Landmark Uncovers Journalists' Ties to White House Money
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Salon Magazine's Campaign Against Scaife, Starr Financed by Major Donors to Clinton, Democratic Campaigns
HERNDON, Va., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Landmark Legal Foundation has uncovered information thatindicates that a major Democratic donor, multi- millionaire William Hambrecht, is one of the principal backers of Salon magazine, an online publication noted for its vicious partisan attacks on Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, philanthropist Richard Mellon Scaife and several conservative organizations.
As Mark R. Levin, Landmark's president noted in an op-ed in today's Washington Times (''Whose Salon Is It?''), ''David Talbot, editor of the left- wing online magazine Salon, was recently asked by the Washington Post who bankrolls his operation. Talbot reportedly replied two computer companies, Borders books and an investment bank.''
Landmark research has uncovered that Hambrecht and Quist, Adobe Systems and Apple Computers were the unnamed Silicon Valley investment banking firm and computer companies behind Salon. William Hambrecht is a cofounder of Hambrecht and Quist, which provided venture capital investments in both Adobe and Apple. Hambrecht also serves on Adobe's board of directors.
Salon and Hambrecht's ties to the Clinton White House are well documented. According to the Washington Post, ''White House allies sometimes tout Salon pieces to reporters before they are even posted on (Salon's homepage on the) Web. (Jonathon) Broder, 49, (Salon's Washington correspondent) and (Joe) Conason, 44, (a reporter for the New York Observer and a frequent contributor to Salon) are longtime friends of White House aide Sidney Blumenthal.'' (''Online Magazine's Staff Caught in the Swirl of Conspiracy Theorists'' by Howard Kurtz, 4/24/98).
As recently as last February, Hambrecht hosted a major, $10,000 a person fundraising dinner at his San Francisco home for Democratic House candidates which was attended by President Clinton. Moreover, between 1991 and 1997, Hambrecht contributed more than $284,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations exclusively. The CEOs of Adobe Systems and Apple Computers, John Warnock and Steve Jobs, respectively contributed more than $18,000 and $167,500, also exclusively to Democratic office seekers.
''Hambrecht should make public how much he and others associated with him have invested in Salon since its founding,'' Levin said. ''The public has a right to know that a supposedly independent publication is, in truth, little more than a media mouthpiece for the Clinton White House. Hambrecht's behind- the-scenes involvement should be disclosed fully.''
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