Are you falling for the far right's ACORN Agenda
Bob™ the Union Ironworker
2009/09/28 17:13:09
Think Again: Falling for the Far Right’s ACORN Agenda
y Eric Alterman, Mickey Ehrlich | September 24, 2009
One night last week, Jon Stewart asked his audience, “Where were the real reporters on this story?” He meant the exposure of several ACORN employees giving tax advice to a young man and woman pretending to be a pimp and prostitute. The misdirected animosity toward the “real reporters” in this instance was a rare misstep for the usually perspicacious press critic/comedian. When long-time journalists, editors, and educators decry the death of investigative reporting, this Borat-style stunt is certainly not what they have in mind. And yet in this brave new world of anything goes journalism, many in the media have taken up the scandal and accept the videos as incontrovertible evidence of ACORN corruption.
In the October issue of The Atlantic, Mark Bowden explains that the most influential investigative reporting these days is being done by what he calls “political hit men” who circulate damaging information so that newsmen have very little work to do. Bowden uses as his primary example the smear campaign against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, but were the lead time at The Atlantic a bit shorter, the ACORN tapes would have been an even better example to prove his point.
The Washington Post’s Darryl Fears and Carol D. Leonnig describe “The $1,300 mission to fell ACORN.” It started with a phone call to James O’Keefe III (the “pimp”) from Hannah Giles (the “prostitute”), daughter of a conservative blogger named Doug Giles. The plan from the very beginning was to damage the reputation of the organization. O’Keefe admits that his enmity for ACORN derived from its success helping Democrats win elections, not from any charges of corruption. The Post also points out that in Philadelphia ACORN employees called the police when the duo left the offices there. The videotape of that encounter has yet to be released, and so the prevailing image of ACORN in the mainstream media has been the one that the video makers, with a vendetta against the organization, wanted out there.
Hysterical Fox News commentators have blown this story up like a hot air balloon, and much of the rest of the media appear to believe that what Fox says goes. Andrew Alexander complains that “traditional news outlets like The Post simply don’t pay enough attention to conservative media or viewpoints.” But writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, Rick Perlstein responds: “Why would a newspaper like the The Post be training its investigative focus on ACORN now? Whether you think ill or well of ACORN, they're a very marginal group in the grand scheme of things and about as tied to the White House as the PTA.”
This right-wing stunt proved such powerful catnip to mainstream media bigfeet that amazingly, George Stephanopoulos thought it worth discussing with the President of the United States during a rare one-on-one interview opportunity. The president quite understandably explained that that he wasn’t following the story very closely, and that the country was dealing with more serious problems right now. (U.S. grants to ACORN, already suspended, account for literally 52 seconds of annual U.S. government spending, according to one careful estimate.) Stephanopoulos had nothing else to say. As though he were correcting himself, he continued, “Afghanistan is a serious problem facing the country right now.” Oh, yeah, Afghanistan….
To be fair, outside of nakedly ideological outfits, most of the reporters in the mainstream media behaved responsibly when the tapes emerged on right-wing radio shows and blogs. The tapes didn’t become legitimately newsworthy until the Census Bureau dropped ACORN from its efforts to collect 2010 census data. Initial reports even left out mention of the videotapes. But the videos are what attract media, particularly television, to this story, not government action against ACORN. Census and congressional moves to dissociate government from ACORN have become excuses to show these tapes again and again. News outlets have used these tapes even though they meet no reasonable journalistic standards.
The press has taken the release of the tapes as an opportunity to rehash the same handful of connections to ACORN that have been discussed and exaggerated ad nauseum by the openly conservative punditocracy. The Associated Press ran a piece by Sharon Theimer and Pete Yost on September 20 whose title asks, “Did ACORN Get Too Big for its Own Good?” The reporters give a history of the organization, focusing on any bad press the company has received since it began in 1970. They also refer to Barack Obama’s “long” relationship with the group. They illuminate three connections between the president and ACORN, including an endorsement by Bertha Lewis, the CEO. In addition to its being nonsense, these arguments assume that the videotapes signal a systemic failure on the part of ACORN, which has been neither investigated nor proven.
