thousand dollars in revenue to put up with insane political wackjobs who decipher alien messages at the bottom of every cup of tea, or to allow them to use those advertisements as some kind of sick and twisted political attack against our business. They say it’s easier to remember the truth, than to remember a lie, and that’s something our detractors have to balance every day with every new lie and false claim. As a U.S. Marine, these lowlives aren’t going to scare us away from our First Amendment rights we all served to defend. They are the blue-Jersey Republican version of cancel culture, plain and simple.”
Shore News Network publishes a daily news email with 100,000 subscribers and is read by over 250,000 readers each day. You can visit Shore News Network by visiting http:/www.shorenewsnetwork.com or following them on Facebook, Twitter, and Truth Social.