Back in October, I buttonholed Rupert Murdoch at a dinner and asked him whether he had expected the News Corp. political donations to Republican-backing organizations that caused such a furor last fall to become public.
He said no – at least not all of them. He had expected the $1 million gift to the Republican Governors Association to become public, but not the $1 million gift to the Republican-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He also said the RGA gift had been a result of “my friendship with John Kasich.”
That ticked off some shareholders, including the activist shareholders at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, who wrote a letter to News Corp. saying, “The apparent lack of a strategic rationale for News Corp. raises very serious concerns for shareholders as to whether Mr. Murdoch and the rest of the News Corp. Board of Directors are truly taking shareholder interests into account when they approve political payments made with shareholders’ assets.”
Murdoch got more grilling from shareholders at News Corp.’s October shareholders meeting.
“The chair has been quoted in POLITICO as saying that his $1 million contribution to the Republican Governors Association ‘had nothing to do with’ News Corp., it was based on his personal friendship with Kasich,” said foundation chief executive Lance Lindblom. “Have you investigated this matter, and considered rescission of this contribution?”
He further pressed for News Corp. to institute a policy of disclosing its political donations, saying, “Does the company plan to join Time Warner and other leading companies in providing full disclosure and board oversight of its political contributions and payments to trade associations and other tax-exempt organizations that are used for political purposes?”
Now, the answer is apparently “yes.”
Media Matters points to an announcement on News Corp.’s website that, as of April 12, company’s board has “adopted a new policy to publicy disclose corporate contributions annually on News Corporation’s corporate website.”
Source: http://feeds.politico.com/click.phdo?i=74197095dbd57428f99bee477a3550a0
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