IRS Targets Tea Party

A new congressional report on the IRS persecution of conservative groups in the run-up to the 2012 election? Nothing to see here, the New York Times' headline blared. The paper set the bar sky-high for anti-Obama scandal, using the evident lack of a smoking gun linking IRS persecution to the White House as an excuse to completely dismiss the scandal. The Washington Post was little better.

The MRC's “Best Notable Quotables of 2014” looks back at the worst media bias of the year. Each day, NewsBusters will present the "winners" of a different award. Today's category: "The Move Along, Nothing to See Here Award, for Denying Obama's Scandals."

On Friday afternoon, it became known that as many as 30,000 emails belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner that were thought to be lost had been recovered. When it came to reporting this story, however, English-language networks ABC and NBC plus Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Univision have punted on this story and offered no coverage through their Monday evening newscasts. The…

On Thursday, the first paragraph of a column by the Washington Post's David Ignatius on what he thinks President Barack Obama's foreign policy might be for the next two years contained what may qualify as the "Notable Quotable" of the year. The first sentence was a pretty impressive failure at perception: "President Obama looked almost relieved after Tuesday’s election blowout." Look, David,…

On November 5, Judicial Watch announced that the IRS admitted “that it failed to search any of the IRS standard computer systems for the ‘missing’ emails of Lois Lerner and other IRS officials.” The admission comes after the government watchdog group made a “request that a federal court judge allow discovery into how ‘lost and/or destroyed’ IRS records relating to the targeting of conservative…

In the crucial weeks leading up to the midterm elections, the broadcast networks were obsessed with scandals, but not any of the Obama administration controversies that might influence how voters behave on Election Day. No, despite revelations in the Benghazi, IRS, Veterans Administration and Secret Service prostitution scandals it was the NFL domestic abuse scandals that captured the attention…

So, here we are roughly 500 days after the IRS was caught red-handed using fear and intimidation to target and wage war on conservative groups, including tea party patriots, pro-Israel advocates and Christian organizations. And still we the people haven't seen a single email implicating any IRS official.

Attorney General Eric Holder resigned this week after six years working for the Obama Administration and on Sunday morning's This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos ABC’s Matthew Dowd eagerly scolded Republicans for being “way too vociferous in their things about Eric Holder.” The so-called Republican dismissed the notion that Holder was  “the worst attorney general we’ve ever had” and proceeded to…

USA Today, gave the equivalent of almost a full page to Eric Holder's resignation in Friday's print edition. The paper's primary story by Gregory Korte, at the top right of the front page, described him as having "championed gay, civil, voting rights." The item's continuation on Page 8A included a quote from Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, which calls itself "America's…

An aide to Eric Holder, who thought he was calling Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings’ office for help on leaking documents to selected reporters, accidentally spilled the beans of the latest IRS spin job because he called House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s office instead. This newest twist in the IRS targeting scandal, that broke last night, was not covered on ABC, CBS or NBC’…

The major broadcast networks continued their month-long plus streak of not covering the IRS scandal on Friday night and Saturday morning as ABC, CBS, and NBC all omitted from their evening and morning newscasts two major developments. The new details on the scandal involving the agency that targeted conservative groups include the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)…

After Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday inquiring the whereabouts of a former Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney and one-time Lois Lerner employee and Judicial Watch released new IRS emails on Thursday revealing a “secret research project” on donors to non-profit political groups, two additional IRS bombshell broke on Friday. Upon these…

The IRS targeting scandal has all the intrigue of a political thriller. First it was the missing e-mails, then destroyed hard drives and now a missing person in the form of one-time Lois Lerner underling Andrew Strelka. On September 3, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding to know, by a Friday deadline, the information on the whereabouts of…

The nation’s top television news broadcasts - in both English and Spanish - have been entirely mum on the latest revelations related to alleged obstruction of justice and politically-directed abuse of power at the Obama administration’s Internal Revenue Service. Whether at ABC, CBS and NBC, or Univision, Telemundo and Mundo Fox, these networks to date have essentially censored the admission…