DROPPING AN ALREADY-THIN PRETENSE…. Try to contain your surprise.
News Corp., which owns Fox News and the New York Post, gave $1 million to Haley Barbour’s Republican Governors Association this year, according to the RGA’s most recent filing.
The company’s media outlets play politics more openly than most, but the huge contribution to a party committee is a new step toward an open identification between Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and the GOP. The company’s highest-ranking Democratic executive, Peter Chernin, recently departed.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the company said, “News Corporation believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA’s pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy.”
In case you were curious, there were no comparable contributions to Democratic campaign committees. News Corp. has written some modest checks for a few Democratic incumbent lawmakers, but they’re of the four-figure variety — a small fraction of the $1 million check for the Republican Governors Association.
Indeed, the RGA’s “biggest corporate donor” happens to be Fox News’ corporate parent.
Matt Gertz asks, “Are there still people who doubt that Fox is just an arm of the GOP?”
There shouldn’t be.
On a related note, anyone want to lay odds on whether Fox News’ on-air broadcasters, reporting on gubernatorial races, disclose that the same company paying their salary is also helping finance the Republican candidate they’re covering?
