CPI #12, Soft Promises

October 19, 2000
  • Date that Time Warner announced that the company would no longer make soft money contributions to the political parties: 11/17/99. 1
  • Number of issues where, because of foregoing soft money contributions, Time Warner lobbyist Timothy Boggs then said "we're going to have to work harder to make our case on the merits": "a few." 2
  • The amount at stake in Time Warner's proposed merger with AOL: $183 billion. 3
  • Date of announcement of planned merger: 1/10/2000. 4
  • Date that Timothy Boggs, the company's senior vice president for global public policy, gave $20,000 in soft money to the Democratic National Committee (DNC): 2/28/2000. 5
  • Date that the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hosted a hearing on the Time Warner/AOL merger: 3/2/2000.
  • Date that Robert A. Daly, an executive with Time Warner's Warner Brothers subsidiary, gave $50,000 in soft money to the DNC: 4/28/2000. 6
  • Date that Richard Parsons, Time Warner's president, gave $50,000 in soft money to the Republican National Committee: 6/30/2000. 7
  • Total reported Time Warner campaign contributions - PAC, individual, and soft -- to federal candidates and parties for the 2000 elections, with several months left to go: $1.3 million. 8
  • Total amount Time Warner contributed in the entire 1996 election cycle, before company took pledge not to give soft money -- $1.4 million.
  • Status of planned merger, which needs federal regulatory approval: pending.

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1 “Time Warner Announces Plans to Support Campaign Finance Reform,” News Release, Nov. 17, 1999. Time Warner announced that it would no longer make soft money contributions from its corporate treasury, but made no promises about the company’s executives’ political contributions.
2 Judy Sarasohn, “Time Warner, New Foe of Soft Money,” The Washington Post, November 18, 1999, p. A39.
3 The Washington Post, October 17, 2000, p. E5.
4 Felicity Barringer, “Media Megadeal: The Journalists,” The New York Times, January 11, 2000, p. C12.
5 Bill Allison, “Media Firms Buy Their Way to Political Access,” Center for Public Integrity, Sept. 27, 2000.
6 ibid.
7 ibid.
8 Center for Responsive Politics, www.crp.org.