“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
Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News – Bernard Goldberg, January 21, 2003
In his nearly thirty years at CBS News, Emmy Award winner Bernard Goldberg earned a reputation as one of the preeminent reporters in the television news business. When he looked at his own industry, however, he saw that the media far too often ignored their primary mission: to provide objective, disinterested reporting. Again and again he saw that the news slanted to the left. For years, Goldberg appealed to reporters, producers, and network executives for more balanced reporting, but no one listened. The liberal bias continued.
Wikileaks: Doing the newspaper’s job, any and all newspapers.
Wikileaks: naive pseudo journalists used by anti-American state funded agencies to spread FUD.
Legitimate journalists disclose their funders. Political operations like Wkileaks create elaborate schemes to hide their true purpose. Worse, Wikileaks or their handlers have been found to alter, insert, and selectively withhold parts of their info leaks. This reeks of highly biased politicking. It is no coincidence that Wikileaks is untrusted by legitimate companies and governments around the world. Putin and his puppets however do not care. They successfully convinced the core of the low-info conservatives in the USA that one-party rule is good. Putin now has no one in power in DC to stop him from dismantling the institutions that once made the USA great.
Putin doesn’t need to retweet Faux news. He is above that. He instructs Wikileaks and Faux News what propaganda and Fud to release, and when. Then the self proclaimed libertarians here eat it up.
Where is the evidence that party affiliation affects job performance for either electrical engineers or editors? Most physicians are Republicans (see where the AMA spends its money). That hardly means that Democrats get worse medical care (if you adjust for income).
“Where is the evidence that party affiliation affects job performance for either electrical engineers or editors?”
Simple. Something that is impossible to measure. You know that Libtard. Don’t waste our time.
That said, since over 90% of media employees are Democrats does that affect media coverage? No way. CNN and NYT are 100% Republican. Yeah, right.
Hey, did you see the lowest unemployment in 49 years. Are you going to give President Trump due credit, for once?
As ever, GoeB virtue signals every move by his hero Trump. Blind faith.
Pathetic.
And Citizens United is still a travesty of justice.
The liberal lamestream media is owned by corporations that use their vile media lapdogs to do their bidding. Why should these corporations have a political voice but not others?
Even PBS is a corporation.
I vote for anyone who help making this country great again. Bipartisan is no meaning to me.
I love watching libturds waste their money! LOLOLOL
Well, MDN does often highlight that the average intelligence of Apple users is higher than average. Just saying.
And that’s why the libturds nominated the most corrupt candidate in modern history!
Thanks to libtard stupidity we have Trump, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh !!! MAGA!
The most corrupt candidate in history is sitting in the White House tweeting Fox propaganda talking points now. Without Fred Trump’s political connections, Don would be in jail.
The republithugs will attempt to slander the source, but finally out come the facts behind Donny’s “I’ll release my tax returns” charade. Self made business man, my ass. There is no crime syndicate more scummy than the Trump family.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html
Notice that the NYT had Trump’s tax returns (I’m sure there is some privacy laws broken there, but I digress), and as much as the NYT scoured Trump’s taxes, they report on tax schemes (much like Clinton Global Initiative) but my oh my, HOW QUIET THE NEW YORK TIMES IS REGARDING RUSSIAN COLLUSION JUST DRIPPING FROM THOSE TRUMP TAX RETURNS!
Mueller should just pack it up on this fake premise and Trump witch hunt and it should take Michael Dell’s Apple advice and ISIDAGTMBTTT – I’d shut it down and give the money back to the taxpayers.
“Notice that the NYT had Trump’s tax returns”. The Times does not have the tax returns and the article is not based on the tax returns. Should one read an article before one makes a comment on it??? Nah…. let’s just make a word salad.
Whatever,
Do you suffer from mental illness or are you enjoying it?
Can’t address the facts, so you have to resort to personal attacks? You are pathetic. Crawl back under the rock from which you came.
I lubricate my M16 with liberal tears. Lololol
Like all libtards you wouldn’t know a fact if it smacked you in the face.
