A July 26 CNS article by Eric Scheiner promotes a CNS-produced video called “The Great Debate,” which asks, in Scheiner’s words, “Would Senator Barack Obama disagree with the actions and statements of President Barack Obama?” Scheiner also stars in the video, which begins with a pretentious graphic for his personal brand, “The Schein.”
This is a partisan attack on the president that typically comes from the Republican Party or a partisan right-wing advocacy group, the type of video whose only purpose is ridicule. So why is a “news” organization like CNS devoting tax-exempt donation money to producing it? Isn’t such partisan political activity forbidden by organizations with a 501(c)3 tax status like CNS and its parent, the Media Research Center?
CNS, it seems, has decided to abandon the pretense that it’s a “news” organization and is explicitly becoming the right-wing advocacy group it has been all along. It might want to do something about that tax status first, though.