Viral

This newspaper found a brilliant way around the law that stops it endorsing a president

Picture:
Picture:
Alex Wong/Getty Images

A college humour magazine cunningly circumnavigated rules about non-partisanship to endorse Hillary Clinton, in order to keep its exemption from tax.

On Wednesday The Yale Recordput a story about the US presidential race on the homepage of its website. It told the world who it *wasn't* endorsing.

Picture:

Before Donald Trump supporters go wild with glee that an Ivy League publication is willing to Make American Great Again, they should read know that the Yale Record will not be endorsing anybody - although it does seem to give away a few hints.

The humour magazine prides itself on never having endorsed a presidential candidate during its entire history. Zilch endorsements, from the election of Ulysseys S Grant vs Horace Greeley in 1872 to Clinton vs Trump in 2016.

As the Yale Record explains, this non-partisanship is partly because endorsing a candidate would mean it forfeited its status as a tax exempt organisation.

The US Inland Revenue Service (IRS) notes that exempt organisations are often better known as charities.

So the Yale Record has explicitly not endorsed Hillary Clinton. Here's what they had to say about their non-endorsement:

In its 144-year history, The Yale Record has never endorsed a Democratic candidate for president. In fact, we have never endorsed any candidate for president. This is, in part, due to our strong commitment to being a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization, which mandates that we are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

This year’s presidential election is highly unusual, but ultimately no different: The Yale Record believes both candidates to be equally un-endorsable, due to our faithful compliance with the tax code.

In particular, we do not endorse Hillary Clinton’s exemplary leadership during her 30 years in the public eye. We do not support her impressive commitment to serving and improving this country—a commitment to which she has dedicated her entire professional career. Because of unambiguous tax law, we do not encourage you to support the most qualified presidential candidate in modern American history, nor do we encourage all citizens to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all by electing Secretary Clinton on November 8.

The Yale Record has no opinion whatsoever on Dr. Jill Stein.

—The Editorial Board of The Yale Record

Don't worry Yale Record, we gotcha.

More: The 'close door' button on elevators doesn't even work, an expert has revealed​

More: Man's petty request to his ex-girlfriend backfires horribly

The Conversation (0)
x