MSNBC employees have been expressing outrage over the recently revealed donations made by the Kamala Harris campaign to Al Sharpton’s nonprofit organization shortly before the former Democratic Presidential nominee sat down for an interview with the MSNBC host.
Knewz.com has learned that the Harris campaign had made two significant donations to Sharpton’s nonprofit “National Action Network” prior to the “favorable” interview ahead of the 2024 elections.
The Vice President’s election campaign made a $250,000 contribution to the nonprofit on September 5, and another one for the same amount on October 1—a few weeks before Sharpton interviewed Harris.
According to an MSNBC spokesperson, Sharpton did not disclose the big-dollar donations to the viewers or the top brass of the network.
Weeks later, on October 20, Sharpton’s interview of Harris saw the MSNBC host tout the Vice President’s campaign as “extraordinarily historic,” and invoked Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, to put Harris’s campaign “in historical perspective,” according to reports.
“[Sharpton’s] 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,’” reports have pointed out.
Sharpton also asked Harris whether the men who opposed her were “misogynistic.”
While Sharpton seemingly held Harris’s candidacy in high esteem, he referred to Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump as “hostile and erratic,” per reports.
It is worth noting that The Washington Free Beacon reported that the donation Sharpton accepted, and the nature of the Harris interview, “clearly constitute participation in a political campaign” and “violate basic journalistic ethics guidelines regarding financial relationships with sources or interview subjects.”
The Society of Professional Journalists said in a statement to the outlet regarding the matter:
“This kind of entanglement harms the credibility of the journalist, the news organization, and journalism overall, and credibility is difficult to restore… While Sharpton may not consider himself a journalist, many viewers do.”
“When TV news broadcasters do not report their conflicts of interest, or conduct their work in ways that run counter to ethical journalism, it builds distrust among their audiences and places a black eye on both their network and the profession,” the statement further read.
On October 3, days after receiving a total of $500,000 in donations from the Harris campaign, Sharpton shared a video of the Vice President wishing him a happy birthday on the MSNBC weekend show PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton.
While MSNBC has previously held hosts accountable for similar violations, the network has yet to reveal what it has decided to do in Sharpton’s case.
According to reports, MSNBC president Phil Griffin suspended hosts Joe Scarborough and Keith Olbermann in 2010 for making political donations. The MSNBC policy regarding the matter stated at the time:
“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.”
“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,” the policy further stated.
It is unknown whether the network’s policy has changed since then.
However, according to reports, Sharpton’s colleagues are seemingly unhappy about the clandestine donations—which were only revealed in the Federal Election Commission filings following Harris’s defeat in the 2024 Presidential race.
A current MSNBC employee said in a statement to Fox News Digital, “No one’s surprised that anybody at MSNBC was rooting for Harris. This feels like another level of nonsense. Like, you’re kidding me, right? This is weird.”
“Harris could have given Al Sharpton an interview, and it would have gone the same way… But what are you paying for?… There’s no way that this can’t seem weird,” the employee added.
The MSNBC staffer further stated that it is common knowledge that Sharpton is given a “wide berth” and “not held to the same journalistic standard” as the others at the network. However, the insider feels like the controversy still smells like a “pay-to-play” scheme.
The employee commented in this regard:
“This has a bit of a dirty feel to it… These things happen and they don’t bounce around MSNBC all that much. Like people just don’t care… This one feels, I’d say, there’s a deeper disappointment. There’s a sense of like, ‘Ugh, we don’t need this. This feels kind of grifty and gross.’”
“There is a sense among the people I’ve spoken to that this feels like something wrong and that something should be done about it… I don’t know what that something is… That’s a lot of money! That’s not a small matter… It just doesn’t sit well with people,” they further said.
The post Al Sharpton’s MSNBC Colleagues Up in Arms Over Kamala Harris Campaign’s Secret $500K Donation to His Non-Profit appeared first on Knewz.
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Author: Samyarup Chowdhury
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