Penetrating Insights into the Obvious
Posted on 11/01/2008 12:59:17 PM PDT by WilliamReading
NEW YORK While Sam Zell's biggest newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, made history endorsing a Democrat, Barack Obama, this year, he has been busy giving tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to Obama's opponent, Sen. John McCain.
Among other CEOs: Rupert Murdoch has given $2,300 to McCain, Richard Scaife and Philip Anschutz have heavily backed Republicans, while William Dean Singleton has pretty much sat it out while his fellow MediaNews honcho Richard Scudder has funded Obama.
A review of several online campaign donation sites shows Zell, listed as the chairman of his Equity Group Investments, donated at least $40,000 to McCain campaign committees this year. The first was $20,000 to the McCain Victory Committee on May 6, 2008, while another $20,000 is listed to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 on Sept. 16, according to CQ Moneyline and others.
That did not seem to influence the Tribune, whose endorsement of Obama marked the first Democratic presidential nominee to receive the paper's backing in its history, while the Times offered its first presidential endorsement since 1972 with this year's support for Obama.
Records also indicate Zell's support for other Republicans, including Rudolph Giuliani in the primary season, Sen. Norm Coleman (now opposed by Al Franken), and the Republican Party of Minnesota. But Democrats are not left out completely, according to records that show Zell contributions to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, Kentucky Sen. Bruce Lunsford, and New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Obama, another home state senator, received a $2,300 donation from Zell in 2007.
Records also show that conservative publisher (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) Richard Scaife this year has donated $20,000 to the GOP national committee, another $10,000 to the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania and $5,000 to the Club for Growth.
Philip Anschutz, publisher of the Examiner newspapers among other properties, gave $10,000 to the Colorado Republican Campaign Committee along with more than $10,000 to candidates.
Dean Singleton, who donated to George W. Bush in the past, is notable by his near-absence from the funding lists this year. But his fellow MediaNews honcho, Dick Scudder, has given $2000 to Obama.
He’s trying to make up for his LA Times not releasing the Obama tapes and his Chicago Tribune endorsing a Democrat for President for the first time.
May Zell rot in the darkest places.
That’s funny. I thought that corporate owners of media controlled the news and forced reporters to parrot their political views? (sarcasm off)
Sam Zell contributed over $40,000 to the John McCain campaign, while the newspapers he owns, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Sun-Sentinel give millions of $$$ in free pro-Obama publicity.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News are also both owned by “Republicans” who let their newspaper run wild with liberal propaganda.
Rupert Murdoch is about the only conservative publisher who seems to care what his newspaper is printing.
Maybe Sam Zell doesn’t bother reading his Los Angeles Times or can’t be bothered to interfere with its operation.
I disagree with your analysis. He made these donations long ago, but apparently he doesn’t want to get involved with the editorial side of his newspapers, which is unfortunate.
Meanwhile, Zell is happily laying off liberal journalists left and right, so he is getting the last laugh here.
I’m sorry to say, but reporters having a videotape has nothing to do with the editorial staff or a newspaper’s editorial writing or endorsements.
Why doesn’t he make the reporters do what would be profitable?
Compared to the biased coverage that is worth far more in dollar value, this is window-dressing and red herring and tokenism.
GIVE THE TRUTH EQUAL TIME!
There’s your fairness doctrine.
I honestly don’t think Sam Zell knows anything about newspapers. He is a businessman , who made a huge mistake in buy the Tribune Corporation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDy7vn7-LX4
He actually appears to be saying “f—k you” to one of his liberal journalist employees.
Sam needs to put his “pink slips” where his mouth is.
Sam needs to put his “pink slips” where his mouth is.
Hey Zell- time to get control of your newsrooms!
If you want to sell newspapers in a big city like LA or NYC, the majority of your customers are liberals. So, you pander to them by endorsing the Demagogue. If you endorsed the Republican, you would lose subscribers. The people reading the NY Times, LA Times, Boston Globe, etc., are going to vote for the Demo anyway, so the endorsement hardly matters. Also, normal people around the country never look at those commie rags, anymore than they read Pravda.
I think it makes the most business sense to have a moderate editorial stance and objective news coverage.
A lot more people would read and advertise in the newspaper under those circumstances.
No he’s not allowed to get involved in the actual “journalistic decisions” believe it or not. What he does control is who is the publisher and has input on the management. The “journalists” hate him because he’s making changes and they don’t like change when it affects them. His latest change is he’s killing the LA Times Washington bureau and merging it with the Tribunes staff. He’ll have strong input on who gets the new job and it’s leadership team. He won’t be able to get involved in the day to day “news” decisions.
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