Report: Obama top recipient of News Corp. donations

[Township75]

Political donations by News Corp., its employees and their families were evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, with President Obama the all-time leading recipient, according to a report from the Sunlight Foundation.

The transparency watchdog noted Tuesday that Democrats received 51 percent of contributions while Republicans received 49 percent, despite the firm's highly publicized links to the GOP, such as a $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association in August.

News Corp. is the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Fox News, among others. The firm is currently under scrutiny in both the U.S. and U.K. over allegations its subsidiary News of the World hacked into voice mail accounts and bribed public officials.


"Obama being listed as the company’s top recipient might surprise some people because of its highly publicized involvement with his political rivals, like Sarah Palin who was the vice presidential candidate in 2008 and reportedly still under contract with Murdoch-owned Fox News as a paid commentator," wrote Sunlight's Ryan Sibley.

Rest at the link...ENJOY!
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/172...

[nc4bo]

1. Hope became hopeless.

What are the odds of the Murdoch hacking trail leading to America's front door and there actually being something done about it?



Time will tell.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. I can't laugh for crying!

[jberryhill]

19. OMG Murdoch controls MoveOn.org

Because News Corp. employees donated there too...

www.opensecrets.org

NAJIMY, KATHY
STUDIO CITY,CA 91604 FOX/ACTOR 4/7/07 $200 Moveon.org

POLCINO, DOMINIC
WOODLAND HILLS,CA 91364 FOX TV ANIMATION/TV DIRECTOR 3/26/09 $200 Moveon.org

[snot]

24. I unsubscribed from MoveOn a couple of years ago, bec.

their efforts struck me as benighted and ineffectual -- sucking up a lot of liberal energy and donations and spending them misguidedly.

[leftynyc]

3. Yawn - Not surprising

The murdochs and their employees want to have access to winners and tend to support whoever they think is going to win.

[nc4bo]

7. Of course they do but what should set off the alarms is the answer to the question

What do they expect in return for supporting that winner?

There's always an answer and it's usually something that none of us want to hear.

[leftynyc]

13. Simple answer - access (n/t)

[Scuba]

4. Makes sense. He's the first-ever Democratic President to call for cuts to SS and Medicare. n/t

[Skidmore]

5. The only thing that article proves is that

ole Rupert plays both sides. I'm sure that you could flip that figure around during the Bush years. It does not prove that the President is owned by Murdoch.

[spanone]

6. yep, yet it's a d.u. platform to bash the President...go figure

[divvy]

45. Murdoch violated FCC rules and is unfit to own media outlets

Obama will not investigate. Why not? There ARE rules when foreign born folks want to own a majority of news outlets in America. Except in this case. He seems to have the blessings of our president.

[laureloak]

8. Donations from FAMILIES and EMPLOYEES, not Murdock

[nc4bo]

11. There is no way I'd identify as a Dem contributing Murdoch employee

if I wanted to retain my job. At least I would never take that chance knowing full and well just how ruthless the Murdoch empire can be.

[jberryhill]

15. The same shit was pulled with BP

We are talking about rank and file empoyees here.

The person who tightens the bolts on the presses at the NY Daily news donated $25 bucks along with the crew that fills the newspaper boxes.

But the nitwits here who never donates a dollar don't know that the form includes an "employer" box.

News Corp and it's various operations employ a lot of people, so of course a lot of ordinary people made donations.

[nc4bo]

16. Your 3rd sentence is a crock of crap

Unless you were around when someone hit the >submit> button or put that envelope w/check or MO in a mailbox, how do you know what "box" someone checked?

[jberryhill]

18. Because that's what makes the data SEARCHABLE

Go to opensecrets.org and conduct a donor search:

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/index.php

Notice the fields:

LAST NAME of donor (or last name, first name)

STATE of donor

ZIP CODE of donor

OCCUPATION / EMPLOYER of donor

RECIPIENT

Go ahead and type in "microsoft" or any other employer with thousands of people, and look at all of the small donations from ordinary people.

The only thing worse than ignorance is arrogant ignorance.

You have NO idea what you are talking about. How do you think the data gets there?

