Fox News takes heat for News Corporation's GOP donation

[ProSense]

Source: CNN

(CNN) - The Democratic National Committee called into question Fox News' objectivity Tuesday after it was reported that the cable network's parent company – News Corporation – recently donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association.

"'Fair and Balanced' has been rendered utterly meaningless," Hari Sevugan, the DNC's national press secretary, said in a statement. "Any pretense that may have existed about the ties between Fox News and the Republican Party has been ripped violently away.

<...>

News Corporation spokesman Jack Horner defended the donation.

"News Corporation believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA's pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy," Horner said in a statement to CNN.


Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/17/fox-news-takes-heat-for-news-corporations-gop-donation/

[tridim]

1. Will Faux NEWS report this news?

No? Well, there's your problem.

The whole Fox News scam needs to be exposed for everyone to see. Rachel and Keith will cover it, and CNN probably thinks they've done their job and the story is over. Other than that, who will stand up to Murdoch? How will Faux viewers ever know this crap is going on?

[L0oniX]

26. It won't make any difference to Faux viewers. They want this.

The ignorant wish to stay ignorant. Any other course means that they have to admit to being ignorant ...and stupid.

[valerief]

32. Fox does not report news. I've already broken the habit of calling it

Fox "News". It's just Fox. All Fox, no news. Although I kinda like Fuck Snooze.

[unpossibles]

51. sad but true - FOX viewers are the only people who think they are fair or balanced

I'd say everyone else knows the score, and their audience won't want to listen, or will claim that any evidence to the contrary is just the "liberal" media.

[ShockediSay]

2. So? They are just part of the Fascist Funded Propaganda Machine

Right wing +more $ in fewer hands +greater corporation power & money in control +Mass Media held captive to said power & $

= FASCISM

Doesn't anybody out there know their history any more?!?

[saigon68]

58. The sheep sleep soundly in their beds at 2:45 AM

USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

</sarcasm>

[Kingofalldems]

3. Oh no, how will Howard Kurtz spin this one?

[Gman]

4. LOL! And they actually defend it!

[steve2470]

5. k and r nt

[NorthCarolina]

6. They're Fair and Balanced, I'm sure the $1 mil for the Dems is on it's way

as soon as they peddle a little more Gold.

[sofa king]

7. Other political parties have had their own major news outlets.

Evil political parties with evil news outlets, that is.

[SpiralHawk]

8. Pro business??? Hah. What utter bullshit. The republicons are obstructing legislation

to help small businesses even as this Fox propaganda stooge flings his phony poo.

Total bullshit.

[bergie321]

24. Pro-'Real' Business

You aren't really a business unless you are headquartered in the Bahamas.

[Mnpaul]

9. I don't know why they even bother

pretending to be anything other than an arm of the Republican party.

[ProSense]

10. Media Matter: Murdoch Lied

here

[ladywnch]

11. "News Corporation believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA's pro-business agenda supports

........our priorities at this most critical time for our economy,"



Translation: We don't care what any of you think. We don't care how it looks. We don't care about any of you. Do me something. :p

[HomerRamone]

12. This would only endear them further to their audience.

Providing fair balance to the world dominated by the Liberal Media...

[toddwv]

13. Hardly a shock, it's just a confirmation of what people have known all along.

The Fox Republican "News" Channel has been nothing more than a spokesperson for the GOPists. I'm more pissed about the idea that every time I send my cable TV payment in, I'm donating money to the Republican Party.

[democracy1st]

14. If the dems can't exploit this sh.. then we all have problems!

[marked50]

15. Direct TV-NewsCorp

I don't have enough posts to put this out as a general question to the DU population so I am posting this here since it is somewhat tied to my question. I posted this as a thread reply in another posting.

Since News Corp has come out directly with the $1M support to the Repub Govs and I have Direct TV (News Corp division) it is time to consider a switch to Dish Network (my 2 yr contract with Direct TV expires this month).

Would there be any quality with service/pictures or political connection problems with Dish that anyone here at DU can tell me about?

