The Western Journalism Center (also called the Western Center for Journalism) was founded in 1991 by

Joseph Farah Joseph Francis Farah (born July 6, 1954) is an American author, journalist and editor-in-chief of the conservative website ''WorldNetDaily'' ''(WND)''. Early years Farah was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on July 6, 1954, to parents of Syrian ...

and James H. Smith. Based in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. The center produces a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

newsletter.

Projects

The Center helped fund

Christopher W. Ruddy Christopher Ruddy (born January 28, 1965) is an American journalist who is the CEO and majority owner of Newsmax Media. Background Ruddy grew up on Long Island in Williston Park, New York, where his father was a police officer in Nassau County. ...

(who later founded

NewsMax Newsmax (Newsmax Media, Inc. or Newsmax.com, previously styled NewsMax) is an American right-wing to far-right cable news and digital media company founded by Christopher Ruddy on September 16, 1998. Newsmax Media divisions include its cable ...

) to investigate conspiracies surrounding the death of

Vincent Foster Vincent Walker Foster Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was an American attorney who served as deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration. Foster had been a partner at Rose Law Firm in Litt ...

, which was part of the

Arkansas Project The Arkansas Project was a series of investigative press reports, funded primarily by conservative businessman Richard Mellon Scaife, that focused on criticism of then-President Bill Clinton and his administration. Scaife spent nearly $2 million on ...

. Eventually, "the Center placed some 50 ads reprinting Ruddy's ''

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review The ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', also known as "the Trib," is the second largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Although it transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, it rem ...

'' stories in the ''

Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...

'', then repackaged the articles as a packet titled "The Ruddy Investigation," which sold for $12." In addition, "Farah also bought full page ads publicizing Ruddy's allegations that appeared in papers including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', and ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''" and "the ad campaign brought in over $500,000, half from individual donors-many of whom bought Foster conspiracy materials-and half from foundations, including $100,000 from Carthage." The

Carthage Foundation The Scaife Foundations refer collectively to three foundations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The three subdivisions are: the Allegheny Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Scaife Family Foundation. A fourth foundation, the Carthage Fou ...

is controlled by

Richard Mellon Scaife Richard Mellon Scaife (; July 3, 1932 – July 4, 2014) was an American billionaire, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, and the owner and publisher of the ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review''. In 2005, Scaife was n ...

, whose foundations gave $330,000 to the Center in 1994 and 1995. Later, "WJC circulated a video featuring Ruddy's claims, ''Unanswered-The Death of Vincent Foster'', that was produced by author James Davidson, chairman of the

National Taxpayers Union The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is a fiscally conservative taxpayer advocacy organization and taxpayers union in the United States, founded in 1977 by James Dale Davidson. NTU says that it is the oldest taxpayer advocacy organization in the ...

(NTU) and co-editor of the Strategic Investment newsletter."

IRS Lawsuit

In 1996, the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

(IRS)

audit An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon.” Auditing ...

ed the center. According to Farah, after announcing the audit IRS agents inquired as to why the center was investigating the death of Clinton deputy White House counsel

Vince Foster Vincent Walker Foster Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was an American attorney who served as deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration. Foster had been a partner at Rose Law Firm in Littl ...

. And that on their first visit an IRS field agent named Thomas Cederquist explained that the audit was a 'political case.' The audit found the center to be in total compliance with the law. In 1998, with the help of

Judicial Watch Judicial Watch (JW) is an American conservative activist group that files Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits to investigate claimed misconduct by government officials. Founded in 1994, JW has primarily targeted Democrats, in particula ...

the Center sued the IRS claiming it was audited in 1996 for political reasons. The lawsuit was thrown out, with appeals denied. A lower court ruled that the IRS could not be sued on allegations of politically motivated auditing practices, while a federal appeals court ruled that the center's lawsuit was barred by the

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Western Journalism Center website"The Vincent Foster Factory,"
''Columbia Journalism Review'', March/April 1996. An examination of the Western Journalism Center's promotion of Christopher W. Ruddy's reporting on the Vincent Foster case. Non-profit organizations based in California Conservative political advocacy groups in the United States