Then: “Vast cache”; “Millions of lines of data”; “investments, stock trades, gambling winnings and even the results of audits”; “not just the tax returns but it also includes the schedules that go into those returns. And the schedules cover things like their self-employment and partnerships and stock trading and things like that.”
Now: “extremely limited set of information”
The president of the progressive news group ProPublica sent a letter to the Wall Street Journal this week claiming that the stolen IRS files in its possession amounted to “an extremely limited set of information about the top 0.001% of individuals.”
Huh?
As noted by the WSJ editorial board in reply:
ProPublica boasted in 2021 that it had acquired “a massive trove of tax information” that “reveals what’s inside the billionaires’ bag of tricks for minimizing their personal tax bills.” Does ProPublica’s president, Robin Sparkman, read her organization’s own coverage? In a letter to the editor, she shrinks that “massive trove” down to “an extremely limited set of information.”
[End of excerpt]
Let’s review how ProPublica previously described the stolen files cache:
“vast collection of tax records“
“What we were trying to do there is explain the vastness of the information that we have. We have millions of rows of data. And it’s not just tax returns but it also includes the schedules that go into those returns. And the schedules cover things like their self-employment and partnerships and stock trading and things like that.” [Video]
What happened over there at the “journalism-as-moral-force” headquarters?
The progressive Pro Publica published the first of its reports coincidentally [cough] at the same moment congressional Democrats and President Biden launched a major tax increase effort.
After voyeuring their way through the private tax files, the progressive team at Pro Publica realized that high-earning Americans do in fact pay a very steep tax rate. So the group desperately contrived something it deemed a “True Tax Rate” based on unrealized gains. As in, “gains” that are not yet real.
Again coincidentally [cough], President Biden and congressional Democrats are trying to impose taxes on unrealized gains.
In an attempt to morally justify their decision to play ball with the thief and commit massive privacy violations, the progressive Pro Publica was sure to note the “lavish” lifestyles of the victims. Their attitude seems to be: We will violate your right to privacy if you reach a certain affluence level.
Pro Publica fashions itself as a government watchdog but is remarkably incurious about the theft itself and the breach of public trust caused by IRS failure to safeguard private files.
And now the group is suddenly trying to downplay the size of its stolen cache. Why?
See Also: IRS Thief Stole the Files of at Least 50,000 Americans, Much Higher Than Previously Acknowledged