Legacy media bankrolling campaigns of SOPA cosponsors

Found on Sunlight Foundation on Monday, 05 December 2011
Browse Politics

Traditional big media firms have contributed more than $5 million to the sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act, with California Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Adam Schiff as the top recipients.

Earlier this month we noted that Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the bill's sponsor in the House, has received nearly $400,000 from the TV, music and movies industry during his career, including some recent timely donations from broadcasting and television groups that are lobbying for the bill.

Those "donations" are nothing else but bribes and should be fully illegal. Politicians have to represent the interests of those who elected them and not of those who pay most.

Here's a list of those who accepted "donations": Howard Berman, Adam Schiff, John Conyers, Mary Bono Mack, Lamar Smith, Robert Goodlatte, Marsha Blackburn, Lee Terry, John Barrow, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Elton Gallegly, Melvin Watt, John Carter, Karen Bass, Steve Scalise, William Owens, Dennis Ross, Thomas Marino, John McCain, Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Leahy, Al Franken, Kirsten Gillibrand, Roy Blunt, Bill Nelson, Orrin Hatch, Robert Menéndez, Joseph Lieberman, Michael Bennet, Sheldon Whitehouse, Robert Casey, Richard Durbin, Amy Klobuchar, Charles Grassley, Sherrod Brown, Bob Corker, Jeanne Shaheen, Lindsey Graham, Benjamin Cardin, Tom Udall, Kay Hagan, Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons