Last year, Christopher Hayes gave $250 to the congressional campaign of a good friend, Alabama Democrat Josh Segall.

That’s hardly noteworthy, but for one factor: Hayes is the Washington, D.C., editor of The Nation, a left-leaning news magazine that covers U.S. politics. And his political donation is not an anomaly in journalism, where donating to or otherwise advocating for politicians is often taboo – if not prohibited outright by some news companies.

Hayes is one of 235 people who identified themselves on government documents as journalists, or as working for news organizations, who together have donated more than $469,900 to federal political candidates, committees and parties during the 2010 election cycle, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates.

People identifying themselves as working for hard news outlets such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Post, News Corp., Vanity Fair and Reuters are among the listed donors. Also listed are employees from outlets offering lighter fare — ESPN, Vogue — or community news. Some have donated thousands of dollars.

The average contribution per person identified is eight times Hayes’ amount, and because of some big-spending media professionals, that number is slightly skewed upwards — with the median amount donated coming in at $500. Sixty-five percent of all identified donations went to Democrats, the Center’s research indicates.

To download an itemized spreadsheet of self-identified journalists and other people working for news organizations, click here: Media Donations 091410.xls Hayes, for his part, says he views his political donation with nuance.

He explains his relationship with his friend-turned-candidate would, for example, ethically eliminate him from being able to cover anything related to the Alabama 3rd Congressional District race, in which his friend was running. (He lost.)

“My own personal feeling is that I don’t donate to political campaigns,” Hayes said, adding that he made the exception simply out of “personal admiration” for his friend, Segall. “Whatever threat of conflict is already there. It seems like the least of it to throw an extra $250 on top of it.”

MUST JOURNALISTS ‘SIT BACK PASSIVELY’?

Despite the potential for controversy, some journalists who’ve made political contributions reject the notion that their interests are conflicting, saying their action as private citizens and as journalists are not mutually exclusive.

Paul Tharp, a business reporter for the New York Post, last year donated $750 to Rep. Michael McMahon (D-N.Y.), the Center’s analysis of Federal Election Commission records show. Tharp said his two donations represent a “satisfaction with [McMahon’s] public service” and his work with the arts.

“Just because I am a reporter doesn’t mean I give up my rights,” Tharp said. “I have an interest in public service, but not politics. I cover business.”

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, agreed, saying he expects his readers to “appreciate” him “engaging as a fully enfranchised U.S. citizen.”

During the 2010 cycle, Benton has spread more than $4,000 among 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.

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

“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 said, 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.”

TOUGH POLICIES AGAINST POLITICAL DONATIONS

Major news outlets look dimly upon their journalists participating in politics.

The Associated Press, the New York Times, Reuters, ABC News and other media companies have specific guidelines for journalists that pertain to activities that could jeopardize the perception of journalistic integrity — including making political donations. These outlets do not distinguish among types of employees – direct political participation is forbidden, at least without the permission of a supervisor.

The Society of Professional Journalists likewise features a conduct code that recommends journalists “avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived” and “remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.”

Hayes, who is also a contributor to MSNBC and a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, said The Nation has no specific political contribution policy of which he is aware.

“We’re pretty — and this is ironic, considering the politics of the magazine — laissez-faire,” he said. “We believe in transparency and disclosure, we’re all pretty zealous about disclosing things.”

Aaron Quinn, a journalism professor specializing in ethics at California State University, Chico, says journalists are ever-increasingly becoming “public figures” in ways similar to public officials, celebrities and the like. This makes their actions more open to scrutiny, he said.

Furthermore, the mere appearance of a conflict of interest is effectively the same as actually having one, Quinn said.

In discussing the notion of how journalists’ political donations may appear to the public at large, Benton, the Falls Church newspaper owner, 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.”

REPORTERS’ POLITICAL DONATIONS ARE ‘NOBODY’S BUSINESS’

Like Hayes, other media professionals have employed their checkbooks for political purposes in the name of camaraderie.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh donated $1,000 to Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) during this campaign cycle. Hersh said the two met while Minnick worked in the Nixon administration.

“I’ve always respected him,” said Hersh, a frequent contributor to the New Yorker who became famous for revealing the My Lai Massacre in 1969, and continues to write investigative pieces, including exposing elements of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2004.

Hersh said it’s “great” that journalists are giving money.

“A: It’s nobody’s business. B: It’s not like I’m giving money to a presidential candidate or a party,” he added, saying that he’s also given money to a Washington state senatorial candidate, who is Republican. “I’m giving money to people I think are good people.”

Vanity Fair and co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room, a book about the Bethany McLean, a contributing editor forand co-author of, a book about the Enron scandal — donated $2,000 to U.S. Senate candidate David Hoffman (D-Ill.), who this year lost in a primary to Alexi Giannoulias.

Hoffman, she said, is a “close personal friend” of her husband. Her donation to Hoffman is a direct result of knowing him personally.

Because of ethics concerns, the political contribution to Hoffman represents the first time McLean has given money to a candidate or party, she said. But McLean says her donation to Hoffman isn’t a conflict of interest because it would not affect her coverage.

“His campaign platform was one of fixing corruption in Chicago,” McLean said. ‘I don’t cover Chicago, I don’t cover politics.”

Officials at Vanity Fair and Conde Nast, which owns the magazine, did not respond to questions about whether the company has a code of ethics for its employees, and if so, what it says about political contributions.

William Garth, owner of the Chicago Citizen, donated $1,500 to his friend, congressional candidate Cheryle Jackson.

“I am the owner, not a reporter, so I don’t have to make a judgment on the candidates,” he said in response to questions regarding a potential conflict of interest. “The newspaper didn’t give her the money; I gave her the money.”

