It is almost an article of faith here at DKos that "the media" is all conservative, hates us, gives all its money to Republicans, etc etc etc. Alas, the reality is otherwise. "Follow the money" is still the very best political advice ever given, and when you follow the media's money, most of it leads to Democrats.
NOTE: All of the figures given here come from www.opensecrets.org, a nonprofit website that tracks all Federal campaign contributions using data from the FEC. I strongly strongly strongly encourage everyone to spend a few hours there, poking around to see who gets the corporate money---you will be surprised and angered at much of what you find. And I also recommend a diary I did in 2010 tracking corporate contributions to the Dems, here: http://www.dailykos.com/... . WARNING: Those who hold it as a matter of faith that "the corporations" hate Dems and give all their money to Repugs, will find that isn't true either.)
First, a historical view of contributions from "the media" in previous elections:
Sector: Entertainment Industry as a Whole (TV, Movies, Music, Publishing)
1994 Elections (Dems in power)
percentage to Dems 71
percentage to Repugs 29
2004 elections (Repugs in power)
percentage to Dems 69
percentage to Repugs 30
2010 elections (Dems in power)
percentage to Dems 75
percentage to Repugs 24
Sector: Cable TV/Satellite industry
1994 Elections (Dems in power)
percentage to Dems 45
percentage to Repugs 55
2004 elections (Repugs in power)
percentage to Dems 56
percentage to Repugs 44
2010 elections (Dems in power)
percentage to Dems 68
percentage to Repugs 32
Sector: Commercial Radio/TV stations
1994 Elections (Dems in power)
percentage to Dems 59
percentage to Repugs 41
2004 elections (Repugs in power)
percentage to Dems 42
percentage to Repugs 57
2010 elections (Dems in power)
percentage to Dems 52
percentage to Repugs 48
Sector: Television Production Companies
1994 Elections (Dems in power)
percentage to Dems 79
percentage to Repugs 20
2004 elections (Repugs in power)
percentage to Dems 82
percentage to Repugs 17
2010 elections (Dems in power)
percentage to Dems 80
percentage to Repugs 20
The entire media industry, as a whole, bucks the general corporate trend, and consistently supports Democrats every election. Most other corporate industries are ruthlessly nonpartisan--they simply give the majority of their money to whichever party happens to be in power, and hop easily from Dem to Repug and back again. "The media" are one of the very few industries that does NOT do that--they are consistently Democrat, year after year after year.
But there are some interesting sub-stories here, specifically centering around Newscorp, the owner of Fox News and the biggest boogie-man here at DKos.
In newspaper/book publishing as of February 2010, the largest contributor, News Corp (Rupert Murdoch's company), gave over three times as much as the second-largest contributor, but split its donations almost evenly, with 54% to the Dems and 46% to the Repugs. All the rest of the top ten contributors, however, were fiercely partisan, with seven of them giving at least 70% of their money to Dems (and four of those giving 100% of their money to Dems), and the remaining 2 giving 93-100% of their money to Repugs. Of the top 20 Congressmen to receive money from the newspaper/book publishing industry, 19 were Democrats. In cable/satellite industry, 4 of the top 5 companies all split their donations, with Dems getting between 57 and 67%. Time-Warner, number four on the list, split 57-43 for the Dems. News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's company, ranked 14th on the list, and split its donations 55-45 for the Dems. Yes, that's right--the company that owns Fox News gave over half its political contributions in 2009-2010, to Democrats. Of the top 10 Congressional recipients of all cable/satellite industry contributions, 8 were Dems; of the top 20, 13 were Dems.
Here are the numbers for the 2011-2012 election cycle, for the largest media companies, counting the total contributions for all Federal candidates:
Company total contributions % to Dems % to Repugs
Comcast Corp $4,386,506 61% 38%
Time Warner $2,687,988 77% 13%
News Corp $1,576,635 72% 29%
http://www.opensecrets.org/....
See that last one there? Newscorp? The owners of Fox News? That's right--the owners of FOX NEWS, in the 2012 election, gave 72% of their contributions to DEMOCRATS.
Let that sink in for a second . . . . . . .
