MediaWatch: November 1991
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: November 1991
- Hard and Soft on Clarence Thomas
- NewsBites: Please Tax Us
- Revolving Door: Adding from Harvard Yard
- Nightline and Frontline Caught in Hoax
- The Court's Future
- Reporter or Campaign Strategist?
- Media Money Leans Left
- Once in Love with Nina
- Print Reporters Too
- Janet Cooke Award: L.A. Times: Savage Attack on Rehnquist
Media Money Leans Left
$ Against Thomas
Where did the liberal interest groups besmirching Clarence Thomas get their money? Some of it came from media companies and foundations. Most of the top dogs have given money to NOW's Legal Defense and Education Fund: ABC, CBS, NBC, General Electric, Gannett Co., Hearst Corp., the New York Times Company and the Washington Post Company. (NBC donated to NOW's legal fund as NOW was suing them for discrimination.)
The Philip L. Graham Fund, operated mostly by heirs and employees of The Washington Post, gives yearly to the Women's Legal Defense Fund. The Capital Cities/ABC Foundation has given to a feminist group called the Women's Action Alliance. Planned Parenthood is funded by the Times Mirror Foundation (owners of the Los Angeles Times), the New York Times Company Foundation, the Gannett Foundation, the Cowles Media Foundation, the Cowles Media Foundation (owners of the Minneapolis Star Tribune), and the Knight (as in Knight-Ridder) Foundation.
The NAACP, which ended up opposing Thomas, has an impressive roster of media donors: the Times Mirror Foundation, the New York Times Company Foundation, the Boston Globe Foundation, Philip L. Graham Fund, General Electric Foundation, Gannett Foundation, Knight Foundation, and the Hearst Foundations.
The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which bragged of dragging down Robert Bork in its 1988 annual report, is funded by the Philip L. Graham Fund and the Boston Globe Foundation. People for the American Way is supported by CBS and the Washington Post Company.
