Democrats Urge Fox News to Disclose on Air Their GOP Donations

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 04:59 pm

Today the Democratic Governors Association issued a statement urging Fox News CEO Roger Ailes to disclose his networks donations to the Republican Party on the air, “In the interest of some fairness and balance, I request that you add a formal disclaimer to your news coverage any time any of your programs cover governors or gubernatorial races between now and Election Day.”

Nathan Daschle of the DGA pointed out that News Corp. is the single largest corporate donor to the Republican Governors Association, “For the first time in history, your organization is openly and proudly supporting the defeat of Democratic governors with an unprecedented political contribution of $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. In fact, your company provided the single largest corporate contribution to our opposition.”

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The DGA requested that the “fair and balanced” part of Fox News disclose the network’s monetary support of Republican gubernatorial candidates, “In the interest of some fairness and balance, I request that you add a formal disclaimer to your news coverage any time any of your programs cover governors or gubernatorial races between now and Election Day. I suggest that the disclaimer say: “News Corp., parent company of Fox News, provided $1 million to defeat Democratic governors in November.” If you do not add a disclaimer, I request that you and your staff members on the “fair and balanced” side of the network demand that the contribution be returned.”

It is a pretty safe bet that no one at the DGA expects Fox News to acknowledge their request, much less act on it, but the purpose of the statement was never about getting FNC to change their behavior. The point of the request was to continue to call attention to the overtly partisan behavior of Fox News. Despite their protests, it is obvious that FNC is not a news organization. They are a Republican activist group and message discrimination tool for the GOP.

The difference between the behavior of News Corp and other media corporations is that other corporations donate to both parties, usually with the party in power getting roughly double the amount of the minority party, and remember these giants aren’t parting with their dollars for ideological reasons. They want access, which is why they put their money on incumbents. By only giving to the RGA, News Corp is placing ideology ahead of everything else. I know that nothing will convinced loyal FNC viewers that what they are being presented on a daily basis is propaganda, but by simply following the money, it is easy to see that there is nothing “fair and balanced” about Fox News.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association