Brent Bozell had a sad on The Kelly File last night. He’s very, very upset that the news media is talking about the dustup between Rep. Elijah Cummings and Committee Chairman Darrell Issa over the IRS investigation. Why? Because now the media is not talking about the substance of the investigation. According to Bozell, the issue is so important, it makes Iran-Contra look “piddly.”
According to “let someone else write my columns and I’ll take credit for them” Bozell, the media hasn’t covered Lois Lerner, the IRS employee at the heart of the IRS controversy over improperly scrutinized 501(c)(4) organizations. It’s hard to know what Bozell wants covered, given that the big "news" is that she refuses to testify. That has been reported by CBS News, NPR, and the Washington Post, for example.
Furthermore, Michael Winship delved further into the IRS/Lerner matter and wrote in an article called “The IRS Scandal That Wasn’t”:
Reforms are being put in place at Internal Revenue. According to the Treasury Department, the IRS is working on new guidelines for 501c4s, including clearer information on how to measure political activity. And while it may have fallen from the front pages, stories continue to appear. USA Today has been particularly diligent obtaining internal IRS documents, including a 2011 list that flags political groups “based on the content of their literature, raising concerns specifically about ‘anti-Obama rhetoric,’ inflammatory language and ‘emotional’ statements made by non-profits seeking tax-exempt status.” Of the 162 groups cited, more than 80 percent were characterized as conservative. But in fact, this is roughly proportionate to the amount conservative 501c4s contributed in the 2012 elections.
But I suppose that’s not the kind of coverage Bozell was looking for. Or else he was just being dishonest. Bozell told host Megyn Kelly tonight that the media “haven’t covered” Lerner. “They’ve ignored the scandal almost from Day One, virtually ignored it.”
Referring to the Cummings/Issa confrontation, Bozell added, “I knew instinctively that if there was going to be any coverage, it was not going to be the bombshell of Lois Lerner taking the Fifth again. It was going to be that little stunt that the Democrats pulled.” Well, besides the articles I linked to above, a simple Google search reveals that the media was able to cover both.
But Googling must have been too much work for Kelly. She put on her face of rapt attention and did not challenge a word from Bozell. She did say that she understood why the Cummings/Issa confrontation was discussed. But, she added, “to ignore the substance of what actually was happening, what they were there to have a hearing about is a different matter altogether, Brent.”
Now that’s rich. Because in all this whining, I didn’t hear a word about how Cummings was upset because Issa provided a Republican staff report on the IRS matter to Fox News but had refused Cummings’ request to provide it the committee. Talk about selective coverage!
But wait, there’s more. Bozell said:
I do believe that this IRS scandal is bigger than Watergate. …It’s becoming more and more apparent that there were serious crimes committed. The only question is how far up the ladder does this one reach?
Of course, Bozell never said – and Kelly never asked – exactly what kind of serious crimes had been committed. I suspect it’s because they can’t find one. Even Issa never said he found evidence of a crime on Fox. In fact, Issa has said that his investigation may be at a dead end with Lerner’s refusal to testify. Funny how that little detail didn’t come up, either.
But Bozell’s conservative-victimhood bender just snowballed:
I thought back in 1988, 1987 and 88, with Iran-Contra – if you recall, that – which is, which is piddly stuff compared to this, day in and day out, live coverage… all day coverage to find out what Iran-Contra was all about, what Ollie North had done. So now you have this story, this woman comes to testify, she doesn’t even make the news.
Really? Bozell thinks that illegally selling arms to Iran and then using that money to illegally fund the Nicaraguan “contras” was “piddly stuff” compared to what amounts to, basically, bureaucratic bungling?
Or is it that Bozell is more worried that Cummings has done a good job of exposing Issa’s witch hunt as a fraud?
Video below of the March 6 Kelly File segment via Media Matters.
First, Brent Bozell has no credibility. His organization is noteworthy for having been sued and humiliated by WWE for their libelous statements in the past. He was forced to issue a public apology and retraction on his website and pay a massive settlement to WWE to keep the situation from becoming even worse for him in court. If Fox News wishes to find a credible media commentator, then maybe they could have a real discussion. Bozell is simply a showman with no real knowledge of what he’s opining. As they say, “all hat and no cattle”.
Second, the argument between Issa and Cummings wasn’t so much about this specific non-story, but rather about the fact that Issa has been acting as a dictator on this committee for years now. It’s clearly Issa’s intent to spend his time grandstanding on whatever trumped-up “scandals” he can push on Fox News and talk radio. This allows him to play the role of the “aggrieved congressman in search of the truth” while doing nothing more than bang his gavel and throw public tantrums. Issa has long thought of himself as more important than he is – his biggest stretch was when he engineered the recall of Governor Gray Davis in California, thinking he would be able to walk into the governorship himself. When Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped in front of him, Issa had a public meltdown and sobbed at a press conference where he had to admit he wasn’t going to get to be governor after all. Similar to Bozell, Issa has no credibility. When he completes his congressional career, all he’ll have to show for his time is a series of these public outbursts, none of which having done anything to help anyone other than himself.
Finally, there isn’t an IRS scandal. There was a bureaucratic mess that came from the way various IRS staffers categorized the non-profit applications. It’s all fairly dry material and certainly not criminal. It’s a matter of how procedures are handled when it comes to filing papers. That’s not the same thing as the very real criminality practiced by the Nixon, Reagan and George W. Bush White Houses. The GOP is desperately trying to find any smoke they can to equate their current arguments with past criminal acts, but it never works. We’ll hear this refrain time and time again on Fox – “Worse than Watergate”, “Worse than Iran Contra”, “Worse than Plamegate”. But that doesn’t make the refrain true, and it doesn’t rewrite the actual history even if Fox News wishes that it would.