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In Middle of Fox News Blackout, Docs Reveal Dish Chairman Donated Thousands to Dems
Townhall.com ^ | January 15, 2015 | Cortney O'Brien

Posted on 01/15/2015 4:05:31 PM PST by Kaslin

One look at the political history of Dish Network founder and Chairman Charles Ergen places the idea that the network dropped Fox News over a simple contract dispute in serious doubt.

Since Dec. 20, when the Dish network dropped Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, the former has lost about 90,000 subscribers.

The Media Research Center’s Dan Joseph decided to take a look at OpenSecrets documents revealing Ergen’s political donations from last year, which immediately raised some red flags. Ergen donated a total of $64,000 to the Democratic Senatorial campaign Committee, according to the report.

As Joseph writes, Ergen’s donating record obviously doesn’t prove he is intentionally blocking Fox out of spite for his political preferences. But, that’s not all:

In 2012, a federal complaint was filed against Ergen in which several company executives alleged that he had intimidated them into making contributions to specific candidates, the majority of which were Democrats.

The claim was filed by an unnamed company insider who accused Ergen of "forcing" Dish Network’s Chief Operating Officer Bernard Han to donate to a Democratic Party candidate in the 2009/2010 election cycle.

The complaint also claimed that Han was “encouraged" to attend Democratic functions and fundraisers and that other Dish employees were strong-armed by Ergen in a similar way.

Hm, now you have to admit that is a little suspicious.

Fox News has consistently come out on top in the ratings battle, and Americans continue to choose it as the most trusted news source on TV.

Dish contract or not, I’ll think they’ll be just fine.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: dish; foxnews; fundingtheleft; satellitetv; television
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1 posted on 01/15/2015 4:05:31 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

wow such a surprise.

hmmm Makes me wonder even more about that Net Nuetrality fiasco.


2 posted on 01/15/2015 4:12:56 PM PST by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: Kaslin

I figured that had a bunch to do with it.Dish will be gone from this house shortly.


3 posted on 01/15/2015 4:14:55 PM PST by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: Kaslin

Whew...I almost was going to switch to Dish from Comcast.
Not that COmcast is conservative, but at least they have FoxNews.


4 posted on 01/15/2015 4:15:43 PM PST by entropy12 (Dumb and Dumber to borrow money from China to protect oil flow to China from middle-east.)
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To: HANG THE EXPENSE

I called this week and got another 50.00 credit on next months bill . . . so they maybe gone shortly after that.


5 posted on 01/15/2015 4:19:15 PM PST by Qwackertoo (Worst 8 years ever, First Affirmative Action President, I hope those who did this to us SUFFER MOST!)
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To: Qwackertoo; All

Fox News back on dish network.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3247291/posts


6 posted on 01/15/2015 4:24:20 PM PST by Lurkina.n.Learnin (It's a shame nobama truly doesn't care about any of this. Our country, our future, he doesn't care)
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To: Kaslin

Old news. Anybody that’s surprised hasn’t been paying attention. I’ve called Ergen a regime affiliate for years on FR.


7 posted on 01/15/2015 4:26:26 PM PST by nascarnation (....)
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To: Kaslin

OK, it looks as thought the Dish network has come around.

http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/dish-and-fox-news-reach-content-carriage-agreement-20150115-01084

And that may be a VERY good thing for Chairman Charles Ergen. Dish is a publicly traded company and Ergen owes a fiduciary responsibility to his shareholders. Based upon the possible conflict of interest between his political beliefs/practices and his legal OBLIGATION to his stockholders, he may already be civilly liable for Dish losses from his actions.


8 posted on 01/15/2015 4:29:25 PM PST by House Atreides
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To: Kaslin

Sounds like the Dish shareholders have a little case for Breach of Fiduciary Duty.


9 posted on 01/15/2015 4:30:08 PM PST by glorgau
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To: entropy12

Fox News is not conservative either. They are just slightly less progressive than MSNBC, and they propagandize for the GOPe.


10 posted on 01/15/2015 4:36:58 PM PST by Bigg Red (Congress, do your duty and repo his pen and his phone.)
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To: Kaslin

Libs can’t help but bump into reality once in a while.


11 posted on 01/15/2015 4:37:47 PM PST by kimoajax (Rack'em & Stack'em)
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To: Kaslin

I dumped Dish and went to DIRECTV several years ago. I have no regrets.


12 posted on 01/15/2015 4:38:34 PM PST by Gator113 (Cruz, Lee, and Sessions speak for me.... most anyone else is just noise.)
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To: House Atreides

Between a higher cost with the new FNC contract, losing 90,000 customers in one month, and the discounts they have given on future billing, it doesn’t sound like fiduciary responsibility to me. It sounds like a last gasp at survival!


13 posted on 01/15/2015 4:49:41 PM PST by MHT (,)
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To: HANG THE EXPENSE

Dumped DISH on Monday... had I known these allegations, it would have been years ago.


14 posted on 01/15/2015 4:52:04 PM PST by ReleaseTheHounds ("The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." M. Thatcher)
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To: Bigg Red

They are fair and balanced, which you can not say from PMSNBC


15 posted on 01/15/2015 5:02:37 PM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Bigg Red

Sure, but better than all other cable news and alphabetical news. Which channel is pure conservative in your opinion?


16 posted on 01/15/2015 5:11:30 PM PST by entropy12 (Dumb and Dumber to borrow money from China to protect oil flow to China from middle-east.)
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To: Gator113

Sorry, but I wouldn’t have neither. Ill stick with my cable


17 posted on 01/15/2015 5:12:16 PM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

I’ll


18 posted on 01/15/2015 5:14:49 PM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: MeshugeMikey

Always follow the money.


19 posted on 01/15/2015 5:16:22 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: MHT

I wouldn’t put much weight on the 90,000 number. If you follow the links back, it originates from a Fox News executive and is nothing but a guess based on the number of hits a website got.


20 posted on 01/15/2015 5:19:09 PM PST by sparklite2
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