Trial Lawyers Ready For Hillary

San Diego attorney Johanna Schiavoni appeared on the local news this morning to gush admiration for the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. CW affiliate San Diego Six identified her as a political analyst/attorney. She was interviewed by Heather Myers, who generally hosts a balanced, professional conversation.

Her parley with Schiavoni was as soft as they get. Her first question was, "What do you think of the way she made the announcement?" Schiavoni replied, "I actually thought it was a brilliant move, and I was fascinated by the video."

Wow, that is some profound political analysis. Myers asked Schiavoni about Clinton's corrupt and paranoid tendencies, and would they rear up in the media, such as how "suddenly all these emails have vanished off her server." Uh, Heather, don't want to tell you how to do your job, but the emails didn't "vanish." Clinton's IT guy supposedly wiped the hard drive.

When Myers asked Schiavoni about Clinton's potential rivals in the G.O.P., Schiavoni said, "What's interesting about the Republican side is that the candidates are far less known, and a lot of them have very high negatives." How can they be unknowns, and also have very high negatives?

Identifying Schiavoni as a "political analyst" was an attempt to skirt F.C.C. rules for equal time by pretending her viewpoint was balanced. Shame on San Diego Six.

The segment was opinion disguised as analysis. Johanna Schiavoni should have disclosed her political affiliation. It took me one minute to find out that Schiavoni probably only contributes to Democratic causes and candidates. Just glancing at her 2008 contributions, shows donations to Organizing For America, Obama Victory Fund, Friends of Barbara Boxer, and Emily's List.

These contributions are material to the political issue at hand, and not disclosing them, while presenting yourself as a neutral political analyst, is dancing along a fine line.

It should also be incumbent on the news organization presenting the analysis to do some background due diligence on their guests. When I watch CNBC or Fox Business, they promote certain stocks. They always divulge whether the analyst owns stock in each company, or whether their family members do.

This disclosure should extend to political analysis. I don't think that it should be unlawful not to. We already have enough laws. It should be done because it is the right thing to do.