Seems not all Democrat operatives find Rupert Murdoch's money as unappealing as his politics.
An item from the *K Street Files:
Is Fox Funding the Kerry Campaign? You DecideSeveral of the Democratic strategists hired last week to help turn around the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) share a peculiar financial backer. Before accepting official positions to help defeat President Bush, the Democrats or their consulting firms were on the payroll of media giant News Corp.
That’s right — the Rupert Murdoch-owned company that Democrats love to hate because of its allegedly anti-Democratic bias.Earlier this year, News Corp. hired Democratic strategist Howard Wolfson to head an aggressive campaign to block Nielsen Media Research from changing the television ratings system in way that reduced viewership for Fox and its affiliate, UPN.
Wolfson and his public relations firm, Glover Park Group, ran a lobbying, advertising and grassroots campaign designed to persuade black and Hispanic lawmakers to pressure Nielsen to scrap the new ratings system.
Last week, Wolfson and partner Joe Lockhart took temporary leave from the Glover Park Group to help out the Kerry campaign. Wolfson joined the Democratic National Party as a senior adviser for communications while Lockhart, a White House spokesman for then-President Bill Clinton, agreed to help strengthen the rapid-response communications for the Kerry campaign.
During its battle with Nielsen, News Corp. brought on two other firms run by Democrats who have recently signed up with the Kerry effort: Dewey Square
Group, a public relations firm founded by Democratic consultant Michael Whouley, and Grassroots Enterprises, which is chaired by former Clinton spokesman Mike McCurry.
Last week, Whouley was tapped to run the general election operations for the Democratic National Party and McCurry agreed to help Kerry negotiate the format for this fall’s presidential debates.
What are the odds that McCurry will appear on Fox as a Kerry spokeman?
(*Roll Call subscription req'd)