President Obama top recipient of News Corp. donations

Political donations by News Corp., its employees and their families were evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, with President Barack Obama the all-time leading recipient, according to a report from the Sunlight Foundation. The transparency watchdog noted that Democrats received 51 percent of contributions while Republicans received 49 percent, despite the firm's highly publicized links to the GOP, such as a $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association in August.

"Obama being listed as the company’s top recipient might surprise some people because of its highly publicized involvement with his political rivals, like Sarah Palin who was the vice presidential candidate in 2008 and reportedly still under contract with Murdoch-owned Fox News as a paid commentator," wrote Sunlight's Ryan Sibley.