“The most corrupt candidate in history is sitting in the White House“
NO, that would be Hillary buying off and controlling the DNC to deny Bernie the nomination. Also the largest campaign cash pile in history from dubious sources. Followed by her sexual abuser husband that needs to go to jail in a cell next to Bill Cosby …
No real need to pile on, GoeB. Cosby drugged his conquests, Clinton achieved them with his star status. There still exists a sliver of legal and moral difference between consensual and non-consensual sex.
That being said, ugly and dirty things are done all around, but that is due to our crazy humanity. It isn’t innately political. I for one don’t vote for a candidate’s moral uprightness. I vote for what he can do for me, for my kith and kin, and my country. That’s what Trump’s voters said to themselves, after all. And we’ll see, won’t we? Listen, GoeB: I trust the system. By that I mean the Constitution. The founding fathers had a pretty good idea about what kind of royalist ideas might crop up after jump-starting the United States, and they put up a wall. It’s held up so far.
Juanita Broderick has been a regular in the media allegedly accusing just last week on Fox News, Clinton of rape. She said NBC news sat on her original story back then.
Paula Jones was allegedly flashed by his penis and ran out of the room.
Kathleen Wiley allegedly was cornered in the White House and could not leave.
Other than that, the yes, rest were consensual…
@GoeB
And I remind you that Clinton was ultimately disbarred for all that.
Same should be for Kavanaugh.
“Well, MDN does often highlight that the average intelligence of Apple users is higher than average. Just saying.”
That is due to the percentage of “Republican” Apple users being in the mix of “Democrat” Apple users thus help in grading on the curve among all Apple users intelligence. Thanks to that, they are Making Apple Great Again (MAGA). You’re welcome.
Just saying. : )
When I first opened the News app, it asked me to select news sources. I was free to select mainstream news sources, right wing or left wing news sources.
I dispute the idea that the mainstream news is left wing. A commenter posted a 15-year-old quote from Bernard Goldberg reflecting on his 30 years of reporting. I don’t think that news reporting from 1973 through 2003 is anything like it is today, so I reject that quote as having any current relevance.
The truth is that the main providers of news are owned by large corporations which reflect the political views of the donor class and the wealthy. They do not reflect the views of the middle class or the working class.
“I dispute the idea that the mainstream news is left wing”
Hahahahahah LOLOLOLOLOL Libturd stipidity AND delusion!
LOLOLOLOL
Who owns the major media outlets?
Corporations.
Since when does corporate America lean liberal?
If the media were actually liberal they’d have a labor section, not a business section.
“Who owns the major media outlets?
Corporations.”
If you are saying ALL corporations are Republican you are beyond clueless. Apple the largest corporation in history is owned by Democrats. Next …
The number of folks who vote against their own best interests in this country is skewed to the poor people who vote for the folks who cut taxes on the rich, and cut the programs that help themselves.
Well there is also something to be said for the sector of smart-rich people as well. But I’d wager a majority of wealthy folks to keep the status-quo, and that would be the Republicans. “Make America Great Again” is a metaphor for that whole clusterfuck of racism, jingoism, and short sightedness.
“Make America Great Again” is a metaphor for that whole clusterfuck of racism, jingoism, and short sightedness.“
Absolutely not brainless! Black and Hispanic employment is at an all time HIGH. Unemployment is at a 49 year low. MAGA is for everyone including your pathetic ass …
“I dispute the idea that the mainstream news is left wing.”
Absolutely correct! They are most definitely right wing. Never mind their contributions go to Democrats 90% of the time, does not matter one particle… /s
To be fair, one has to consider that Apple is based in California, which is heavily Democratic. That’s going to skew the results. At the national level, there’s almost no Presidential campaigning by Republicans in California. It also skews the quality of Republican candidates at the local and State level.
So, while it looks disconcerting so much money goes to the Dems, you also have to realize that many of the best Republican candidates won’t waste their time on running when they know they have little chance of winning. So, the money becomes even more skewed.
