96% of all journalist donations to presidential candidates go to Hillary Clinton, a new report from The Center for Public Integrity reports:
In all, people identified in federal campaign finance filings as journalists, reporters, news editors or television news anchors — as well as other donors known to be working in journalism — have combined to give more than $396,000 to the presidential campaigns of Clinton and Trump, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis.
Nearly all of that money — more than 96 percent — has benefited Clinton: About 430 people who work in journalism have, through August, combined to give about $382,000 to the Democratic nominee, the Center for Public Integrity’s analysis indicates.
Only $14,000 went to Trump, but I like how, even here, the organization uses equivalence language to make it seem like both candidates significantly benefit from political donations from so-called journalists.
This election has yanked the mask off the journalism profession. Donald Trump has provided this great service: revealing the motivations and loyalties, and making overt the covert actions, of people claiming to be neutral and honest brokers. This has happened within the political class, journalism, organized religion, and entertainment.
A note about ESPN, since they’re so gleefully political and leftist these days:
At ESPN, baseball news editor Claire Smith has made numerous small–dollar contributions to Clinton’s campaign that add up to almost $600. Smith, who in a tweet last week described Trump as a “would-be dictator & sexual predator,” did not return requests for comment, and ESPN spokesman Ben Cafardo declined to comment.
But ESPN’s political advocacy policy states that employees such as Smith “must avoid being publicly identified with various sides of political issues” and that the sports network “discourages public participation in matters of political advocacy or controversy among editorial employees.”
When one combines the in-kind giving just from the media fawning with actual money to the candidate (forget the money that guys like George Stephanopoulos send to The Clinton Foundation—and he’s not alone) and then adds in the selective bias by refusing to report damaging stories, you have a political media wholly dedicated to a political outcome.
There are those on the Right who claim that people who whine about the media bias are already losing and just need to get over it. They’re wrong.
The only way to overcome this pervasive side-taking is to expose the reporters and their ways. They should be shamed out of the business, but they won’t be. Instead, there should be an asterisk by every post they write disclosing their political affiliations and donations.