What’s more, such stories provide little context regarding what ACORN actually does. As Harold Meyerson explains in rare bit of actual contextual reporting, “Founded in Little Rock in 1970 as an organization agitating for free school lunches, Vietnam veterans' rights and more hospital emergency rooms, ACORN has grown in the past four decades into the nation's largest community organizing group. Based in low-income neighborhoods, it has nearly 500,000 dues-paying members, recruited by door-to-door canvassers, with chapters in 110 cities in 40 states. Nationwide, it has more than 1,000 staffers.”
While no one, not even ACORN, will defend the employees depicted in the videos, Joe Conason provides some context amid the hysteria on Salon. Conason points out several genuine successes that the group has had over the years. Likewise, he debunks several lies repeatedly told about them by the right.
The actions of ACORN have long obsessed the far right in this country. With terrific timing, Peter Dreier of Occidental College and Christopher R. Martin of the University of Northern Iowa just released a study in which they analyzed the complete 2007-08 coverage of ACORN by 15 major news media organizations, and the narrative frames of their 647 stories during that period. The study reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effectof the news media: how a little-known organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.
Among their findings was the fact that almost all of the coverage carried one-sided frames, repeating the conservative criticisms of the group without seeking to verify them or provide ACORN or its supporters with a reasonable opportunity to respond to the allegations. Voter fraud was the dominant story frame with 55 percent of the 647 stories analyzed using it, and this was most intense in the broadcast and cable media, with 68.7 percent of those stories using it. Indeed, voter fraud may have been the only story frame about ACORN that most news consumers experienced.
The study also examined the manner in which a network of conservative media organizations (the so-called “echo chamber”) tested and promoted their frames and channeled the stories into mainstream media agenda. They term the seamlessness of the campaign against ACORN to be “startling,” noting that in 2008 almost everything that the McCain-Palin campaign said about ACORN was exactly what the right wingers in the media had said themselves. The original campaign, they note, was concocted by conservative politicians upset with ACORN’s community organizing efforts to help poor Americans improve economic conditions and gain a stronger political voice.
During the past political year, the authors explain, these same conservatives have continued to attack ACORN and tried to link ACORN to Obama and the Democrats. Criticism of ACORN has been a consistent story on Fox News and conservative talk shows and in conservative publications, websites, and columns in mainstream newspapers. For example:
* In early 2009 GOP allegations that the Democrats in Congress specifically targeted billions of stimulus funds for ACORN became news stories despite the fact that it was not true.
* In July 2009, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released a report, “Is ACORN Intentionally Structured as a Criminal Enterprise?” that repeated many of the allegations made during the 2008 campaign and that generated media attention.
* On August 11, 2009, the House Judiciary Committee released over 5,000 pages of White House and Republican National Committee e-mails, along with transcripts of closed-door testimony by former Bush Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and Harriet Miers, former White House counsel. The documents revealed that Rove played a central role in the firing of David C. Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney in New Mexico, for failing to help Republican election prospects by prosecuting alleged instances of voter fraud by ACORN.
Nearly every major news organization reported on the Judiciary Committee’s unveiling of the e-mails and transcripts, but none of them, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal mentioned that Rove was specifically focused on attacking ACORN for its voter registration efforts in New Mexico and other states, even though ACORN is mentioned frequently as a conservative target in the investigative documents.
The fact that the mainstream media is repeating many of these arguments today represents another triumph of the far-right in this country, not only to “work the refs” but also to pollute the content of the American political discourse and lay low the practice of honest journalism. Fake news unfortunately has many faces, but stunts like these ought not to detain anyone who is not seeking to drive a particular agenda.
Fox News Channel, for example, has been the cheerleading network for so-called “tea party” protests. But one of its associate producers took it to new heights when she was filmed pumping up the crowd at the 9/12 protest in Washington. Fox News admitted that it was inappropriate behavior and the woman “has been disciplined.” Apparently, the network draws an ethical line somewhere.
In 2007, Stewart and “The Daily Show” went after ABC’s “What Would You Do?” in which a reporter planted actors playing abusive boyfriends and parents in public places. The host ambushed bystanders who chose to mind their own business. Also in 2007, on Chris Hansen’s Dateline NBC series, “To Catch a Predator,” Hansen set up liaisons with would-be child molesters and confronted them on camera.
These shows make for crassly compelling television, and they expose the flawed, even criminal possibilities of human behavior, but they mustn’t be mistaken for journalism.
Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College. He is also a Nation columnist and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His seventh book, Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Most Important Ideals, was recently published in paperback. He occasionally blogs at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation and is a regular contributor to The Daily Beast.
Mickey Ehrlich is a freelance writer and an English teacher at Kingsborough Community College.
y Eric Alterman, Mickey Ehrlich | September 24, 2009
One night last week, Jon Stewart asked his audience, “Where were the real reporters on this story?” He meant the exposure of several ACORN employees giving tax advice to a young man and woman pretending to be a pimp and prostitute. The misdirected animosity toward the “real reporters” in this instance was a rare misstep for the usually perspicacious press critic/comedian. When long-time journalists, editors, and educators decry the death of investigative reporting, this Borat-style stunt is certainly not what they have in mind. And yet in this brave new world of anything goes journalism, many in the media have taken up the scandal and accept the videos as incontrovertible evidence of ACORN corruption.
In the October issue of The Atlantic, Mark Bowden explains that the most influential investigative reporting these days is being done by what he calls “political hit men” who circulate damaging information so that newsmen have very little work to do. Bowden uses as his primary example the smear campaign against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, but were the lead time at The Atlantic a bit shorter, the ACORN tapes would have been an even better example to prove his point.
The Washington Post’s Darryl Fears and Carol D. Leonnig describe “The $1,300 mission to fell ACORN.” It started with a phone call to James O’Keefe III (the “pimp”) from Hannah Giles (the “prostitute”), daughter of a conservative blogger named Doug Giles. The plan from the very beginning was to damage the reputation of the organization. O’Keefe admits that his enmity for ACORN derived from its success helping Democrats win elections, not from any charges of corruption. The Post also points out that in Philadelphia ACORN employees called the police when the duo left the offices there. The videotape of that encounter has yet to be released, and so the prevailing image of ACORN in the mainstream media has been the one that the video makers, with a vendetta against the organization, wanted out there.
Hysterical Fox News commentators have blown this story up like a hot air balloon, and much of the rest of the media appear to believe that what Fox says goes. Andrew Alexander complains that “traditional news outlets like The Post simply don’t pay enough attention to conservative media or viewpoints.” But writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, Rick Perlstein responds: “Why would a newspaper like the The Post be training its investigative focus on ACORN now? Whether you think ill or well of ACORN, they're a very marginal group in the grand scheme of things and about as tied to the White House as the PTA.”
This right-wing stunt proved such powerful catnip to mainstream media bigfeet that amazingly, George Stephanopoulos thought it worth discussing with the President of the United States during a rare one-on-one interview opportunity. The president quite understandably explained that that he wasn’t following the story very closely, and that the country was dealing with more serious problems right now. (U.S. grants to ACORN, already suspended, account for literally 52 seconds of annual U.S. government spending, according to one careful estimate.) Stephanopoulos had nothing else to say. As though he were correcting himself, he continued, “Afghanistan is a serious problem facing the country right now.” Oh, yeah, Afghanistan….
To be fair, outside of nakedly ideological outfits, most of the reporters in the mainstream media behaved responsibly when the tapes emerged on right-wing radio shows and blogs. The tapes didn’t become legitimately newsworthy until the Census Bureau dropped ACORN from its efforts to collect 2010 census data. Initial reports even left out mention of the videotapes. But the videos are what attract media, particularly television, to this story, not government action against ACORN. Census and congressional moves to dissociate government from ACORN have become excuses to show these tapes again and again. News outlets have used these tapes even though they meet no reasonable journalistic standards.
The press has taken the release of the tapes as an opportunity to rehash the same handful of connections to ACORN that have been discussed and exaggerated ad nauseum by the openly conservative punditocracy. The Associated Press ran a piece by Sharon Theimer and Pete Yost on September 20 whose title asks, “Did ACORN Get Too Big for its Own Good?” The reporters give a history of the organization, focusing on any bad press the company has received since it began in 1970. They also refer to Barack Obama’s “long” relationship with the group. They illuminate three connections between the president and ACORN, including an endorsement by Bertha Lewis, the CEO. In addition to its being nonsense, these arguments assume that the videotapes signal a systemic failure on the part of ACORN, which has been neither investigated nor proven.
