Lies, Damned Lies, and Accounting

HERE'S an article that questions whether PBS lobbying (directly or by encouraging listeners) for continued funding is prohibited either by a statute that bans using federal money to lobby for more federal money, or by the Internal Revenue Code's prohibition of political action by 501(c)(3) organizations.

Inevitably, the maddeningly unctuous Public Broadcasting nobility patiently explains that their accounting is very, very strict and sophisticated, and no federal funds are EVER spent on lobbying -- only private donations.

This is a common argument, nevertheless ridiculous for being so common. If I give my son a bus pass so he doesn't have to pay his own money to commute to work, and he then spends some of "his own" money on hookers and crack, I'm pretty confident that I'm subsidizing drugs and prostitutes.

I remember years ago attending a function at the Smithsonian Institution, and noting the presence of an open bar. My acquaintance -- a very minor Smithsonian official -- explained that no federal funds were used to buy the booze (which would have been contrary to law), but instead it was purchased only with private donations. The little tooth-picked hot dogs, on the other hand, were federally funded.