FundRace: How The Media Gave (Or Didn't Give) In 2007

With campaign finance data for the 4th quarter of 2007 released late last week, Huffington Post's FundRace now gives us information on a year's worth of political contributions. As we've seen in previous quarters, members of the media almost always abstain from contributing to political campaigns. Q4 data brings few exceptions to that rule.

One prominent member of the media world donating in Q4 was Rolling Stone founder and CEO of Wenner Media, Jann Wenner. Wenner added to his previous donations of $1,000 to John Edwards and $1,000 to Barack Obama with a $2,150 Q4 donation to Barack Obama (bringing his total Obama support up to $3,150).

And just because writers and editors covering campaigns generally don't give, that doesn't mean the moguls overseeing their corporations can't chip in. Viacom President and CEO Philippe Dauman — who, through Q3, had only donated to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — switched party allegiances in Q4, giving $2,300 to Rudy Giuliani's now-failed presidential campaign. And while New York Observer owner Jared Kushner didn't give a dime, his girlfriend Ivanka Trump upped her previous $1,000 Hillary Clinton donation to $2,300 in the 4th quarter (Kushner's mom, Seryl, maxed out for Hillary by Q2 — with pressure from the mom and the girlfriend, it's pretty evident who Jared will be voting for this coming Tuesday!).

In the digital media sphere, Mediabistro founder Laurel Touby used some of the money from the $23 million sale of her company earlier in the year to support Hillary Clinton, giving a full $4,600 in the 4th quarter alone. And though neither half of digital media's contentious couple of the moment — Barry Diller and John Malone — gave in the 4th quarter, it's nice to know they can agree on one thing: both donated to John McCain's campaign (though Diller gave twice as much and spread his donations to the Obama, Clinton, and Biden campaigns as well, while Malone only gave to McCain).

And, finally, a search by occupation reveals some interesting statistics. Donors who listed their occupation as "journalist" preferred Democrats to Republicans by a margin of almost 12:1, giving $101,543 to Democrats and $8,660 to Republicans this election cycle. Donors listing their occupation as "editor" were much more generous to Republicans than journalists, giving $51,524, though that still paled in comparison to the $185,175 editors gave to Democrats.

Want to play for yourself? Visit Huffington Post's FundRace and search by name, address, occupation, or employer.

Comments

[raker]

The media - print, radio and TV, are overwhelmingly conservative and pro-Republican, starting with the NY Times whose front page was used to dupe Americans into supporting the invasion of Iraq. There a few measly crumbs, like Keith Olbermann and Air America Radio and Paul Krugman where some sanity breaks through, but it's a rare and wonderful thing.

[andyg]

so journalist are fair and balanced, 12 to 1.

[Ramirez]

Dog Bites Man!

In other news:

"Donors who listed their occupation as "journalist" preferred Democrats to Republicans by a margin of almost 12:1, giving $101,543 to Democrats and $8,660 to Republicans this election cycle."