Profile: Stephen L. Bing

Producer, Shangri-La Entertainment <br>Los Angeles, California

Photo: Getty Images

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Stephen Bing may be best known for his Hollywood lifestyle. The screenwriter and producer has been linked romantically to Uma Thurman, Sharon Stone, and — most memorably — Elizabeth Hurley. But Bing is no simple film industry gadfly. He is the grandson of New York real estate mogul Leo Bing, with a personal worth of more than $500 million. And he is one of the Democratic Party’s most consistently generous donors.

That combination of playboy reputation and liberal politics has earned Bing a special place in the hearts of conservative pundits. Still, Bing’s liberal leanings are no passing fancy. His father worked for both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations as a public health doctor. But it is as a campaign contributor that Bing the younger has made the greatest impact.

Since 1999, Bing has contributed more than $9.5 million to federal candidates and parties, including more than $8 million in soft money given to the Democratic National Committee. Last year, he gave $100,000 to embattled California governor Gray Davis. This year, with the soft money pipeline into the parties shut down, Bing has followed the same path as other generous Democratic donors, contributing heavily to liberal soft money issue groups. He has contributed nearly $2 million to the Media Fund and just less than $1 million to MoveOn.org.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate