Did political connections shape coverage of Fresno police chief’s affair?

The San Joaquin Valley Sun appeared to publish the first story in Fresno media about Chief Paco Balderrama’s affair that went beyond the sparse details the city released in the first week of June. 

On June 10, an SJV Sun report — which had no author — was also the first to include an allegation that the police chief thwarted the career of a Fresno police officer, whose wife Balderrama was having an affair with. 

The officer, first identified by NPR-affiliate KVPR and then other local media, was Jordan Wamhoff, who is also an elected Madera County supervisor after a successful 2022 bid to represent the county’s growing southeast communities.

At a June 25 news conference, city officials announced an independent investigation found that Balderrama did have an affair with a police officer’s wife. He voluntarily resigned that morning.

However, the independent investigator hired by the city did not substantiate the claim that Balderrama abused his power, as alleged in the June 10 SJV Sun story. 

At that same news conference, Fresno City Manager Georgeanne White criticized SJV Sun’s reporting for containing unfounded allegations about Balderrama. 

The Sun’s story explained that the abuse of power allegation came from Wamhoff — referring to him anonymously as “the officer” who filed a complaint with the city about the affair. 

Fresnoland reviewed Wamhoff’s political campaign account in Madera County and found that he has political and financial ties to the executive editor of the SJV Sun, Alexander Tavlian.

These ties are not disclosed in the SJV Sun’s coverage about Balderrama or Wamhoff.

Additionally, Tavlian worked directly on the June 10 SJV Sun story alongside another SJV Sun colleague, a detail he shared in a June 26 episode of the Broeske & Musson radio talk show on KMJ but is not disclosed in the story.

Wamhoff’s political campaign account paid $110,868.83 to Park West Associates — a political consulting firm run by Tavlian. That’s about 83% of all expenses made by Wamhoff’s campaign account in 2022 and 2023. 

“It raises serious ethical questions if you have undisclosed affiliations that could be perceived as a conflict of interest,” said Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota. 

Kirtley said that if Tavlian was “serving two masters” at the same time, the public should know. 

“It’s really antithetical to what traditional journalism is about because you’re not supposed to be there as the public relations arm for somebody,” Kirtley told Fresnoland. “You’re not supposed to be their fixer. You’re supposed to have your readers’ interests first and foremost.”

The code of ethics for American journalists are outlined by the Society for Professional Journalists, which clearly lay out how conflicts of interest, either real or perceived, are to be avoided. If unavoidable, they must be disclosed.

Tavlian did not respond to Fresnoland’s request for comment about an appearance of a conflict of interest in the SJV Sun’s coverage.

Wamhoff also did not respond to Fresnoland’s request for comment. Neither did his attorney Brian Whelan.

'This is a complete lack of transparency'

When Wamhoff ran for Madera County supervisor, Park West Associates provided everything from legal and accounting to literature and campaign consulting services. In one instance, the political consulting firm was also listed as an agent of Wamhoff’s campaign, according to campaign finance statements.

Park West Associates and Valley Future Foundation — the San Joaquin Valley Sun’s parent company — are both registered under Tavlian’s name and the same business address on Bullard Avenue in northwest Fresno, according to Fresno County business records. 

“I think a reasonable person hearing that would come to the conclusion that they are, in fact, owned and operated by the same principals,” Kirtley said. 

Kirtley added that while she’d recommend against being a campaign consultant while also running an independent news organization, at the very least the public needs to know when its interests could be undermined. 

Subramaniam Vincent, the director of journalism and media ethics at Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, said news organizations need to tell the public if they have a conflict of interest with subjects of their media coverage. 

Vincent said it’s concerning that the SJV Sun’s reporting did not disclose Tavlian’s financial ties or political consulting for Wamhoff. 

“This is a complete lack of transparency,” Vincent told Fresnoland. “That is the biggest issue itself that shows there's some apparent lack of independence here — otherwise, why would there be this lack of transparency?”

Tavlian’s potential conflicts are no secret

In 2019, Tavlian told NPR-affiliate KVPR that it’s possible to be a political consultant and journalist at the same time. Back then, the Sun disclosed his conflicts of interest in coverage when reporting on Andrew Janz’s 2020 bid for Fresno mayor — while Tavlian was a consultant for Jerry Dyer’s campaign.

However, Tavlian told KVPR that he’s the SJV Sun’s executive editor because he edits “most stuff that comes through our door.” Tavlian also said he welcomes skepticism and that it’s up to readers to make up their minds about trusting him and the SJV Sun. 

Five years later, it’s unclear why Tavlian’s potential conflict of interest isn’t disclosed in a story he co-reported, as he told the Broeske & Musson radio talk show on KMJ. 

Tavlian also said that the story's authors are not disclosed because the SJV Sun's online publishing system is not capable of listing two authors on a byline. 

Tavlian doing both political consulting and independent journalism has also been documented in The Fresno Bee and CalMatters. 

Through another firm called Sultana Media, Tavlian consulted for the campaigns of U.S. Rep. David Valadao, former U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes and Wamhoff’s current attorney Brian Whelan — who ran for Fresno City Council in 2018.

