Journalists and political donations

Frankly, I'm more worried about this.
http://opensecrets.org/pacs/industry.asp?txt=B02&cycle=2006

Almost every PAC run by major media conglomorates donates more heavily to the GOP.
Of course, some copy editor who once worked at the Atlantic balances that out.

 

OK, let's make this a little murkier...

Nevermind the candidates or parties. What about donating to issues-oriented organizations like the Brady Campaign or Environmental Defense? I believe in their causes, although I don't like the fact that at times they blatantly cheerlead for one party.

 

For me, can't donate. Period.

 

Or the guy who does the agate for the Boston Globe.
Not all newsroom employees are created equal.
Same goes for all media company employees.
In terms of resonating in the community, if you think the publisher hosting a fundraiser for Candidate X generating thousands of dollars isn't as important as a sportswriter giving $100. You are seriously deluded.
The writer wanted to make a point: Newsrooms are liberal. We found 144 that gave money and 125 of those people had their donations go to Democrats.
But it doesn't matter that they deliberately excluded the highest rungs of the newsroom food chain or that they stretched to even find the numbers they did.
Or that they didn't put any of the numbers into any kind of context. Or that they tried to imply that someone like a film critic couldn't be objective because he or she donated piddling amounts to a campaign.
People have been bashing the media since the invention of the printing press.
So sure give the money to your local church. Catholic? The pedophilia ignoring, abortion hating Papists? Okeydokey.
The reality is that anyone, if they try hard enough, can find a reason to see bias.
So do you totally withdraw? Ignore everything. Don't lift a hand to help or contribute?
Or do you live your life and when asked, you say why.

 

Flashback to Lou Grant episode when Joe Rossi becomes the paper's ombudsman. "The only thing I carry in my wallet is a library card."

 

My life is being a journalist. My profession and occupation -- and my perceived standing in the community – is more important to me than giving $500 to a presidential campaign.
It’s not a matter of withdrawing from society. That’s a false conclusion. It’s a matter of recognizing one’s place.
I am a sports editor. Does that define me? Of course not. But, with the title comes responsibility. My responsibility is to my family, my staff and my paper. Readers complain of bias everyday, perceived or otherwise. Why should I give them ammunition? They’re as close-minded and simple as your religious assertion (which was incorrect, by the way).

 

Bingo.

 

What FB said. We're journalists, not advocates. And giving money to a political campaign or a cause is a form of advocacy. (I'll let other people debate what exactly a cause is.)

Charles Perry needs to re-read his ethics manual a little bit more closely next time. Unless there's an exception for the food critic, he's way out of bounds. He's a staff writer, yes? There's nothing there to prevent him from covering the Lakers, the leg or the Glendale City Council in six months.

 

Well now! I think we know exactly how he feels! And it also feeds all the stuff about liberal bias, etc.

I'd like to see this survey done again in a few years to see how it shakes out.

 

I cover sports, not politics and I do give. I am not ashamed of it and have no issues with it. I talked to my boss about it and was told that it was fine.

 

What FB, fishwrapper, buckweaver, John Newsom said. Readers see us as representatives of the paper as a whole and just assume we condone whatever another staff member does or says, and likewise the paper about what every staff member does and says.

I'm in sports, but I've been blasted by readers before for an editorial, and news writers have been given an earful about things I've written. I've even been blamed when a radio station sponsors something and we aren't doing the same. Of course, I know that it's not a personal attack, because we are all extensions of our entire newspaper, not matter our job title.

 

Here's a question. Why aren't more people in journalism conservative? Is it the liberal tendency that makes you want to be a journalist or the job that cultivates a liberal view. I'm all for law and order, but also know locking everybody up isn't going to happen because people don't want to raise their taxes to build more prisons and hire enough cops, prosecutors and social workers to make it happen.