Fox Nation vs. Reality: Who’s The IRS Targeting Now?

When a dishonest “news” enterprise is so determined to disseminate misleading information to disparage their enemies, they often get careless and wind up hitting themselves with a sort of journalistic friendly fire. That’s what happened as the editors of Fox Nation rushed to republish a petulant little hit piece from Breitbart News.

Fox Nation / Breitbart

The article by Matthew Boyle (known for his discredited smears that falsely alleged improprieties by Sen. Bob Menendez), took aim at an attorney who represented the United Church of Christ (UCC) when it was being investigated by the IRS for potential violations of its tax-exempt status. The inquiry was prompted by a speech made by then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008.

The Fox Nationalists plastered a lurid headline atop their posting that said “Chief IRS Counsel Bailed Jeremiah Wright’s Church Out of IRS Probe in 2008.” The only thing wrong with that headline is…well, everything. First of all, the attorney, William Wilkins, did not work for the IRS in any capacity at the time. He was in private practice with a firm that specialized in tax matters. Secondly, his client was the UCC, not Rev. Wright’s Trinity United, which was just an affiliate of the denomination. Thirdly, he had no power to bail anyone out. What he did was represent them in the investigation, which he did in a manner that produced a favorable outcome.

This was a thoroughly hollow assault that was contrived by unethical partisans to hurt the President. But how can you blame them? This barrel of lies touched on so many of the phony components of their smear machine, it was just too good to pass up. After all, it had Obama, the IRS, and an old fave, Rev. Wright.

What both the BreitBrats and the Fox Nationalists missed in their haste to bash Obama was the fact that this investigation was another example of the Bush administration deploying the IRS to harass organizations they perceived as unfriendly (i.e. Greenpeace, NAACP, et al). In this case it was a liberal church that invited a Democratic presidential candidate to deliver a speech on faith.

So not only has the right-wing media cabal missed their target by a mile, they inadvertently weakened their case that the IRS is a rogue outfit that exclusively harasses conservatives. Nice work, kiddies.

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5 thoughts on “Fox Nation vs. Reality: Who’s The IRS Targeting Now?

  1. It is hard to tell what their point is, especially since, as far as I know, none of the right wing organizations the IRS scrutinized for tax exemption were denied their tax exempt status.

    • The ends don’t justify the means – in this case admitted bias being the means. When does government overreach become an issue for you? If you judging by republican behavior – I could partially understand as their credibility isn’t great either.

      • I just realized I asked you a question you can’t answer – “When does government overreach become an issue for you?” Silly question – in progressive land, government CAN’T overreach – more government is better regardless of how it’s acting and questioning it is treason and nutty right wing behavior.

  2. Big intrusive government is epitomy of tyranny unless it happens to be doing your bidding.

  3. Fox quotes Breitbart……..what could possibly go wrong?

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