Local papers that pay off politicians?

Follow the money. That old journalistic mantra might be as applicable to Brooklyn’s competitive newspaper market as it was to Watergate, now that the Sheepshead Bay’based Courier-Life chain is revealed to have been giving thousands of dollars to the politicians it routinely covers.

And the chain’s co-publisher, Dan Holt, a resident of Plainfield, NJ, has given tens of thousands more, according to publicly available fundraising records analyzed by the Brooklyn Angle.

Such giving just isn’t kosher, journalistic ethicists said.

“It’s outside the norm of what journalists should be doing,” said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader for Poynter Institute, a respected journalism school and think tank.

“The standard should be that individuals and companies in the media business should refrain from trying to influence the political process. Doing so creates the perception that their news product is biased.”

Courier-Life, which publishes community and ethnic newspapers, shoppers and specialty publications, has been doling out money to candidates’ campaigns for years — at least as far back as 1999, a period for which many records are available online.

In that period, the chain gave:

• $500 to state Sen. Carl Andrews (D–Crown Heights), who is now running for Congress.

• $2,250 to then-state Sen. Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge).

• $1,050 to state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge).

• $200 to Assemblywoman Joan Millman (D–Brooklyn Heights).

• $1,180 to Assemblyman Nick Perry (D–Flatbush).

• $2,000 to the speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver (D–Manhattan).

And Holt’s given considerably more.

Of several officeholders contacted by this columnist, only Andrews responded.

“I think their coverage hasn’t been flattering enough,” Andrews said. “But, seriously, I think their coverage of me has been fair and effective.”

Andrews called Holt “an upstanding resident of the community.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being associated with him,” Andrews said.

Not for Andrews. But journalism watchdogs said Courier-Life’s contributions should raise eyebrows with readers.

“It is certainly unethical for a newspaper that claims to be objective to contribute to the campaigns of politicians it covers,” said Adam Penenberg, a journalism professor at New York University.

The watchdogs said that once readers know that a newspaper has a financial relationship with the pols it covers, editorial decisions become suspect.

For example, was a recent glowing Courier Life story about Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman Vito Lopez —which gushed that Lopez “has managed to accomplish nearly everything he had promised” in cleaning up the tainted party organization — influenced by the $300 contribution the paper chain gave Lopez?

Newspaper companies, like all corporations, are barred from giving money in federal elections — so that’s where Holt comes in.

As an individual, Holt has given far more than his paper chain, covering the federal tab and supplementing the company’s local largess.

Holt’s dolled out $2,250 to Andrews’s congressional campaign, $1,250 to Golden, $2,000 to Gentile, nearly $4,000 to Borough President Markowitz, $2,650 to Rep. Ed Towns (D–Brooklyn Heights), nearly $6,000 to City Comptroller (and Mayoral wannabe) Bill Thompson and $5,500 to Rep. Anthony Weiner (D–Sheepshead Bay).

Published reports have stated that the New York Post is negotiating to buy the Courier-Life chain.

If the deal goes through, that could put Holt in like-thinking company — Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns the Post, is, through its political action committees, the single largest media donor to political candidates and parties, campaign finance records show.

Holt, who is chairman of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and is on the boards of several other Brooklyn organizations, compared himself to Murdoch, and to Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman.

“Both of them give money to candidates,” Holt said.

Holt told the Brooklyn Angle that Courier-Life’s giving “does not interfere with the editorial product.”

And he dismissed the notion that readers would come to see Courier-Life coverage as tainted because of the company’s financial relationship with the politicians it covers.

“We don’t publicize it, so the reader doesn’t know,” he said. “Our reporters are entirely independent of [the company’s] campaign contributions.”

That said, Holt added, “The more informed the public is, the better.”

I couldn’t agree more.