Fox News Parent News Corp. Gives $1 Million to GOP

Updated 3:41 p.m. Eastern Time

Fox News parent company News Corp. has given $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. 

A spokesman for News Corp., which also owns the New York Post and other media properties around the world, said in an email to Politico's Ben Smith that the company "believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA's pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy."

The Republican Governors Association's most recent disclosure filing is here. The News Corp. donation is listed under "News America Inc." The news was first reported by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Despite widespread perceptions that Fox News is a conservative media outlet, the network maintains that its news coverage (as opposed to its opinion programming, such as "The Glenn Beck Program") is non-partisan.

According to Smith, FOX's political action committee has also donated to Sens. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer, though the donations were in the much smaller four-figure range.

In a statement, Democratic National Committee National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan said Fox News' "Fair and Balanced" slogan "has been rendered utterly meaningless" by the donation.

"Any pretense that may have existed about the ties between Fox News and the Republican Party has been ripped violently away," he said. "No Republican who appears on Fox can be seen as answering to an independent press and all should appear with a disclaimer for who they truly are - the favored candidate of the corporate-friendly network. No Fox News political coverage can be seen as impartial and all of it should have a disclaimer for what it truly is - partisan propaganda."