COLUMNIST LACKS KEY INFORMATION

Editor:

Tom Riggins’ column on May 17 once again shows his amazing lack of information.

He says the media treated the Benghazi attack as a “non-event” except for Fox. In reality, the attacks were covered by the L.A. Times, The New York Times, McClatchy and MSNBC among others, almost non-stop. The testimony in these new hearings is basically showing nothing different than what was said before. He is correct, however, when he says no laws were broken.

He then talks about the IRS actions. He doesn’t seem to understand what this issue is about.

If a group wants to be a non-profit group, meaning contributors can deduct their donations from their taxes, they have to be a 501(c) 4 group. To be one of these, the group has to primarily be a social welfare group. Political groups are not allowed to have this status. The IRS has to check every application carefully. If the IRS was giving closer scrutiny to conservative groups, that’s not right. They should give intense scrutiny to every applicant.

The president himself has said he is outraged, as have most Democrats. So far, there is nothing illegal about giving closer scrutiny to certain groups, although it may be unethical. None of the groups were denied. Maybe the law needs to be changed, but there is no evidence Obama had anything to do with these actions.

He then talks about the AP phone records. This action by the DOJ is definitely within their authority.

When GW Bush was wiretapping citizens’ phones without a warrant, the conservatives were all for it. Now they are horrified that two months worth of phone records were subpoenaed. Maybe they need to decide which rights they are for and which they don’t care about. It would make their outrage a little more believable.

Carol Colip Churchill County