Let's begin with a premise: Challenging, delaying, questioning, or bullying organizations about their not-for-profit, educational purposes chills both free speech and a free press. The current ruckus involving Internal Revenue Service policies aimed at conservative political groups supports that notion to be sure.
What we are learning now is that not-for-profit political organizations connected to the network of Tea Party groups were not the only organizations targeted by IRS administrators. In the past few days, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) sent an open letter to President Barack Obama outlining its contention that it was subjected to discrimination because IRS agents investigated, audited, and threatened it with the loss of its tax-exempt status. To the current administration, the man who has appeared in Gallup's Top 10 Most Admired Men in the World for 56 years needed to be investigated. So, too, did his son Franklin Graham's not-for-profit charity, Samaritan's Purse. The BGEA letter to the president states: "This is morally wrong and unethical - indeed some would call it 'un-American.'"
