Campaign Financing

HA! D.C. Liberals Fail To Put Corporate Donations Ban on Ballot
By Matt Vespa | August 9, 2012 | 3:06 PM EDT

The next time a liberal friend of yours tells you the American people believe corporate money in politics is a winning issue for Democrats, you can simply point out that in deep-blue liberal bastion of the District of Columbia that organizers of a petition drive to ban corporate donations fell short of the threshold for getting the issue on November's ballot.

That's right, as Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post reported today, the D.C. Board of Elections "invalidated about 9,000 of those [signatures], leaving them short of the 23,298 valid signatures required to appear on the ballot." DeBonis noted that "[t]he signatures were tossed out for a variety of reasons — belonging to unregistered voters, duplicating other valid signatures, missing addresses, having addresses that don’t match voter records, and illegibility. All told, the effort came up 1,726 signatures short." 

Kochs Counter Galifianakis: 'Laughable to Take Guidance From Guy Who Makes Obscene Gestures With Monkey'
By Noel Sheppard | August 6, 2012 | 7:54 PM EDT

As NewsBusters previously reported, actor Zach Galifianakis on Monday attacked the Koch brothers saying "They are creepy" and 'It’s not freedom what they are doing."

Philip Ellender, President of Government and Public Affairs, Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, responded to this nonsense via email moments ago:

AP's Expanded Report on Heartland Primaries Delivers More Scary Conservative Hype
By Tom Blumer | July 31, 2012 | 8:34 AM EDT

Last night (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) I critiqued a short Associated Press item posted earlier Monday by reporter John Hanna which seemed quite alarmed at the notion that "Conservatives in Republicans are turning against moderates in their own party."

Hanna expanded his report on Monday. Its apparently final version, time-stamped at 5:16 p.m. at the AP's national site, goes further into describing those scary conservatives who want Republicans who will act on principle instead of just going along. What follows are excerpts from material added after the initial report:

Scary Conservatives: AP's Hanna Negatively Frames Likely Conservative GOP Gains in the Heartland
By Tom Blumer | July 30, 2012 | 11:53 PM EDT

Gosh, I think John Hanna and the Associated Press need to do something about their use of eliminationist language and violent imagery.

Look at how AP headlined Hanna's late morning report on the rise of conservatism in several midwestern and southern states at the likely expense of moderate incumbents (shown in full because of its brevity and for fair use and discussion purposes).

AP's Kasie Hunt: A Hotel Is 'Communal' Space; Also Makes Obama Appear Open to the Press
By Tom Blumer | July 29, 2012 | 2:50 PM EDT

In the kerfuffle over the initial refusal by Mitt Romney's campaign to allow reporters into a fundraising event to take place at an Israeli hotel on Monday, a position the campaign reversed late yesterday (early morning in Israel), the Associated Press's Kasie Hunt had, to say the least, an interesting take on property rights, while clearly misstating how the Obama campaign has handled press access.

Here are the first two paragraphs of her report as it existed 20 hours ago, as carried currently at Townhall:

HBO's 'Newsroom' Cherry-Picks Soros-Funded Think Progress Video to Smear Koch Brothers
By Noel Sheppard | July 23, 2012 | 9:35 PM EDT

As NewsBusters previously reported, HBO's The Newsroom has used information for its scripts from material provided to it by the far-left, George Soros-funded propaganda outlet Think Progress.

On Sunday, the show cherry-picked six seconds - yes, I said six seconds! - from a highly-edited TP video to smear conservative businessmen Charles and David Koch (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Piers Morgan Freaks Out Over Bush v. Gore, 'Possible Corrupting' of 'American Presidential System'
By Matt Hadro | July 19, 2012 | 1:23 PM EDT

Liberal CNN host Piers Morgan thinks the Constitution "gave women no rights," and he freaked out about Bush v. Gore during a Wednesday night interview with Justice Antonin Scalia on CNN.

"Get over the possible corrupting of the American presidential system?" an incredulous Morgan gasped when Scalia told critics of Bush v. Gore to "get over it." One of the critics is CNN's own legal analyst Jeff Toobin, who ripped the decision as "a classic example of judicial activism."

PBS's Ifill Compares Romney to Gordon Gekko, Uninterested in Discussing Obama's Failed Subsidies
By Matt Vespa | July 17, 2012 | 5:21 PM EDT

Gwen Ifill of the PBS Newshour hosted Jonathan Martin of Politico and Molly Ball of The Atlantic magazine in a left wing cuddlefest that bashed Romney over Bain, his taxes, and Solyndra on July 16.  Ms. Ifill was not the least concerned that this story is mere fodder for the Obama campaign to pivot away from its abysmal economic record, but nevertheless, started off the shooting gallery by asking Jonathan Martin to "help us explain this Bain back-and-forth."

"At the end of this weekend, was there any more clarity about when he left and if he left Bain?" Ifill asked:

NYT's Weisman Laments 'Limits of Campaign Finance Rules' That Mean Democrats Sometimes Lose Elections
By Clay Waters | July 17, 2012 | 4:31 PM EDT

Congressional Democrats failed to pass the DISCLOSE act Monday, legislation that would require non-profits to identify their donors. New York Times eporter Jonathan Weisman joined the push on Tuesday. Even the headline was regretful about the limits of liberal campaign finance "reform" to rein in a Republican group who defeated a Democratic congressman in 2010: "Tax-Exempt Group’s Election Activity Highlights Limits of Campaign Finance Rules."

Weisman used an example that sounded handpicked from a liberal activist group to make the case for DISCLOSE (not actually named that by the Times, which only used the ponderous full name for the legislation).

NBC and NYT Employees Caught Contributing to Obama Campaign
By Randy Hall | July 16, 2012 | 6:53 PM EDT

Workers in news organizations ranging from the New York Times to NBC News are making donations to President Obama's re-election campaign even though many companies forbid employees to do so for fear that such contributions will raise questions about the staff's impartiality.

According to an article by Alex Pappas, the Daily Caller looked for donations to Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney by searching the names of more than two dozen news organizations on the Federal Election Commission website.

Sarah Silverman Offers Sex Act to Romney Supporter Sheldon Adelson If He Backs Obama Instead
By Noel Sheppard | July 16, 2012 | 5:30 PM EDT

How far are some of Hollywood's liberals willing to go to get Barack Obama reelected?

On Monday, vulgar comedienne Sarah Silverman created a website featuring a totally profane video offering billionaire Mitt Romney supporter Sheldon Adelson a sexual favor to back the current White House resident instead.

NewsBusters Interview: Sen. McConnell Strikes Back at the New York Times
By Noel Sheppard | July 11, 2012 | 7:15 PM EDT

The New York Times on Sunday published an editorial highly critical of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) position on the Disclose Act.

McConnell spoke with NewsBusters Wednesday about why he thinks the Times and other liberal media outlets are in favor of this controversial anti-free speech bill.