ABC Hypes IRS's Help Line Wait Times, Smaller Budget; Yawns at Criminal Referral For Lerner

Matthew Balan | April 11, 2014
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[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]

On the 11 April 2014 edition of World News, ABC's David Kerley pressed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen about taxpayers who are unable to "get an answer as to how much they're supposed to pay," due to long wait times on the agency' help line. However, Kerley didn't bother to ask Koskinen about the House Ways and Means Committee's 9 April 2014 vote to refer former IRS official Lois Lerner to the Justice Department for prosecution, over alleged targeting of Tea Party groups for auditing.

In fact, as of 11 April 2014, none of the Big Three evening newscasts have covered the House committee's criminal referral, nor the House Oversight Committee voting on the 10th to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress. Instead, the ABC correspondent played five clips of taxpayers' complaints about the IRS help line, as well as the commissioner's YouTube video warning about how to deal with the poor service there:

KERLEY (voice-over): The government wants your tax dollars. But if you call in with a question...good luck getting an answer....It's so bad, recently, the head of the I.R.S. even went on YouTube with a warning.

JOHN KOSKINEN, I.R.S. COMMISSIONER (from YouTube.com video): And there will frequently be extensive wait times....

KERLEY (voice-over): What can you do? Try the I.R.S. website; buy a tax software program; or go to a voluntary tax assistance office – because all the head of the I.R.S. can offer is-

KOSKINEN (from YouTube.com video): And I apologize that we can't do more.

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