Murdoch has given a lot of money to the Clinton campaign. So has Murdoch started donating to Obama? Has he been donating money to any of the Republican candidates? Any one know?
By the way, it is not necessarily true that the dictate to endorse Obama came from Murdoch. I heard that Peter Chernin, the president of News Corp, is anti-Hillary in a typically sexist way. This is just rumor-gossip and may be false.
Wouldn't it be so much nicer if along with the pseudo-democracy of presidential primaries and the pseudo-politics of presidential campaign reporting over tears and haircuts and such, if we also had a real live auction?
Here is my proposal. The presidential candidates each stand on a pedestal and all the people who want to "donate" to their campaigns bid on each candidate. We can broadcast the bidding live and report on who gets the best and most bids from who.
The only good thing to say about anti-worker, super-rich tecnocrats like Bloomberg is that they don't need the bids of the other members of the owning classes. They have enough of their own money to be relatively independent.
As far as I can see Clinton and Obama have no choice but to be bought and sold by the money men (a few women). But one of the conditions of being a politician in the presidential race is that you have to sell yourself to these rich white men _and_ you also have to love selling yourself to them.
Jerry
A quote from David Walsh at WSWS http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/writ-f02.shtml
"The current bitter conflict pits the writers against a number of massive corporations, pillars of the US ruling elite. This Hollywood wing of the elite plays a particularly significant role in bankrolling the Democratic Party. While both Clinton and Obama released statements at the beginning of the strike expressing their support for the writers, that was merely for public relations purposes. In reality, the two Democratic hopefuls depend heavily on the largesse of film and television executives—at present stubbornly refusing the writers' modest demands and smearing them in the media—for campaign funds.
'Late last February, for example, during the Presidents' Day recess of Congress, Obama's campaign organized a $2,300-per-ticket Beverly Hills reception, attended by film stars, studio executives and others, which raised some $1.3 million.
"Not to be outdone, in March 2007 the Clinton campaign raised $2.6 million at a Beverly Hills gala held at the estate of supermarket billionaire Ronald Burkle, also attended by Hollywood leading lights.
"Like the Democratic Party establishment as a whole, the media and entertainment elite is divided in its loyalties, or still undecided. Clinton has the support of Rupert Murdoch of News Corp (Fox Television, 20th Century Fox) and National Amusements billionaire Sumner Redstone (CBS, Viacom), former Paramount Studios chief Lansing, Barbra Streisand, Spielberg, Harvey Weinstein and Hugh Hefner.
"In his camp Obama has Spielberg's DreamWorks partners Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, ex-Disney chief Michael Eisner (who denounced the writers' strike as "stupid" n November), producer Norman Lear and Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman Michael Lynton, among others.
"After Thursday's tepid debate, as one commentator noted, "it was off to even more important business, as Obama drove up the street to the Avalon nightclub and Hillary headed west toward the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, each to attend $2,300-per-ticket fundraisers."
"In the 2008 election cycle so far the television, film and music industry has provided the various candidates with $15,354,208 in contributions, 77 percent of that going to the Democrats (www.opensecrets.org). Individuals or Political Action Committees involved in movie production specifically have handed over $4,175,659—91 percent to the Democratic Party.
"On the list of top industries contributing to the Clinton campaign, "television, music and movies" ranks 7th, having given $2.1 million. The same industry ranks 6th on Obama's list, having contributed $2.2 million. Clinton has received $6.3 million from the Los Angeles-Long Beach, California area (with $565,525 coming from Beverly Hills), while Obama has taken in $5.1 million from the same area.
"Among the top 20 contributors to the Clinton campaign organized by individual firm, along with banking and investment giants Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns, one finds Redstone's National Amusements ($193,850), Time Warner ($124,150) and Murdoch's News Corp ($99,350).
"On Obama's list, in addition to Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, one again comes across the names of National Amusements ($220,950) and Time Warner ($142,718).
"The prominence of Time Warner on both lists is noteworthy, so too the personal contributions of Barry Meyer, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros (a division of Time Warner), to both the Clinton and Obama campaigns. The debate Thursday was broadcast on CNN, another division of Time Warner, and moderated by the cable network's Wolf Blitzer. Warner Bros is one of the companies currently struck by the writers and Meyer is considered to be one of their most intransigent opponents.
"Is it any wonder then that the writers' situation never came up for discussion Thursday? No, it's not."
On 1/31/08, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:
>
> On Jan 31, 2008, at 10:09 PM, W. Kiernan wrote:
>
> > Doug Henwood channeled Lucifer:
> >>
> Lucifer? Lucifer is the planet Venus as morning star. Nothing more,
> nothing less. Many cultures have divinized stars. Only Christians are
> stupid enough to diabolize one.
> >>
>
> >> Pardongate
> > Of those first six "scandals," how many amounted to zero?
>
> Five. But the Marc Rich pardon stinks to--if not high heaven (that
> would be
> the Leonard Pelletier non-pardon)--the next highest level. McCain's
> propagandists will play that far beyond the Willie Horton level if
> Mrs. Clinton
> is the Dumbocratic candidate. The ads have already been made and
> stockpiled. Watch out.
>
> Shane Mage
>
> "Thunderbolt steers all things...it consents and does not consent to
> be called Zeus."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and browsing http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/