ACORN

MSNBC's Maddow Blames Corporate Interests, Not Video of Employees Willing to Aid Illegal Prostitution Ring, for ACORN Downfall
By Jeff Poor | September 26, 2009 | 3:55 AM EDT

Recent videos from two investigative reporters, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, with the help of Andrew Breitbart, showed that community-group ACORN engaging in scandalous practices. But MSNBC host Rachel Maddow argued Sept. 24 that wasn't the story that mattered. 

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, was hit hard by the videos showing employees giving tax avoidance advice to a "pimp" and "hooker."  

But Maddow rose to the defense of ACORN which she called a right-wing "bogeyman," crusading for them on her MSNBC show. She accused corporations of going into "kill mode" against the organization which helps "poor people."

NBC Producer Accused of E-mailing Anti-ACORN Group 'Bite Me Jew Boy'
By Noel Sheppard | September 25, 2009 | 10:53 PM EDT

A group called Americans for Limited Government on Thursday accused a producer for NBC's "Dateline" of sending them an anti-Semitic e-mail message in response to the organization's request for Congress to defund the controversial group ACORN.

The mass e-mail in question, sent by ALG's Alex Rosenwald to many members of the media including NBC's Jane Stone, said:

“The only way Congress can unravel all of the various funding measures in the ‘stimulus,’ in the ‘Foreclosure Prevention Act,’ and other measures is to pass the ‘Defund ACORN Act’ immediately. They should do it now. Before ACORN spends it all.” -- ALG President Bill Wilson

According to ALG, Stone responded:

Breitbart Blasts MSM on ACORN Coverage; Reveals Defense Fund Initiative
By Jeff Poor | September 24, 2009 | 9:56 PM EDT

If you haven't been under a rock the last few weeks, or relying on the mainstream media as your sole source of news, you are likely aware of some of the questionable circumstances surrounding the organization Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

A pair of intrepid investigative reporters, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, with the help of Andrew Breitbart, made it possible for the public to be aware of these practices by ACORN. However, the embattled organization, in a retaliatory maneuver, has filed a suit against O'Keefe, Giles and Breitbart. Breitbart appeared on Fox News Channel's Sept. 24 "The O'Reilly Factor" and responded to the suit.

"So, all I can see is that this lawsuit is an attempt to stifle free speech and the First Amendment and an attempt to make sure that the American people don't see the rest of the tapes and there are more tapes," Breitbart said.

MRC's Bozell on 'Fox & Friends' Discusses Obama's Media Blitz, ACORN Scandal
By NB Staff | September 24, 2009 | 10:55 AM EDT

<div style="float: right"><object width="240" height="194"><param name="movie" value="http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/eyeblast.swf?v=GdkUkU4znz&amp;c1=0x2350B5&... name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/eyeblast.swf?v=GdkUkU4znz&amp;c1=0x2350B5&... allowfullscreen="true" width="240" height="194"></embed></object></div>Media Research Center President and NewsBusters Publisher Brent Bozell appeared this morning on the only major network President Obama neglected in Sunday's morning show press blitz, the Fox News Channel. During his appearance, Bozell argued that President Obama is &quot;lying with disturbing regularity,&quot; that the media are not calling him on it, and that Obama's press strategy is not working in building support for his policies, despite a media biased in his favor.<br /><p>Asked by &quot;Fox &amp; Friends&quot; co-host Steve Doocy if the president's Sunday morning show blitz was fruitful, Bozell answered in the negative, arguing that Obama is turning off the audience he's trying to win over:</p><blockquote><p>What's settling in is Obama fatigue. The man is giving the same speech over and over and over and over again, and now he has to go on five networks to find an audience, cumulative audience, because the audience just isn't there. And the audience that is listening is being turned off.</p></blockquote><p>As to why Obama refused to go on Fox, Bozell argued that it was because unlike the other networks with those networks' generally softball questions, &quot;he's going to get a serious question or two&quot; on Fox. </p><p>Bozell also noted a major contrast with &quot;The Great Communicator,&quot; President Ronald Reagan:</p>

Breaking News Open Thread: ACORN Suing Breitbart Over Hidden-camera Recording
By NB Staff | September 23, 2009 | 5:34 PM EDT

From a breaking news e-mail by The Politico.:

ACORN has filed a lawsuit in Maryland against James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles and the Web site Breitbart.com for secretly videotaping the organization’s employees at its Baltimore office.
ACORN Selects 'Investigator' Instead of the 'Auditor' It Promised; AP Cooperates With the Water-down
By Tom Blumer | September 22, 2009 | 5:09 PM EDT
Harshbarger

Last Wednesday, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis promised that her organization would conduct a "total audit," and would name an independent auditor by Friday ("within 48 hours").