I will send a message to Direct TV that their political contribution is using my money and I don't approve.

[totodeinhere]

23. Newscorp no longer owns an interest in Directv. Liberty Media bought them out. n/t

[donquijoterocket]

55. dish

Check on the net for chronic complaints about dish. My experience is that technically they're OK, but their customer service sucks and they seem to have a real problem with their accounting like keeping track of if and when you paid your bill.Their politics I don't know for sure about,but I'd suppose that like any other major Corp. they tend to lean rightward but will hedge their bets whenever they can.If they have a record for donation opensecrets.org might have the information.

[Capn Sunshine]

16. What about the fact that their # 2 owner is a SAUDI PRINCE

Yes, of course that Prince has given money to extremist wahabbists? Like most of the Saudi Royal family? Extreme wahabbism is the preferred form of Islam for much of Saudi Arabia.

Those fuckers at Fox news are closer to the extremist Islamics than 100 US Based mosques.

[IndianaGreen]

17. It was Rupert Murdoch himself who donated the money!

Rupert Murdoch donates $1m to Republicans

Media tycoon cools on support for Barack Obama to fund Republican governors and their pro-business agenda

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 August 2010 18.52 BST

Murdoch has a tendency to support politicians who might help his business empire or that he thinks are going to win. He switched support from the Conservatives to Labour in the run-up to the 1997 UK election.

He supported Obama against Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primaries, with the New York Post surprisingly coming out in favour of Obama even though Clinton was a senator for New York. But in the election, the Post, Wall Street Journal and Fox all backed the Republican contender, John McCain.

Although much of the media focus on the November elections is on the Senate and House of Representatives races, the governors wield immense power.

Republican optimism about success in the gubernatorial contests comes in part from their successful fundraising, having brought in $58m in the first six months of this year. The Democratic Governors Association has raised $40m.

One of the other big donors to the RGA was Wellpoint, the health insurance giant, which contributed $500,000. Wellpoint opposed Obama's healthcare reform legislation passed earlier this year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/17/rupert-murdoch-donation-republicans

[Weird Liberal Head]

18. Fox News and GOP

Getting harder to tell the difference.

[AlbertCat]

20. What difference would that be?

[Buenaventura]

31. yup - they're joined at the hip n/t

[Jefferson23]

19. Caught red handed, very nice!! n/t

[muntrv]

21. What else would you expect from the official broadcaster of the teabaggers?

[edbermac]

22. Front row seat in the White House Press Room?

How about NO seat in the White House Press Room?

[alp227]

25. Not surprising, just like how grass is green, y'know?

According to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, in 2000 NewsCorp donated around $700k to the RNC, and Time Warner (owners of CNN) and Disney (owners of ABC) donated over a milli each. In 1996, although most of the media companies donated equal amounts to both D and R, with a donation to the California Republican Party, NewsCorp's contributions skewed more toward the Republicans. There is much evidence over the 2000s displaying Fox News's dishonesty and imbalance.

[The Wizard]

27. Their contributions to the Republican Party

in a 24/7 campaign ad far exceeds a million dollars.

[wial]

28. can they be sued for false advertising now?

fair and balanced was always a lie, but now we have hard proof.

[mwb970]

29. Is the $1 million "corporate money" or is it from the employees?

I had a friend telling me just tonight that when a corporation "contributes" money to a political cause, it is really just relaying individual contributions made voluntarily by its employees, albeit with some corporate pressure on the employees to give to one side or the other.

I have had trouble squaring this with everything else I have heard about the post-Citizens United situation, which all makes it sound like the corporations themselves are free to make these contributions, independent of the employees.

What am I missing here?

:shrug:

[NBachers]

30. Robert Gibbs should issue a statement condemning the DNC professional leftists

Why oh why has the DNC abandoned bipartisanism?

[Critters2]

48. !