That is the BEST Apple apologist response I have ever read…
So, what’s your excuse? Do you even understand the concept of a baseline?
I don’t need an excuse. And I certainly don’t answer to you…
No, he doesn’t understand. He thinks that people with master’s degrees living in one of the most racially and culturally diverse areas in America (and THE most diverse in sexuality) can be expected to vote exactly the same as Anglo men with high school educations living in Appalachia or the Deep South.
He is surprised when, for example, most Hispanic citizens (and other immigrants) do not support an administration that lumps them in with criminals and that pardons a sheriff convicted of detaining legal US residents solely because they are brown.
He is surprised when many African-Americans do not support “law and order” strategies that promote police violence, and do not welcome the accusation that opposing that violence is unpatriotic.
He is surprised when women who have experienced sexual harassment or assault (which is to say, most women) do not support policies that regard wealthy prep school and fraternity boys as more threatened than even their female classmates, to say nothing of poor women.
He is surprised when the sizable population of people in the Bay Area who have non-traditional sexual attitudes do not support the crescendo of administration policies that disadvantage them.
He is surprised when people with preexisting health conditions do not support policies that are guaranteed to eventually make their insurance unaffordable.
He is surprised when people do not praise the administration to high heaven for its remarkable success in not screwing up the economic recovery that began eight years ago, or point out that the recent increases in the median wage have been consumed by inflation (rich people are, as usual, doing very well).
He is surprised when young people do not support economic policies that massively increase the national debt they will be expected to pay someday without providing them offsetting benefits, or policies that cut public support for higher education, forcing them into massive personal debt.
He is surprised that people who have graduated from college do not support policies that ignore science and evidence in favor of anti-intellectual conspiracy theories.
I am not surprised by any of those things. I am only surprised by the number of Americans who continue to swallow the flim-flam when it is clearly not serving their personal interest.
YOU LIE!!! Don’t put thoughts in my head and don’t tell me what I know and don’t know! And keep your shameful ugly stereotypes on YOU where they belong! A new pathetic LOW for you liberal liar. You’re just butt hurt Susan Collins is not going to kowtow to liberal smear merchants like yourself. Cry me a river. 😭
Unemployment at 49-year low. WooHoo!!! No credit from you to the president once again? Gee, what a surprise. Your HATE blinds you, sad to see time and time again. Where it started? LOL! The U.S. started in 1776 with the Constitution. Obama could NOT get it done in 8 years, Trump got it done with smart policies and lifting job killing regulations in less than 2 years. Absolutely REMARKABLE …
Screen name typo correction: GoeB. Here is to MAGA and the Supreme Court! …
::mic drop:: hands down the best response in this whole thread.
Thats just the reason I won’t use Apple News. Clearly biased based on all the snowflakes that work there. Fresh out of campus brainwashing.
You’re correct but you can tailor Apple News so they can’t bombard you with CNN, New York Times, Huffington Post, etc.
In fact, you can turn off politics, which will cut the Trump and GOP bashing by about a 3rd. If you go purely science, they will still find a way to bash.
I find it interesting that people say that colleges affect a persons political preference. I got a mathematics degree and don’t ever remember talking about politics. Its possible that some colleges may be different, but I’ve been to several and haven’t discussed politics ever. Maybe education in general creates a liberal bias? More likely though, people bring their bias to college with them – so, possibly liberals are more likely to go to college?
Are most college professors liberal? Yes, says Penn State Associate Professor of Political Science and Philosophy Matthew Woessner. Perhaps surprisingly, however, his research shows that liberal bias does not seem to influence right-leaning students. Rather, it insulates left-leaning students, hindering their ability to critically analyze their own ideas. In five minutes, learn more about college liberal bias.
“Liberal bias doesn’t seem to affect conservative students”
This is not at all surprising considering that conservative mental states are much easier to evoke in people than liberal ones. So extremely easy, in fact, that there are protocols for experimental interventions when you want to push someone’s to the right, like making them tired or distracted, putting them in pain or under a mental burden, or having them smell garbage.
