What Rights Has President Bush Limited

Former White House Counsel to IRS: Pull Media Matters' Tax-Exempt Status

Second in a three-part series

C. Boyden Gray, former White House counsel to President George H.W. Bush , filed a civilian complaint with the IRS against the nonprofit Media Matters on July 27, demanding the agency yank its “tax-exempt status.”

Citing a pattern of “unlawful conduct,” Gray writes in his petition, which FOX Business has obtained, that the nonprofit has “executed a partisan strategy” in violation of U.S. tax law as it exists “no longer to educate the public but, rather, to declare ‘war on FOX,’” Gray says, quoting from an interview its founder, David Brock, gave to the website Politico.

Also unlawful, Gray says, is the nonprofit's reported goal to “disrupt” the commercial interests of News Corp . 

(News Corp. is the parent of FOX News and FOX Business.)

None of these activities are sanctioned, or even found, in nonprofit tax law, Gray says, adding in an interview with FOX Business: “I filed the complaint pro bono. I have no official ties with FOX News or News Corp., the company doesn’t pay me a dime, I’m not on its payroll, and no one there asked me to do this. I filed it on my own.”

Media Matters did not return calls or emails for comment over a month-long period.

Gray, who now runs his own law firm in Washington, D.C., says: “I have never seen any tax-exempt organization getting into the kind of partisan activity Media Matters is now engaging in.”

Gray says he has “known” the nonprofit’s founder, Brock, “favorably,” but filed the IRS complaint “because of the potential abuse of tax-exempt funds.”

He adds: “No one would begrudge what they’re [Media Matters] doing with non-exempt funds, but it’s different when they have tax-exempt status -- it’s like a government stamp of approval because of this government subsidy.”

The petition arose after Gray had written an opinion piece about the Media Matters controversy in June for the Washington Times .

Gray cites as evidence in his IRS complaint Media Matters’ reported attempt to disrupt News Corp.’s purchase of BSkyB, a British satellite broadcaster, and its efforts “to turn regulators in the U.S., U.K.and elsewhere against the network. "

And Gray says that apart from Media Matters' "attempt to link FOX News unbearable for the Republican Party, the fact that Media Matters is equivalent FOX News" with the GOP says the nonprofit is "own partisan intent.

Big Time Conservative » The only thing President Obama excels in ...

8/7/2011

Like everybody else, presidents have birthdays and have a right to celebrate them and invite others to join them in the festivities. But taking advantage of the occasion to bash the rich and then charge some of them a whopping $40,000 to be able to sit near him as he observes his birthday is nothing short of outrageous.

The only thing President Obama excels in is fundraising — after all, when a president puts the arm on you, you can hardly say no. And the president has been putting the arm on a lot of his rich friends lately and raising big bucks for his upcoming reelection campaign. It’s a shame he can’t create jobs as efficiently as he raises money for himself. If he did I might even vote for him. However, he doesn’t, and so I won’t.

He should quit blaming the rich for being successful and take a look in the mirror. Instead of quoting my father to justify himself and his shocking incompetence he should try to imitate my Dad and try to govern as well as my Dad did.

In just barely two years he has driven the economy into a ditch yet has the gall to blame our economic troubles on President Bush, who has been out of office for two years. Moreover, during the last four years of the Bush presidency, Congress, which controls the purse strings and thus the economy, was controlled by the Democrats. It wasn’t George Bush who overspent; it was the Democrats on Capitol Hill who did their best to imitate the most drunken of the legendary drunken sailors.

“Spend and elect” has long been the policy for the Democratic Party and they have been on a spending spree since taking control of Capitol Hill with nary a word of caution coming from the Obama White House. The nation is already staggering over Washington’s out-of-control spending spree and we have yet to begin to pay the monstrous bills for such costly programs as Obamacare.

It appears that Barack Obama and his toadies on Capitol Hill have no concern over the fact that their overspending is placing a burden on our children and grandchildren, who will be burdened with paying the bill this generation’s overspending is putting on their shoulders. The time-honored American policy of each generation leaving their children a prosperous nation has been reversed by Obama and his Capitol Hill allies. Their heritage will be mountains of debt.

We are now experiencing a monetary crisis thanks to Obamanomics. The savings of the American people have been savaged by the president’s economic policies and the value of the dollar has plummeted, sending the price of gold skyrocketing. Economists are warning that the nation is heading into a double-dip recession.

United States of America Congressional Record

Congressional Record

Congressional Record, V. 150, Pt. 11, June 25, 2004 to July 14, 2004

Congressional Record, V. 152, Pt. 15, September 26, 2006 to September 28, 2006

Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush, House Majority Report