Editorial: Shriners Hustle Justin Timberlake, the PGA Tour and NASCAR's David Ragan?

Journalist usually supply proof when they make claims such as these. You have quoted no sources, nor supplied any proof. Every time I have checked into negative claims made against masonic organizations it turns out that they originate from either fundamentist religous groups, or crack pot conspiricy theorists.
I call myself an executive chef, and I can tell you what restaurants I have run. You call yourself an investigative journalist so what newspaper do you work for?

Incredible read! This is your best work yet.

A few bad apples do not spoil the entire bushel. In any large organization there will be those who are scum. Take the Republican Party . How many of them have been charged with criminal activity/sexual misconduct with children? Should we stop supporting them? How about the Catholic church? How about Scouting? How about the Evangelicals? The list goes on and on. Should we stop supporting all of them, because of a few, regardless of what they do for society? I know some local Shriners and they are passionate about serving their cause (the hospitals) and my grandson is being treated at one of their hospitals. So, all in all, I would have to say that the Shriners do a fantastic job of serving those who need it and I will continue to support them.

just a test

Well, first of all. Being non-profit does not mean your taking tax dollars from taxpayers. It means, you make no profit and you pay no taxes. Quite a bit of difference there.

A couple old men happen to be Masons, Shriners and Jesters who frequented a massage parlor whose workers turn out to be prostitutes and offer a ride to a couple of them to a Jesters convention. Not that any self-serving prostitute in the local area wouldn't figure this out and show up at the hotel bar looking to drum up some business. 

So the old men, get charged with the Mann Act because they gave the willing prostitute a ride and now they become Human Traffickers. Maybe the Mann Act needs to be rewritten to state "transporting woman against there will for the purpose of prostitution". I see nothing in the indictments that accuse the men of FORCING the prostitutes to attend.

The amazing part is that if the old men had told said workers to drive themselves to said convention, none of this would have come down on the old men.

There has never been anything published anywhere that I know of that says that the old men were going to profit from bringing the prostitutes. They merely gave them a ride.

So now, one of the old men, a ex-Judge, decides to implicate anyone and everyone he can to save his hide just like the other 2 old men that were with him did to save there skins or at least try to get reduced sentences. And anything he says about the Jesters organization is credible. Okay. You believe that Sandy.

So much for the old men who stupidly gave a prostitute a ride over state lines and now are having there lives and family lives completely ruined and have in all likilihood been ostracized from the 3 organizations and people therein that made there life happy.

So the Jesters spent a ton of there own money on a big party. This is a outrage. But under Non-Profit rules, they have to spend there money or risk becoming For Profit. Hmmm. So tell me Ms Frost. Where do you suppose a secret organization with no outreach efforts to the public gets all its money ?????

Could it be, that all the money that the Jesters recieve for income, comes from Jesters paying dues and fees for attending there rather infamous parties. That would of course mean that all income came from after tax sources since all the members pay individual income taxes (like everyone else in america). So unless you can show the Jesters recieving a Grant of some sort from the Government (you can't) then the Jesters would not be spending any taxpayer money on there party.

So I wonder what is the end result that you want to see from your investigation Ms. Frost. Because in the worst case scenario, the Jesters would disband or become for profit as well as the Shriners. Maybe dissolve all the hospitals. Stop giving children free hospital care.

Oh and the cheap shot about the temples names and such. Really cheap. The theme that the shriners picked using Mosques and Middle Eastern names dates back to 1919. Back in 1919, that part of the world and its culture were considered to be rather exotic, mysterious, and unique.

So I just wonder what made you so Vindictive against Shriners.  Because the way you write and the tone of you articles, betrays your proclaimed purpose of being a investigative reporter.

Or perhaps, its just that you like your 15 minutes of fame and when you finally have nothing left to report about Jesters or Shriners, well you just won't have anything to report and no one will even know who you are.

Fame is fleeting after all.

Sandy,

Once again. While it is true that the tax payers would bear the burden of any taxes not paid by the non-profit organization, that is not the same as your claim that the organization is spending money provided by the taxpayers. It's simply not true.

Neither Jesters or Shriners organizations smuggled in any illegal alien prostitutes.

Neither Jesters or Shriners organizations ran any Massage parlours.

Neither Jesters or Shriners organizations exploited burned or crippled children.

3 members did engage in acquiring the services of a prostitute in a massage parlour. The same 3 took her across state lines.  They have all plead guilty to violating the Mann act and all will pay a penalty for there transgressions.

That does not mean that the organizations condoned or approved of there actions.

As a matter of fact, I think you previously reported that a letter had gone out from the Jesters national headquarters, condemning the actions of the 3 members and strictly forbidding any current member from being involved with any such type of activity. The penalty for being caught doing so being expulsion of not only the member but of entire "Courts" if they took no action to prevent it by there members.

Both Shriners and Jesters have been deemed Non-Profits by the courts. You have a beef with that, then take it up with the courts.

Think there is tax fraud going on, call the IRS. Tell them to do a Tax Audit of the Jesters and the Shriners. Go for it.

Your Editorial is written one- sided like a good lawyer. You take a group of non related individual events, link them all together with clever verbage, and then pass it off as the whole truth.

Paul Harvey would be proud.

Except, he always told the other half of the story.

You know, that part about all the kids getting free burn and orthopedic care.

The part where the Shriners offered to help returning military who needed artificial limbs when the military hospitals were overwhelmed.

The part where the familys and the patients are transported to the hospitals for free, given accomodations if they need to spend the night for free while there recieving that free medical care.

So you go right ahead and keep telling your one-sided vendetta driven story under the guise of Editorial or Investigative report.

I'll stop in from time to time, to tell the other side of the story and prevent you from portraying the actions of individuals who belong to a organization to the organization as a whole.

i have been reading sandy’s work for well over a year, now. i do not feel that she is being on-sided, at all. she is reporting the FACTS.

it would do well for some of YOU, to be doing some research yourselves– some HARDCORE research!

i truly wonder why some of you are trying to muddy the waters, as it were. has sandy offended you in some way? are you having a bad day? far too many are quick to condemn, without the benefit of knowledge…

one said that the courts deem a non-profit. WRONG! it is the I.R.S., after an application is submitted. in reading the newspapers from the buffalo area, there were girls ‘bought’ for the purpose of sex – one a very young teenager! sure, you’ll have those chastising those for their actions, as if they didn’t already know things like that were happening. remember, sandy’s earlier writings have comments from others in the organization(s) saying what they saw, participated in and how it ruined their marriages and lives. course, most of you who comment, forget what they had to say, or never read them…

again, by her other writings, sandy HAS contacted the I.R.S. on these matters. have YOU? let us not forget – it was shriners who saw things going on and reported them and were threatened by those same folks, who came to sandy.

yes, ALL donations are tax free. but, did you know that ALL of that money DOES NOT go to the hospitals for the kids?? the east-west shrine is specifically for the hospitals. anything else they have going on the rest of the year, goes to them as a group. like the shrine circus: it runs nation wide and for many weeks during the summer time of the year. why doesn’t that go to the hospitals and have the football game money got to the shriners?

one comment refers to paul harvey’s “the rest of the story”. are YOU qualified to give it? what is your stake in this whole story?

MY stake is simple: I WAS a shriners kid for many years. initial reading of these reports, was heart breaking. other reports/stories, made me sick to my stomach! not exploiting the kids? let’s see: take a group of men on the premise of “having fun” and “helping kids”, all while some in your organization are blackening it so bad, it may never come clean. and I was a part of the system…

let’s see, as a former patient, how would I feel?

how would you?