Monday, July 11, 2011

"Big Journalism" Goes After Media Matters, Who is Going After Fox, Rush, Etc

Meredith Dake at Big Journalism reports that Media Matters, a leftwing website, has vowed to "make war on Fox [News]."

Media Matters is a leftist political organization with ruthless schemes to smear conservative journalists and news outlets.  The problem with this is that they do it under the cover of a tax-free status, as a 501(c)(3) organization. A 501(c)(3) organization is a charitable organization, and donations to it are tax deductible.  Big Journalism wants to go after Media Matters for its political activities, which may disqualify the organization from its tax exempt status.

The prohibited political activities under the Internal Revenue Code focus on partisan activities such as the support of one party or one candidate over another.  It is unclear to me that Media Matters war on the First Amendment would qualify as a prohibited political activity.  What is clear, however, is that Media Matters is very political and very partisan, and may step over the line sometime, if they have not done so already.  Big Journalism tells what to look for and how to make a complaint to the IRS.

Read the Big Journalism article here.

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