What’s more, such stories provide little context regarding what ACORN actually does. As Harold Meyerson explains in rare bit of actual contextual reporting, “Founded in Little Rock in 1970 as an organization agitating for free school lunches, Vietnam veterans' rights and more hospital emergency rooms, ACORN has grown in the past four decades into the nation's largest community organizing group. Based in low-income neighborhoods, it has nearly 500,000 dues-paying members, recruited by door-to-door canvassers, with chapters in 110 cities in 40 states. Nationwide, it has more than 1,000 staffers.”
While no one, not even ACORN, will defend the employees depicted in the videos, Joe Conason provides some context amid the hysteria on Salon. Conason points out several genuine successes that the group has had over the years. Likewise, he debunks several lies repeatedly told about them by the right.
The actions of ACORN have long obsessed the far right in this country. With terrific timing, Peter Dreier of Occidental College and Christopher R. Martin of the University of Northern Iowa just released a study in which they analyzed the complete 2007-08 coverage of ACORN by 15 major news media organizations, and the narrative frames of their 647 stories during that period. The study reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effectof the news media: how a little-known organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.
Among their findings was the fact that almost all of the coverage carried one-sided frames, repeating the conservative criticisms of the group without seeking to verify them or provide ACORN or its supporters with a reasonable opportunity to respond to the allegations. Voter fraud was the dominant story frame with 55 percent of the 647 stories analyzed using it, and this was most intense in the broadcast and cable media, with 68.7 percent of those stories using it. Indeed, voter fraud may have been the only story frame about ACORN that most news consumers experienced.
The study also examined the manner in which a network of conservative media organizations (the so-called “echo chamber”) tested and promoted their frames and channeled the stories into mainstream media agenda. They term the seamlessness of the campaign against ACORN to be “startling,” noting that in 2008 almost everything that the McCain-Palin campaign said about ACORN was exactly what the right wingers in the media had said themselves. The original campaign, they note, was concocted by conservative politicians upset with ACORN’s community organizing efforts to help poor Americans improve economic conditions and gain a stronger political voice.
During the past political year, the authors explain, these same conservatives have continued to attack ACORN and tried to link ACORN to Obama and the Democrats. Criticism of ACORN has been a consistent story on Fox News and conservative talk shows and in conservative publications, websites, and columns in mainstream newspapers. For example:
* In early 2009 GOP allegations that the Democrats in Congress specifically targeted billions of stimulus funds for ACORN became news stories despite the fact that it was not true.
* In July 2009, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released a report, “Is ACORN Intentionally Structured as a Criminal Enterprise?” that repeated many of the allegations made during the 2008 campaign and that generated media attention.
* On August 11, 2009, the House Judiciary Committee released over 5,000 pages of White House and Republican National Committee e-mails, along with transcripts of closed-door testimony by former Bush Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and Harriet Miers, former White House counsel. The documents revealed that Rove played a central role in the firing of David C. Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney in New Mexico, for failing to help Republican election prospects by prosecuting alleged instances of voter fraud by ACORN.
Nearly every major news organization reported on the Judiciary Committee’s unveiling of the e-mails and transcripts, but none of them, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal mentioned that Rove was specifically focused on attacking ACORN for its voter registration efforts in New Mexico and other states, even though ACORN is mentioned frequently as a conservative target in the investigative documents.
The fact that the mainstream media is repeating many of these arguments today represents another triumph of the far-right in this country, not only to “work the refs” but also to pollute the content of the American political discourse and lay low the practice of honest journalism. Fake news unfortunately has many faces, but stunts like these ought not to detain anyone who is not seeking to drive a particular agenda.
Fox News Channel, for example, has been the cheerleading network for so-called “tea party” protests. But one of its associate producers took it to new heights when she was filmed pumping up the crowd at the 9/12 protest in Washington. Fox News admitted that it was inappropriate behavior and the woman “has been disciplined.” Apparently, the network draws an ethical line somewhere.
In 2007, Stewart and “The Daily Show” went after ABC’s “What Would You Do?” in which a reporter planted actors playing abusive boyfriends and parents in public places. The host ambushed bystanders who chose to mind their own business. Also in 2007, on Chris Hansen’s Dateline NBC series, “To Catch a Predator,” Hansen set up liaisons with would-be child molesters and confronted them on camera.
