The IRS Scandal, or What's Left of It

By Bill Maher

I can remember when former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin was vindicated by police after being falsely accused of sexual assault. He was pretty upset at the treatment he'd received from the media, so he ran right out to the assembled cameras and lambasted the press for jumping to conclusions when the story first broke, and suggested that perhaps a retraction was in order: 

"Rerun it, rewrite it, reprint it. Just like you did, with the same intensity that you did -- the same intensity. Don't lose the intensity. Don't lose the intensity."

Of course, it never is reported with the same intensity when a big splashy news story turns out to be ...well, nothing. And we see the same thing with the IRS scandal. When the initial story broke, it looked like the right finally had a legitimate scandal. People on the left shuddered at the thought of using the IRS to target political adversaries. We had to get to the bottom of this.

And then we did. And it's another nothingburger. Just like Benghazi. And Solyndra. And the birth certificate. And the Black Panthers. Or Climategate. The list goes on and on. 

So rather than simply letting it fade in the public's memory and living on as still a huge scandal in the right-wing bubble, shouldn't people who flogged this story as a scandal issue a retraction?

What say you, Bill O'Reilly? Peggy Noonan? Bob Woodward? Everyone else on Fox?

Rerun it, rewrite it, reprint it. Just like you did.