by NEDRA PICKLER
cross posted at The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON - John Edwards criticized Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday for taking more than $20,000 in donations from News Corp. officials, arguing that the company’s Fox News Channel has a right-wing bias and Democrats should avoid the company.

Edwards led the Democratic candidates’ boycott of Fox’s plans to host a Democratic presidential debate. Now he is objecting to News Corp.’s purchase of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. and highlighting the relationships that Clinton and other rivals have with the company’s executives.

“The time has come for Democrats to stop pretending to be friends with the very people who demonize the Democratic Party,” Edwards said in a statement.

He challenged his rivals to refuse contributions from executives of News Corp., and return any they had already received. The Edwards campaign said it would return less than $1,000 in donations from three Fox employees _ a worker at a local Fox station in Florida and two staffers from Fox Cable Networks _ even though they are not executives.

Edwards told reporters in Los Angeles, where he is on a fundraising swing, that Murdoch’s Fox News “has a clear and long history of bias against Democrats.”

“We have to stand up to him. It’s time to put a stop to this,” Edwards said.

The Edwards campaign sent an e-mail to supporters with the subject line “Unfair and Unbalanced,” asking them to donate in support of his stand against the company.

Said Edwards spokesman Eric Schultz: “Thousands of good people work at Fox News and News Corp., but this is about the bias of top executives, those who make real editorial decisions like Rupert Murdoch, people who continually sanction unfounded attacks on Democrats. And that’s why Democrats like Senator Clinton should either reject their money or return it.”

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