Press freedom struggled when a federal tax agency looked into The Davis Vanguard, a community news outlet based in Yolo County, one of 58 in California. Just ask David Greenwald, founder, editor and executive director of The Davis Vanguard (DavisVanguard.org). In 2021, a private attorney who attended law school with the Yolo County District Attorney filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint over the new outlet’s coverage of the race involving this public official, according to Greenwald. Much was at stake, centrally the TDV’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.
SS: Can you lay out The Davis Vanguard’s experience with the IRS recently?
DG: The IRS received a complaint — pretty clearly by or on behalf of Yolo County’s District Attorney, that TDV had engaged in what they call interference into elections, which is prohibited for non-profits. That generated an audit, which forced TDV to hire an attorney and triggered a long process. The IRS flagged roughly 36 articles as being political, which in my view, clearly were not. Some of the articles were analyses into who might win in an upcoming election, some of the articles were interviews with candidates (all the candidates in a given race) which should have been permissible, some were letters to the editor or op-eds, which TDV has an open submission policy for and publishes all submissions, and a few were critical of the DA as a government official well outside of any electoral context. The IRS upon the case going to appeals, acknowledged that TDV did not improperly engage in political activity and has now dropped its attempt to revoke its non-profit status.
SS: Who is this Yolo County DA, and what in a nutshell is your political history with him?
DG: Yolo County’s DA is Jeff Reisig, former president of the California District Attorney’s Association (CDAA). We have long covered Reisig in Yolo County — in a very critical manner — criticizing his policies as being too aggressive. The result is that there have been a series of articles critical of him and his office’s policies. The result is that the DA in Yolo County has never agreed to sit down to an interview or even an off the record conversation over coffee — despite numerous overtures.
SS: Please describe the timeline of your case with the IRS.
DG: We saw an article in a right wing online publication in October or so of 2021. It wasn’t for another year that we got an audit notice from the IRS. We went back and forth over our records and eventually in 2023 we received a copy of the articles in question during the summer of 2023. We met with the agent in December 2023, when he informed us of his intent to revoke our nonprofit status. We hired a new attorney in February of 2024. The agent completed his findings by May. We filed our appeal over the summer and within two months, the IRS alerted us that they were conceding the political case against us, that we would retain our non-profit status and that they were wrapping things up.
SS: What are the financial implications of The Davis Vanguard’s struggle to keep its nonprofit status with the IRS?
DG: We are a small organization that runs on a shoe-string budget. Because of our innovative programs and dedicated staff, we have long been able to punch above our weight. But because having to hire multiple CPA firms and a tax attorney, we have stretched our financial resources past the breaking point and have had to engage in multiple emergency fundraising measures over the course of this year.
SS: How can people get more information about TDV’s content and fight for press freedom?
DG: Our website is located at DavisVanguard.org and there are three videos (find links via the online version of this article at Populist.com).
Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, October 15, 2024
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