Journalists dole out cash to politicians (quietly)
MSNBC.com identified 144 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties.
And this is a surprise?
The Complete List is here.
The Media Company Donors (Partial List):
Magazines:
The Atlantic Monthly
Business Week
The Economist
Forbes
Inc.
The New Yorker
Newsweek
Rolling Stone
Time
U.S. News and World Report
Vanity Fair
Newspapers:
McClatchy Newspapers D.C. bureau
The Wall Street Journal
The New York Times
Los Angeles Times
New York Daily News
The Washington Post
The Chicago Tribune
San Francisco Chronicle
Newsday
The Boston Globe
The Star-Ledger, Newark
Star Tribune, Minneapolis
Detroit Free Press
The Oregonian
The Miami Herald
The San Diego Union-Tribune
The Sun, Baltimore
San Jose Mercury News
Boston Herald
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Hartford Courant
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Contra Costa Times
Riverside Press-Enterprise
The Palm Beach Post
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis
The Des Moines Register
The Honolulu Advertiser
The Blade, Toledo
Lexington Herald-Leader
The Morning Call, Allentown
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
Albany Times Union
The Washington Times
San Gabriel Valley Newspapers
The New York Sun
The Lincoln Journal Star
The Macon Telegraph
New Hampshire Union Leader
Corpus Christi, Texas, Caller-Times
National Catholic Reporter
York, Pa., Daily Record
Muskegon, Mich., Chronicle
Fort Wayne, Ind., News-Sentinel
Martha’s Vineyard Times, Mass.
Radio:
Air America
CBS Radio
National Public Radio
NPR affiliate in Washington, WAMU
WWJ News Radio, Detroit
Wire services:
Bloomberg News
Dow Jones Newswires
Reuters
Non-English news:
La Stampa, Turin, Italy
New Delhi Television
The Korea Daily News
Pakistan TV
Oriental Daily
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Flap supposes that the harping of the right blogosphere about left-wing democrat bias of the MSM is correct, now isn’t it?
Some of the comments of the “CAUGHT” journalists are funny:
The New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, $2,000 to John Kerry in three payments in 2004. Hertzberg often writes the Comment in the front of the magazine, and was a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter.
Hertzberg, in answer to the question whether he made these donations, sent this reply: “Damn right.”
***********
Fox News Channel, Codie Brooks, researcher for Brit Hume’s “Special Report,” $300 to Senate campaign of Harold Ford Jr., Tennessee Democrat, in March 2006, $200 more in June, and $2,100 more in September.
Brooks, who said her family is friendly with Ford’s, said she raised much of the $2,600 from friends — it wasn’t her money alone. “A lot of Fox employees have contributed to Democratic candidates. I know I’m not the only one.”
***********
Update:
James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal has his favorite journalist comments:
A particular standout is Mark Singer, who gave $250 to “Victory Campaign 2004, which supported America Coming Together, which opposed President Bush.” He says:
“I believe very much that writers have to be aware of conflicts of interest in all sorts of situations. Probably there should be a rule against it. But there’s a rule against murder. If someone had murdered Hitler–a journalist interviewing him had murdered him–the world would be a better place. I only feel good, as a citizen, about getting rid of George Bush, who has been the most destructive president in my lifetime. I certainly don’t regret it.”
And……
Then there’s Randy Cohen, who writes the “Ethicist” column for the New York Times and gave $585 to MoveOn.org, an Angry Left Group”:
Cohen said he thought of MoveOn.org as nonpartisan and thought the donation would be allowed even under the strict rule at the Times.
“We admire those colleagues who participate in their communities–help out at the local school, work with Little League, donate to charity,” Cohen said in an e-mail. “But no such activity is or can be non-ideological. Few papers would object to a journalist donating to the Boy Scouts or joining the Catholic Church. But the former has an official policy of discriminating against gay children; the latter has views on reproductive rights far more restrictive than those of most Americans. Should reporters be forbidden to support those groups? I’d say not. Unless a group’s activities impinge on a reporter’s beat, the reporter should be free to donate to a wide range of nonprofits. Make a journalist’s charitable giving transparent, and let the readers weigh it as they will.
“Those who do not cover anything, but write a column of opinion should have even more latitude. It is such a writer’s job to make his views explicit. Those donations to nonprofits will no doubt reflect the views he or she is hired to express. In evaluating such civic engagement, it is well to remember that to have an opinion is not to have a bias. To conceal one’s political opinions is not to be without them.”
After MSNBC.com checked the names of Times staff and contributors on this list with a spokesperson for the Times, Cohen sent this addendum:
“That said, Times policy does forbid my making such donations, and I will not do so in the future.”
James Taranto:
Cohen’s effort at self-justification approaches high comedy: If it’s OK for his colleagues to make donations to nonpolitical organizations that he finds politically objectionable, it must be OK for him to make donations to political organizations! And anyway, he thinks of MoveOn.org as nonpartisan! We haven’t read Cohen’s column in ages, but we recall that his guiding principle always seemed to be that the ends justify the means, so long as the ends are liberal.
One could argue that journalists who make political donations are doing the public a service by disclosing their own biases. The reason that many news organizations bar such contributions (though not all do; see this sidebar for the details) is to protect their institutional credibility–that is, the plausibility of the claim to be unbiased.
So, what does Flap think?
I think this quote is especially appropriate:
Abe Rosenthal, the former New York Times editor, who is reported to have said:
“I don’t care if you sleep with elephants as long as you don’t cover the circus.”
Each news organization which is a private concern and not regulated by the government must develop their own policies and disclose them.
A free press with disclosure will expose the bias - as it has.
But, what is scary are attempts like this to regulate the press - in particular talk radio by government action.
Stay tuned……
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