Reporter Who Interviewed President Obama: IRS ‘Hammering Me’

In April 2012, Larry Conners, a veteran reporter for KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis, interviewed President Barack Obama. He was pointed in his questioning, and provided one of the few instances during the last presidential campaign where President Obama was treated with something more than kid gloves in a one-on-one with a member of the press.

Now, with an admission from the IRS that select groups have been willfully placed under scrutiny, Conners has taken to Facebook to suggest that he’s been aggressively targeted by the agency ever since the interview.

“In that April 2012 interview, I questioned President Obama on several topics: the Buffet Rule, his public remarks about the Supreme Court before the ruling on the Affordable Care Act. I also asked why he wasn’t doing more to help Sen. Claire McCaskill who at that time was expected to lose. The Obama interview caught fire and got wide-spread attention because I questioned his spending. I said some viewers expressed concern, saying they think he’s “out of touch” because of his personal and family trips in the midst of our economic crisis. The President’s face clearly showed his anger; afterwards, his staff which had been so polite … suddenly went cold.”

“Shortly after I did my April 2012 interview with President Obama, my wife, friends and some viewers suggested that I might need to watch out for the IRS. I don’t accept “conspiracy theories”, but I do know that almost immediately after the interview, the IRS started hammering me.”

While he says he has no proof that he has been included in what is slowly being revealed as a widespread focus on groups in opposition to Obama Administration policies, he’s concerned that the interview may have prompted his being singled-out.

What I don’t like to even consider … is that because of the Obama interview … the IRS put a target on me.
Can I prove it? At this time, no.
But it is a fact that since that April 2012 interview … the IRS has been pressuring me.

ViralRead’s calls to Mr. Conners have not been returned, but Dylan Byers of Politico is reporting that Connors expressed via email that his higher-ups at CBS have forbidden him to conduct any interviews, writing:

“I’m sorry, but I just was told … Corporate does not want me to do any interviews.”

Here is Conners’ interview with the President: