Tune into television coverage of the presidential campaign and undoubtedly you will hear from various pundits described as “former campaign strategists” and “political contributors” explaining the latest developments of the race. But in many cases, these pundits — though introduced as neutral experts on campaigns or party politics — in fact have financial ties to the candidates they praise on the air.
Several consultants who work at firms retained by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her affiliated Super PACs appear regularly on the major television networks, frequently touting Clinton.
A review of pundits on the major networks and cable news also found one prominent pundit who often praised Jeb Bush, without the network revealing her relationship with his campaign.
“Journalism 101 teaches that reporters and TV news hosts must properly identify their sources and analysts,” says Jeff Cohen, an associate professor of journalism at Ithaca College. We reached out to NBC, CBS, CNN, and ABC News, but did not hear back.
Stephanie Cutter, for example, has appeared on multiple networks to discuss Clinton, and is typically introduced as a former campaign official for President Barack Obama. What hasn’t been disclosed in any of her appearances reviewed by The Intercept, however, is that the boutique consulting firm she co-founded, Precision Strategies, has been retained by the Clinton campaign for “digital consulting,” according to Federal Election Commission records. Precision Strategies has been paid at least $120,049 from the Clinton campaign since June of last year.
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Maria Cardona, a CNN contributor, has appeared on a regular basis over the course the presidential campaign as a reliable voice in support of Clinton. She is also a longtime partner at the Dewey Square Group, a lobbying firm with extensive ties to the Clinton campaign: Two Dewey Square partners serve as fundraisers for the Clinton campaign, each raising at least $100,000; both pro-Clinton Super PACs — Priorities USA Action and Correct the Record — have paid Dewey Square for consulting services during this election; and the co-founding partner of Dewey Square now serves as the chief administrative officer of the Clinton campaign. Notably, Cardona, a DNC “superdelegate” who pledged support for Clinton last year, before any of the primary elections, also contributed the maximum donation to Clinton’s campaign.
Those ties, however, were not revealed to CNN viewers even as Cardona defended Clinton’s use of a private email server, touted Clinton’s support from young voters, praised Clinton’s record on criminal justice reform, and — on two separate occasions — declared that Clinton will “fight for middle-class families.” She has also appeared frequently on the network to analyze the race between Bernie Sanders and Clinton, often castigating the Vermont senator. Cardona appears on CNN, CNN en Español, and CNN International.
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CNBC contributor Sara Fagen, a political operative, has appeared twice on ABC News’s This Week to discuss the state of Republican primaries. Both times, she touted Jeb Bush’s campaign, which ended last week after a long string of dismal failures.
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Fagen also used her position with CNBC to praise Bush’s campaign and criticize his opponents in televised appearances and through a column she writes for the website. In September, Fagen used her CNBC column to predict the “beginning of the end” of Donald Trump’s leading position in the Republican field. In the piece, she argued that Trump’s downfall would likely benefit candidates like Bush, who had collected the most “endorsements from political leaders.” In two different CNBC columns this year, Fagen praised Bush’s debate performances. In one, published on February 8, Fagen said Bush could use the New Hampshire primary, even if he finished second or third, to “catapult into the GOP nomination” and “be a new comeback kid.”
Throughout her punditry over the last year, Fagen has been introduced or bylined as a “Republican strategist” and contributor to CNBC. But FEC records show that the Bush campaign paid Deep Root Analytics, a data-consulting firm co-founded by Fagen, $586,610 in 2015, starting in July. Right to Rise USA, the Bush-supporting Super PAC, paid Deep Root Analytics $273,001, with payments starting in August 2015 and continuing into January 2016. She has also been a “bundler” for the Bush campaign, a term used to describe a fundraiser who helps collect campaign checks.
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More:
https://theintercept.com/2016/02/25...l-to-disclose-financial-ties-to-her-campaign/
