In 36 Hours, Nets Devote 70 Minutes to Racist NBA Owner; No Mention of Democratic Donations
In just over 36 hours, the three network morning and evening shows have already devoted 70 minutes of coverage to racist comments apparently made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Yet, ABC, CBS and NBC have ignored Sterling's long history of supporting Democrats, including Senator Patrick Leahy, Bill Bradley and Gray Davis.
ABC offered the most coverage. Since Sterling was allegedly caught on tape ranting about "blacks," the network has promoted the story for 24 minutes and 48 seconds. CBS followed up with 23 minutes and five seconds. NBC came in a close third with 22 minutes and 18 seconds. The only host to highlight Sterling's history of supporting Democrats was Fox and Friends' Steve Doocy on Monday. He marveled, "I haven't seen this [the Democratic contributions mentioned] anywhere else." [MP3 audio here.]
Sterling added, "This Donald Sterling has supported and donated to liberal Democrats for many, many years."
Sterling's comments came to lights after TMZ released recordings of the owner's tirades against his girlfriend. One quote included this ugly attack: "You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that ... and not to bring them to my games."
Politico explained on Sunday night:
Sterling donated a combined of $4,000 to Democratic Sens. Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Patrick Leahy of Vermont as well as then-State Controller Gray Davis of California in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to a database on OpenSecrets.
In 1989 Sterling cut two separate checks of $1,000 to Bradley, a former basketball player for the New York Knicks who is now in the Hall of Fame. Bradley was reelected in 1990 and retired from the Senate in 1997.
Two years later Sterling backed Davis over Dianne Feinstein in a special election for a Senate seat, donating $1,000 to Davis. Davis lost to Feinstein in 1992 and eventually became governor of California before being recalled.
In 1991 Sterling also gave $1,000 to Leahy, who still serves in the Senate.
Within the first week of Eliot Spitzer's prostitute scandal, he was only identified as a Democrat 20 percent of the time. Yet, during the first 24 hours of Mark Sanford's confession over an affair, he was labeled a Repubican 100 percent of the time.
For 56 days, the same networks conducted a blackout on the grisly abortion trial of Kermit Gosnell.
— Scott Whitlock is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Scott Whitlock on Twitter.
