“This marks the third in GovPredict’s analysis of the giving patterns of employees of major American corporations… today we study Apple,” Emil Pitkin reports for GovPredict. “Our analysis spanned from 2004 to 2018… Contributions to federal committees were collected from the FEC bulk download; contributions to state committees were collected from each of the states’ election commission websites; contributions to local committees were collected from various municipal election websites; contributions to 527 organizations were collected from the IRS website.”
“Since 2004, 95.5% of contributions by Apple employees to local committees have gone to Democrats ($83,635 versus $3,975, respectively), and 4.5% to Republicans. Since 2010, 91% of Apple employee contributions to state committees have gone to Democrats, and 9% to Republicans ($374,784 versus $39,224, respectively),” Pitkin reports. “Since 2014, 100% of Apple employee contributions to partisan 527 organizations have gone to Democrats. Since 2004, 90.5% of Apple employee contributions to federal committees have gone to Democrats, and 9.5% to Republicans ($5,168,070 versus $544,154, respectively).”
“In total, 91% of Apple employee contributions have gone to Democrats, and 9% to Republicans,” Pitkin reports. “Here are recent presidential candidates and how much they received from Apple employees: Hillary Clinton – $1,816,568… Donald Trump – $6,786.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Regardless of your politics, human curation of things like the App Store and Apple News should be a concern.
If you’re not concerned, simply flip it the other way and imagine that 91% of contributions by Apple employees have gone to Republicans vs. 9% to Democrats and see if you’d then be concerned about human curation of products like Apple News.
Once again, do not solely trust Apple News or Google News or ABC News or Sky News or CNN or Fox News or The BBC or, for God’s sake, Facebook. Do not trust any single gatekeeper.
The best way to consume so-called “news” is to cast a wide net. There is no such thing as a truly impartial journalist or algorithm.
As always, readers of “news” need to consider the sources and interpret what they are being told accordingly. The more disparate sources you can find, the better. And we don’t mean different newspaper, network, website brands that are all owned by the same conglomerate. Determining the actual ownership of your “news” sources is an investment that requires a bit of time, but it is very enlightening. — MacDailyNews Take, June 17, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: I ‘fully admit’ our bias is ‘more left-leaning’ – August 20, 2018
Facebook and Apple disagree on how to curb ‘fake news’ for U.S. Midterms – July 3, 2018
Apple News’ plan for the 2018 midterms: Be the opposite of Facebook – June 26, 2018
Apple shoots for the high ground in ‘fake news’ debate – June 26, 2018
Apple News launches 2018 Midterm Elections section – June 25, 2018
Editorial bias: Apple News’s human editors prefer a few major newsrooms, study shows – June 6, 2018
Apple, J.P. Morgan under fire for donations to notorious Southern Poverty Law Center – August 28, 2017
New York magazine editor Lauren Kern named first Editor-in-Chief of Apple News – May 25, 2017
Apple refuses to aid 2016 GOP presidential convention over Trump comments – June 18, 2016
Who’s going to ‘curate’ Apple News? – August 13, 2015
The Apple News app is doomed – July 30, 2015
The future’s not looking too bright for Apple News – July 30, 2015
Apple hiring team of journalists for News app; a ‘jaw-dropping’ development says publisher – June 15, 2015
Apple News is fast, responsive, enjoyable, and it might become your only news app – July 15, 2015
Apple News shows that Apple wants to bolster and profit from ads, not eliminate them – July 10, 2015
Apple News to have human curation – and that raises issues – June 15, 2015
Apple employees donate $15 to Obama for every $1 to Romney – July 27, 2012
Apple, other tech firm employees’ contributions favor Democrats over Republicans, Obama over Clinton – April 14, 2008