While liberal attitudes can momentarily be made more conservative, it is very hard to do the opposite with any reliability.
I love this interview with Chevy Chase in which he speaks very matter of factly about how Saturday Night Live is a vehicle for liberal propaganda. He talks specifically about the hatchet job they he did trying to get Carter into office and goes on to say what do you think they’re doing now? (Referring to Sarah Palin) but what is interesting is this…
When people tell the truth, it makes you less angry. I get it. I know that Apple is a bunch of liberals, and as long as they admit it, I’m cool with that.
It’s when liberals act surprised to hear that the media is basically all left wing that I get pissed.
You’re correct but you can tailor Apple News so they can’t bombard you with CNN, New York Times, Huffington Post, etc.
Sure you can, I blocked Huffington Post a LOOOONG time who. You just have to WANT to not read it and “tap” done.
Rhetoric 101: choose credible sources.
This guy is a renowned, talentless douchebag.
Disagreeing with Chevy Chase is an affirmation, not a problem
Hey Apelock closed mind, open it up. No one is more CREDIBLE than Chevy working at ground zero. What’s your problem?…
Agreed. People need to wake up and stop watching FOX NEWS if they hope to save what few remaining brain cells they have.
FOX NEWS viewers need to heed MacDailyNews’ advice, and cast a much wider net and start listening to other sources of news. First and foremost, they should learn to read newspapers!
Good advice, MacDailyNews!
Delusion is strong with this one! LOLOLOLOL
This is why it is all but hilarious when I see Democrats going on and on whining about Russian hackers and fake news. ALL NEWS IS FAKE. They own the media. What they are really upset about is that social media is competing with their sure thing now. That’s not what they want.
Extended copy of interview: https://youtu.be/ZBN6A3Yf-K4
Such a shocker! LOL
It would be interesting to see a similar study of the employee contributions at Dell Computers based in Texas. Does location predict political support among employees at high tech companies (assuming Mac aficionados think Dell is high tech company)!
From what I can discern it’s about half and half.
The county where the Dell plant is located has only elected one Democrat to a federal, state, county, or precinct office in the last thirty years, so if contributions are 50-50 that is as telling in its own way as the 91% in Cupertino.
I think these numbers should also show why Apple’s idea of diversity is not one that includes diversity of thought. All they’re interested in is playing the skin game and the genitalia game.
If you have no diversity of thought, you have no diversity. Realizing this and saying it got their last diversity chief fired.
If you look at the text from the old 1984 commercial, Apple has become what they once claim to fight against.
__________
“Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.
We have created for the first time in all history a garden of pure ideology, where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests of any contradictory true thoughts.
Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth.
We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause.
Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion.
We shall prevail!
__________________________________
This is Tim Cook’s Apple in a nutshell now.
Are you advocating a total and complete “diversity of thought?”
A measurable amount would be nice, but Apple is free to do what they want. If they want pretty much zero representation of classical liberal, libertarian, Americanism, or conservative thought amongst their ranks, that’s fine. Just don’t pretend like Apple is a diverse environment. Far from it. Just sick of the hypocrisy.
Then you’re going to be sick for a long time. Hypocrisy, which is pretence of virtue, is hard-wired into our brains. We can hardly help ourselves. We are all politicians. We always put our best foot forward. We are inexhaustible in our creative production of excuses. We use makeup, we disguise ourselves with clothing and scents, we dissemble in every way automatically to benefit ourselves even under oath. Lying and pretending are fundamental human survival skills. All literature and law exists to support or resist these primitive impulses.
It isn’t partisan and it isn’t a school of thought. It’s a mental condition that we all suffer from, and it’s called adaptive compensation. We’re social animals that haven’t had enough time to realise that we’ve managed to take over the world without understanding what we’re doing.
