Conflict of interest? Harris' campaign donated $500,000 to Al Sharpton before her MSNBC interview

On October 20, host and activist Al Sharpton interviewed Kamala Harris. The two talked for more than fifteen minutes on the MSNBC screen. However, neither the host nor the media outlet reported that Harris' campaign donated $500,000 to Sharpton's nonprofit organization in the months leading up to the interview.

The Washington Free Beacon was the first media outlet to publish the story after consulting data from the Federal Election Commission, where they confirmed Harris' campaign donations to the National Action Network.

Indeed, he has two donations of $250,000 each. The first was made on Sept. 5, and the second on Oct. 1. The interview was published almost twenty days after the last donation.

Sharpton did not previously inform the audience about these donations, nor did he do so subsequently. The television network claimed it had no knowledge of the donations. "MSNBC was not aware of the donations made to the National Action Network," a spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon.

"No one's surprised that anybody at MSNBC was rooting for Harris. This feels like another level of nonsense. Like, you're kidding me, right? This is weird. Harris could have given Al Sharpton an interview, and it would have gone the same way. But what are you paying for? There's no way that this can't seem weird," an MSNBC employee told Fox News Digital anonymously.

"Everybody knows who Al Sharpton is… but this feels like a bridge too far. A big bridge too far… This is not landing well. This has a bit of a dirty feel to it... These things happen and they don't bounce around MSNBC all that much. Like people just don't care. This one feels, I'd say, there's a deeper disappointment. There's a sense of like, ugh, we don't need this. This feels kind of grifty and gross," he added.

The source explained the news's impact in-house, asserting that while employees "respect and love Al Sharpton," "the feeling ranges from disappointment to disgust." "There are some organizational rules. I understand he has other rules, but you can't just donate money and then get an interview. That can't be acceptable. I think a three-year-old would see a potential conflict in that," he added.

In 2010, MSNBC banned political contributions from hosts to candidates, but it is unclear if this policy has changed since then. Whether MSNBC takes any disciplinary action against the African-American anchor and activist remains to be seen.

The Washington Free Beacon consulted with the Society of Professional Journalists about the conflict of interest in Sharpton's interview with Harris. "This type of entanglement damages the credibility of the journalist, the news organization and journalism in general, and credibility is difficult to restore. While Sharpton may not consider himself a journalist, many viewers do," the organization responded.

"When TV news broadcasters do not report their conflicts of interest, or conduct their work in ways that run counter to ethical journalism, it builds distrust among their audiences and places a black eye on both their network and the profession," they said.

As for the National Action Network, Sharpton founded the organization in 1991 to increase voter education and help low-income communities.