Beyond the Tea Party: How the IRS Is Killing Nonprofit Media&|&Dan Kennedy
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Beyond the Tea Party: How the IRS Is Killing Nonprofit Media
Outrage over the Internal Revenue Service's
of Tea Party and other right-wing groups continues to boil -- yet a potentially more consequential IRS practice has scarcely gained any attention.Over the past few years the IRS has virtually stopped approving 501(c)(3) status for nonprofit news organizations. Given the well-documented decline of traditional for-profit newspapers, nonprofit journalism can be a vital alternative, especially at the local and regional levels. But even when applications for 501(c)(3) status aren't rejected outright, they are stacking up, unacted upon, for months and even years.A recent Council on Foundations
titled "The IRS and Nonprofit Media: Toward Creating a More Informed Public" put it this way:There is significant anecdotal evidence that the IRS has delayed the approval of nonprofit media, potentially slowed the development of those already created, and harmed communities by leaving them without essential coverage, due to the application of archaic standards.Starting in the middle part of the last decade, a number of nonprofit entrepreneurs launched community websites that were built roughly on the public radio model, funded by grants, sponsorships and contributions from readers. Gaining 501(c)(3) status allowed donors to make make those contributions tax-exempt.In researching , my book on the
and other community news sites, I was struck that nearly all of the best-known nonprofits -- the Independent, , , the , the
and others -- had been started during the same time period, from 2004 to 2009."There was an initial bubble of nonprofit start-ups, but you haven't seen that great wave spreading across the country," Andrew Donohue, the then-editor of Voice of San Diego, told me in 2011. He saw that as potentially a good thing -- a sign that journalists were trying a variety of models, for-profit as well as nonprofit. Since then, however, it has become increasingly apparent that the IRS is a principal agent in stifling that great wave.Consider some of the consequences of the IRS's actions and inaction:o In February 2012, the Chicago News Cooperative went under, in part because of its inability to obtain 501(c)(3) status from the IRS,
in the Columbia Journalism Review.o Because the IRS does not consider journalism to be among the educational activities covered by the 501(c)(3) rules, the agency told the Investigative News Network to remove the word "journalism" from its articles of incorporation. The INN complied and won approval, according to
about the Council on Foundations report by Justin Ellis of the Nieman Journalism Lab.o In a similar vein, according to the report, the Johnston Insider of Rhode Island received a message from the IRS telling it: "While most of your articles may be of interest to individuals residing in your community, they are not educational." Because of that and other reasons, editor Elizabeth Wayland-Seal announced that she was .What adds to the absurdity of the IRS's stance, as the report notes, is that we are already accustomed to relying on nonprofit, tax-exempt media for much of our news and information -- not just from community news sites but from long-established outlets such as NPR and local public radio stations, The PBS NewsHour and magazines such as Mother Jones, Consumer Reports and National Geographic.Here is how the media-reform organization Free Press, which has assembled a useful repository of information about the IRS and nonprofit news, :Nonprofit journalism is not a silver bullet for the future of journalism. But fostering a more diverse media system is. If the IRS decides against allowing nonprofit status for newsrooms, it will essentially be arguing that all journalism should be done for profit. The problem is, the market has shown it will not support the full extent and diversity of news and perspectives we need.Four years ago, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat,
that would have allowed newspapers to become nonprofit organizations. At the time it struck me as superfluous. Now it appears that it warrants another look -- not just for newspapers, but for other forms of media as well.Absent legislation, President Obama should appoint a new IRS commissioner who understands that providing quality local journalism is indeed the sort of educational activity that should be covered by the provisions of 501(c)(3).At a historical moment when it has become increasingly difficult for the traditional media to provide the information we need to govern ourselves in a democracy, the IRS shouldn't stand in the way of promising alternatives.
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Thanks for your report!&Revelation of Spy Nest in British Berlin Embassy Angers Germans
New revelations about how the UK is allegedly housing surveillance equipment in its Berlin embassy could heighten tensions between the two countries. Here, a covered structure on top of the building in Berlin.
First it was the US -- and now it turns out the UK might have been spying from its embassy in Berlin, too. Officials at Germany's Foreign Ministry responded Tuesday by inviting Britain's ambassador for a lecture.
Reacting to allegations that yet another close ally might be spying on its leaders from an embassy in Berlin, Germany's Foreign Ministry invited Britain's ambassador to a meeting on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the allegations. The invitation had been requested by Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
During the meeting, the head of the ministry's European affairs department informed the ambassador that "eavesdropping on communications inside the offices of a diplomatic mission would violate international law," a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. The ministry did not provide addition details about the meeting.
The revelations about further alleged spying have rocked the political establishment in Berlin this week. The London-based Independent newspaper
that British intelligence had established a "secret listening post" in the British Embassy like the one recently revealed by
to be in the US Embassy on the same large block. The British post, like the American one, is located near the German parliament, the Reichstag, and was disclosed in the trove of data leaked by American intelligence whistleblower .
Annoyance in Berlin
Tuesday's developments come one week after the Foreign Ministry ordered the US ambassador to discuss revelations in the NSA scandal that the American intelligence agency had been monitoring Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone communications for years. Since then, the ministry has been particularly sensitive to new developments in the affair. The latest report is unlikely to have the same impact as those of spying on Merkel and, indeed, an invitation for a meeting at the Foreign Ministry does not have the kind of strong diplomatic associations that being ordered to appear does. It will nevertheless send the message to officials in London that politicians in Berlin are annoyed.
According to the Independent, the British eavesdropping equipment is likely housed on embassy grounds in a white cylindrical, tent-like structure that has been there since the embassy opened in 2000. The equipment is reportedly able to intercept mobile phone and Wi-Fi signals as well as "long-distance communications across the German capital," presumably including in the Reichstag and Merkel's nearby Chancellery.
The so-called "concealed collection system," the paper continues, is operated by a small staff whose "true mission is not known by the majority of the diplomatic staff at the facility." Likewise, given the location of the equipment, the paper posits that it is unlikely that the operation did not intercept information from Chancellor Merkel.
'Completely Unacceptable'
The revelation has the potential to cause another deep rift between Germany and a close ally. The
that the United States was spying on Merkel's cellphone prompted angry reactions from German leaders, including a furious phone call from Merkel to US President Barack Obama, and discussions about sanctions and new anti-spying rules directed against the Americans. When contacted by the British newspaper, representatives from both the GCHQ, the British spying agency, and the government of Prime Minister David Cameron declined to comment.
German politicians across the political spectrum have responded to these fresh allegations with fresh anger and demands that Berlin increase its counterespionage activities.
Wolfgang Bosbach, a parliamentarian with the Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), told Berlin daily Tagesspiegel that "the latest developments show that we need to sign a 'no-spy' agreement with the United Kingdom, as well," adding, "such full-blown spying is completely inacceptable and must be dealt with."
Hans-Peter Uhl, a parliamentarian with the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's Bavarian sister party, was more restrained, emphasizing to Tagesspiegel that Germany "should have the goal of developing techniques to protect our data."
Meanwhile, Thomas Oppermann, the Social Democratic chairman of the Bundestag's parliamentary control committee, which has monitoring oversight for intelligence activities in the Germany, said, "As sad as this may be, in the future we will have to assume that we are being spied on by our own friends. Trust is good, but checks are better."
Jan Albrecht, a member of the European Parliament with the environmentalist Green Party who specializes in civil rights and data protection, told the Independent: "This is hardly in the spirit of European cooperation. We are not enemies."
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And when do the Russians, the Chinese, the French and maybe even Greece come on this list ?
Do wake up please !
The times of the carrier pigeon are over.
And when do the Russians, the Chinese, the French and maybe even Greece come on this list ?
Do wake up please !
The times of the carrier pigeon are over.
No attentive Briton would place a great deal of trust in those who now govern their country. From a British point of view, it would therefore appear that the German MPs are really extremely naive, or very good actors. On the one [...]
No attentive Briton would place a great deal of trust in those who now govern their country. From a British point of view, it would therefore appear that the German MPs are really extremely naive, or very good actors. On the one side they show tremendous anger at being spied upon, on the other do everything possible to show that their friendship, to those who are guilty of such deceit, must on no account be damaged. It is obvious to outsiders, that a number of these German politicians, are far more loyal to their false friends, than to the voters who gave them a mandate. The question is why?
No wonder the US shut down its listenin it could still get the info from the Brits. So how about the Canadian, Australian, and NZ embassies?
No wonder the US shut down its listenin it could still get the info from the Brits. So how about the Canadian, Australian, and NZ embassies?
I understood that eavesdropping on ones friends was one of the purposes of an embassy.
Incidentally, what does the BND get up to and what does it spend its funding on?
I understood that eavesdropping on ones friends was one of the purposes of an embassy.
Incidentally, what does the BND get up to and what does it spend its funding on?
As a British citizen, I take the view that if there is a listening post atop the British embassy building monitoring German communication traffic then it should immediately stop. It is simply not acceptable to conduct this level [...]
As a British citizen, I take the view that if there is a listening post atop the British embassy building monitoring German communication traffic then it should immediately stop. It is simply not acceptable to conduct this level of surveillance against friends and allies.
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留点口水(可选)：Tea party makes its last stand in Mississippi, targeting longtime senator Thad Cochran
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After a string of
in Republican primaries this spring, the tea party’s last best hope to oust a lawmaker is in Mississippi. But things are not going well for the movement’s Chris McDaniel, who is challenging longtime senator Thad Cochran. The race has been roiled over the past week by a
in which a pro-McDaniel blogger was arrested in connection with taking an illicit photo of Cochran’s bedridden wife, Rose, who has dementia and lives in a nursing home. , including a Mississippi tea party activist who is closely connected to McDaniel. At first glance, the deeply conservative state’s Senate primary contest seems ripe for an upset. Cochran, 76, has served in Washington as long as McDaniel, a 41-year-old state senator, has been alive. A proud and prolific earmarker when senators were freer to send pork to their states, Cochran personifies the kind of free-spending Beltway broker that grass-roots conservative voters have often revolted against. Yet McDaniel has been unable to put the race away to deny Cochran a seventh term. He has made a series of tactical errors, while Cochran and his establishment allies — well funded and prepared for battle — condemned McDaniel on the airwaves.
Election Lab: See our current forecast for every congressional race in 2014
There are few reliable public polls in Mississippi. Strategists in the state say the race has been close, with Cochran holding a slight advantage, although they sense that McDaniel had been gaining steam before the nursing-home episode. Conservative groups — hoping for their first victory in knocking off an entrenched incumbent this year — are doubling down to prop up McDaniel in the run-up to the June 3 primary. “This is it,” said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg,
of the Rothenberg Political Report. “For all the early hype about the McConnell primary challenge, the Cochran race has always been the best opportunity for the libertarian-slash-tea-party folks,” he added, referring to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Citizens United and ForAmerica will soon begin advertising in Mississippi, joining an array of conservative organizations backing McDaniel. Together, tea-party-aligned groups have spent nearly $2.4 million, compared with the $1.8 million that pro-Cochran groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have invested, according to Federal Election Commission data . L. Brent Bozell III said his group, ForAmerica, has “decided to get behind McDaniel this week with a six-figure buy” focused on digital advertising. “I’m not looking for scalps, but I am looking for conservative victories, and Cochran remains a top target,” he said. “He campaigns as a conservative and governs as a moderate.” David Bossie, president of Citizens United, whose political arm has backed McDaniel since January, is ramping up his efforts. He said that beginning Thursday, he will spend $175,000 for statewide cable and broadcast advertisements — a significant buy for the modestly sized tea party group. “This is about Mississippi voters, who want a conservative leader in Washington raising Mississippi’s voice to be with the Ted Cruz-Mike Lee part of the party, not part of the establishment and part of the problem,” Bossie said, referring to the combative senators from Texas and Utah. The biggest spender has been the Club for Growth, which has been on the air for weeks and spent more than $1.7 million. The Senate Conservatives Fund has spent about $1 million, while other groups — including the Tea Party Patriots and the Madison Project — have been active, according to the Sunlight Foundation analysis. The torrent of spending drew a warning from former Delaware congressman Mike Castle, who lost the 2010 GOP Senate primary to Christine O’Donnell, a tea-party-backed candidate who was crushed in the general election. Castle said Cochran “needs to be careful since these tea party groups can bring in a lot of money in a rush. . . . Even if you’re more prepared than I was, and the surprise is sort of gone, you’ve got to pay close attention to what they’re doing.” Cochran’s advisers and advocates insist the money is all for naught. Although they acknowledge the race is tightening, they also argue that Mississippians will not turn out a senator who, as a member and former chairman of the Appropriations Committee, has delivered time and again for his poor and rural state, such as after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. “He can just accomplish so much more than Chris McDaniel, and I think people see a contrast in that we know we can count on Senator Cochran,” said Henry Barbour, a nephew of former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour (R) who is running Mississippi Conservatives, a pro-Cochran super PAC. He recalled an exchange,
in which McDaniel told an audience at the University of Mississippi: “I’m not going to do anything for you. I’m going to get the government off your back, and then I’m gonna let you do it for yourself.” In recent years, the party’s right-most wing has viewed Cochran suspiciously. In its 2014 scorecard, the American Conservative Union — one of the group’s worst ratings during the Obama presidency. That’s 31 points lower than McConnell, who fended off a tea party challenger this week, and 26 points lower than Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who also faces a primary fight. “It’s a critical moment for conservatism,” said ACU Executive Director Dan Schneider. “It will test whether conservatives can get rid of senators who become more liberal over time — and Thad Cochran is the king of that group.” Cochran plans to tour the state by bus in the final days of the campaign and is seeking help from social conservatives who have been friendly with him for decades. National Right to Life, an antiabortion group, endorsed him Wednesday, saying he had advanced “vital pro-life public policies.” Stuart Stevens, a Mississippi native and former adviser to Mitt Romney, has been enlisted to guide Cochran’s media strategy.
Cochran, who has not run a competitive race since 1984, is relying heavily on the GOP political machines built by Haley Barbour and the state’s current governor, Phil Bryant. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent $500,000 on the race, also is mobilizing its network of local chambers and small businesses to encourage their employees to support Cochran because it views him as an able recruiter of jobs to Mississippi. Henry Barbour, noting tea party struggles in other contested primaries this year, said, “Candidates matter.” “That’s what these groups that have hijacked the tea party need to learn,” he said. “That’s why Senator Cochran’s going to win and why Chris McDaniel’s going to lose.” Still, some Washington party establishment figures quietly voice concern about Cochran’s vulnerabilities. One of them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to alienate Cochran, compared the genteel lawmaker to former senator Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), who
in the 2012 election at the age of 80. Lugar was felled by accusations that he had been in Washington so long that he lost touch with his state, selling his house in Indiana and living full time in suburban Virginia. “Thad Cochran is a perfectly nice Southern gentleman and senator,” Bossie said. “But I don’t see him being a leader who will work against the status quo. His time has passed.” That is the theme McDaniel wants to drive home in the final days of campaigning. But both contests have dragged the other into an ugly back-and-forth over the Rose Cochran nursing-home photo. Conservative blogger Clayton Kelly posted an online video containing the unauthorized picture and later took it down, but he was arrested last week and charged with a felony. On Thursday, authorities also arrested Mark Mayfield, vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party and a McDaniel supporter, in connection with the case. Although McDaniel’s campaign insists that it had nothing to do with the incident, Cochran’s team tried to create doubts by releasing a timeline of statements from McDaniel and his aides and showing how they changed their story. McDaniel said the Cochran campaign is resorting to “shameful slander,” while Cochran spokesman Jordan Russell told reporters this week, “We’re in the middle of a race I think the likes of which Mississippi has never seen.” Some tea party leaders recognize the difficulty in defeating the Mississippi incumbent. In 2010, tea party favorite Joe Miller beat Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in a primary, only to lose to her in the general election, in which she ran as a write-in candidate. Miller, who is running again this year, said in an interview that it is much harder for contenders like McDaniel. “The ruling class of the Republican Party has become much more explicit in its attacks on conservatives than they used to be,” he said. “They’ve designed a better mechanism to keep their power.”
Tom Hamburger and Matea Gold contributed to this report.
Philip Rucker is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post, where he has reported since 2005.Robert Costa is a national political reporter at The Washington Post.
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