The reason that TV news reporters and commentators aren’t permitted to donate money to political candidates, I gather, is because this would shatter whatever image of fairness and neutrality they might otherwise have. What is that, a joke? Who cares about this when it comes to the on-air staffs of the ultra-liberal MSNBC and ultra-conservative Fox News? Who in the world presumes that anyone on either team is the least bit neutral?
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Would anyone care at all if it came out, say, that Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly had given money to a right-wing candidate? These guys are presumed to be in the tank for the right — their partisanship is the reason they have followers — so what does it matter? Why can’t news people privately support whomever they want to privately support? Chet Huntley and David Brinkley are no longer co-hosting the NBC Nightly News.
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