Dems Get 65% of Journo Contributions

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Dems Get 65% of Journo Contributions

Don Irvine — September 16, 2010
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Journalists who made political contributions during the current election cycle overwhelmingly chose Democrats as their favorite candidates.

From OpenSecrets

Last year, Christopher Hayes gave $250 to the congressional campaign of a good friend, Alabama Democrat Josh Segall.

That’s hardly noteworthy, but for one factor: Hayes is the Washington, D.C., editor of The Nation, a left-leaning news magazine that covers U.S. politics. And his political donation is not an anomaly in journalism, where donating to or otherwise advocating for politicians is often taboo – if not prohibited outright by some news companies.

Hayes is one of 235 people who identified themselves on government documents as journalists, or as working for news organizations, who together have donated more than $469,900 to federal political candidates, committees and parties during the 2010 election cycle, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates.

People identifying themselves as working for hard news outlets such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Post, News Corp., Vanity Fair and Reuters are among the listed donors. Also listed are employees from outlets offering lighter fare — ESPN, Vogue – or community news. Some have donated thousands of dollars.

The average contribution per person identified is eight times Hayes’ amount, and because of some big-spending media professionals, that number is slightly skewed upwards — with the median amount donated coming in at $500. Sixty-five percent of all identified donations went to Democrats, the Center’s research indicates.

To download an itemized spreadsheet of self-identified journalists and other people working for news organizations, click here: Media Donations 091410.xls

Hayes, for his part, says he views his political donation with nuance.

He explains his relationship with his friend-turned-candidate would, for example, ethically eliminate him from being able to cover anything related to the Alabama 3rd Congressional District race, in which his friend was running. (He lost.)

“My own personal feeling is that I don’t donate to political campaigns,” Hayes said, adding that he made the exception simply out of “personal admiration” for his friend, Segall.

“Whatever threat of conflict is already there. It seems like the least of it to throw an extra $250 on top of it.”

MUST JOURNALISTS ‘SIT BACK PASSIVELY’?

Despite the potential for controversy, some journalists who’ve made political contributions reject the notion that their interests are conflicting, saying their action as private citizens and as journalists are not mutually exclusive.

Paul Tharp, a business reporter for the New York Post, last year donated $750 to Rep. Michael McMahon (D-N.Y.), the Center’s analysis of Federal Election Commission records show. Tharp said his two donations represent a “satisfaction with [McMahon’s] public service” and his work with the arts.

“Just because I am a reporter doesn’t mean I give up my rights,” Tharp said. “I have an interest in public service, but not politics. I cover business.”

Nicholas Benton, founder, owner and editor-in-chief of the Falls Church News-Press, a weekly paper in northern Virginia with a circulation of 30,000, agreed, saying he expects his readers to “appreciate” him “engaging as a fully enfranchised U.S. citizen.”

During the 2010 cycle, Benton has spread more than $4,000 among the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party of Virginia, the Eighth District Democratic Committee and the Arlington Democratic Joint Federal Campaign.

A newspaper, he said, is not so much about providing balance, but about providing readers with the truth by pointing out different points of view.

“To sit back passively and echo what political candidates and politicians say without providing the readers of an assessment of the relative merits on the standpoint of truth and of facts is a disservice,” Benton said, adding that letters to the editor and op-ed columns provide a “failsafe” to give readers “a sense they can judge what we’ve said.”

TOUGH POLICIES AGAINST POLITICAL DONATIONS

Major news outlets look dimly upon their journalists participating in politics.

The Associated Press, the New York Times, Reuters, ABC News and other media companies have specific guidelines for journalists that pertain to activities that could jeopardize the perception of journalistic integrity — including making political donations. These outlets do not distinguish among types of employees – direct political participation is forbidden, at least without the permission of a supervisor.

The Society of Professional Journalists likewise features a conduct code that recommends journalists “avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived” and “remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.”

Hayes, who is also a contributor to MSNBC and a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, said The Nation has no specific political contribution policy of which he is aware.

“We’re pretty — and this is ironic, considering the politics of the magazine — laissez-faire,” he said. “We believe in transparency and disclosure, we’re all pretty zealous about disclosing things.”

Aaron Quinn, a journalism professor specializing in ethics at California State University, Chico, says journalists are ever-increasingly becoming “public figures” in ways similar to public officials, celebrities and the like. This makes their actions more open to scrutiny, he said.

Furthermore, the mere appearance of a conflict of interest is effectively the same as actually having one, Quinn said.

In discussing the notion of how journalists’ political donations may appear to the public at large, Benton, the Falls Church newspaper owner, said he “could care less about an appearance of something.

“I am not a public official,” he said. “I’m not looking to the public for a job.”

Maybe so but with the media under constant attack from the conservatives for being liberally biased reports showing that their political donations skew heavily to the Democrats does little to change the perception that they aren’t as objective as they claim to be. And for many people perception is reality.

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Don Irvine
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.

3 Comments for Dems Get 65% of Journo Contributions

Chris

Most jounralists do not understand that the average American understands what is going on beter than they do.

The problem is that the media has been so corrupted that the media themselves cannot see it. Another disturbing fact is that Obama regulatory czar Cass Sunstein wants infiltration into all elements of media to silence the opposition to the President (Karl Marx anyone?). And I fear that has already happened in not just FOX News, but ALL of FOX.

I called Glenn Beck’s show yesterday morning and could not get through about this infiltration concern. The people in this list are Joe Buck, Larry McReynolds, Kyle Petty, Adam Alexander, Ralph Sheheen, Dick Stockton, Pam Oliver, Nina Easton, Leigh Gallagher, Adam Lashinsky. and Bernard Goldberg.

Other names of concern include Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer (his slam on Delaware GOP primary winner O’Donnell confirms my suspicion), Denise Dillon, Frank Caliendo, and, sadly, I fear, Beck himself.

The enemy is not only at the gate, but inside and destroying us from within. I fear we may be too little, too late.

Wildbird

Not surprising since most of the news media always supports the demacrooks in every election and refuse the show OBAMAS falling polls on their front pages if at all

The Major

If Fox News does cave in to BHO & his Czars, then who is left to look out for us. The NBC family is in the BHO tank so deep,they may never come up.

At least Beck tries to tell us about who is in DC & trying to RUIN the USA
with all of their Marxist ideas & Bills that have too many hidden regs that
take away what freedoms we have left. If BHO & his 40 thieves “Silence” all
of Fox News,then THEY win,just like Chavez in Venezuela,,NO OPPOSITION.
If my kids were still in HS or younger,,& they came home singing the praises of BHO,”um,um,um,B H O” I’d talk to the Teachers,Principal,& Board
If NO decent answer for this “Commie” style indoctination,,then the Court system. When all of these fail,,it’s time to get the Flamethrower out of mothballs. “A little Revolution once in a while is a good thing” said our 3rd POTUS.

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