{"id":858,"date":"2008-04-04T18:52:10","date_gmt":"2008-04-05T01:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=858"},"modified":"2008-04-04T18:53:17","modified_gmt":"2008-04-05T01:53:17","slug":"the-media-make-terrible-tax-accountants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=858","title":{"rendered":"The Media Make Terrible Tax Accountants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Politico&#8217;s Ben Smith examines Hillary Clinton&#8217;s tax returns and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/blogs\/bensmith\/0408\/The_Clintons_taxes.html#comments\">finds this interesting<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">The interesting part, of course, is the roughly $18 million that the summary doesn&#8217;t account for.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Jeez, I wouldn&#8217;t let him balance a ten year old&#8217;s checkbook.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the meat of the controversy. Financial guru Smith adds up these numbers from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hillaryclinton.com\/feature\/returns\/\">Clinton&#8217;s summary<\/a> of her tax records for the past eight years:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Senator Clinton&#8217;s Senate Salary: $1,051,606<\/li>\n<li>President Clinton&#8217;s Presidential Pension: $1,217,250<\/li>\n<li>Senator Clinton&#8217;s Book Income: $10,457,083<\/li>\n<li>President Clinton&#8217;s Book Income: $29,580,525<\/li>\n<li>President Clinton&#8217;s Speech Income: $51,855,599<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He comes up with $94,162,063. That&#8217;s about $16 million less than the $110 million her returns show. Smith&#8217;s first mistake is that his calculation shows an $18 million discrepancy instead of the actual $16 million. But beyond that simple math error, Smith is imagining a controversy where none exists. A quick look at the returns show that the Clinton&#8217;s earned $16.5 million dollars on capital gains and real estate investments. They were accounted for in the summary which was prefaced with <em>&#8220;Including, among other items&#8230;&#8221;<\/em> The summary never pretended to itemize every source of revenue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Controversy solved!<\/strong> But not until after the media picks up this non-scandal and turns it into another prospective Whitewater. Dick Morris, in an appearance on Fox News, jumped on it about 30 seconds after the returns were made public. He went on to allege that the <em>&#8220;missing&#8221;<\/em> funds were connected to all manner of evil like phone scammers and the Emir of Dubai.<\/p>\n<p>This article is not intended to defend Clinton, but to indict the media. This sort of ignorant, sensationalized, pseudo-analysis can and will be used to damage any candidate the press wants to disparage. It needs to be exposed and should never be tolerated.<\/p>\n<p>When I (a lowly artist) can quickly and easily see the explanation that professional journalists, with resources to consult experts, cannot see, it is nothing less than shameful on the part of the press. This is why media reform should be at the top of every activists list of priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politico&#8217;s Ben Smith examines Hillary Clinton&#8217;s tax returns and finds this interesting: The interesting part, of course, is the roughly $18 million that the summary doesn&#8217;t account for. Jeez, I wouldn&#8217;t let him balance a ten year old&#8217;s checkbook. Here&#8217;s the meat of the controversy. Financial guru Smith adds up these numbers from Clinton&#8217;s summary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[152,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-dQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32314,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=32314","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":0},"title":"Fox Nation Hypes &#8216;Scoop&#8217; On Clinton Charity Scandal That Turns Out To Be Totally Bogus","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/13\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"On Friday Hillary Clinton released her tax returns for 2015, making this the thirty-eighth year she has done so. While Republicans try to tarnish her reputation for honesty, her four decade long record of transparency proves that she has nothing to hide. In addition, it proves that nothing untoward has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox Nation","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-clinton-fdn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-clinton-fdn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnation-clinton-fdn.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":29769,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=29769","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":1},"title":"Liberal Media My Ass: Hillary Clinton&#8217;s Alleged Polling Woes","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/29\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest round of polling has hit the press with curiously coordinated reactions. Nearly every mainstream news outlet chose to spin the results as negative for Hillary Clinton. To be sure, Clinton's favorability has suffered in the past few weeks due to relentless bashing by more than a dozen Republican\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hillary Clinton","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/hillary-wtf.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/hillary-wtf.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/hillary-wtf.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":29467,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=29467","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":2},"title":"Watergate Envy: Fox News Desperately Lusts For A Clinton Scandal They Can&#8217;t Have","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/19\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The ferocity with which Fox News is chasing the story about Hillary Clinton's email is becoming a pathetic tale of desperation and jealousy. It's not enough that they report wild speculation as fact, they are determined to shape their coverage into what they regard as the Valhalla of scandals: Watergate.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hillary Clinton Watergate Envy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/clinton-watergate-envy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/clinton-watergate-envy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/clinton-watergate-envy.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17236,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=17236","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":3},"title":"CLASS WAR: So Now The Right Is Against People Who Make Money?","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/24\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Whatever you have heard about the conservative movement's mission to advance the welfare of the 1%, you may now discard it as yesterday's news. All of their sycophantic worship of the wealthy as \"job creators\" (they are not), and entrepreneurs, and the Ayn Rand-inspired architects of abundance from whom the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-clinton-well-off.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-clinton-well-off.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-clinton-well-off.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7738,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7738","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":4},"title":"Mitt Romney [Hearts] Bill Clinton","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/9\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I sat down this morning intending to write an article about the absurd new crush that Mitt Romney and the GOP have on Bill Clinton. It's a flagrant rewriting of history concerning the man that Republicans tried to impeach, but seek to cuddle up with now that he's one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31996,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=31996","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":5},"title":"FBI: No Charges For Hillary Clinton. Cue The VRWC Charges Of &#8216;Rigged System&#8217;","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/5\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"After months of painstaking research and investigation, the FBI has finally concluded their inquiry into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and the legal implications involved. The bottom line as revealed in an unusually detailed public statement by FBI Director James Comey is that \"there was no intentional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hillary Clinton","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/clinton-trump-rigged.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/clinton-trump-rigged.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/clinton-trump-rigged.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}