I’ll gladly back you on the state of HYPOCRISY worse than ever. My number one pet peeve …
Exactly. Apple, the media, higher education are all over 90% liberal. No diversity or freedom of thought …
I feel your outrage, but this isn’t the time to go off half-cocked, as my mother often said. Try to get along with your neighbors. They’re the first to show up if your barn catches fire. Maybe they voted different from you because their crops attracted different government subsidies, or some other reasonable distinction, but they were neighbors first, last, and in the end.
The trouble is that we don’t know our neighbors any more, and that’s why we can’t bring ourselves to care about them. Most of us are not farmers with roots to the land. We are internet vagabonds, hardly better than carpetbaggers or real estate developers, people who move in, exploit, and then move on.
A conservative neighbor might caution you about how a proposed local tax would bleed you. A liberal neighbor might point out that the tax would benefit local commerce. I value both neighbors, because they give me something that I can think about and then decide for myself, instead of being told what to do by my cable channel of choice.
Thank you for your concern. But I can assure you as my local U.S. Congressman once described me, “I’m The salt of the earth.”…
If you can’t stand liberal Apple, then stop buying their liberal products which fund Cook’s liberal causes.
The contribution fall into the category of small money. Legislators don’t get elected by small money donations.They all get elected by depending on big money, usually from big industry, Pentagon contractors, and otherwise the 1%. That’s how corruption works in your US. It’s just that the illusion, the mirage of actual Democracy is stronger and more widespread in the US.
Now back to working on my iMac.
Judging by the downvotes on the US Economy story from earlier, I’d say that 91% holds for the commenters here.
The problem in this country is well on display in this thread – Republican intolerance/immaturity. You all resort to name calling and bluster, much like the president. Immature. We aren’t all teenagers. How is adult, civil conversation possible in that milieu?
“The problem in this country is well on display in this thread – Republican intolerance/immaturity.”
The problem in this country is well on display in this thread – Democrat intolerance/immaturity.
There, I fixed it for you …
“…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.” Or MDN.
Most smart, educated and creative people are left Liberal… in fact the definition of Liberal makes you above the average! just google it.. then tell us what parts of being a liberal you don’t want to identify with.. because you will be admitting your really douche bag… opposite of liberal is Closed minded, bigot, racist, not open to new ideas… judgmental based on Feelings… easily conned.. LOL!! I love being a liberal as were the founders of this country ! They had the liberal idea that we should elect our government.. the liberal idea that we have certain rights as individuals.. Apple is a very liberal company.. run by a gay man.. and liberal creative people.. and liberal software engineers who are also creative people… So of course they give to organizations that don’t want to kill them for existing but claim to love the products they create! Making money and being a liberal are not in conflict.. liberals just dint want to be total dicks in making that money ! 🙂
“Most smart, educated and creative people are left Liberal… in fact the definition of Liberal makes you above the average! just google it.”
First off, that is a blanket statement without any facts. Liberals are not the majority in the U.S. from articles I Googled, so another blanket statement. That is something that is more opinion than fact. How do you measure it statistically? Answer, impossible you cannot ask 300+ million people.
Now I know the liberal elitists here on MDN and elsewhere think they know everything about everything.
Still, you are making a ridiculous assertion. Most successful businessmen, lawyers and doctors I know are conservative. What does that mean? Nothing, much like your post…
Have you been to the SF Bay Area. I do not believe there are any Republican STATE or FEDERAL representative within 50 miles of Silicon Valley (there might be a Rep in the farm country near Gilroy or 50 miles east to Tracy) so it sounds about right.
I deleted Apple News as soon as I saw it. Hinesty, integrity – these and Silicon Valley haven’t gone hand in hand for avery long time.
That’s right, Apple is Democrat. 👿 Now rePubicTards can go back to Windows. 😈
Whew, and people think the 1950s and 1960s had hate and prejudice. I lived in those times too, and we were relatively civil.
I think that African-Americans who were living in the South during the 50s and 60s might not have seen them quite the same as you do. Ditto for Latinos or Jews almost anywhere in the country. Ditto for gay or lesbian Americans. Ditto for women trying to get ahead in most of the professions. Yes, people spoke politely in most cases, but only because everyone knew their place.