Obama Donor Picked to Head IRS Scandal Investigation, Big Three Networks Censor
After months of stonewalling the Justice Department finally named someone to head the investigation into the IRS-Tea Party scandal - and it's an Obama donor. So far ABC, CBS and NBC have yet to mention what Darrell Issa called “a startling conflict of interest.” In fact the Big Three networks have almost completely stopped covering the IRS scandal investigation altogether.
Since July 1, ABC, CBS and NBC have devoted a total of just 2 minutes and 8 seconds to the IRS imbroglio.
On Wednesday the Washington Times’s Stephen Dinan reported that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and regulatory affairs subcommittee chairman Jim Jordan revealed that the head of the investigation is Barbara Kay Bosserman, “a trial lawyer in the Justice Department who donated more than $6,000 to Mr. Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, as well as several hundred dollars to the national Democratic Party.”
Dinan went on to report that, in a letter sent to the Justice Department, Issa and Jordan charged the DOJ had “created a startling conflict of interest” and that it was “unbelievable that the department would choose such an individual to examine the federal government’s systematic targeting and harassment of organizations to the president's policies.”
Since July 1, the Big Three networks have offered a grand total of 2 minutes and 8 seconds on the IRS scandal. In that time NBC has offered a total of just 5 seconds. ABC has devoted a total of 22 seconds to the IRS scandal. CBS spent or 1 minute and 41 seconds on the IRS’s targeting of the Tea Party. In contrast, in less than 24 hours, the Big Three networks have devoted 17 times more coverage (34 minutes and 28 seconds) to a traffic scandal involving Republican Governor Chris Christie.
— Geoffrey Dickens is Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter.
