Sharron Angle: I Go On Fox News So Much Because The Mainstream Media Won’t Let Me Raise Money On Air

William Tomasko

During an all-day interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody, Sharron Angle admitted that she likes to appear on Fox News to directly raise money for her race against Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). Politico’s Ben Smith highlighted a portion of the interview, released today, that reveals how Angle avoids mainstream media outlets because she thinks they won’t let her raise funds on air:

BRODY: When you’re on Fox News or talking to more conservative outlets but maybe not going on “Meet the Press” or a “This Week”, those type of news shows, then the perception and the narrative starts to be like you are avoiding those mainstream media outlets.

ANGLE: Well, in that audience will they let me say I need $25 dollars from a million people go to Sharron Angle.com send money? Will they let me say that? Will I get a bump on my website and you can watch whenever I go on to a show like that we get an immediate bump. You can see the little spinners. People say ‘Oh, I heard that. I am going and I’m going to help Sharron out because they realize this is a national effort and that I need people from all around the nation. They may not be able to vote for me but they can certainly help.”

Watch it:

As Smith says, “The suggestion here, among other things, is that Fox is more open to her fundraising pitch.” Indeed, Angle has been repeatedly allowed to explicitly appeal for campaign money. When she first appeared on Sean Hannity’s show on June 14, shortly after winning the Republican primary, she offered a similarly phrased statement on her interview fundraising strategy and asked for donations on the spot:

HANNITY: It’s obvious the media wants to attack you just like Rand Paul, who was on this program last week. Are you going to give them what they want? Are you going to go on their shows or are you going to run your campaign locally in the state? What are — what are your plans media-wise for this campaign?

ANGLE: You may have heard that I’ve been dodging the media. But I actually I’ve been doing five to seven interviews with folks that can really help me, everyday I’m — I’m on somebody’s talk show.

HANNITY: Right.

ANGLE: And the message is — you may not be able to vote for me, Sean but you can send money to SharronAngle.com.

HANNITY: Oh you’re good at the Web site.

When Angle stopped by Fox’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” two days ago, she began the interview with a fundraising pitch that exactly mirrors the one she told Brody she’d be making in friendly media appearances:

CAVUTO: What do you make of this, an attack from — from Senator Bennett out of the blue?

ANGLE: Well, first of all, Neil, it’s great to be on your show to talk about this campaign against Harry Reid or these 25 million — and I have been saying I only need a million people to send $25 to SharronAngle.com.

When Angle outlined this strategy with Brody, she mentioned “the little spinners” who “may not be able to vote for me” because they don’t live in Nevada but “can certainly help.” She may have been thinking of Fox News commentator Dick Morris, who appeared on Hannity on June 28 saying, “It is crucial in the next week or two that everybody do everything they can to — help Sharron Angle. Doesn’t matter if you live in Nevada, you can help her anyway.”

Last month, KOLOTV reported how “in the first hour following her interview” with a Rush Limbaugh guest host, “her site reported more than 100 thousand dollars in new contributions,” which “more than doubled the total raised since she won the primary” two days earlier.

Although Angle is now hyping this strategy, it hasn’t been as lucrative as she might have hoped. Her finance chair admitted to the Las Vegas Review-Journal today that the campaign “fell short of a $1.4 million fund-raising goal by the June 30 deadline.”