Time & Times again: Uncovering mainstream media’s warfare against conservative organizations

On May 16, 2023, a New York Times journalist published a piece that intended to bring down four pro-law and order & pro-public servant organizations. After three months of behind the scenes efforts to derail this left-wing journalist’s attacks, the fight went public.

Journalist David Fahrenthold knowingly published a false and libelous story - which his legal team endorsed - about American Police Officers Alliance, National Police Support Fund, American Veterans Honor Fund, and Firefighters & EMS Fund.

They claimed that the organizations were spending “less than 1% “ of their budgets on programming and activities directly related to their missions. False.

They claimed that service providers (including vendors and consultants) were “overpaid” for the work they were providing. False.

They claimed that these tax-exempt political organizations were not operating with transparency and good governance and were colluding with each other. False.

The New York Times journalist David Fahrenthold first reached out to one of the organizations on February 10, 2023 and immediately began accusing and making demands for tax forms.

From there, the four organizations worked collaboratively (and at the beginning, in good faith) with this journalist to clear their names and prove their good standing, providing over 800 pages of documentation, including: - IRS tax forms, including end of year, quarterly, and semi-annual reports and tax returns - Board meeting minutes - Incorporation documents - Financial statements and ledgers - Official statements from board members - Political program expenditure reports - and more.

They invited him to review documents in person. One Executive Director even met with him in person to try to make him understand the David vs. Goliath situation he was creating for the organizations.

The journalist continuously harassed board members and leaders of these organizations. His tactics included sending threatening text messages to board members, repeatedly sending anonymous messages to people even tangentially associated with the groups, and showing up unannounced at private residences.

The NYT Editorial Team and Legal Team also knew full well that there was an ongoing audit through the IRS that would be coming to a close within the next month, and the organizations offered to provide the comprehensive Revenue Agent’s Reports (RAR). These reports would prove that the organizations were all in good standing both in governance (i.e. governance, board of directors, operations, etc.) and financially.

Instead, The New York Times Legal Team continued to endorse these false claims; outright dismissing the organizations’ concerns and the relevant evidence they provided to refute the libelous accusations.

The facts didn’t matter. And of course they didn’t: the goal was never good journalism or uncovering the truth; the goal all along was to bring down conservative organizations they disagreed with that wouldn’t have the resources or platform to fight back.

This defamatory article cost the organizations months of time, labor, and vital funds that should have been used towards programming and projects (ironic, given that is exactly what the article accused them of, yet they were the ones causing it all), even before the article was published.

One year later, these organizations continue to work diligently to undo the damage and restore their reputation. The worst part: These four organizations had everything they needed to prove their good standing, but how do you fight the mainstream media that doesn't care about the truth? Especially when it doesn’t fit their political aims or ideology.

And it’s not just these groups that have been subjected to this abuse of power. The Times continues to put other conservative organizations through the ringer; in blatant attempts to undermine, discredit and and ultimately shut down the groups that he disagreed with politically.

The New York Times has continued their war on conservative organizations in the year since. They also published a hit piece against The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project this past April.

As the Heritage Foundation said in their response to the piece, “...if the fake news media is attacking you, it means you’re over the target…If you feel like wasting your time, you can read the hit piece…But suffice it to say, it did not disprove anything our Oversight Project found.”

Clearly, this is a pattern and a method of warfare against conservative organizations that they want to see shuttered for their own leftist ideological and political gain. This attack on American Police Officers Alliance and National Police Support Fund, along with American Veterans Honor Fund and Firefighters & EMS Fund, is just one incident of a continuous barrage of anti-conservative articles with absolutely no basis in (and truly in direct opposition to) reality.

In fact, these tax-exempt organizations received their IRS Audit approval letters for Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020 and the detailed RAR (Revenue Agent’s Report) just a few months later, which all cited their clean bill of health from an IRS audit covering two fiscal years. But the damage was done.

The New York Times refused to retract their story, or even update it with the relevant information and a link to the IRS audit findings. So the question remains: Who will be next? What other organizations have already suffered casualties, been bankrupted by or had to shut down because of similar smear pieces and targeted attacks?

We have the proof. The four organizations have months of evidence highlighting the injustice of the way they were treated: emails upon emails back and forth with the journalist, in-person meetings, providing documentation and breakdowns to respond to every single accusation the journalist threw at them, and then being attacked anyways.

There is unquestionable proof that The New York Times Editorial Team and Legal Team knew the information the journalist was going to publish was false. And they allowed it anyway.

The New York Times believes they are untouchable. And maybe they’re right, as we see them continue to be protected and buffered from consequences by the rest of the mainstream media apparatus. But we cannot sit quietly by and let their war on conservative and pro-law enforcement entities continue.

These groups can’t fight the left-wing mainstream media on their own. Lend your support however you can and continue to fight back against the war that the liberal news machines are waging!
 
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Comments

DS

These are RUN by COMMUNISTS... the left MEDIA are Marxist Commies.

Laurence

That liar should be sued for false and libelous statements. Typical Leftist Lying.

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