These shows make for crassly compelling television, and they expose the flawed, even criminal possibilities of human behavior, but they mustn’t be mistaken for journalism.
Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College. He is also a Nation columnist and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His seventh book, Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Most Important Ideals, was recently published in paperback. He occasionally blogs at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation and is a regular contributor to The Daily Beast.
Mickey Ehrlich is a freelance writer and an English teacher at Kingsborough Community College.
Top Opinion
-
onlyonetigger 2009/09/28 17:22:24
Who authenticated this tape? Who set "guidelines" in "entrapment" techniques, and who decided that this was actually "authentic" to begin with?
And, just because one or two employees are corrupt in an organization, doesn't mean an entire organization is corrupt (unless they happen to run it). After all, this isn't Blackwater, is it?
What disgusts me is the length and depth to what the RWNJs will falsify, and use to discredit a sitting president. And the corruption which they will use misinformation in order to do it. Doesn't that make them MORE corrupt?
Evidence against ACORN is hardly in short supply. You guys might not like it, but it is what it is!
A couple bad apples? ACORN registered over a million voters for this past election - over 400,000 were fraudulent. But that's just this past election - here's a little history lesson for you Bob, and it's not from anyones playbook, it's from CRIMINAL records.
Check it out Bob - then tell me you can accept that your president has even remote ties to this organization. Problem is; his connections are not so remote.
Look Bob, I wish things were differant than they are. But the fact is that Obama is not the wonderous guy that he was portrayed to be by the media.
Here's a partial list of ACORN problems. I'm no Columbo, but I think I see a pattern of criminal involement - what do you think?
AR 1998 A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.
CO 2005 Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.
2004 An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.
CT 2008 Th...
A couple bad apples? ACORN registered over a million voters for this past election - over 400,000 were fraudulent. But that's just this past election - here's a little history lesson for you Bob, and it's not from anyones playbook, it's from CRIMINAL records.
Check it out Bob - then tell me you can accept that your president has even remote ties to this organization. Problem is; his connections are not so remote.
Look Bob, I wish things were differant than they are. But the fact is that Obama is not the wonderous guy that he was portrayed to be by the media.
Here's a partial list of ACORN problems. I'm no Columbo, but I think I see a pattern of criminal involement - what do you think?
AR 1998 A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.
CO 2005 Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.
2004 An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.
CT 2008 The New York Post reported that ACORN submitted a voter registration card for a 7-year-old Bridgeport girl. Another 8,000 cards from the same city will be scrutinized for possible fraud.
FL 2008 Election officials in Brevard County have given prosecutors more than 23 suspect registrations from ACORN. The state's Division of Elections is also investigating complaints in Orange and Broward Counties.
2004 A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman said ACORN was “singled out” among suspected voter registration groups for a 2004 wage initiative because it was “the common thread” in the agency’s fraud investigations.
IN 2008 Election officials in Indiana have thrown out more than 4,000 ACORN-submitted voter registrations after finding they had identical handwriting and included the names of many deceased Indianans, and even the name of a fast food restaurant.
MI 2008 Clerks in Detroit found a "sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent [voter] applications" from the Michigan branch of ACORN. Those applications have been turned over to the U.S. Attorney's office for investigation.
2004 The Detroit Free Press reported that “overzealous or unscrupulous campaign workers in several Michigan counties are under investigation for voter-registration fraud, suspected of attempting to register nonexistent people or forging applications for already-registered voters.” ACORN-affiliate Project Vote was one of two groups suspected of turning in the documents.
MO 2008 Nearly 400 ACORN-submitted registrations in Kansas City have been rejected due to duplication or fake information.
2007 Four ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City for charges including identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election.
2006 Eight ACORN employees in St. Louis were indicted on federal election fraud charges. Each of the eight faces up to five years in prison for forging signatures and submitting false information.
2003 Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally.
MN 2004 During a traffic stop, police found more than 300 voter registration cards in the trunk of a former ACORN employee, who had violated a legal requirements that registration cards be submitted to the Secretary of State within 10 days of being filled out and signed.
NC 2008 County elections officials have sent suspicious voter registration applications to the state Board of Elections. Many of the applications had similar or identical names, but with different addresses or dates of birth.