Then let's look at the complete list of every candidate who got money from Newscorp in 2011-2012:
Obama, Barack (D) Pres $150,150
Berman, Howard L (D-CA) House $53,800
Cardin, Ben (D-MD) Senate $35,375
Romney, Mitt (R) Pres $29,950
Waxman, Henry A (D-CA) House $21,500
Whitehouse, Sheldon (D-RI) Senate $18,208
Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA) Senate $16,125
Corker, Bob (R-TN) Senate $14,500
Klobuchar, Amy (D-MN) Senate $14,375
Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) Senate $12,500
Walden, Greg (R-OR) House $10,500
Gillibrand, Kirsten (D-NY) Senate $10,250
Cantor, Eric (R-VA) House $10,000
Upton, Fred (R-MI) House $10,000
McCaskill, Claire (D-MO) Senate $9,499
Smith, Lamar (R-TX) House $9,000
Brown, Scott (R-MA) Senate $8,500
Heller, Dean (R-NV) Senate $8,500
Warren, Elizabeth (D-MA) Senate $7,500
Hatch, Orrin G (R-UT) Senate $7,000
McIntyre, Mike (D-NC) House $7,000
Rubio, Marco (R-FL) Senate $7,000
Schiff, Adam (D-CA) House $7,000
Bono Mack, Mary (R-CA) House $6,500
Tester, Jon (D-MT) Senate $6,500
Kaine, Tim (D-VA) Senate $6,333
Allen, George (R-VA) Senate $6,000
Bilbray, Brian P (R-CA) House $6,000
Dold, Robert (R-IL) House $6,000
Gibson, Chris (R-NY) House $6,000
McMahon, Linda (R-CT) Senate $6,000
Nelson, Bill (D-FL) Senate $6,000
Conyers, John Jr (D-MI) House $5,500
Cicilline, David (D-RI) House $5,250
Clyburn, James E (D-SC) House $5,000
Franken, Al (D-MN) Senate $5,000
Goodlatte, Bob (R-VA) House $5,000
Markey, Edward J (D-MA) House $5,000
McCarthy, Kevin (R-CA) House $5,000
Murphy, Patrick (D-FL) House $5,000
Pelosi, Nancy (D-CA) House $5,000
Watt, Melvin L (D-NC) House $5,000
Heitkamp, Heidi (D-ND) Senate $4,999
Brown, Sherrod (D-OH) Senate $4,500
Dingell, John D (D-MI) House $4,500
Hoyer, Steny H (D-MD) House $4,500
Kerrey, Bob (D-NE) Senate $4,500
Wicker, Roger (R-MS) Senate $4,500
Baldwin, Tammy (D-WI) House $4,199
Becerra, Xavier (D-CA) House $4,000
Cardenas, Tony (D-CA) House $4,000
Cleaver, Emanuel (D-MO) House $4,000
Crowley, Joseph (D-NY) House $4,000
Gardner, Cory (R-CO) House $4,000
Guthrie, Brett (R-KY) House $4,000
Pompeo, Mike (R-KS) House $4,000
Sullivan, John (R-OK) House $4,000
Carmona, Richard (D-AZ) Senate $3,500
Hayworth, Nan (R-NY) House $3,500
Kennedy, Joe III (D-MA) House $3,500
Mourdock, Richard E (R-IN) Senate $3,500
Maffei, Dan (D-NY) House $3,250
Bachmann, Michele (R-MN) House $3,000
Benishek, Dan (R-MI) House $3,000
Biggert, Judy (R-IL) House $3,000
Blackburn, Marsha (R-TN) House $3,000
Blumenthal, Richard (D-CT) Senate $3,000
Gonzalez, Charlie A (D-TX) House $3,000
Graham, Lindsey (R-SC) Senate $3,000
Kinzinger, Adam (R-IL) House $3,000
Runyan, Jon (R-NJ) House $3,000
Schultz, Debbie Wasserman (D-FL) House $3,000
Paul, Ron (R-TX) House $2,504
Amodei, Mark (R-NV) House $2,500
Barrow, John (D-GA) House $2,500
Boehner, John (R-OH) House $2,500
Casey, Bob (D-PA) Senate $2,500
Cherny, Andrei (D-AZ) House $2,500
Chu, Judy (D-CA) House $2,500
Cravaack, Chip (R-MN) House $2,500
Larson, John B (D-CT) House $2,500
Pawlenty, Tim (R) Pres $2,500
Payne, Donald M (D-NJ) House $2,500
Perry, Rick (R) Pres $2,500
Ryan, Paul (R-WI) House $2,500
Bruning, Jon (R-NE) Senate $2,250
Thompson, Tommy G (R-WI) Senate $2,250
Adams, Sandy (R-FL) House $2,000
Berg, Rick (R-ND) House $2,000
Chabot, Steve (R-OH) House $2,000
Coble, Howard (R-NC) House $2,000
Deutch, Ted (D-FL) House $2,000
Gingrey, Phil (R-GA) House $2,000
Gowdy, Trey (R-SC) House $2,000
Landrieu, Mary L (D-LA) Senate $2,000
Manchin, Joe (D-WV) Senate $2,000
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) Senate $2,000
Sanchez, Linda (D-CA) House $2,000
Schock, Aaron (R-IL) House $2,000
Shimkus, John M (R-IL) House $2,000
HEAVENS TO MERGATROID ---who is that I see at the top? And what do all those "D's" after the recipient's names mean . . .?
That's right, folks, Newscorp, the Rupert Murdoch Fox News cesspool of conservatism, gave more money to Barack Obama than any other candidate--five times as much as it gave to Mitt Romney---and four of the five top recipients of Newscorp money were Democrats.
Let that sink in for a few seconds . . . . . . .
We can wave our arms and pee our pants about "the conservative media", but the simple reality remains--"the media" as an industry, in the area that really counts--campaign contributions--gives most of its money to Dems, in every election cycle, year after year after year. Period.