News Corp. Donated $1 Million To A Pro-Republican Group

Politico’s Ben Smith is reporting that Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp., parent company of Fox News, donated $1 million to Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby that supports Republican candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.

This isn’t the first time Murdoch’s company has made a large donation to a conservative group—this summer, Fox News itself reported that News Corp. had donated another $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, a partisan group designed to support GOP gubernatorial candidates. News of the donation led to something of a kerfluffle between Fox News and Media Matters, as well as a pretty hilarious segment on The Daily Show.

In his piece, Smith notes that other media giants like Disney and GE have also made political contributions; typically, though, those donations have been “in far smaller chunks, and split between Democrats and Republicans.” News Corp., too, has shared the wealth between candidates in each party in the past—but these $1 million gifts are causing many media voices to ask whether the company has crossed some sort of line.

Here’s a bit more information from Smith:

Spokesmen for News Corp. and for Fox declined to comment on the chamber contribution, or on whether Fox chief Roger Ailes, a former GOP political operative, had a role in it.

After the News Corp. donation to the RGA became known in August, the company denied that Ailes was involved, and a spokesman told POLITICO at the time that the contribution was made to support the Republican committee’s “pro-business agenda.”

A spokesman for the chamber, J.P. Fielder, declined to discuss or confirm a specific contribution – the chamber is fighting to continue to keep contributions secret — but responded to a question about the Fox donation by characterizing the chamber’s agenda.

“What I can tell you is that the chamber has been and will continue to be engaged in the issue debate in this election cycle, focusing our efforts on educating voters about where candidates stand on policies that create jobs,” Fielder said.

Specifically, the chamber has said it plans to spend $75 million in connection with the 2010 election, and has so far has directed substantial amounts to Republican Senate candidates. As of Sept. 15th, the group had spent $6,747,946 airing more than 8,000 ads on behalf of GOP Senate candidates, according to a study from the Wesleyan Media Project.

That figure made the chamber the biggest spender on congressional races of any interest group, and the second biggest-spending national group after the RGA.

You can read his post in full here.