Here are two "News Corp." donations to MoveOn.org:

NAJIMY, KATHY
STUDIO CITY,CA 91604 FOX/ACTOR 4/7/07 $200 Moveon.org

POLCINO, DOMINIC
WOODLAND HILLS,CA 91364 FOX TV ANIMATION/TV DIRECTOR 3/26/09 $200 Moveon.org

[CatWoman]

21. Kathy Najimy does the voice of Peggy Hill

[jberryhill]

22. Well, she's clearly a News Corp. phone hacking operative trying to control MoveOn

[CatWoman]

23. LOL

and don't forget, many of the Simpsons cast are liberals who are News Corp employees

[Township75]

25. The 1rst sentence begins with "Political donations by News Corp., its employees and their families"

Murdock doesn't count as News Corp??

[jberryhill]

28. ROFL

Yes, he does. Now, how about we separate those three categories, to take out the thousands and thousands of ordinary people included in the "employees and their families" part, if we want to get a handle on meaningful data.

"Rupert Murdoch, and residents of New York City occasionally eat pasta"

Do you think that sentence suggests that eating pasta makes one a phone hacker?

[Township75]

30. Ok, so it does include Murdoch.

I'm not sure why you said otherwise in your first post.

FWIW, I could really care less if Obama took money from Murdoch. I just think it is ironic and is a surprising read that News Corp gave Obama $ and also that he took it.

[scheming daemons]

32. can you provide a dollar amount, if any, that came from Murdoch?

Without that, your OP is pointless.

[Township75]

35. News Corp made a donation without the consent of its chairmen and CEO?

And I thought when they did the same for Repub governor candidates in 2010 we all blamed him?

[scheming daemons]

43. can you provide a dollar amount that newscorp, as an organization, gave?

Remember, individual donations from employees from their own pockets don't count

[jberryhill]

47. No, he can't

In fact, reading the statement in the story and taking it as fact does not lead to the necessary conclusion that News Corp. per se donated a dime.

The statement "Posters to this thread consumed at least one bagel in the last half hour" is true.

It is true, because I ate a bagel. Nobody else had to eat one in order for the statement to be true.

You can include a null subset in any set to make a statement like:

"The planet Mars and the State of New York have more electoral votes than both of the Dakotas combined".

But people see what they want to see, even when they are being manipulated.

[jberryhill]

36. The "critical thinking switch" has been set to "manual override" /nt

[jberryhill]

33. Yes, and "Murdoch, News Corp. employees and their families" also wear shoes /nt

[Township75]

37. No one is arguing about that...

unlike the content of your original post...but I guess that is settled now.

[scheming daemons]

9. sigh..... some people have such poor reading comprehension

I work for Bechtel. When I made a donation to Obama as an individual, it is NOT the same thing as Bechtel making a donation!

EMPLOYEES of NewsCorp made donations...... not the same as saying the corporation made donations.

If the lady working the lunch counter in the NY Post cafeteria donates to Obama, do you seriously consider that to be a "NewsCorp" donation?

[dionysus]

12. no, i think they know what they're doing. this will be the outrage du jour...

followed by a different one tomorrow...

[Township75]

17. Is "you" in your last statement referring to me, or just a general question to

anyone that reads your post?

[jberryhill]

10. This is misleading

These are not "News Corp" donations.

When an individual donates, their employer information is requested.

If the floor scrubber at the office donates $25, then it is included in this figure.

[Township75]

26. The 1rst sentence begins with "Political donations by News Corp., its employees and their families"

Why do you believe that these are not "News Corp" donations?

[scheming daemons]

29. they are from people who happen to be employed by newscorp

That is NOT the same thing, and you know it (or should)

[Township75]

31. What I know is what is written in the article...

which says 3 entities donated to Obama:
1. News Corp.
2. It's employees with their own money
3. It's employees families with their own money

you have something that says otherwise? If not, I don't get why people are saying News Corp did not make a donation to Obama.

[jberryhill]

34. No one is saying what you claim

And if that is all you know then, yes, you do not recognize this as a reprise of the "BP Donations To Obama" story.

Go to opensecrets.org. Click on "donor lookup"

Conduct a donor lookup search, and put in the name of ANY large corporation employing thousands of people.

That's how this story was put together.

If you choose to remain ignorant of the formula for putting together a misleading story such as this one, it is your choice to make.

[Township75]

38. "That's how this story was put together."

