Ratings Squabble Lobbying Continues

David Card | August 09, 2005, 09:26 AM

These are slightly strange bedfellows - the Journal calls yesterday's "Nielsen lobbies the Hill" story from the Times, and raises it with a "Hey, but so does News Corp." piece.

To slow the rollout of the new ratings system, News Corp. has hired a who's who of Democratic operatives: Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign; Mike Feldman, a top adviser to Al Gore; Chris Lehane, a political strategist for former President Bill Clinton; and Minyon Moore, who helped found the liberal America Coming Together group that spent millions of dollars last year trying to defeat President Bush.

While most U.S. corporations send a majority of their political donations to Republican candidates, News Corp. contributed 55% of $130,500 in individual donations from its political action committee to Democrats in 2004, according to the nonpartisan PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks political contributions. Some of the biggest recipients of News Corp. money last year were liberals such as Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Henry Waxman of California. From 1997 to 2003, the company's PAC gave 57% of its individual donations to Republicans.