Media Matters has a useful guide to yesterday's attempts by the Beltway media to equate the IRS/Tea Party dust-up with Watergate. In the case of the IRS scrutinizing Tea Party and "patriot" groups, the problem stems from groups who are clearly political in nature trying to claim tax-exempt status under section 501(c)4 of the tax code as "social welfare" organizations. They proliferated in the first four years of the Obama Administration, far more than progressive groups claiming the same status. It may have been a blundering, heavy-handed process, but it doesn't rise anywhere near the criminality of the Nixon crew's burglary, obstruction of justice and perjury.
The broken media always needs something to fill the news cycle, and mundane policy issues and topics that impact everyday lives don't sizzle and sell air time. "Scandals" -- whether manufactured or not -- do.
