Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Surprise, surprise, surprise

Times PAC
IT should surprise no one that the editorial staff at the New York Times is overwhelmingly Democratic. But now there's proof. A dissident shareholder, Michael Petrelis of San Francisco, went through Federal Election Commission files and found the names of two dozen past and present Times employees who gave to candidates. Petrelis is upset that some, like book critic Janet Maslin, apparently violated the Times code of ethics revised in January 2003 to prohibit political donations. Maslin gave $500 to Dean for America. Other recipients of Times staffers' largesse were Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Al Sharpton, Bill Bradley, Robert Torricelli, Marion Barry, and Al Gore.
Some nice bowsers on that list.
Only two Republicans received donations from Times staffers: the late Jacob Javits and congressional candidate Ed Bryant.
Javits? He must have gone back to the Jurassic.
Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said almost all the contributions were made before the rules were changed. "In the few instances where this is not the case, the journalists have been reminded of the guidelines." Now the only way to tell how Times reporters will be voting is by reading their stories.
Ya think?