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Fact check: Do 97 percent of journalist donations go to Democrats?

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Rep. Dave Brat

August 16, 2017
By Amée LaTour

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]

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]

Background

David Brat was first elected to represent Virginia's 7th Congressional District in 2014 and was re-elected in 2016.

In the interview on MSNBC, Brat and Melvin discussed alleged connections between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign, currently under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Congress also launched three investigations into potential Russian interference in the election after the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI jointly reported that Russian intelligence services had engaged in malicious cyber activity.[9]

Brat was comparing the coverage of the Trump campaign’s alleged connections to Russia to the coverage of contributions from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Bill Clinton in 2001. Hillary Clinton joined the board of the Foundation in 2013, following her term as secretary of state. A Washington Post analysis in 2015 found that the Foundation had raised close to $2 billion from “a vast global network that includes corporate titans, political donors, foreign governments and other wealthy interests.” According to the Washington Post, “The role of interests located in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Argentina may spur questions about the independence of a potential commander in chief who has solicited money from foreign donors with a stake in the actions of the U.S. government.”[10]

CPI analysis

The Center for Public Integrity describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that aims to "serve democracy by revealing abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of public trust by powerful public and private institutions, using the tools of investigative journalism."[11] CPI researchers used campaign finance data filed with the Federal Election Commission as well as other sources (such as LinkedIn profiles) to determine the amounts donated to either Trump or Clinton from people self-identified as journalists.[4][5]

CPI identified about 430 individuals working in journalism who contributed to either candidate between January 2015 and August 2016. Of the $396,000 they contributed, 96 percent ($382,000) went to Clinton, and 4 percent (about $14,000) went to Trump.[4]

CPI's analysis included reporters and editors in a variety of journalism jobs.[4] Co-author Dave Levinthal told Ballotpedia that CPI’s pool of donors did not include reporters who covered the White House or who were regularly on the campaign trail with Trump and/or Clinton. “A few of the journalists who did make contributions to one or the other candidate did cover or edit political news of some sort—typically state or local politics," Levinthal said.[5]

Other analyses

Ballotpedia also reviewed three other analyses of journalists’ campaign contributions. All used federal campaign finance data.

The Media Research Center, which describes its mission as "to expose and neutralize the propaganda arm of the Left: the national news media," used federal campaign finance data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics to identify donors working for ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, or The Washington Post between 2008 and 2016.[12] The data focused on the donors’ partisan preference, not the amount of contributions, and included retirees who listed the companies with their donations. Of the 122 donors identified, 94 percent (115) donated to Democrats.[8]

The Center for Responsive Politics describes itself as a "[n]onpartisan, independent and nonprofit...research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy." The group examined donors identified as working in journalism or for news organizations in the 2010 election cycle.[13] A total of 235 such individuals contributed $469,900—65 percent of which benefited Democrats. As with the other analyses, the donor pool included non-political reporters and corporate employees of news organizations.[6]

MSNBC analyzed the partisan divide in donations from newsroom anchors, reporters, and editors who were identified in FEC documents between January 2004 and the first quarter of 2007. Of the 143 journalists in the donor pool, 87 percent (125) donated to Democrats and liberal causes.[7]

Conclusion

During an MSNBC interview on July 14, Rep. Dave Brat claimed the media is biased for giving more attention to the Trump administration's alleged Russian connections than to the issue of 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]

Brat based his claim on the results of a Center for Public Integrity analysis, which found that more than 96 percent of the donations from journalists to either Clinton or Trump between January 2015 and August 2016 went to Clinton.[4]

Ballotpedia reviewed three other analyses of contributions from donors identified as journalists and found that a majority of the donors or a majority of the donations (depending on the study) benefited Democrats or liberal causes.[6][7][8]

See also

Sources and Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 YouTube, "Rep. Dave Brat Destroys MSNBC's Craig Melvin Over Liberal Media Bias," July 16, 2017
  2. ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email communication with Communications Director Juliana Heerschap," July 28, 2017
  3. ↑ The donor list was compiled from campaign reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission as well as other sources (such as LinkedIn profiles). The FEC only requires campaigns to identify donors who contribute more than $200, but campaigns may voluntarily report smaller donors.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Center for Public Integrity, "Journalists shower Hillary Clinton with campaign cash," October 17, 2016
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Amee LaTour, "Email communication with Dave Levinthal, Center for Public Integrity senior reporter," July 30, 2017
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 OpenSecrets.org, "Journalists, Media Professionals Donating Frequently to Federal Political Candidates this Election Cycle," September 14, 2010
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 NBC News, "Journalists Dole Out Cash to Politicians (Quietly)," June 25, 2007
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 MRC NewsBusters, "MRC Study: 'Objective' Papers, Networks Stuffed with Democrat-Donating Employees," October 18, 2016
  9. ↑ United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, "Grizzly Steppe – Russian Malicious Cyber Activity," December 29, 2016
  10. ↑ Discussionist, "Clintons’ foundation has raised nearly $2 billion — and some key questions," February 21, 2015
  11. ↑ The Center for Public Integrity, "About the Center for Public Integrity," accessed August 2, 2017
  12. ↑ Media Research Center, "About Us," accessed August 2, 2017
  13. ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "About," accessed August 2, 2017
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Launched in October 2015 and active through October 2018, Fact Check by Ballotpedia examined claims made by elected officials, political appointees, and political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We evaluated claims made by politicians of all backgrounds and affiliations, subjecting them to the same objective and neutral examination process. As of 2025, Ballotpedia staff periodically review these articles to revaluate and reaffirm our conclusions. Please email us with questions, comments, or concerns about these articles. To learn more about fact-checking, click here.

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