Topic: NewsBusters
An Aug. 27 NewsBusters post by Lachlan Markay touts a Washington Examiner column by Mark Tapscott claiming that, in Markay's words, "of the roughly $1.15 million network TV employees gave to political candidates in 2008, a full 88 percent of it went to Democrats."
As an attempt to counter News Corp.'s $1 million donation -- which Tapscott's effort, and Markay's promotion of it, surely is -- it's a meaningless, apples-and-oranges comparison.
As Media Matters points out, Tapscott's search paramaters include numerous people who have nothing to do with producing network news products. For instance, Tapscott listed one Democratic donor as a "CBS 'journalist,' " when in fact he's a CBS Sports contributor who serves as a college basketball analyst, where the pro-Obama bias being suggested is not a factor.
Further, donations by a company (i.e. News Corp.) and a company's employees are not comparable, and 2008 was a historic year in which Obama broke fundraising records, so comparing 2008 donations to News Corp.'s 2010 donation is especially meaningless.
Nevertheless, Markay insists, "Though the numbers are striking, the imbalance is not altogether surprising. But they do help to put in prospect the left's righteous indignation over the political activities of Fox News's parent company."
No, they don't -- it's just another pathetic attempt by the NewsBusters and its MRC parent to spin away the News Corp. donation.
