Some Music Journalists Could Maybe Possibly Be Somewhat Liberal

Brian Raftery | June 21, 2007 10:42 am
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This morning, MSNBC printed the names of several journalists who have donated money to political campaigns, including staffers at Rolling Stone and MTV. And after being contacted by the site for a comment, one of the lucky listees didn’t take too kindly to making the cut:

(D) MTV News, Gideon Yago, “Choose or Lose” presidential correspondent, $200 to Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark in January 2004; $500 to America Coming Together, which campaigned against President Bush, in September 2004; $250 to the Democratic National Committee in September 2004; $250 to VoteVets, which is running ads against the president’s handling of the war, in March 2006, and $250 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in October 2006. He said he is no longer at MTV News.

Gideon Yago, raw:

“I don’t understand. Things that I do as a private citizen?

“We’re not a traditional news network in the sense of NBC or Fox or CBS.

“We’re sensitive about equal time or fairness. We’re non-biased.

“I mean, what the f—, man?

“I came back from doing coverage in Iraq and was very moved by what I saw. I was never told by my boss or anyone that we couldn’t give to a campaign.

“I’m not a journalist now. Writing fiction.

“I would never qualify what we do as journalism. Ninety percent of what we did was simple identification, after 9/11: Who is Rumsfeld? Who is Colin Powell? Who is Al Qaeda?

“I try to call it as you see it.

“After my second trip to Iraq in 2004, I felt the conventional news media was not doing a good enough job of conveying the horrors and the failures of the war in Iraq.

“At 18 I was a registered Republican. At 24, I was a registered Democrat.

“I tried very hard — our job was not an indoctrination process — I tried to be as professional as possible whenever possible.

“We were a non-traditional news outlet. We were nonpartisan.

“”OK, I’ve been rebuked. Thank you for spanking me in public.

“Do you hand in all your rights as a public citizen when you do this?

“I mean — who’s your editor? I’m going to call him right now.”

Also on the list was Rolling Stone‘s Jann Wenner, who gave “$25,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 2006; $20,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2006; $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 2004; $5,000 to committees supporting Bob Casey, a Democrat elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania in 2006; $1,250 to Democracy for America, Democrat Howard Dean’s PAC, in 2004; $1,008 to America Coming Together, which opposed President Bush, in 2004; and $500 to Democratic Senate candidate Ned Lamont in Connecticut in 2006.” No surprises there, except for the fact that he didn’t give any money to Mark Knopfler’s run for London Postal Master’s Assistant.

On a slightly related note, one of your Idolators is disappointed that no one cares about his $200 donation to the John Kerry campaign back in 2004. Then again, that money would have probably been better spent on Mrs. Lucky Penny-A-Go-Go to finish at Belmont.

Journalists dole out cash to politicians (quietly) [MSNBC]