What The Media And Jon Stewart Aren’t Telling You About IRS Emails
The revelation that all of the emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner’s hard drive have been lost has given new life to the long-dead IRS “scandal,” but there are a few key facts that the mainstream media, and its influential, unofficial ombudsman Jon Stewart, are failing to report about these “missing emails.”
Coverage of the IRS “scandal” has been characterized by irresponsible, downright defamatory hyperbole, but when it finally sank in that the IRS also targeted liberal groups for added scrutiny, and no remote hint of involvement by the White House, even Republicans had to face facts: as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) noted over a year ago, this is never going to amount to the “Nixonian” scandal that conservatives, and the media, want it to.
But the revelation that Lerner’s hard drive crashed, taking with it all of her emails from 2009-2011, has given new life to the story. The mainstream media have latched onto the “missing emails” story as a major complication for a White House that has thus far avoided entanglement, while Jon Stewart used The Daily Show this week to make fun of the IRS for only keeping six months worth of backup, while requiring everyone else to retain receipts dating back to their first school lunches. Along the way, Stewart noted that “there’s been no real evidence found that the White House is involved,” before launching into his bit about the IRS sucking:
Now, mainstream media reporting on the “missing emails” carries with it the implication that, although a connection with the White House hasn’t been proven, there are all these missing emails, so who knows? Maybe it is reasonable for Republicans to hold 17 hearings on the matter, even though the IRS targeted liberal groups too, and didn’t deny tax exempt status to a single conservative group. Like Stewart said, doesn’t it kind of reek of a coverup?
And even in Jon Stewart’s more charitable summary, “there’s been no real evidence found” means that maybe there still is some, and that there certainly isn’t evidence to indicate the opposite, that the White House had no involvement in Lerner’s activities.
One under-reported fact is that, although Lois Lerner’s hard drive was destroyed, the IRS has managed to submit over 24,000 of Lerner’s emails to Congress by obtaining them from the IRS personnel who received them, and will be submitting an additional 43,000 emails recovered from Lerner’s computer and email account. As Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) pointed out at a hearing Monday, there is ample evidence of the tech problems that resulted in Lerner’s email loss, and whatever gaps may have occurred because of that hard drive crash can be filled in by recipients from the various entities whom Lerner emailed.
That brings me to the other, almost completely unreported fact in this latest chapter of the IRS saga. Would it surprise you to learn that the White House has searched for, and submitted, every single email between Lerner and any official in the Executive Office of the President, and every email that was even sent to both Lerner and any EOP employee? This shouldn’t be a surprise, because then-White House Press Secretary Jay Carney explained all of this to Fox News’ Ed Henry at his final briefing last week. Can you guess how many emails they found, or how many of them contained evidence of possible collusion between Lerner and the White House?…READ MORE
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By: Tommy Christopher
Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
32 responses to What The Media And Jon Stewart Aren’t Telling You About IRS Emails
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R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 11:06
I’m sorry, but I’ve been working in the IT industry since 1988, and there is no way that a hard drive crash eliminates emails. It simply doesn’t work that way. This, coupled with the fact that the IRS didn’t bother to disclose the loss of the emails, and then released Sonasoft (their contracted backup provider) from their contract soon after, builds a deserved distrust in the IRS’s testimony. An independent audit team should be combing through a number of different Exchange servers by this point.
Roctuna June 27th, 2014 at 12:31
Everyone seems to agree that no groups were favored, or singled out, or inhibited in any way. The Dep. Director testified under oath that hardrives are backed up to an antiquated tape system (due to gop budget cuts) and they can only archive 6 months worth of files. Then they have to purge the tapes to make room for new archives. Her HD was deemed unrecoverable and recycled, her emails lost when the tapes were over written. So what exactly is the scandal as you see it? You seem to be implying there is one.
M D Reese June 27th, 2014 at 12:55
I agree. This is more like the standard GOPTP routine of starving government agencies that they don’t like and then complaining when they don’t work. Another likely reason is that the IRS non-scandal is just to distract us from the failure of the BenghaziBenghazi non-scandal. Sort of the same as the World Cup being played is just a distraction from the Whitehouse “scandals”…Meanwhile, nothing worthwhile gets done as usual.
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 13:25
A lot of worthwhile stuff is getting done just this week. The constitutional authority of the land (the SCOTUS) has been reversing one constitutional blunder after another. I think they’re up to thirteen as of yesterday.
M D Reese June 27th, 2014 at 13:52
I guess it all depends on what you consider a constitutional blunder.
BanditBasheert June 27th, 2014 at 13:59
There will come a time when all of these SCOTUS pigs will be dead and gone. Everything can be reversed. If there is anything left of this country by the time they are through selling it to the 1%
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 14:27
But that’s what conservatives have been saying about Roe v. Wade for years. Hasn’t happened.
Shades June 27th, 2014 at 16:23
I don’t think conservatives really want Roe v Wade reversed. It’s too useful for riling up the base come campaign season.
Garth Van Fosson June 27th, 2014 at 16:53
A constitutional blunder is about everything that Obozo does on his own, with his pen and phone.
BanditBasheert June 27th, 2014 at 13:58
Of course that is what they do. And the Brilliant (Car Thief) Issa is now demanding her emails from 1986 (prior to emails being common).
They’re idiots .. looking for dirt. Just like the VA, you STARVE the agency and then you blame it when veterans die.
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 13:24
In 2009, Sonasoft was backing up files for the IRS. Up until this very year, Sonasoft listed the IRS as a client. That span of time covers the gap in the emails, so Sonasoft should have backups.
