Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said the news media largely has a blind spot when it comes to Democratic elected officials who have threatened to erode the First Amendment.
Speaking at a Tuesday conference hosted by Business Insider, Bewkes said Democratic leaders who have called for campaign finance reforms that put restrictions on donations to political groups are in effect trying to further regulate free speech.
“That was worrying me more because the press tends to miss that,” Bewkes said at the conference, according to a Business Insider transcription. “Because they tend to lean that way and therefore they were supporting what they were viewing, I think overly charitably, as something cleaning up money in politics — when in fact what it would do is restrain multiple voices.”
Bewkes comment came in response to Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget, who moderated the conference and asked if Bewkes was bothered by President-elect Trump’s campaign rhetoric, including his threats to “open up” libel laws.
Bewkes said he didn’t think that was “a serious thing.”
Ever since the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed political outsider groups to spend virtually limitless money, Democrats, including President Obama, have rallied against “money in politics.”
Proponents of the ruling say that it fostered free speech on political matters.
