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?

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.