Two days before the election, on Sunday November 4, the National Geographic Channel (Nat Geo) will broadcast amulti-million dollar, two hour pro-Obama campaign advertisement. For legal purposes and to avoid any messy entanglements with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Nat Geo is disguising the two-hour pro-Obama ad as entertainment, specifically a film titled: “Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden.”
One of the companies behind the two-hour pro-Obama ad is The Weinstein Company, which is co-chaired by longtime Obama fundraiser Harvey Weinstein. Like Nat Geo, both The Weinstein Company and Mr. Weinstein have avoided any messy entanglements with the FEC by disguising their multi-million dollar in-kind contribution to Barack Obama’s reelection campaign as “entertainment.”
Imagine if you will an alternate universe in a Twilight Zone where our media is not hopelessly corrupt and just as eager to hold Democrats accountable as Republicans. In that world, the very idea that Big Business would shirk campaign finance by pouring millions into a campaign commercial disguised as a film would raise some eyebrows. In that world, a television network broadcasting said commercial would be subjected to questions about an in-kind contribution.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in a just world, though, and while honest supporters of Mitt Romney, like Sheldon Adelson, are brutalized by the likes of the corrupt Politico for registering as super PACs and disclosing their legal contributions, sleazy television networks and movie producers get a pass — you know, because Obama.
Harvey Weinstein being Harvey Weinstein is no surprise, nor is the corrupt media acting like the corrupt media.
But the Nat Geo channel doing this, is, I must say, a real disappointment.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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