2004 North Carolina officials investigated ACORN for submitting fake voter registration cards.
NM 2008 Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,100 ACORN-submitted voter registration cards after a county clerk found them to be fraudulent. Many of the cards included duplicate names and slightly altered personal information.
2005 Four ACORN employees submitted as many as 3,000 potentially fraudulent signatures on the group’s Albuquerque ballot initiative. A local sheriff added: “It’s safe to say the forgery was widespread.”
2004 An ACORN employee registered a 13-year-old boy to vote. Citing this and other examples, New Mexico State Representative Joe Thompson stated that ACORN was “manufacturing voters” throughout New Mexico.
NV 2009 Nevada authorities indicted ACORN on 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. ACORN provided a bonus compensation program called “Blackjack” or “21+” for any canvasser who registered more than 20 voters per shift, which is illegal under Nevada law.
2008 Nevada state authorities raided ACORN's Las Vegas headquarters as part of a task force investigation of election fraud. Fraudulent registrations included players from the Dallas Cowboys.
OH 2008 ACORN activists gave Ohio residents cash and cigarettes in exchange for filling out voter registration card, according to the New York Post. Some voters claim to have registered dozens of times, and one man says he signed up on 72 cards.
2007 A man in Reynoldsburg was indicted on two felony counts of illegal voting and false registration, after being registered by ACORN to vote in two separate counties.
2004 A grand jury indicted a Columbus ACORN worker for submitting a false signature and false voter registration form. In Franklin County, two ACORN workers submitted what the director of the board of election supervisors called “blatantly false” forms. In Cuyahoga County, ACORN and its affiliate Project Vote submitted registration cards that had the highest rate of errors for any voter registration group.
PA 2009 Seven ACORN workers in the Pittsburgh area were indicted for submitting falsified voter registration forms. Six of the seven were also indicted for registering voters under an illegal quota system.
2008 State election officials have thrown out 57,435 voter registrations, the majority of which were submitted by ACORN. The registrations were thrown out after officials found "clearly fraudulent" signatures, vacant lots listed as addresses, and other signs of fraud.
2008 An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.
2004 Reading’s Director of Elections received calls from numerous individuals complaining that ACORN employees deliberately put inaccurate information on their voter registration forms. The Berks County director of elections said voter fraud was “absolutely out of hand,” and added: “Not only do we have unintentional duplication of voter registration but we have blatant duplicate voter registrations.” The Berks County deputy director of elections added that ACORN was under investigation by the Department of Justice.
TX 2008 In Harris County, nearly 10,000 ACORN-submitted registrations were found to be invalid, including many with clearly fraudulent addresses or other personal information.
2008 ACORN turned in the voter registration form of David Young, who told reporters “The signature is not my signature. It’s not even close.” His social security number and date of birth were also incorrect.
VA 2005 In 2005, the Virginia State Board of Elections admonished Project Vote and ACORN for turning in a significant number of faulty voter registrations. An audit revealed that 83% of sampled registrations that were rejected for carrying false or questionable information were submitted by Project Vote. Many of these registrations carried social security numbers that exist for other people, listed non-existent or commercial addresses, or were for convicted felons in violation of state and federal election law.
In a letter to ACORN, the State Board of Elections reported that 56% of the voter registration applications ACORN turned in were ineligible. Further, a full 35% were not submitted in a timely manner, as required by law. The State Board of Elections also commented on what appeared to be evidence of intentional voter fraud. "Additionally,” they wrote, “information appears to have been altered on some applications where information given by the applicant in one color ink has been scratched through and re-entered in another color ink. Any alteration of a voter registration application is a Class 5 Felony in accordance with § 24.2-1009 of the Code of Virginia."
WA 2007 Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.
WI 2008 At least 33,000 ACORN-submitted registrations in Milwaukee have been called into question after it was found that the organizations had been using felons as registration workers, in violation of state election rules. Two people involved in the ongoing Wisconsin voter fraud investigation have been charged with felonies.
2004 The district attorney’s office investigated seven voter registration applications Project Vote employees filed in the names of people who said the group never contacted them. Former Project Vote employee Robert Marquise Blakely told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he had not met with any of the people whose voter registration applications he signed, “an apparent violation of state law,” according to the paper.