How do you know that? Let us know how they did it, please.

[jberryhill]

41. Did you follow the steps I provided?

Do you remember this story:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html

"BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama"

The fact of the matter is that Mr. Obama attracted more individual donations - from anyone - than any federal candidate in history.

This means that within any large organization employing a sufficient cross section of everyday folks in metropolitan areas, Mr. Obama will likely be the "top recipient" REGARDLESS of what that organization is.

It took me all of about ten seconds to find "FOX donations to MoveOn.org". I am sure you are capable of reading the steps I provided to you previously in this thread.

But the problem here is that you have never mucked around with the donor database, and you have likely never made a contribution to a candidate, and thus you are unfamiliar with what data is requested and how it is searchable - hence your silly comment above about how one would know what people identified as their "employer" when they made the donation.

[onenote]

49. To the extent anyone is claiming News Corp. itself gave money to Obama, they're wrong

Corporations couldn't make direct contributions in 2008. Contributions attributed to News Corp are in fact contributions from its employees (and, apparently, family members)and News Corp.'s PAC. Since Obama didn't accept PAC contributions in 2008, we're only talking about employees and family members.

The more relevant number,as discussed in another post, is the level of support given to various presidential candidates by News Corp. executives (and their families). Exactly one member of the News Corp. executive team gave to Obama in the 2008 cycle. That contribution represented less than 12 percent of the contributions made during the 2008 cycle to various presidential hopefuls. The largest recipient? John McCain, who got nearly 50% of the contributions made by News Corp executives. McCain's percentage grows (and Obama's shrinks) when you add in family members (such as Rupert's wife).

[Jim Lane]

53. Thanks for saving me the trouble of posting this, but I have one small amendment.

You write, "Corporations couldn't make direct contributions in 2008." That's absolutely correct as to the Obama campaign (the subject of this thread) and other campaigns for federal office.

For future reference, though, people should know that there's no general prohibition on corporate campaign contributions. Some states allow them. If you see a headline like this about a governor, then it might be accurate -- the corporation itself might have contributed.

[onenote]

54. Thanks for the amendment.

[NYC_SKP]

14. "News Corp., its employees and their families were evenly split between Democrats and Republicans,"

The article's headline is very misleading.

This happens every elections cycle.

[jberryhill]

20. The fact that there were about "evenly split" shows a general R bias in donations

Since News Corp. employees a lot of people in metropolitan areas which overwhelmingly went for Obama, then taking them as a population sample, that is an R skewed sample.

[mmonk]

27. LOL.

You just can't make this stuff up.

[G_j]

39. just like the war criminals and banksters, crimes too big to do anything about..

"Steal a little and they throw you in jail/Steal a lot and they make you king"

(Dylan)

[fascisthunter]

40. this doesn't necessarily mean that much

most corporations have always given money to both the dems and the GOP.

I think there is enough corruption to point at without using this as another bit of proof.

[Zorra]

42. Agreed. This seems like a hit piece to me. nt

[divvy]

44. Murdoch PAID FOR Obama's SPINE......

It is all becoming clear to me now ...

[onenote]

46. More relevant number: Obama support from News Corp executives

News Corp. lists 12 individuals on its website as members of its executive team. Of those, it appears that six made contributions to one or more of the Presidential candidates during the 2008 cycle. One person gave $2300 to Obama (that same person also gavem 2300 to Clinton). Two others gave to Hillary. And three, including Rupert, gave to McCain. The dollars given to Obama represented less than 12 percent of the money given by the News Corp. executive team to a presidential candidate.

Sorry to upset the message that some here so very badly want to spin.

[scheming daemons]

51. this post should be an OP. +1

[Octafish]

48. The smart money hedges its bets.

F'r a historical instance, the crooked bank BCCI opened "courtesy accounts" for both Democrats and Repuglians.

[onenote]

50. the only "bet hedging" among News Corp executives

was one executive who gave even amounts to Hillary and to Obama and one executive who gave evenly to Romney and McCain. That's probably not what you were thinking of, but that's actually what happened.

[Ikonoklast]

52. DUer's are showing their ignorance as to how those contributions are tallied.

And who actually made them.

But, it's not surprising that leftbaggers will use any reason to Obamabash, even non-existent ones.