Someone Tell MPR

Non-profits shield scads of income from the IRS through “unrelated business activities”:

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reviewed the Form 990s for 91 nonprofit organizations — including Columbia, Emory, Harvard, Indiana, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Minnesota, Penn, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, USC, and Yale — and found that the organizations reported $412.9 million of income from unrelated business activities, but 46 (51%) reported zero tax liabilities:

The finding does not mean that the nonprofit organizations have run afoul of tax laws. In fact, legal experts say charities are merely following federal tax laws on the books for years that allow them to shield much of their income from tax through exemptions that Congress has built into the tax code and to take myriad expenses as deductions for operating expenses. …

This was (and, presumably, still is) Minnesota Public Radio’s big dodge for the past decade and a half; spin off companies like “Rivertown Trading” (a catalog knick-knack sales operation that moved everything from Lake Wobegone memorabilia to snarky sweatshirts) and others.  It made vats full of money, while MPR begged and pleaded both on the air and at the various capitols for more.

4 thoughts on “Someone Tell MPR

  1. “begged at both capitols for help” – Mitch, which capitol other than St. Paul did MPR, not NPR, but MPR, beg at?

    Second, Mitch, listener donations account for more than 80% of the revenues, regardless of any spin-offs. They are in fact, a non-profit, whether you like it or not. You don’t like the fact that there’s an independent voice on radio that mass-media can’t cajole into phumpering for the right-wing, that’s fine, but your repeated attempts at scaring up boogey-men are ill-disguised, and a vast wast of time. Do you have any figures to back your claims of ‘vats of money?’ How much did it constitute as a portion of operating expenses? No? Well, then, without actual facts, maybe your claims that they are double-dealing their listenership are vast overblown, propogandized, targetted hyperbole, and nothing more.

  2. I have less of a problem with MPR being non-profit and big into merchandising and what-not, but then I do with others groups. How the hell does the Sierra Club and NAACP maintain tax-exempt status? When the NAACP runs commericals saying that if we elect a Republican, blacks will by lynched, they do so with tax-exempt donations.

  3. Peeve:
    You don’t like the fact that there’s an independent voice on radio…

    Uh, most of us are pretty pleased that there is an independant voice on radio… however, Public Radio isn’t it. All the same, we on the right are fairly happy that it makes the sounds it can be relied upon to make.

    Much like you, Peeve.

  4. Mitch, which capitol other than St. Paul did MPR, not NPR, but MPR, beg at?

    Leaving aside that NPR and MPR operate toward common goals, and Bill Kling is a key mover and shaker for public radio nationally (which means the distinction, while not specious, isn’t as meaningful as you need it to be to make your point), Bill Kling regularly works the FCC and the CPB to make sure any competition – low-power FM, funding for smaller “community” public stations like KMOJ and KFAI – is stifled.

    Second, Mitch, listener donations account for more than 80% of the revenues, regardless of any spin-offs. They are in fact, a non-profit, whether you like it or not.

    I never said they weren’t.

    You don’t like the fact that there’s an independent voice on radio

    Untrue!

    that mass-media can’t cajole into phumpering for the right-wing

    That you’d say such a thing shows that you really don’t know what you’re talking about! Other than Boogeyman Fox and a few bit players like the WashTimes, there is no conservative media.

    And in case you’ve forgotten (or never read it, or reading it violated your preconcpetions), I think MPR news does an admirable job of balancing its coverage – better than most regional news outlets. (NPR is quite another thing).

    , that’s fine,

    And untrue.

    but your repeated attempts at scaring up boogey-men are ill-disguised, and a vast wast of time.

    And also untrue.

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