December 17, 2004
Choose the blue or um er ... purple?
An e-mail from the Carnells alerted me to "Choose the Blues," a site dedicated to letting good Democrats know what businesses to support and which to avoid. The idea being that by using public sources to track the spending of different corporations, "Choose the Blue" can pinpoint which businesses support worthy (read Democratic) candidates and thus those compaines that are worthy of patronage.
One problem with this sort of effort, as the radical Israeli group Gush Shalom found out a few years ago, is that it can easily backfire. If you publicize the list for all to see, those who disagree with you will use your information and patronize the establishments that you are warning folks away from!
Another problem is that upon a closer look at some of this information you will be scratching your head. Say I want to watch some political broadcasting I would most likely watch Fox or Fox News Channel. Wouldn't I? Well, according to CTB, I wouldn't want to. I might prefer to watch MSNBC. Why?
Well of the more than $1 million that News Corporation ( Fox's corporate parent) donates to political campaigns more than 2/3 s of it goes to Democrats. So that's why I'd prefer to watch Keith Olbermann at MSNBC. "What?!!!" you say. And I answer that NBC's parent, GE contibutes twice as much money to Republican canditates as to Demorats.
So you might expect that Microsoft a partner with NBC in MSNBC would also support Republican candidates. You would be expecting wrongly. Microsoft mostly funds Democratic candidates. This is a little surprising because it was largely (though not exclusively) Democratic AG's who followed the Clinton administration's efforts to penalize Microsoft. Maybe it's protection money!
You won't be surprised to learn that Viacom, CBS's parent favors Democratic candidates. Or that ABC's parent Disney donates 70% of its gifts to Democratic candidates too.
Country Music, generally, has a red-state appeal. But if you buy Country Weekly, a periodical devoted to the genre you would be supporting Democrats courtesy of CW's parent, American Media inc.
Another surprise is Target. Sen Mark Dayton's (D Minn) family owns/owned Target chain. However Target favors Republican candidates with 73% of its largesse.
Go figure.