Million Dollar Babies: CNN, MSNBC Bash News Corp. Donation, Hide Own Political Contributions
If the Democratic Governor’s Association (DGA) received a dollar every time someone in the media bashed Fox News, they’d never worry about fundraising again.
On the August 18 edition of ‘Rick’s List,’ host Rick Sanchez and correspondent Jessica Yellin nitpicked News Corporation’s $1 million donation to the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA). Yellin hyped the $1 million dollar donation and used it as a srick to hit Fox News.
“It’s [donation] exponentially more than other organizations – news organizations parent companies give to any one organization in a year,” Yellin said.
Yellin and Sanchez attempted to further demonize the donation by showing the “cheap” political donations of Time Warner, CNN’s parent company, during the 2009-2010 cycle. According to CNN’s graphic, Time Warner has donated $113,00 to Democrats and $85,500 to Republicans during the cycle.
However, Yellin’s graphics are “exponentially” misleading. According to OpenSecrets.org, Time Warner gave $2.3 million to Democrats during the 2008 election cycle, and since 1990, 72 percent of Time Warner’s political donations went to Democrats. Essentially, in 2008, a year Yellin conveniently left out, Time Warner doubled News Corp.’s much maligned donation.
None of these numbers prevented Sanchez from playing dumb on the donations, claiming Fox News tends to lean “way, way, way to the right” while championing CNN’s centrism.
“We happen to be in the middle and that’s the way we do things,” Sanchez said.
CNN wasn’t the only network chiding News Corp. On the August 17 edition of ‘Countdown,’ host Keith Olbermann used the donations to do the only thing he’s capable of doing: criticizing Fox News.
“We now have another million reasons why Fox News is the Republican news channel, correct?” Olbermann asked Media Matters president Eric Burns.
Olbermann said that GE, MSNBC’s parent company, donated an equal amount of money to both the DGA and RGA. He didn’t mention, however, that according to OpenSecrets.org, in 2008, 100 percent of MSNBC Cable’s donations went to Democrats and 99 percent of NBC’s donations went to Democrats.
Additionally, so far in 2010, 100 percent of ABC News’s donations have gone to Democrats and CBS Corporation’s PAC has contributed $51,000 to Democrats in 2010.
The Media Research Center previously noted News Corp.’s donations favored Democrats and that other outlets critical of the donation, such as Viacom’s Comedy Central, have all given substantial money to Democrats, yet there is no outrage over their political contributions.
