Fox News Ignores Latest Evidence That Progressive Groups Were Targeted By IRS

Written by Andrew Lawrence

Published

After repeatedly hyping the IRS' targeting of political groups, Fox News is ignoring new evidence undermining its scandal mongering that only conservative organizations were targeted.

On August 20, Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), the Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, released information providing more evidence that the IRS targeted progressive groups in addition to conservative ones. As Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald reported:

Democrats say the new information should put to rest any lingering embers of the IRS scandal. “This new information should put a nail in the coffin of the Republican claims that the IRS's actions were politically motivated or were targeted at only one side of the political spectrum,” said Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat who is the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.

The term “Emerge” had been redacted from an earlier version of a document released by the IRS, but was present on a newer version made available today. The new documents also showed that successors to ACORN, the liberal grass-roots organizing group that became a bugaboo of conservatives and that Congress defunded (again and again). The instructions on “ACORN successors” came on a BOLO (be on the lookout) list that included healthcare organizations, medical marijuana groups, newspapers, open source technology groups and other non-political organizations.

Since it came to light that the IRS targeted political groups, Fox News has worked in concert with Republican politicians in an attempt to manufacture a scandal, despite a lack of evidence.

Fox News has promoted selective clips of interview transcripts leaked by House Republicans that fit a predetermined narrative, ignored previous revelations that progressives had been targeted, and hyped old news as a “bombshell” and explosive evidence that proved the IRS's behavior went straight to the White House. Time and again the IRS “scandal” has proven to be nothing more than a scam.

There is now even more proof that progressive groups were subjected to the same type of scrutiny as conservative groups.