On Monday morning, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC fell in line and faithfully touted the promises of liberal actor George Clooney that his fundraisers for Democrats like Hillary Clinton will go away once they elect enough of them to ensure the Supreme Court overturns the Citizens United decision.
Further, CBS This Morning used a portion of their interview with socialist Senator Bernie Sanders to lobby him to join Clooney and Clinton in raising money for Democrats collectively across the country.
Speaking of CBS, 42 seconds of the Democratic campaign segment from congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes focused on the fundraiser and the spectacle of Sanders supporters throwing $1 bills at Clinton’s motorcade as they sped up to Clooney’s home.
“Even Clooney said he gets it,” Cordes mentioned as she then played a clip of Clooney telling NBC’s Chuck Todd that he’s unfortunately having to have his Hollywood friends over for “an obscene amount of money.”
“Clooney says he's raising money to get Democrats elected so they can change campaign finance laws and get money out of politics. In fact, he says he likes Bernie Sanders, too, because he's so passionate about that issue and hopes he stays into the race until the very end,” Cordes added.
In the show’s 8:00 a.m. hour, 44 seconds out of the 58 seconds devoted to a news brief on the Democratic presidential race dealt with Clooney as co-host Charlie Rose made sure to tell viewers that Clooney has made certain that “most of the money raised will go to congressional candidates” (and not their “friend” Hillary Clinton).
As part of Clooney’s Meet the Press interview (which the MRC’s Nick Fondacaro astutely reported on Sunday), the well-known actor promised that he would step back from this level of fundraising if the liberal-boogeyman ruling is rescinded:
I'm a Democrat, so if you're a Republican, you're going to disagree, but we need to take the Senate back because we need to confirm a Supreme Court justice because that fifth vote on the Supreme Court can overturn Citizens United and get this obscene, ridiculous amount of money out so I never have to do a fundraiser again.
Sanders joined the CBS This Morning co-hosts immediately after the brief and this topic was immediately touched upon by Rose with a nod to his friend: “So, you saw what George Clooney says. He's trying to raise all this money to help Hillary Clinton because he wants to see a lot of Democrats elected because they'll change campaign finance laws.”
The Vermont senator responded by rehasing comments he made to CNN’s Dana Bash about how while he wishes Clooney would be supporting him, he agreed with the actor’s dismay over the level of money in politics.
Co-host Norah O’Donnell followed up by using the topic to lecture Sanders about how he should be not so much focusing on his campaign and independent streak and instead campaign for other Democrats: “I think the question is, you're an independent running on the Democratic party ticket. Are you going to help other Democrats raise money to win the United States Senate? Have you done that?”
Over on NBC’s Today, 46 seconds were spent on the Clooney fundraiser as correspondent Kristen Welker lamented that “Clinton is facing tough questions about competing optics this weekend, while Sanders met with the Pope in Rome, Clinton attended a pair of high-priced fundraisers hosted by George and Amal Clooney over the weekend.”
At the lower end of the spectrum in terms of timing, ABC’s Good Morning America and Democratic campaign correspondent/Saturday anchor Cecilia Vega hyped that Clinton took “in some serious cash” thanks to Clooney and his wife Amal.
Lost in all this coverage is how Hollywood actors have been backing, supporting, and raising money for Democrats for decades both before and after Citizens United. To think that this Supreme Court case has forced their hand into giving money to the candidates of their choice is misleading at best.
Also, if the Democrats are able to concoct a Supreme Court that overturns Citizens United, what’s to say that liberals like Clooney won’t want to keep the power and access they’ve amassed and cease fundraising or campaigning for their candidates.
