During an MSNBC interview on July 14, Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) and host Craig Melvin discussed Russia's alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Brat claimed the media is biased for giving more attention to the Trump administration's alleged Russian connections than to the topic of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's connections to foreign money through the Clinton Foundation. Brat said, "Why is that? Well, maybe it's because 97 percent of the donations from mainstream [media] folks go to the Democrat Party."[1]
Is Brat correct that 97 percent of donations from mainstream media go to the Democratic Party?
According to Juliana Heerschap, Brat's communications director, the congressman was referring to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), which examined donations by journalists to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton during the presidential primaries and the first month of the 2016 general election campaign.[2] CPI reported that more than 96 percent of those donations were made to Clinton. [3][4][5]
If you’re tempted to think, “Well, that was probably a one-off…,” while the 96% was unprecedented, the wildly lopsided rate of D-v-R donations was not. From the same report:
Ballotpedia also reviewed three other analyses. The Center for Responsive Politics found that 65 percent of contributions from those identified as journalists went to Democrats in the 2010 election cycle. [6] An analysis by MSNBC.com found that 87 percent of the 143 donors (who made contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign) gave to Democrats or liberal causes. [7] The Media Research Center found that 94 percent of donors affiliated with five news outlets also contributed to Democrats between 2008 and 2016. [8]
Americans continue to register record-low trust in the mass media, with 31% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” similar to last year’s 32%. Americans’ trust in the media -- such as newspapers, television and radio -- first fell to 32% in 2016 and did so again last year.
For the third consecutive year, more U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media (36%) than trust it a great deal or fair amount. Another 33% of Americans express “not very much” confidence.
More resources regarding leftist bias of American news media
These are great graphics and research, Jon!