Tour de france 2006
Ξ July 27th, 2008 | → | ∇ Uncategorized |
Media money: Democrats over GOP
by Mark Silva
Let me start by saying, I have never donated money to a candidate for political office, an incumbent, a political party, a Political Action Committee or any such thing.
But apparently, many people in my line of work have.
And the way that William Tate has counted it, reporting in an op-editorial in Investors Business Daily this week, their donations to Democrats have far outweighed contributions to Republicans (see Tate’s accounting here).
“An analysis of federal records shows that the amount of money journalists contributed so far this election cycle favors Democrats by a 15:1 ratio over Republicans, with $225,563 going to Democrats, only $16,298 to Republicans,” Tate wrote. “Two-hundred thirty-five journalists donated to Democrats, just 20 gave to Republicans — a margin greater than 10-to-1. An even greater disparity, 20-to-1, exists between the number of journalists who donated to Barack Obama and John McCain.
“Searches for other newsroom categories (reporters, correspondents, news editors, anchors, newspaper editors and publishers) produces 311 donors to Democrats to 30 donors to Republicans, a ratio of just over 10-to-1. In terms of money, $279,266 went to Dems, $20,709 to Republicans, a 14-to-1 ratio.”
My friend Andrew Malcolm, over at Top of the Ticket, brought this study to my attention with his report in the L.A. Times’ political blog about journalists donating more to Democrats than to Republicans, citing Tate’s report. Malcolm wonders aloud if it says as much about the left-leaning political bias of journalists as it does about the stinginess of Republican journalists - of which there are many.
I also am wondering how much of this Investors Business Daily count is weighted by the reimbursements that traveling journalists make to campaigns that they are reporting about - we do pay our own way, and when checks are collected by campaigns, they are reported in the contribution column. I’ve also known a few reporters to donate ten bucks to a campaign to get on the mailing list, as a means of intelligence gathering.
Nevertheless, if my colleagues really are out-donating to Democrats by a margin of 15 to 1 - or out-donating to Obama by a margin of 20 to 1 - it sounds like it’s time for more of the Republicans among us to step up to the plate.
Or better yet: All of us ought to get out of the business of political donations. It doesn’t look right, no matter who gets the money.
Related posts: Like summer tempest came her, Neil young spider, Our gang dog, Paris hilton cristiano ronaldo, Www.fubar.com
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
