Glenn Beck is extremely angry (so am I) over the formerly mainstream media‘s complicity in ACORN’s widespread lawlessness. After yesterday’s revelations of the group’s willingness to facilitate prostitution, child trafficking, tax evasion, etc., etc. in Baltimore, the lackeys for the community organizer-in-chief made the story about Fox News and conservatives in an uproar. Starting with the Baltimore Sun:
ACORN, which provides services to the needy, emerged as a target of Republicans during the 2008 presidential campaign, when it was accused of submitting fraudulent voter registration cards in several states. Although officially nonpartisan, the organization tends to serve poor and minority communities that traditionally vote Democratic.
Posted online Thursday, the video made waves, particularly in conservative circles. Although it first appeared on a Web site called Big Hollywood (actually Big Government), (ACORN-Maryland lead organizer Stuart) Katzenberg said it was part of a “coordinated” campaign by FOX News to damage ACORN. He could not offer evidence to support his claim, and a spokeswoman for FOX News said the allegations were without merit.
CNN Sucks casts doubt about the veracity of the Big Government videos and that not every ACORN chapter supports prostitution and trafficking:
The video footage — which has been edited and goes to black in some areas — was recorded and posted online Thursday by James O’Keefe, a conservative activist. He was joined on the video by another conservative, Hannah Giles, who posed as the prostitute in the filmmakers’ undercover sting….
Scott Levenson, a spokesman at ACORN’s national offices said, “The portrayal is false and defamatory and an attempt at ‘gotcha journalism.’
“This film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed. ACORN wants to see the full video before commenting further,” Levenson said.
The conservative filmmakers unsuccessfully attempted similar ruses at the group’s offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, California, and New York, Levenson said.
Since when do news organizations that follow AP style fully spell out state names after major cities? Looks to me like they want O’Keefe’s and Giles’s efforts to look like they failed in five places, not three — if indeed that’s what happened. The Stylebook calls for Philly and L.A. to be identified alone — after all, everyone (except for those in Jay Leno’s “Jaywalkers” segments) knows what states they are in.
As for the New York Times and Washington Post, they both failed to devote any reporting resources to the story and instead ran limited AP versions. All outlets (as far as I can tell) other than Fox News and conservative talk radio largely ignored the story for a full day (a lifetime in Webville) and when they did cover it, they made the story as much about O’Keefe and Giles as it was about ACORN. It all gives the impression of the left-media being dragged into yet another story it didn’t want to cover.
And today, here we go again. O’Keefe and Giles traveled down to DC and found more ACORN trafficking and prostitution enablers. Sick.
And for you in the formerly mainstream media, that’s Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, District of Columbia. We’ll check out what you have to say in the a.m.