WaPo to O'Keefe: Sorry We Called You Racist in ACORN Story
By Ken Shepherd | September 22, 2009 | 4:12 PM EDT

<p>The Washington Post today published on page A2 a correction to a September 18 article on James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, the duo behind &quot;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR200909... target="_blank">The $1,300 Mission to Fell ACORN</a>&quot; (h/t NewsBusters tipster Sean O'Brien):</p><blockquote><p>A Sept. 18 Page One article about the community organizing group ACORN incorrectly said that a conservative journalist targeted the organization for hidden-camera videos partly becase its voter-registration drives bring Latinos and African Americans to the polls. Although ACORN registers people mostly from those groups, the maker of the videos, James E. O'Keefe, did not specifically mention them.</p></blockquote><p>In other words: sorry we tagged you as a racist by putting words in your mouth.</p><p>Of course, the original Post article didn't say race was &quot;partly&quot; the impetus for O'Keefe's hidden-camera piece, it suggested it was the only reason and that other conservatives despise ACORN for racially-motivated reasons. Here's the original offending passage in the article: </p><blockquote>

ACORN 'Independent Advisory Council' Member Andy Stern Lets Loose on ACORN's Critics; Press Mum
By Tom Blumer | September 21, 2009 | 4:29 PM EDT
alg_stern

Last Wednesday, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, in the wake of James O'Keefe's and Hannah Giles's embarrassing video barrage, went into damage control mode:

As a result of the indefensible action of a handful of our employees, I am, in consultation with ACORN’s Executive Committee, immediately ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN’s service programs until completion of an independent review. I have also communicated with ACORN’s independent Advisory Council, and they will assist ACORN in naming an independent auditor and investigator to conduct a thorough review of all of the organization's relevant systems and processes.
The Politico entry from Ben Smith linked above reports that the (cough, cough) "Independent Advisory Council" consists of the following eight members:
MSNBC Hosts and Guests Lobby: 'Time to Move On' From ACORN; Dismiss Scandal
By Scott Whitlock | September 21, 2009 | 1:15 PM EDT

On Monday’s Morning Meeting, MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan and his journalist guests expressed frustration that the ACORN scandal hasn’t gone away. Politico correspondent Mike Allen lobbied, “...It's time to move on." Ratigan highlighted other groups and offered moral equivalence: “And are all of these organizers ultimately guilty of some sort of shady activity or another?”

Following a reading of the organization’s questionable accounting, the cable host spun, “Does it add up to the fall of ACORN or is it just something fun to talk about?” Allen, who used to write for the Washington Post, bizarrely tried to suggest the media have been covering ACORN too much: “Well, Dylan, this is classic for the press, driving from one side of the road to the other. We were flat-footed. We were slow to cover it. Now, we won't give it up.”

Breitbart on ACORN: Big Media Would Have Worked to Kill Story, Attack O'Keefe and Giles
By Tom Blumer | September 21, 2009 | 12:09 PM EDT
abreitbart

Much of the reaction in the blogosphere to Andrew Breitbart's column yesterday at the Washington Times has to do with the BigGovernment.com proprietor's promise that "It ain't over yet."

Fair enough. But Breitbart asserted what I believe is a bigger point. It isn't just that the establishment media would have ignored the story if James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles had attempted to put it out there on their own. Breitbart believes that Big Media would have actively worked to bury it and to discredit its authors. There's little doubt that Andrew is absolutely correct.

Here are the passages from his Times column where Breitbart makes this point (bolds are mine):

NPR: ACORN Hassles Just 'The Problems of Being Poor and Minority in Urban America'
By D. S. Hube | September 18, 2009 | 4:16 PM EDT

That, and the Washington Post reports on how ACORN was just "playing along" with the sting artists who caught them on videotape. You knew that was coming, didn't you? You already know that the freelance sting artists who zapped ACORN are being -- and have been -- referred to as "racists" and puppets of conservative radio and Fox News. Now, ACORN is utilizing a tried and true (but not very successful) tactic: Explaining that they were just "playing along" with the "ridiculous scheme."

I'm old enough to remember the famous (or infamous) Abscam sting of the early 1980s. One of the representatives who was convicted of taking bribes -- Richard Kelly -- famously (and hilariously) defended his illegal actions by claiming he was "undertaking his own investigation" and "spent part of the [bribe] money to maintain his cover." It didn't work. Kelly spent thirteen months in the federal pen.

But more interestingly on their Two-Way news blog, NPR's Frank James blames not ACORN itself, but society:

Joe Conason's Revisionist History of ACORN
By Lachlan Markay | September 18, 2009 | 1:54 PM EDT
In a column today, Salon’s Joe Conason drastically downplays the history of illegality that characterizes the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. In his revisionist history of the organization, Conason tries to show that ACORN may commit voter registration fraud, intimidate its employees to prevent them from unionizing, and willingly assist in the trafficking of underage sex slaves, but by and large it is a force for good.

For many years the combined forces of the far right and the Republican Party have sought to ruin ACORN, the largest organization of poor and working families in America.

Ah yes, ACORN is supposedly battling for the rights of the working class. But in 1995, the organization sued the State of California for an exemption to the high minimum wage laws in that state on the grounds that higher wages would mean they would have to employ fewer people. Incidentally, this is the exact same argument that every opponent of minimum wage laws employs, and ACORN has always battled for a higher minimum wage.