In yet another case of distorting the news, the New York Times has written another piece of garbage about the IRS delaying the collection of back taxes until after the elections and the holdiays.
Then after stating that clearly, they start their distortion and smears in trying to politicize the whole affair by ignoring their OWN words about waiting until after the holdiays and they try to fabricate a story by interviewing other past commissioners asking them if they would delay collecting back taxes until after elections, conveneniently forgetting to add the rest of the quote in the question about the holdiays.
Of course the left wing bloggers jumped all over the election comment and either didn't read the actual quote or chose to also ignore the holiday portion of the answer.
Left wing media...gotta love it huh?
“We just spoke with commissioner on the enforcement issue in the gulf,” wrote Beth Tucker, the I.R.S. executive in charge of dealing with Hurricane Katrina victims, in an e-mail message to her team obtained by The New York Times. “He prefers that we do not resume any enforcement actions until after Dec. 31 due to the upcoming elections, holiday season, etc.”
Elections, holiday season, etc....
Then they ask Jerome Kurtz part of the question, skipping the holiday portion of the quote.
Former Commissioner Jerome Kurtz, who served under President Jimmy Carter, responded, “Never, never, never,” when asked if he would have considered delaying broad-based enforcement actions like sending notices because of any election, national or local. “Oh my God, that is unthinkable,” Mr. Kurtz said.
Now did they also ask him if broad based enforcement issues were delayed until after holidays, especially for natural disaster victims.... if they did, they certainly didn't mention it because it wouldn't make such headlines if they were truthful.
Rags like the New York Times do this quite often and they have lost any and all credibility they might have ever had, because of stunts like this.
They get a story, print parts of it, ask questions to others about portions of it and report it like it is news, instead of what it really is...an attempt to politicize IRS's desire to not cause hardships to Katrina victims before the holiday season.
On the other hand, Mark E. Matthews, the I.R.S. deputy director of services and enforcement, who participated in the conference call with Mr. Everson, said that “the reference to elections was in a litany of things we were running through here” and that “I did not read it as being politicized.” Mr. Matthews noted that he is a Democrat who worked in the Clinton administration.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes, incomes and tax records, the I.R.S. delayed the filing deadline for 2005 taxes to Oct. 16, 2006, for those living in the counties most affected by the storm. Normally, those taxpayers who did not file returns or pay their taxes by that extended deadline would begin receiving notices and, eventually, collection demands from the I.R.S.
If the NYT is going to ask former employees questions about present employees decisions, perhaps they should ask the FULL questions instead of trying to deliberately mislead the American public.
They might actually get taken seriously for a change...then again, they might not with their reputation.
Others posting: It Shines for All.
My related posts here, here, here, and here.
Of course this fits right in with my last post on the DOD also calling NYT liars as well as a few others.