Saturday, November 6, 2010

Don't do as Daddy does

This past week, Keith Olbermann was suspended without pay for making 3 campaign contributions of $2,400 each. Olbermann generally makes his living as a counterpoint to Fox "News." I'm fine with persons reporting news waving their rights in their contract to not contribute to political campaigns. If they sign, I assume they agree with the contract. My main problem with this development is not that pundits aren't allowed to express themselves politically or that Olbermann was punished for violating his contract. I'm peeved by the hypocrisy of it.

Don't practice what you preach.

During this political season, GE, part owners of MSNBC, have contributed over 2 million dollars in campaign contributions with over 1.3 million going to Democrats. Rupert Murdock, owner of Fox News, contributed over 1 million to Republicans. This isn't new, in 2008 over 1 million dollars were donated by employees at ABC, CBS and NBC.

There needs to be continuity between employer and employee policy. If an employer makes a contribution then every employee represents that contribution. However, if an employee makes the contribution it doesn't necessarily reflect the views of the employer. So if anything I could see employees being allowed to making contributions but not their employer. Either way, news organizations and their employees making contributions seems at odds with moral objectivity.

1 comment:

  1. GE is scary and their holdings are wicked diversified from fridges to spacecraft to news.

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