Tracking The Political Donations Of Journalists And Reporters

[DeSwiss]

Journalists dole out cash to politicians (quietly)
News organizations diverge on handling of political activism by staff

By Bill Dedman
Investigative reporter, MSNBC
June 21, 2007

BOSTON - A CNN reporter gave $500 to John Kerry's campaign the same month he was embedded with the U.S. Army in Iraq. An assistant managing editor at Forbes magazine not only sent $2,000 to Republicans, but also volunteers as a director of an ExxonMobil-funded group that questions global warming.

A junior editor at Dow Jones Newswires gave $1,036 to the liberal group MoveOn.org and keeps a blog listing "people I don't like," starting with George Bush, Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition, the NRA and corporate America ("these are the people who are really in charge").

Whether you sample your news feed from ABC or CBS (or, yes, even NBC and MSNBC), whether you prefer Fox News Channel or National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal or The New Yorker, some of the journalists feeding you are also feeding cash to politicians, parties or political action committees.

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.

more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19113485

[BOSSHOG]

1. Ideally it should not matter

I gave money to democratic candidates for years when I was on active duty and the contributions did not effect my performance one bit.

[Tempest]

2. Big deal

It's the editors and publishers who determine content.

Murdoch, for example.

[librechik]

4. but NOT copy editors, who merely check grammar, syntax & proofread

actually, a large number of copy editors are on the list. And they don't determine content, even though they are nominally editors

[Tempest]

7. Not talking about copy editors

I'm talking about the honchos who make the decisions on what stories are run and where they are run.

[librechik]

8. absolutely--wouldn't have mentioned it,

but others might misunderstand

:loveya:

theres' another thread on this, and the copy editor issue came up.

[SteppingRazor]

3. If you're a political reporter, you should definitely keep your checkbook closed...

bias isn't the only issue here. Perceived bias is just as important.

[librechik]

5. republican "pundits" don't why should dems?

[SteppingRazor]

10. If you're a pundit, I have no problem with it.

If you're an op-ed editorialist, everyone knows which way you swing, so who cares if you donate money?

I'm talking about straight-ahead reportage here, not opinion.

[librechik]

12. I agree--among that bunch, though, they like to pretend they're objective journalists

when they are far far from it (sometimes--I could name 5 off the top of my head who masquerade as simple journalists, when they are really big fat propagandists.

[SteppingRazor]

13. A perfectly valid point. To be fair...

there is such a thing as a fair political reporter. (not right, not left. Fair.) But I agree that they tend to be a minority.

[BlooInBloo]

6. I'd be curious to know abot flow the *other* direction.

[AndyA]

9. And yet - amazingly - they allowed Tucker Carlson to discuss the Scooter Libby

trial without disclosing his family's close ties and financial support for this criminal.

Amazing. Not really, but it would be nice to have a media that reported the news in a fair and balanced manner. We certainly do not have any semblance of that today, so why even pretend?

[Captain Hilts]

11. Right, if he came out and admitted his dad was Libby's fundraiser, it wouldn't bother me as much..nt