The finding provides a bit of grist to those who believe the mainstream media is loaded with liberals.
Reporters contacted by the Center defended their contributions as ways to exercise their rights as U.S. citizens. They say political donations are part of their private lives, completely separate from their professional ones. Aaron Quinn, however, believes that’s hot air. The California State University journalism professor believes reporters are public figures akin to celebrities. The “mere appearance of a conflict of interest is effectively the same as actually one,” says Quinn.
Sy Hersh and Anna Wintour are some of the big names on the Center’s list. Hersh, the investigative reporter for The New Yorker, gave $1000 to Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho), someone Hersh met during the Nixon White House. Hersh thinks it’s great for journalists to give money to smart people in politics.
Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, shelled out the max $30,400 to the Democratic National Committee and forked over another $2,000 to Rep. Timothy Bishop (D-N.Y.).
A slightly lesser journalism light, Christopher Hayes, Washington editor for The Nation and contributor to MSNBC, gave $250 to his friend Josh Segall, an Alabama Democrat who lost his Congressional race. Hayes, however, did have a winner. With buddies in '03, Hayes threw a keg party for Barack Obama’s Senate run in Illinois. Wonder if he will have champagne on his mind when Obama gears up for 2012.
Despite the media largess, the Grand Old Party has nothing to fear on the fund-raising front. The New York Times front page today reports that Republican-allied groups are spending millions more on the upcoming election than their Democratic counterparts.
Sy Hersh is no match for the likes of billionaire David Koch and his Americans for Prosperity conservative think tank.
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