Warner Todd Huston
Dems drop complaint against Fox for donating to GOP, media mum
By Warner Todd Huston
The Old Media went into a feeding frenzy when it was revealed that News Corp., the owner of Fox News, had donated $1 million to the Republican Governor's Association to help GOP candidates this election cycle. The left immediately used this fact as a fundraising meme and the media was thrilled to play the news up when a few days later the Democratic Governors Association filed a complaint with the Ohio Election Commission against Fox over the donation.
But while the media loved the story of the DGA filing its complaint, that same Old Media establishment doesn't seem nearly as interested in reporting that the Democrat's quietly dropped their complaint, abandoning it without comment. As Mediaite reports, its sources have confirmed that the DGA has dropped its complaint. And not a peep from the Old Media.
There are hundreds of stories about the Democrat's claims that the News Corp donation destroys the reputation of Fox News. Just to name a few, CNN reported on the donation giving Democrat bloviation top spot in its story. For its part Politico said that the donation might have "crossed over an inappropriate line." Amusingly, Huffington Post gives all sorts of space to detractors but only one short quote to Fox spokesmen to reply. Many others played up this story, too, and there are certainly too many to detail here. (A Google search for "Fox donates to GOP" gets over 11,000,000 hits)
The story also made for fine material for the late night comedians. Comedian Jon Stewart, for instance, really gigged Fox over the donation. But he wasn't so interested in the lopsided donations to Democrats that media conglomerate Viacom donated this year and in years previous.
Then, when the DGA announced a few days later that it was filing a complaint over News Corp's donation, the news cycle was revived all over again (A search for "DGA complaint over Fox donations" gets 139,000 hits)
The Old Media milked the story for all it was worth, for sure. But now that the complaint has been dropped, will the media report this as widely as it did when the complaint was filed? Will the fact that the DGA realized that it could not justify its complaint in front of officials make news?
© Warner Todd Huston
October 12, 2010
The Old Media went into a feeding frenzy when it was revealed that News Corp., the owner of Fox News, had donated $1 million to the Republican Governor's Association to help GOP candidates this election cycle. The left immediately used this fact as a fundraising meme and the media was thrilled to play the news up when a few days later the Democratic Governors Association filed a complaint with the Ohio Election Commission against Fox over the donation.
But while the media loved the story of the DGA filing its complaint, that same Old Media establishment doesn't seem nearly as interested in reporting that the Democrat's quietly dropped their complaint, abandoning it without comment. As Mediaite reports, its sources have confirmed that the DGA has dropped its complaint. And not a peep from the Old Media.
There are hundreds of stories about the Democrat's claims that the News Corp donation destroys the reputation of Fox News. Just to name a few, CNN reported on the donation giving Democrat bloviation top spot in its story. For its part Politico said that the donation might have "crossed over an inappropriate line." Amusingly, Huffington Post gives all sorts of space to detractors but only one short quote to Fox spokesmen to reply. Many others played up this story, too, and there are certainly too many to detail here. (A Google search for "Fox donates to GOP" gets over 11,000,000 hits)
The story also made for fine material for the late night comedians. Comedian Jon Stewart, for instance, really gigged Fox over the donation. But he wasn't so interested in the lopsided donations to Democrats that media conglomerate Viacom donated this year and in years previous.
Then, when the DGA announced a few days later that it was filing a complaint over News Corp's donation, the news cycle was revived all over again (A search for "DGA complaint over Fox donations" gets 139,000 hits)
The Old Media milked the story for all it was worth, for sure. But now that the complaint has been dropped, will the media report this as widely as it did when the complaint was filed? Will the fact that the DGA realized that it could not justify its complaint in front of officials make news?
© Warner Todd Huston
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
