Misusing non profit status?

A controversy is swirling in the newspaper industry now about an anti-Muslim DVD being bundled into newspapers in election swing states around the country.

clipped from www.editorandpublisher.com The arrival of tens of millions of DVDs of a controversial film on doorsteps around the nation — but almost exclusively in election “swing states” — via newspaper home delivery continues this weekend, with explanatory articles and subscriber feedback appearing on some of the papers’ Web sites.The DVDs of the 60-minute film, made in 2005, and titled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” arrived Saturday with, among other papers, the Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer in Raleigh, with delivery with the Miami Herald and other papers set for Sunday.

What has news critics so exorcised is the idea of newspapers such as the New York Times being used as a delivery system for anti-religious attacks apparently aimed at boosting the candidacy of one presidential candidate. (For more on the logic of this, go to the E&P article.)

[Update: the Oregonian distributed the same video in its issue of Sunday, September 28, which has caused a bit of a stir in this fairly progressive corner of the world. Publisher Fred Stickel styled it as a free speech matter and said he could find nothing in their ad guidelines to justify not distributing it.]

But what is of interest here is the that producer and distributor of the video, Clarion Fund, is a 501(c)(3) non profit. According to Clarion’s website, it is “a non-profit, non-partisan organization whose mission is to educate Americans about issues of national security. Our primary focus is on the most urgent threat of radical Islam. By utilizing the following three mediums, Clarion Fund is helping Americans understand that the mainstream media is not adequately conveying the reality of radical Islam.”

Under the guise of providing “education,” a variety of organizations have been established, using 501(c)(3) status, to push particular political agendas. Here in Oregon, the Center for Union Facts, a 501(c)(3) “educational and charitable non-profitan” orgnaization run by p.r. consultant and lobbyist Richard Berman, aired a flight of television spots this spring and summer attacking unions.

Blogger Chris Lowe tells me, “CUF is associated with another more recent outfit called the Employee Freedom Action Committee (EFAC), which is a main force in [a] campaign … targetting a number of pro-union U.S. Senate candidates this year. This 501(c)4 organization followed up the CUFs ads with a series advocating against “the Employee Free Choice Act” and asking viewers to “Call Jeff Merkeley [the Democratic senatorial candidate] and tell him” union members should have the right to vote.

The one-two punch essentially used a 501(c)(3) “educational” organization to prepare the ground for a series of attack ads from a 501(c)(4.)

What is wrong with all this is that it misuses tax-exempt non profit status for political purposes and thereby puts honest non profits at risk. Because when corrective legislation comes (as it will), it will put an additional regulatory burden on every 501(c)(3) — honest or sleazy.