Tavlian is also an executive of the nonprofit Restore Fresno, which received $25,000 in behested payments last year at the request of Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi. Whelan, Wamhoff’s attorney, is listed as Restore Fresno’s agent, according to California business records. 

Behested payments are contributions made to other entities, sometimes nonprofits, on behalf of a public official.

Tavlian also runs another firm called Local Government Strategic Consulting, which contracted with the Fresno City Council back in 2021 for public relations services. Back then, Fresno City Councilmember Luis Chavez told The Fresno Bee that he doesn’t consider Tavlian a journalist.

Recently, the City of Lemoore contracted with Local Government Strategic Consulting for help with public outreach and development for a local sales tax measure. In an email Tavlian sent to city officials in December 2023, he described Park West Associates as one of “LGSC’s affiliated political strategy firms.” 

According to campaign finance statements, Tavlian’s Park West Associates has also consulted for:

• Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi’s 2024 re-election campaign
• Fresno City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld’s current bid for Fresno County supervisor
• Fresno City Council candidate Roger Bonakdar

Kirtley, the media law and ethics professor at the University of Minnesota, said it comes down to who Tavlian is most loyal to. Is it the public? Or his political clients? Kirtley said to pick one. 

"Basically decide where your highest loyalties lie," Kirtley said. "If it is to promote a particular political agenda, that is okay, but don't hold yourself out as being an independent news organization."

Legal agreements in journalism?

Whelan, Wamhoff's lawyer, has tried to make news organizations sign a legal agreement in exchange for granting an interview, which would bar the disclosure of Wamhoff’s name and allow him to review and make changes to a forthcoming story prior to publication, according to KVPR. 

At the time, Whelan told KVPR that other news organizations in Fresno had been provided with a similar legal agreement. KVPR refused to sign it, was not granted an interview with Wamhoff and was the first local news organization to publish his name.

Three other Fresno news organizations, including Fresnoland, also named Wamhoff after contacting his attorney, Whelan, for comment — but not the SJV Sun. 

Since its June 10 report, the SJV Sun has proceeded to keep Wamhoff’s name out of its coverage in subsequent stories on the investigation into Balderrama.

“After the name came out elsewhere, that makes the case even stronger for them to have to explain why they're still not naming the source,” said Vincent, the media ethics expert from Santa Clara University.

Vincent said that journalists may keep sources anonymous in situations where they can face retribution for their comments or their personal safety is in danger. However, he said that’s agreed to verbally, never through a written legal agreement signed by a journalist and a source. 

“It’s out of the norm," Vincent said. "It’s not done."

Additionally, Vincent said the very concept of a written legal agreement between a source and journalist is problematic because it compromises the journalist’s independence in serving the public’s interest first.

But Whelan’s legal agreement, as reported by KVPR — which would’ve given Wamhoff the ability to review a story and make changes prior to publication — is not normal in U.S. journalism whatsoever, Vincent said. 

“It's basically downright unethical,” Vincent said. 

Jim Boren, the executive director for the Fresno State Institute for Media and Trust, told Fresnoland last month that written legal agreements are unheard of in journalists’ reporting process. The same applies to letting sources review and make changes to a story prior to publication.

“It’s not something journalists do — allowing sources to review and edit a story prior to publication,” said Boren, who is also a former executive editor of The Fresno Bee. 

Tavlian did not respond to Fresnoland’s request for comment about whether the SJV Sun signed a legal agreement with Wamhoff or his attorney Whelan. Whelan also did not respond to Fresnoland’s request for comment about the legal agreement.

The June 10 SJV Sun story also did not discuss text messages Wamhoff sent to city officials in the first week of June, details reported by at least three other news organizations including Fresnoland.

Over text, Wamhoff said he would take legal action against the city if officials didn’t oust Balderrama and give Wamhoff a flexible position at the Fresno Police Department.

Other ties to Wamhoff’s campaign

Whelan, Wamhoff’s current attorney, contributed $5,000 to his campaign back in 2022, which put him in the political donor league of wealthy real estate developers including Darius Assemi, Robert McCaffrey and Richard Spencer. 

Assemi, the president and CEO of Granville Homes, was the Wamhoff campaign’s biggest donor, contributing a total of $10,000. However, the total amount was a drop in the bucket compared to the total $188,378.38 that Wamhoff raised in 2022 and 2023. 

Assemi is also the founder and publisher of local online news site GV Wire — an affiliate of Granville Homes which has also intensely covered the investigation into Balderrama. 

While GV Wire’s coverage does not disclose that its publisher, Assemi, or its affiliate, Granville Homes, donated to Wamhoff’s campaign, Assemi said the two are separate.

“We’re an award-winning news site that is separate and independent of my political thoughts,” Assemi told Fresnoland.

Assemi added that for most of the stories published on GV Wire, “I don't even see or read until a day or two after they're published.” 

Fresnoland is a nonprofit, digital news organization funded by readers and philanthropic foundations. We disclose current and past grants of at least $1,000 on our donors page. 

We’ve been vetted for our ethics and transparency policies and our commitment to public service journalism as a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News. Our ethics policy can be found here.

Additionally, Fresnoland does not give supporters or funders the right to assign, review or edit reporting. Fresnoland’s most recent Form 990 is also available on our donors page.