MARK HEMINGWAY: Ideological Revenue Service.

Some 471 conservative groups seeking 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status were harassed by the IRS over a period of years, and our self-styled watchdog media played no role in bringing this injustice to light. It only became a scandal after the IRS publicly admitted its wrongdoing.

Attorney Cleta Mitchell represents a number of Tea Party and conservative groups—including many that sought and still haven’t been granted tax exempt status. Mitchell notes that overwhelming evidence of the IRS’s political targeting had long been public. The IRS was so brazen that last year “80 or 90 groups all got letters that are virtually identical, that are oppressive, with 30, 40, 50, 70 questions with parts and subparts and sub-subparts,” Mitchell told The Weekly Standard. “The Ways and Means [subcommittee] on IRS oversight held a hearing, and they asked about all this. Did the press do anything about it? No.”

They’ve been a bunch of Nina Burleighs.