A coalition of Black churches is calling on MSNBC to suspend and investigate Rev. Al Sharpton after his nonprofit accepted $500,000 in donations from Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign.
"This type of action puts a moral stain on the integrity of the Black Church," the National Black Church Initiative wrote Tuesday, urging MSNBC to investigate the Harris campaign's payment.
The coalition says it represents 150,000 churches and 27.7 million members across the country and "is very concerned that one of our leaders appears to be selling our voting to Kamala Harris's campaign."
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"We will support Rev. Sharpton's suspension until the investigation is complete," the coalition continued in a Facebook post first reported on by The Washington Free Beacon. "In all the talk about the threat to our democracy, someone forgot to articulate that free, open, objective, and transparent press is an essential component of the building blocks to preserve our democracy's integrity."
The Washington Free Beacon broke the news that the Harris campaign had made two donations of $250,000 to Sharpton's National Action Network. The donations, made on Sept. 5 and Oct. 1, came ahead of a friendly interview with Sharpton on Oct. 20.
MSNBC previously told the Free Beacon it was "unaware of the donations" made to Sharpton's nonprofit, but did not say whether the host had been punished. The network suspended Joe Scarborough and Keith Olbermann in 2010 over political donations.
Sharpton has not addressed the matter.
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"Rev. Sharpton is loved and admired by many in our coalition, but that does [not] take away from the fact he is facing significant moral and journalism ethics [concerns] regarding this payment or donation to the National Action Network," Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the National Black Church Initiative, said in the group's statement. "We will continue to pray for him."
A spokesperson for MSNBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Society of Professional Journalists also criticized Sharpton and MSNBC over the apparent conflict of interest, telling the Free Beacon it "builds distrust among their audiences and places a black eye on both their network and the profession."
"This kind of entanglement harms the credibility of the journalist, the news organization, and journalism overall, and credibility is difficult to restore," the media ethics group said in its statement. "While Sharpton may not consider himself a journalist, many viewers do."
Sharpton wasn't the only media figure to accept payments ahead of or after an interview with the Democratic presidential nominee in the weeks before Election Day.
The Harris campaign paid Nu Vision Media $350,000 in September, according to FEC filings first reported by The New York Times. Nu Vision Media CEO Roland Martin, a Harris supporter, interviewed her on his streaming program in October.
Martin, a former CNN contributor, told the Times the money was for advertising.
Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions received two $500,000 payments from the campaign on Oct. 15, a month after Winfrey's town hall with Harris. Harpo Productions told Variety the payment was for production costs.
