MSNBC on Kamala Payment to Sharpton: Huh?

We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Ho hum, nothing to see here, just a little payola between friends. 

One has to wonder at MSNBC’s identity as a news and current affairs channel. It had been well over two weeks since the Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross first revealed that Al Sharpton’s nonprofit National Action Network received $500,000 from Kamala Harris’ campaign. The money came in two separate $250,000 remittances, one on September 5 and the other on October 1. 

Just coincidentally, Sharpton then gave Harris airtime to wish him a happy birthday on October 3, and then conducted an infomercial on MSNBC’s air disguised as a news interview:

Sharpton, 70, conducted a glowing interview with Harris on Oct. 20 in which he touted her “extraordinary historic campaign” while referring to Trump as “hostile and erratic.” His questions lined up closely with messages that Harris sought to highlight on the campaign trail. Sharpton addressed concerns among black voters—especially black men—about Harris’s record as a prosecutor in California, where she was given the nickname “Kamala the Cop.” Sharpton brought up Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, and one of Harris’s personal heroes, to put Harris’s candidacy in historical perspective. Sharpton asked Harris whether men who opposed her were “misogynistic.”

Sharpton did not disclose payments from the Harris campaign during either segment with the candidate. 

Paying a show host for air time has a particular term in broadcasting: payola. Technically, MSNBC isn’t a broadcast channel, so the law may not apply, but that’s debatable. What’s not debatable is that Sharpton conducted a corrupt act with this undisclosed personal benefit for his organization after taking a cool half-million bucks in donor money from Team Kamala for this infomercial. And MSNBC still holds itself out as a news organization, operating for the moment under the purview of NBC News.

So what has MSNBC done about it? Two weeks later, the answer appears to be … nothing much. They claim to have been unaware of the payment at the time, but it sounds as though they’re still largely unaware of it still. Maybe they don’t read the news?

MSNBC was “unaware” that Kamala Harris’s campaign paid Al Sharpton’s nonprofit $500,000 shortly before Harris sat for a softball interview with the cable host, a network spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon.

He wouldn’t say, though, whether the left-wing network is taking any action against Sharpton for a move that appears to violate network policy. Other network hosts like Joe Scarborough have been publicly reprimanded for their failure to disclose making, rather than receiving, political donations.

It was actually only Scarborough and Keith Olbermann, and the suspensions in those cases were ticky-tack:

The network has previously suspended hosts, including “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough and former host Keith Olbermann, both in 2010, over similar violations, but the network spokesman declined to say whether the prohibition against political contributions has changed since then.

“Anyone working for NBC News who takes part in civic or other outside activities may find that these activities jeopardize his or her standing as an impartial journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest,” the network’s policy stated at that time. “Such activities may include participation in or contributions to political campaigns or groups that espouse controversial positions. You should report any such potential conflicts in advance to, and obtain prior approval of, the president of NBC News or his designee.”

This isn’t just an apples-oranges comparison, it’s an apples-brussels sprouts comparison. Did Scarborough and Olbermann violate NBC’s ethics rules? Technically, I suppose, but neither one of them worked as an “impartial journalist.” Both were hosts of opinion talk shows at the time. No one had any delusions that they were unbiased. And yet, NBC News suspended both for contributing their own money to campaigns in 2010 in compliance with donor laws, not taking money from campaigns and then interviewing the candidates without disclosure in violation of the FCC’s payola criminal statute:

Section 507 of the Communications Act, 47 U.S.C. § 508, requires that, when anyone provides or promises to provide money, services or other consideration to someone to include program matter in a broadcast, that fact must be disclosed in advance of the broadcast, ultimately to the station over which the matter is to be aired.  Both the person providing or promising to provide the money, services or other consideration and the recipient are obligated to make this disclosure so that the station may broadcast the sponsorship identification announcement required by Section 317 of the Communications Act.  Failure to disclose such payment or the providing of services or other consideration, or promise to provide them, is commonly referred to as “payola” and is punishable by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than one year or both. These criminal penalties bring violations within the purview of the Department of Justice.

Again, this may not apply to MSNBC as it technically doesn’t operate over public airwaves. Nevertheless, it meets all of the other elements of the crime, a law passed by Congress to keep broadcast hosts from defrauding their listeners and viewers. And note that this law applies to both the host and the guest, and requires both to disclose such “money, services, or other consideration” at the time of the broadcast. And we’re not talking about a nice dinner at Morton’s that might run into three figures — we’re talking about $500,000 that went into Sharpton’s business. 

And two weeks after this corrupt scheme got exposed, MSNBC still hasn’t come up with an answer about what consequences will follow. Sharpton continued on the air this past weekend to host his MSNBC show Politics Nation, which is accessible through NBC’s portal. Apparently, neither MSNBC nor NBC News cares whether their host got paid off for an interview, not even enough to come up with a response when asked two weeks later. Adjust your assessment of NBC accordingly.