The ‘Donorgate’ racket

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting — the publicly funded entity
that contracts with television and radio stations around the country to
provide “educational” public information — has been allowing its
stations to provide mostly leftist groups and the Democratic National
Committee with their donor lists. This has been going on for years.

The problem with that, allegedly, is that it violates IRS rules
against publicly funded organizations engaging in partisan political
activities. In essence, there can be no doubt — unless you’re a
practiced deception artist — that what CPB and PBS stations have done
is violated the law.

CPB’s president, Robert Coonrod — supposedly in hot water with
Congress over the practice — just found out that neither he, nor his
company, nor any station guilty of providing donor lists in a purely
partisan way are going to be held liable.

In other words — and though Congress has several smoking guns —
nobody is going to get in trouble for this. That’s because the
subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee investigating the case has
already indicated it wants to pass the buck to the IRS and let them
“investigate” CPB. Let’s examine that.

A Clinton appointee heads the IRS. Clinton has used the IRS to
attack other conservative media organizations, including this one
(WorldNetDaily).
And nobody on the subcommittee seems likely to stand up and say, “This
practice is illegal and I’m going to move we end public funding of PBS
and the CPB.” Since no one in the IRS wants to incur the same wrath
from this president, and since few in the Republican majority on the
subcommittee are willing to act on behalf of the law and the taxpayers,
no one will be punished.

And, ultimately, when all of this blows over, the Democrats and the
PBS stations will likely start up the “Donorgate” racket once again.

I say that because it’s obvious to me that the current brand of
Democrats in power can’t seem to help themselves. They lecture ordinary
Americans on the necessity and importance of “The Law,” seek any number
of new laws and regulations to govern and control our lives, but
regularly and provably violate them. It’s like watching “Theater of the
Absurd.”

And unfortunately for us, there are not enough Republicans or other
party members who are willing and able to stand up against these
lawbreakers, even though the GOP has had the majority in Congress for
close to six years.

So much for our system of “checks and balances.” In fact, I think
it’s safe to say that in many cases, Americans no longer have a system
of checks and balances in our government. Most in power are either too
indebted to constituents, too dirty themselves or too weak and alone to
change the way the “system” has gained control of American politics.
And as long as the same old players are making the rules and running the
game, the “system” will remain impotent because it serves to the
advantage of all concerned.

That makes this current congressional “investigation” into an obvious
violation of the law by CPB worse than a bad joke.

But for the record, here is a short list of the latest and greatest
examples of congressional impotency, hypocrisy, and selective law
enforcement manifested this time in the Donorgate scandal:

• CPB’s Mr. Coonrod told the congressional subcommittee that at
  least 50 PBS television stations from the nation’s largest viewing
  markets have traded donor lists with the DNC and/or “other nonprofit
  groups,” which have included Handgun Control Inc. and pro-abortion
  groups. He also admitted that the Republicans, to use the IRS’ own
  language, were never offered these lists “on the same terms.” That’s
  “wrong,” said Coonrod, “but it’s not illegal.” Oh.

• Mr. Coonrod tried to name instances where PBS stations had traded
  such lists with other GOP-related groups. He named the “Country Club
  Republicans” and the “Great American Donors,” but several lifelong
  Republicans — including subcommittee member Rep. Barbara Cubin of
  Wyoming, had never heard of these groups. Consequently, that wouldn’t
  come close to having the same political impact as sharing such lists
  with, say, the DNC.

• Oklahoma Republican, Steve Largent, showed video excerpts, during
  testimony, of a PBS program featuring a soccer coach telling children
  that “homosexuality is acceptable.” And yet, not one member from
  either party stood up and demanded that the American taxpayer be
  relieved of having to further fund PBS and CPB, despite the fact that
  opposition to homosexuality in this country runs near 90 percent.
  Instead, some GOP members weakly threatened a decreased level of funding
  for PBS. Now that’s leadership.

• Both Mr. Coonrod and PBS president Ervin Duggan described the
  practice of swapping donor lists as “stupid” and “embarrassing.” Yet
  both acknowledge no real power to force individually owned stations to
  end the practice. In other words, they may as well have said, “Yeah,
  it’s bad but hey — there’s nothing we can do about it.”

• Mr. Coonrod did say he plans to “withhold funding” from “those
  (stations) that fail to comply with IRS regulations.” Yet, though he is
  “neither an attorney nor an expert in the IRS code,” he had already
  maintained that no laws had been broken in Donorgate. So, if Mr. Coonrod
  doesn’t even believe the stations that provided lists to the DNC “broke
  the law,” just which stations are going to have their funding withheld?
  Isn’t it odd that he said he isn’t he an expert in these particular IRS
  codes, but they apply specifically to the kind of organization he heads
  up?

Well, gee, WorldNetDaily’s parent company, Western Journalism Center,
is also a nonprofit media venture. You can bet — even before the White
House sicced the IRS on us — my editor /news/archives.asp?ARCHIVE_ID=1Joe Farah
knew which IRS codes applied to the organization because it was his job
to know. Give me a break, Mr. Coonrod.

Look, it’s obvious that PBS airs mostly left-leaning programming.
And with 353 public TV stations and 694 public radio stations heralding
the causes held by liberal Democrats, this represents too large a
temptation for liberals and socialists to ignore. It’s clear to me they
are seeking to gain political power over this country by any means,
legal or otherwise.

It’s equally obvious that these people are setting themselves up to
simply ride this scandal out, as have many liberal bureaucrats and
officials in this administration. And from the looks of it, Congress is
ready to let them do it — again.

That’s why I love working here. I feel like I’m part of a small
remnant of checks and balances left to the people of this country. And
God is watching.