As to budget cuts, you don’t go out and get antiquated technology to replace your current, in-place technology just because the budget got cut. The hardware is already in place. Lerner’s HD is irrelevant to the entire discussion — any HD is irrelevant to the entire discussion, because of the way Exchange servers store and distribute information.
As to the favoring of one group over another, when it comes to actual approval, 100% of the left-leaning groups were approved.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7371/9411076165_cae9631d59.jpg
BanditBasheert June 27th, 2014 at 13:57
Wow – they approved 100% of SEVEN (7) applications? Wow – lots of dirt there Little Buddy.
Roctuna June 27th, 2014 at 14:01
I didn’t claim they bought a tape system because of budget cuts. I believe it’s that they couldn’t replace their outdated tape drive system because of the cuts. Just because Sonasoft listed the IRS as a client isn’t pertinent to the discussion. Sonasoft could have been managing the tape drives and nothing more.
As far as your chart, I have no comment since you didn’t source the data but it seems at odds with most of what’s written about the reviews.
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 14:26
Oh. That’s published over at NPR.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/07/30/207080580/report-irs-scrutiny-worse-for-conservatives
BanditBasheert June 27th, 2014 at 14:00
How do you know the IRS didn’t disclose it? Just because YOU don’t know it? Were they supposed to let you know personally so you would be satisfied?
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 14:25
Well, I know they didn’t disclose it to Congress.
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 11:06
I’m sorry, but I’ve been working in the IT industry since 1988, and there is no way that a hard drive crash eliminates emails. It simply doesn’t work that way. This, coupled with the fact that the IRS didn’t bother to disclose the loss of the emails, and then released Sonasoft (their contracted backup provider) from their contract soon after, builds a deserved distrust in the IRS’s testimony. An independent audit team should be combing through a number of different Exchange servers by this point.
Roctuna June 27th, 2014 at 12:31
Everyone seems to agree that no groups were favored, or singled out, or inhibited in any way. The Dep. Director testified under oath that hardrives are backed up to an antiquated tape system (due to gop budget cuts) and they can only archive 6 months worth of files. Then they have to purge the tapes to make room for new archives. Her HD was deemed unrecoverable and recycled, her emails lost when the tapes were over written. So what exactly is the scandal as you see it? You seem to be implying there is one.
M D Reese June 27th, 2014 at 12:55
I agree. This is more like the standard GOPTP routine of starving government agencies that they don’t like and then complaining when they don’t work. Another likely reason is that the IRS non-scandal is just to distract us from the failure of the BenghaziBenghazi non-scandal. Sort of the same as the World Cup being played is just a distraction from the Whitehouse “scandals”…Meanwhile, nothing worthwhile gets done as usual.
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 13:25
A lot of worthwhile stuff is getting done just this week. The constitutional authority of the land (the SCOTUS) has been reversing one constitutional blunder after another. I think they’re up to thirteen as of yesterday.
M D Reese June 27th, 2014 at 13:52
I guess it all depends on what you consider a constitutional blunder.
BanditBasheert June 27th, 2014 at 13:59
There will come a time when all of these SCOTUS pigs will be dead and gone. Everything can be reversed. If there is anything left of this country by the time they are through selling it to the 1%
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 14:27
But that’s what conservatives have been saying about Roe v. Wade for years. Hasn’t happened.
Shades June 27th, 2014 at 16:23
I don’t think conservatives really want Roe v Wade reversed. It’s too useful for riling up the base come campaign season.
Garth Van Fosson June 27th, 2014 at 16:53
A constitutional blunder is about everything that Obozo does on his own, with his pen and phone.
BanditBasheert June 27th, 2014 at 13:58
Of course that is what they do. And the Brilliant (Car Thief) Issa is now demanding her emails from 1986 (prior to emails being common).
They’re idiots .. looking for dirt. Just like the VA, you STARVE the agency and then you blame it when veterans die.
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 13:24
In 2009, Sonasoft was backing up files for the IRS. Up until this very year, Sonasoft listed the IRS as a client. That span of time covers the gap in the emails, so Sonasoft should have backups.
As to budget cuts, you don’t go out and get antiquated technology to replace your current, in-place technology just because the budget got cut. The hardware is already in place. Lerner’s HD is irrelevant to the entire discussion — any HD is irrelevant to the entire discussion, because of the way Exchange servers store and distribute information.
As to the favoring of one group over another, when it comes to actual approval, 100% of the left-leaning groups were approved.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7371/9411076165_cae9631d59.jpg
BanditBasheert June 27th, 2014 at 13:57
Wow – they approved 100% of SEVEN (7) applications? Wow – lots of dirt there Little Buddy.
Roctuna June 27th, 2014 at 14:01
I didn’t claim they bought a tape system because of budget cuts. I believe it’s that they couldn’t replace their outdated tape drive system because of the cuts. Just because Sonasoft listed the IRS as a client isn’t pertinent to the discussion. Sonasoft could have been managing the tape drives and nothing more.
As far as your chart, I have no comment since you didn’t source the data but it seems at odds with most of what’s written about the reviews.
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 14:26
Oh. That’s published over at NPR.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/07/30/207080580/report-irs-scrutiny-worse-for-conservatives
BanditBasheert June 27th, 2014 at 14:00
How do you know the IRS didn’t disclose it? Just because YOU don’t know it? Were they supposed to let you know personally so you would be satisfied?
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 14:25
Well, I know they didn’t disclose it to Congress.