Elite Media Run Blocker for Thuggish I.R.S. Attacks on Tea Party

We all know the universities are a liberal hotbed full of Marxist professors whose sole purpose in life is to indoctrinate their students. Journalism is a perfect example of how successful they’ve been. Take a look at the editorials in your local newspapers, and you’ll see the bias. What’s worse, some of these editors go to outlandish means to hide the truth. It makes you wonder if journalist majors are required to minor in deceit.

Anyone who reads the Charlotte Observer knows exactly what I’m talking about. They employ editorials by newspapers from around the country, and many of them are just as deceitful as the Disturber. The latest offence was initially published by the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Their purpose: to obfuscate the IRS’s harassment of the tea party. This is how they framed their op-ed:

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has it right. “Sending the IRS on a politically motivated witch hunt,” he said Friday, “is simply unacceptable and could have a chilling impact on the constitutionally protected right to free speech.”

Therefore, the IRS must scrupulously avoid any taint of political favoritism as it aggressively pursues investigations of possible tax code abuses by political advocacy groups. It must disregard the groups’ liberal or conservative leanings, and, if it finds abuse, it must come down hard on the violators.

To be fair, that’s not exactly what Hatch had in mind. The senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee was trying to discourage the IRS from conducting such investigations, which he suspected were an attempt by Democrats to get the agency to impede fundraising and electoral spending activities by groups with conservative agendas.

That sounds fair, doesn’t it? But let’s take a look at what’s really happening. The St. Louis Post Dispatch didn’t inform the reader that the big brouhaha with the IRS started because a group of Democratic senators demanded an investigation of Tea Party organizations. What is their offense? They won’t shut up. And with the Treasury Department under the thumb of Obama thugs, the obedient oprichniki dutifully obliged.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch went even a further step in their deceit when they emphasized this:

Certain kinds of IRS-authorized non-profit groups are entitled to keep their donors’ names secret. So some political advocacy committees started spinning off so-called 501(c)(4) “social welfare” groups and funneling contributions through them.

But IRS rules say that if a social welfare organization becomes primarily engaged in political activity, it no longer qualifies as a 501c group. Given the millions of dollars some of these groups are spending on political advocacy, the IRS has an obligation to see if they still are entitled to their status and the privileges that come with it.

Here is the definition of “social welfare” as outlined in a letter from Senator Orin Hatch and a number of concerned Republican senators:

As you know, the designation as a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(4)(A) is reserved for “[c]ivic leagues or organizations not organized for profit but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare, … the net earnings of which are devoted exclusively to charitable, educational, or recreational purposes.” An organization “may carry on lawful political activities and remain exempt under section 501(c)(4) as long as it is primarily engaged in activities that promote social welfare.”[1] The 501(c)(4) designation has been conferred on many organizations in America that espouse political or public policy viewpoints—including Priorities USA, the sister organization of “[t]he super PAC supporting President Obama,”[2] and American Crossroads, the sister organization of a super PAC supporting Republicans.

Civic and social welfare organizations have long performed valuable roles and offered numerous benefits to our society, and tax exemptions for such organizations can be traced all the way back to the Tariff Act of 1913. It is imperative that organizations applying for tax-exempt status are able to rely on a consistent and foreseeable review structure from the IRS. Any significant changes to the IRS review process should be implemented only after appropriate notice and opportunity for comment from the public and affected parties.

If Senator Orin Hatch is right – and I have no doubt that he is – then the editors at the St. Louis Post Dispatch have outright lied when they stated 501(c) groups lose their status if their primary function is political activism. But by now, we’ve become accustomed to the lies of the elite media.

It’s a shame that citizens have to keep a vigilant eye on our local papers, when our elected officials keep us busy enough.

Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/03/15/3100563/left-right-and-the-irs.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/us/politics/irs-scrutiny-of-political-groups-stirs-harassment-claim.html?pagewanted=all

http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/releases?ID=74529384-44b7-4578-862f-cce3273c847a

http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2012/02/democrats-place-jackboot-on-tea-parties.html