:spray:

[azureblue]

33. The real issue is this

A foreigner (Rupert) comes to the US, Buys a US news network, broadcasts lies, then spends money in an attempt to throw a US election and unseat a US President. Further, he acts as a front for other foreigners with the same intent. Although he had to become a US citizen and renounce his home country's citizenship, Rupert is still a foreigner attempting to over throw a US President.

[patrice]

36. Anyone worth their salt as an American should carry your meme EVERYWHERE they go and

ACTIVELY spread it by every means possible.

[Vehl]

34. why am i not surprised! nt

[jimlup]

35. "Fair and Balanced" was out the window when the first started broadcasting.

Nice of CNN to finally report what's been true for more than a decade. Gee, it only took them 10 years.

[Radical Activist]

37. I would ask the same thing about General Electric

the parent company of NBC. GE is on the same page politically as Fox.

[dsharp88]

50. GE donated $105K to RNG and $105K to DNG - Even donations

[Radical Activist]

52. That's insignificant compared to GE's long political history.

From launching Ronald Reagan's political career to Jack Welch pushing free trade to their subterfuge of meaningful action on climate change. The bias of their news organization is more subtle than Fox but it's still damaging.

[AsahinaKimi]

38. Fox News

They should have their own spot in the dictionary:

despicable: deserving to be despised : so worthless or obnoxious as to rouse moral indignation <despicable behavior> See Fox News <>synonyms see contemptible
de·spi·ca·ble·ness noun

[Turborama]

41. Good one! I'm tempted to add this to Wikipedia's article on Disinformation

I wonder how long it would last...

Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately, as can be seen 24 hours a day 7 days a week on Fox News. It is synonymous with and sometimes called Black propaganda. It may include the distribution of forged documents, manuscripts, and photographs, vociferously spreading malicious rumors, lies and fabricated videos (1) (2). Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, information that is unintentionally false.

References

1. Blenn Beck's show

2. Fox News

See also

New York Post

Washington Times

Politico

News Corporation

Koch Industries

Americans for Prosperity

(The list goes on...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation

[quakerboy]

39. Um... a million is nothing

compared to the air time they provide. Same goes for any major media outlet.

[wordpix]

40. "the RGA's pro-business agenda supports our priorities" Pro-business is code for

multinational corporate Amerika gone wild, registration of oil rigs and shell operations in foreign countries, not paying taxes, destroying the environment, sweat shop labor, and more.

Good for DNC :applause:

[wordpix]

42. "additional donations to both Democrats & Republicans in the 2010..." Dems are on the Faux payroll.

Which DINOs are they? :eyes:

[Liberty Belle]

43. The FCC should yank Fox's license,

since it's violating its public trust and making inappropriate use of the public airways.

[zipplewrath]

44. They're a cable network

They don't have a license per se. Although there are many a local Fox Affiliate that do.

[glinda]

45. Maybe MoveOn.org will focus on this instead of Target.

[MilesColtrane]

46. Fox doesn't worry about their reputation.

And, the people who watch Fox that will even hear about this couldn't care less.

Hell, they'll APPLAUD the donation.

[Gamey]

47. Same shit different day

[dsharp88]

49. Fakes News strikes again. n/t

[HCE SuiGeneris]

53. A pox on Fox and it's "hate" agenda.

Same goes for any entity striving to worsen the world with fear, greed and exploitation.

[KurtNYC]

54. $1 mil ?! how about the value of 24/7/365 airtime?

At market rates, that is $438 million that they are donating to their favorite politicians. (at $50,000 per hour)

[moobu2]

56. Propaganda arm of the Republican party -nt-

[TomCADem]

57. Fox's Donation Is A Complete Breach Of Ethics - Even MSNBC Discloses...

...They are a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC whenever they discuss Microsoft. Shouldn't Fox News run a similar disclaimer during the current campaign season?

[LTX]

59. What a bizarre defense:

"News Corporation believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA's pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy."

In short, we are no longer an unbiased news source, we are an arm of the Republican party, and we are because we, well, we just like Republican positions more than Democratic positions. Ok. Just don't pretend you're not a partisan political mouthpiece anymore.