When the trifecta of scandals first broke over the White House a few weeks ago, the media (who were literally blocking the truth from getting out about the IRS and Benghazi) were so caught off guard that for a couple of weeks they accidentally acted like real media and just reported the facts. Over Memorial Day weekend that all changed.
It is fairly obvious that the media used the three-day weekend to gather themselves, talk to the White House, and coordinate talking points with one another. The result of this coordination has been apparent in the words “overreach,” “McCarthyism,” “disarray,” and “no GOP agenda” — all being uttered simultaneously across media platforms that are supposed to compete, not coordinate, with one another.
The idea is for the media to revert to form. Rather than seek the truth, the media will go back to attacking those seeking the truth. Obama’s approval rating is going down, his left-wing agenda and legacy are in jeopardy, and the bleeding must be stopped.
Another piece of coordination between media and Democrats reared its ugly head today in the most expected of places: Politico. No one takes more glee in savaging private citizens who dare not support Obama than Obama’s bullying thugs at Politico.
During Tuesday’s testimony, Congressional Democrats attacked the private citizens brought before them to tell their individual horror stories. The witnesses were Tea Party groups and other conservative groups put through months of paralyzing harassment by an IRS that had intentionally singled them out based on their political beliefs.
Democrats, however, did not care about the fact that these groups had been targeted, and they kept insinuating that these groups deserved the IRS scrutiny due to their political activity.
Well, that is not the point and everyone knows it. Had the IRS put the same number of left-leaning groups through the same hyper-scrutiny as they did right-leaning groups, none of this would be happening. There would be no scandal.
But the idea here is to change the subject from the fact that the IRS singled out Obama’s political foes for paralyzing scrutiny in the run-up to Obama’s re-election campaign, to the supposed abuse of a tax exempt status by conservative political groups.
The thinking goes that if Democrats can make the Tea Party look like tax cheats it will take the heat off of Obama and further damage his opponents.
Well, right on cue, Politico arrives this morning like the cavalry with an appallingly dishonest (but expected) piece of reporting that falls right in line with what Congressional Democrats did yesterday. It is as pure a piece of coordination and left-wing propaganda as you will ever read.
And this is the only kind of investigative reporting Politico ever does. Imagine if Politico poured these same resources into investigating the IRS’s connections to the White House or the shaping of the IRS talking points by the State Department.
But today’s Politico piece is all about changing the subject. All it looks at is the political activity of yesterday’s Tea Party witnesses in order to make a case that they deserved scrutiny from the IRS.
The Politico piece, however, intentionally ignores the fact that this is not the point of the scandal. The point is that these groups were singled out for harassment by their own government.
The Politico piece intentionally ignores and chooses not to report on all the political activity of tax-exempt left-leaning groups (like Obama’s Organizing for America) — groups approved by the IRS, that are every bit as political as those on the right who were paralyzed by lengthy and intrusive questionnaires and threats of perjury-those who had their information leaked to the media.
Working directly with the Democrats, Politico is now putting in overtime to desperately steer subject away from and distract from partisan horrors committed by the IRS.
The actual crime is no longer the story, according to Politico. No, the story is that the victims had it coming.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC