Reporter Helen Thomas, whose contentious comments about Israeli Jews led to her departure last year from the White House press corps, has found a new employer who himself is notably outspoken about political matters and financially supportive of Democratic political interests.

Thomas, 90, is now writing columns for Nicholas Benton, founder, owner and editor-in-chief of the Falls Church News-Press, a weekly paper in northern Virginia with a circulation of 30,000. In an interview with OpenSecrets Blog in September, Benton, who has made numerous donations to political candidates and partisan organizations, said he expects his readers to “appreciate” him “engaging as a fully enfranchised U.S. citizen.”

“To sit back passively and echo what political candidates and politicians say without providing the readers of an assessment of the relative merits on the standpoint of truth and of facts is a disservice,” Benton told our own Megan R. Wilson, adding that letters to the editor and op-ed columns provide a “failsafe” to give readers “a sense they can judge what we’ve said.”

A newspaper, Benton continued, is not so much about providing balance, but about providing readers with the truth by pointing out different points of view.

For Benton (pictured left), political truths appear to lie more with Democrats than Republicans.

Since the 2000 election cycle, he’s contributed nearly $30,000 to various left-leaning interests and candidates. Among the recipients of his political generosity over the years: President Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

During the 2010 election cycle alone, Benton has spread around more than $7,300 to organizations such as the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party of Virginia, the Eighth District Democratic Committee and the Arlington Democratic Joint Federal Campaign, the Center for Responsive Politics‘ research indicates.

(Download Benton’s full contribution history here: bentondonations.xls)

In discussing the notion of how journalists’ political donations may appear to the public at large, Benton said he “could care less about an appearance of something.”

“I am not a public official,” he said. “I’m not looking to the public for a job.”

Thomas, for her part, resigned in June from the Hearst News Service after telling a video camera-toting rabbi that Israeli Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to countries such as Poland, Germany and the United States.

The remarks ended her remarkable run as a White House correspondent, which began during the Kennedy administration.



Center for Responsive Politics senior researcher Douglas Weber contributed to this report.



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]

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