MoonGateClimber wrote:
Stannis wrote:
What is Friends of Abe?
From Wiki:
Quote:
The 'Friends of Abe' is a support and networking group for politically conservative members of the Hollywood elite. The organization was formed in 2004 by actor Gary Sinise. "Friends of Abe" is a reference to "Friends of Bill", a group of political friends and donors of former President Bill Clinton, while "Abe" refers to Abraham Lincoln. The organization fiercely protects its list of members.
I somehow doubt that the IRS ever investigated 'Friends of Bill'.
The IRS cracked down on 501C3's because the whole practice is essentially money laundering that SCOTUS decided was legal. Once you've got a 501C3 set up, you can receive infinite amounts of money from anonymous donors and funnel the money somewhere else. Usually it goes to political campaigns, but you can abuse the heck out of the system for criminal reasons. Stephen Colbert created his own 501C3 organization just to prove that he could, and then donated the money he got.
As for the media being liberal, MSNBC is just taking whatever market Fox News hasn't already. From a legal standpoint, Newscorp has established that Fox News is "Infotainment" and has no obligation to tell the truth or serve the public interest. There is an actual court case they won to set this legal precedent.
As someone who works in media, I can tell you with absolute confidence that the whole apparatus is designed to sell the products of their sponsors. Nothing more, nothing less. If a TV station broadcasts something positive about gays, it's too sell products to gay people. If a TV station broadcasts something about The War on Christmas, it's to get their viewers to invest in gold. The actors and producers might be legitimately passionate about the message they're sending. The network executive aren't.
04 Feb 2014, 10:53 am
