Media watchdogs are barking up the U-T San Diego tree once again. Voice of San Diego CEO Scott Lewis obtained some explosive evidence this afternoon, on the heels of an earlier investigative report by KPBS:

U-T San Diego CEO John Lynch threatened to use the newspaper he manages to push to dissolve the Unified Port of San Diego, an email given to Voice of San Diego Thursday by port Commissioner Scott Peters reveals. The threat came as Lynch pressed Peters on his decision to vote for a long-term lease with Dole, which operates at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal…

The threat to disband the port was not in the email KPBS posted because that was an email forwarded to the port by Peters seeking advice. He’d truncated it to edit out the threat so as not to distract port staff.

Lynch and U-T owner Douglas Manchester are proponents of a sports complex development vision for the port. Although Manchester sold a pair of hotels near the waterfront that would benefit from such a project, according according to last night’s KPBS report, that transaction resulted in Manchester holding a chunk of ownership in the new proprietors:

Lynch nor Manchester told KPBS they were unwilling to comment on this story until after the November elections.