A black church organization is calling on MSNBC to suspend and investigate host Al Sharpton over donations his organization took from Kamala Harris's campaign.
The National Black Church Initiative, a coalition that says it represents 27.7 million people and 150,000 black churches across the country, said Wednesday that the payment to Sharpton's group "puts a moral stain on the integrity of the black Church." The group, which said it is "very concerned" by the "growing scandal," urged MSNBC to "launch an investigation" and expressed support for "Rev. Sharpton's suspension until the investigation is complete."
The Washington Free Beacon reported that the Harris campaign made donations of $250,000 on September 5 and October 1 to Sharpton's National Action Network, the nonprofit he founded in 1991. Sharpton aired an October 3 segment featuring Harris on his MSNBC show PoliticsNation and conducted a favorable interview with her on October 20.
Founded in 1991, the National Black Church Initiative says it represents 27.7 million churchgoers across the country, with a mission of reducing "racial, social and … economic disparities" and preserving "the authority of the black church's voice." The group has focused on health issues pertaining to black Americans and has criticized Sharpton before for taking donations from tobacco companies while opposing a ban on menthol cigarettes, which are popular among black smokers.
The initiative's president, the Rev. Anthony Evans, said Sharpton is "loved and admired by many in our coalition."
"But that does [not] take away from the fact he is facing significant moral and journalism ethics [concerns] regarding this payment or donation to the National Action Network," Evans went on. "In addition, Rev. Sharpton is a minister of the Gospel. This payment does not look good for a man supposed to represent integrity."
Sharpton did not disclose the donations to viewers or to MSNBC executives, according to a spokesman for the network.
The host has not addressed the scandal, and MSNBC has refused to comment on whether he was punished for failing to disclose the apparent conflict of interest. In 2010, MSNBC suspended network hosts Joe Scarborough and Keith Olbermann for donating to political campaigns, saying that the payments violated the network's policies that require employees to disclose political activity to company executives.
The Society of Professional Journalists, a prominent journalism ethics group, has criticized MSNBC and Sharpton over the conflict of interest, calling it a "black eye" for the network and the media industry as a whole.
"This kind of entanglement harms the credibility of the journalist, the news organization, and journalism overall, and credibility is difficult to restore," the Society of Professional Journalists told the Free Beacon. "While Sharpton may not consider himself a journalist, many viewers do."
"When TV news broadcasters do not report their conflicts of interest, or conduct their work in ways that run counter to ethical journalism," the society went on, "it builds distrust among their audiences and places a black eye on both their network and the profession."
Journalists across the political spectrum, from Megyn Kelly and Fox News's Howard Kurtz to Young Turks host Cenk Uygur, have blasted MSNBC for failing to take action against Sharpton.
MSNBC and the National Black Church Initiative did not respond to requests for comment.