Thursday, December 13, 2007

Another red flag

I'm not a fan of large, intrusive government, but I think the IRS regulations should be enforced consistently and not selectively.

I've been going through the Wikipedia articles about radio stations and found this entry about a Seattle station:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTTH

I'll quote the article in case it changes: "KTTH (770 AM) is a conservative talk radio station, owned by Bonneville International ..."

Anyone who's deeply involved in the American commercial radio industry should see a red flag popping up right there. I know there's loads of right-wing stations all over the country, but this one in particular caught my attention the moment I saw the article.

I'll see if anyone else here knows what the problem is. Anyone???

Posted by Bandit at 7:52 PM

5 comments:

  1. scheffbdDecember 14, 2007 at 12:44 AM

    I'm guessing you don't like that the Mormon church owns radio stations?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rev. Bo JanglesDecember 14, 2007 at 1:35 AM

    If Gordon B. Hinckley (as opposed to the Mormon Church per se) owned Bonneville International, it would not be a problem.

    If it was just a "talk radio station" and not a "conservative talk radio station" or a "liberal talk radio station", it also would not be a problem.

    Look at what the IRS did to All Saints Episcopal for engaging in political advocacy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. scheffbdDecember 14, 2007 at 2:38 AM

    Churches can take stances on individual issues without violating the tax-exemption rules. What they can't do is endorse parties or candidates in elections.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Reality Based CommunityDecember 14, 2007 at 11:00 AM

    As if conservative talk radio isn't "endorsing parties or candidates" constantly..

    Limbaugh certainly has endorsed candidates. (He grandstanded for Pat Buchanan in 1992.)

    All Saints really didn't even "advocate" for a candidate/party. They were busted when IRS agents read about them in the paper..which violates government rules. The IRS is only supposed to act against churches when the public makes a complaint.

    ReplyDelete
  5. scheffbdDecember 14, 2007 at 1:03 PM

    If they run Limbaugh, they almost certainly are a commercial station and have to pay taxes. They surely couldn't possibly afford Limbaugh's syndication fees without selling commercials.

    ReplyDelete

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