Kasich inspired News Corp.’s RGA gift
Politico
October 06, 2010
News Corp.’s $1 million gift to the Republican Governors Association was the result of Rupert Murdoch’s personal friendship with former Fox News host and Ohio gubernatorial hopeful John Kasich, Murdoch told POLITICO Wednesday night.
Murdoch, who was in Washington to receive an award from The Media Institute, brushed aside concerns that the gift, which was unusually large and one-sided for a media company, might hurt Fox’s credibility as a news organization that reports on politics.
“It doesn’t reflect on Fox News,” he said. “It had nothing to do with Fox News. The RGA [gift] was actually [a result of] my friendship with John Kasich.”
Last month, the Democratic Governors Association filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission accusing Fox News of making an illegal in-kind donation to Kasich by running a chyron featuring Kasich’s website while he was on “The O’Reilly Factor” soliciting donations, the Huffington Post reported.
But the DGA has also made hay of the controversial gift, using it as a rallying cry to raise $1 million of their own.
This gift, together with another $1 million News Corp. gift to the GOP-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has given Fox’s critics their strongest ammunition to date for arguing that the channel is not an objective observer, as it claims, but a player in the political process.
Because of this, some have speculated that News Corp. never intended the gifts to become public.
Murdoch told POLITICO that this was half-right.
“The RGA we did,” expect to become public, he said. “We didn’t expect the other one.”
News Corp.’s donation over the summer to the Chamber was reported by POLITICO’s Ben Smith last week. The chamber has been one of the biggest spenders against Democrats in this election cycle, having already spent nearly $7 million on ads in favor of GOP Senate candidates, making it the second-biggest spending national group after the RGA.
“We are members of the Chamber of Commerce, and I just thought I was being a good member,” Murdoch said.
While News Corp has a political action committee that donates to both parties, the amounts are a fraction of the $2 million given to the two groups spending to defeat Democrats.
In the wake of the RGA gift, a News Corp spokesman had a ready explanation, saying that “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.”
But the day the story of the Chamber donation broke, spokesmen from both Fox News and the News Corp. declined to comment.
October 06, 2010
News Corp.’s $1 million gift to the Republican Governors Association was the result of Rupert Murdoch’s personal friendship with former Fox News host and Ohio gubernatorial hopeful John Kasich, Murdoch told POLITICO Wednesday night.
Murdoch, who was in Washington to receive an award from The Media Institute, brushed aside concerns that the gift, which was unusually large and one-sided for a media company, might hurt Fox’s credibility as a news organization that reports on politics.
“It doesn’t reflect on Fox News,” he said. “It had nothing to do with Fox News. The RGA [gift] was actually [a result of] my friendship with John Kasich.”
Last month, the Democratic Governors Association filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission accusing Fox News of making an illegal in-kind donation to Kasich by running a chyron featuring Kasich’s website while he was on “The O’Reilly Factor” soliciting donations, the Huffington Post reported.
But the DGA has also made hay of the controversial gift, using it as a rallying cry to raise $1 million of their own.
This gift, together with another $1 million News Corp. gift to the GOP-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has given Fox’s critics their strongest ammunition to date for arguing that the channel is not an objective observer, as it claims, but a player in the political process.
Because of this, some have speculated that News Corp. never intended the gifts to become public.
Murdoch told POLITICO that this was half-right.
“The RGA we did,” expect to become public, he said. “We didn’t expect the other one.”
News Corp.’s donation over the summer to the Chamber was reported by POLITICO’s Ben Smith last week. The chamber has been one of the biggest spenders against Democrats in this election cycle, having already spent nearly $7 million on ads in favor of GOP Senate candidates, making it the second-biggest spending national group after the RGA.
“We are members of the Chamber of Commerce, and I just thought I was being a good member,” Murdoch said.
While News Corp has a political action committee that donates to both parties, the amounts are a fraction of the $2 million given to the two groups spending to defeat Democrats.
In the wake of the RGA gift, a News Corp spokesman had a ready explanation, saying that “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.”
But the day the story of the Chamber donation broke, spokesmen from both Fox News and the News Corp. declined to comment.
posted by Hanan Elbadry at 11:35 AM
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