Has News Corp. donated to Rove's GOP slush fund?

Written by Matt Gertz

Published

It's a question to which we may never learn the answer: Has News Corp., Fox News' parent company, donated to Crossroads GPS, the GOP slush fund backed by Fox News analyst Karl Rove? Here are the facts:

1) In the last year, News Corp. has donated $1.25 million to the Republican Governors Association, a political committee that works to defeat Democratic gubernatorial candidates, and $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is spending $75 million on this election, largely to defeat Democratic congressional and Senate candidates.

2) News Corp. did not admit to the donations until they were reported by other news outlets. Rupert Murdoch has said that “didn't expect” the chamber donation to ever become public; unlike the RGA, the chamber is not required to disclose its donors.

3) Murdoch has said that the donations were made because it is “in the interest of the country and of all the shareholders ... that there be a fair amount of change in Washington.”

4) During an October 15 shareholder meeting, Sir Roderick Eddington, chairman of the audit committee, said he understood shareholders' calls for transparency and Murdoch indicated the company would consider some type of disclosure. But neither of them mentioned a $250,000 donation to the RGA that was reported by The New York Times the next day.

5) Crossroads GPS is a political group backed by Rove that is running millions of dollars in ads attacking Democratic Senate and House candidates. As a 501(c)(4) organization, Crossroads GPS can take unlimited donations from corporations and is not required to disclose its contributors.

To sum up: News Corp. wants to spend a lot of money backing Republican candidates in order to effect “change” in Washington, preferably without anyone learning about their donations. Their own employee is backing a group that doesn't disclose its donors and is running millions in attack ads against Democrats.

Seems like a perfect marriage, doesn't it? As of posting, News Corp. had not responded to repeated inquiries from Media Matters concerning whether they have donated to Crossroads GPS. But at the risk of writing Rove a script to ask Murdoch for money, why wouldn't they donate to the group? It certainly isn't the ethical implications holding them back.