The Chicago Citizen says on its website that it is a progressive organization and the largest chain of weekly newspapers in the Chicago area that caters to a black audience.

While friendship has led some media professionals into their first forays into political activity this election season, others have been financially active in the past.

Tharp, the New York Post business reporter, acknowledges he has donated to conservatives in past years, and FEC data shows he made a $1,000 donation to McMahon in 2008.

Hayes has also previously donated to a politician.

That came in the fall of 2003 when Barack Obama was running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. Hayes’ friends threw him a keg party for his birthday, the now-31-year-old editor said, and they charged $10 per head with the proceeds donated to Obama’s campaign.

NOT ALL DONATIONS CREATED EQUAL

In some cases, donations by people identifying themselves as journalists aren’t clear-cut.

For instance, donations from employees of apolitical publications and outlets such as Vogue, Glamour, Men’s Health and ESPN — employees of which have made political donations this cycle, according to the Center’s review of federal data — are arguably less notable than those of a general assignment, political or business reporter or editor. The same could be said for editors at publishing houses that in part produce journalistic works.

Some of these people are, however, among the most generous political donors this election cycle.

For example, Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, maxed out contribution limits last year, giving $30,400 to the DNC, as well as donating $2,000 to Rep. Timothy Bishop (D-N.Y.) in October. ESPN Executive Producer Maura Mandt also gave $30,400 to the DNC during this election cycle. Wintour and Mandt are two of just six media professionals who have contributed more than five figures since January 2009. The others include: G.O. Nutting, of West Virginia, publisher of Ogden Newspapers, who has contributed $43,400 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee

Beth Shaw, a self-employed financial writer based in New York, who has contributed $35,200 — maxing out to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and the DNC last year

Richard Mellon Scaife, owner, and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review , who has contributed $14,400 this cycle between the Republican National Committee, Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey and Louis J. Barletta, the Republican candidate in eastern Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District

, who has contributed $14,400 this cycle between the Republican National Committee, Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey and Louis J. Barletta, the Republican candidate in eastern Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District Cox radio host Herman Cain, who has contributed $13,600 split between five Republican congressional candidates A few journalists OpenSecrets Blog attempted to reach appear to no longer work for the companies listed as their employers on FEC forms, including entries from people listed as working for the Washington Post, New York Times and Dallas Morning News. In these cases, the individuals did not appear in public listings of the companies’ employees, and the publications did not reply to inquiries about the individuals’ employment status. ( Update, 12:53 p.m. Sept. 15 : The New York Times‘ Diane McNulty confirmed in an e-mail that two people listed in FEC records as Times employees indeed no longer work for the company, and when they did, were “corporate employees with no connection to the newsroom” and would “not be covered by the Times‘ journalistic guidelines in any case.”)

Other anomalies explain why journalists who seemingly made a political donation actually did not.

Take the case of ABC News reporter Kristina Wong who federal records indicate twice donated $200 to the Democratic Party of Virginia.

Wong says the “donations” stem from the purchase of two $200 presidential inaugural ball tickets, as she had been scheduled to cover the event. Wong ended up covering another story, and the tickets were returned, she said in an e-mail. FEC records corroborate her account by displaying the initial figures as negative amounts as well, and in previous election cycles, journalists purchasing inaugural ball tickets proved to be common practice.

Wong also wrote in an e-mail that ABC’s policy would prohibit journalists from donating to a political race.

SOME POLITICALLY ACTIVE JOURNALISTS AREN’T TALKING

Of the 22 political contribution-making media professionals OpenSecrets Blog attempted to contact, nine returned voice and e-mail messages. Of them, three declined to comment: Christine Williamson, a hedge funds reporter at a Crain Communications publication called Pensions and Investments, Daniel O’Neill, a web designer at a subsidiary of MSNBC.com and Joseph Scotchie, an editor of a community paper in New York who donated $1,250 to the NRSC.

Reuters for 20 years according to Reuters Attorney Editor.” She donated $600 to the DNC. Notable among those who did not return messages is Melissa Stull, who has worked forfor 20 years according to her profile on LinkedIn and is listed in federal records as “Attorney Editor.” She donated $600 to the DNC.

The spokesperson for Reuters, which operates a large international news wire service, also did not reply to questions regarding whether the company would take issue with Stull’s donations.

New York Post, Jesse Angelo, who donated a total of $3,400 to Kentucky Democrat Jack Conway’s The New Republic, who has donated $4,800 to Sen. Washington Post‘s Mary Bannon, who spread $5,000 in donations to six Democratic congressional candidates and one Republican. Bannon’s position at the Post is alternately is listed in federal documents as “marketing,” “director of strategic initiatives” and “director of research.” Others who did not respond include: The managing editor of the, Jesse Angelo, who donated a total of $3,400 to Kentucky Democrat Jack Conway’s campaign for U.S. Senate ; Martin Peretz, managing editor of, who has donated $4,800 to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.); and‘s Mary Bannon, who spread $5,000 in donations to six Democratic congressional candidates and one Republican. Bannon’s position at theis alternately is listed in federal documents as “marketing,” “director of strategic initiatives” and “director of research.”

Hayes, The Nation‘s Washington editor, says journalists who are willing to make a political donation should at least be willing to explain it to another journalist inquiring about it.

He added that while it would likely be best for journalists to stay out of political donations altogether, “it’s worth considering what we think a contribution is going to accomplish,” adding that politicians are no more likely to meet with reporters if they throw some cash their way.

“If you were paying for access,” Hayes said, “that would be a scandal.” Center for Responsive Politics Senior Researcher Douglas Weber and Money-in-Politics Reporter Michael Beckel 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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