But Gupta is not directly employed by CNN. Instead, he controls Opinion Research Corp., which is in a "formal polling partnership" with CNN for the 2008 presidential race, so this loophole allows Gupta to make huge donations to his favorite politicians without any disclosures during reports of CNN Poll results.
CNN claims to impose strong rules on their employees, but apparently does not forbid unprofessional conduct or conflicts-of-interests in their partnerships.
So CNN can legitimately claim that they have no control over Gupta's right to politically contribute, but it is unquestionably a blatant conflict of interest within Opinion Research Corp., and it renders their polling results and methodology as suspect as John Zogby's.