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Posted on 07/12/2004 1:30:12 PM PDT by OESY
What do Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Brit Hume have in common? They all work under a Democratic fund-raiser.
Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of the News Corporation, parent of the Fox Network, has made contributions to John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
"I don't think it's any secret that I am a Democratic supporter," Mr. Chernin said.
He has some company. Gary L. Ginsberg, an executive vice president of News Corporation, has also contributed to Mr. Kerry.
News Corporation is "a company with diverse interests," Mr. Chernin said.
Perhaps more diverse than many Democrats imagined. As of June 1, employees of the News Corporation and their families had given almost $350,000 in campaign contributions, 60 percent of which went to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. At least four Fox executives have given money to Mr. Kerry's campaign.
The executives, of course, answer to Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation. The Fox cable channel has developed a reputation - which it denies - as one of the more right-leaning news organizations on television. News Corporation is also the owner of The New York Post and publishes The Weekly Standard, two publications with a conservative bent.
But Mr. Chernin said work and politics hardly mixed at the company. "I think it's simplistic to say that the company has some sort of political litmus test," he said.
Mr. Chernin gave $2,000 to Mr. Kerry, the maximum allowed during the primary campaign. He has held fund-raising lunches on Mr. Kerry's behalf. And he defended Mr. Kerry's business policies in a conference call with other executives last week. Mr. Ginsberg gave $1,500 to Mr. Kerry. (Mr. Murdoch has given $25,000 to the Republican National Committee.)
Eric Alterman, a journalism professor at Brooklyn College and the author of "What Liberal Media?" said there was little reason to make assumptions about the politics of Mr. Murdoch or his colleagues based solely on the content of his media conglomerate, adding that Mr. Murdoch's primary interest is to produce a popular product. "It's not that bizarre," he said.
Mr. Alterman, a media columnist for The Nation, even suggested that if Mr. Kerry were to win the presidency, viewers may begin to see a different sort of Fox News, but he stopped short of saying the network would move far to the left. "I don't think that Fox is going to start sounding like 'The Nation,' '' he said.
Of course we know that, but the psychopaths and the rabid mad dogs will never admit to it in a million years.
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