HOWEVER The young republican leaders group (Rachael Hoff and 6 others) has been convicted of registration fraud. And, there has been untold amounts of VOTER SUPPRESSION, which IS VOTER FRAUD widespread across the country.
Spare me the ACORN bullcrap. Voter lists have been purged, long lines have been created in known democratic areas because of outdated, and not enough voter machines, electronic ballots have been changed at the polls, along with a multitude of other crap and shennanigans by the GOP. That is ACTUAL voter fraud by suppression.
ACORN has been accused of REGISTRATION FRAUD - a far cry from VOTER FRAUD. And, no one has actually been convicted. Like the young republicans group has been. But no one from the right wants to discuss THAT.
When you get to the polls, you STILL HAVE TO PROVE WHO YOU ARE, and that you are legally registered to vote. Mickey Mouse just can't do that.
In Ohio, (where I’m from), registered voters can vote absentee right as they register. It’s done more and more in recent elections. Jennifer Brunner, (Ohio Secretary of State), and US Senate candidate (democrat) openly defied federal election law last fall and refused to allow investigation of over 200,000 suspicious voter registrations. She is running for the U.S. Senate in 2010, might well expect support from the community organizing group ACORN in her campaign.
You see Ptete, I’m one of those “old fashioned” guys that expect politicians and the political process to be honest – regardless of what side of the aisle they’re from, and I’m disappointed that your comments would lead to believe otherwise about you.
Please Bob, let's not start slinging labels at one another. Calling me a hypocrite doesn't accomplish a thing, and the fact is I am not a hypocrite. I'm fine with banning any organization convicted of defrauding the government from doing business with the government.
That doesn't make me a democrat or republican Bob. It just makes common sense. And, I think we covered McCarthyism earlier.
ACORN has proven itself to be at least unable to control it's personnel and keep them from rather consistently breaking laws. ACORN has 361 affiliate organizations all with structures designed to protect it's leaders and let the "little" people take the heat.
I don't see the benefit to the tax payer in keeping these folks on a contractors list or able to accept grants, etc. They should be ousted along with all the other corrupt organizations/companies.
Most of all I am glad that a couple of guys like you and I can come together and hash it out, only to find that we're not that far apart in the first place! Shall I reserve a spot at the RNC for you? (Just teasing on that part)
As far as "openly defying" investigation, I doubt that anyone has that kind of power to "defy investigations". I don't know the specifics, nor do I care to research it - sounds like a waste of time to me. You got a link - I'll check it out, otherwise, sounds like bull to me.
I'm very disheartened by the tone of Washington and how they caved in to allow them to stop using ACORN based on some "investigation" by people who used "questionable means" to investigate and film people in a few offices. I find the entire scenario suspect. This "sting" operation was totally illegal and I have no id...
As far as "openly defying" investigation, I doubt that anyone has that kind of power to "defy investigations". I don't know the specifics, nor do I care to research it - sounds like a waste of time to me. You got a link - I'll check it out, otherwise, sounds like bull to me.
I'm very disheartened by the tone of Washington and how they caved in to allow them to stop using ACORN based on some "investigation" by people who used "questionable means" to investigate and film people in a few offices. I find the entire scenario suspect. This "sting" operation was totally illegal and I have no idea if it was even legitimate. So as far as I'm concerned it was a bunch of bull. One of the ACORN workers said she killed her husband and fox news broadcast this. In fact, her husband was at home. So, I have no idea what other kinds of bullcrap was in those "films"
I'm disgusted with the people who condemn ACORN because a few bad apples (ALLEGED bad apples). ACORN does a whole lot of good for underprivileged areas. I'm not going to go into everything because I KNOW that you don't care. And, I'm not going to waste any more of my time than I already have.
The GOP is guilty of voter suppression all over the country. THAT is voter fraud. Far worse than voter registration fraud. BY FAR worse to deprive US CITIZENS of the RIGHT TO VOTE.
As far as "taxpayer funding" goes - We ALL have taxpayer dollars that goes to things that we ourselves may not agree with. In my case, my dollars went to a war in Iraq (which was the wrong country - they didn't attack us). My taxpayer dollars go to Halliburton and Blackwater - I don't agree with that either. However I agree that whoever is in the government overseeing that will be held accountable. I think ACORN does lots more good than bad - and I also believe that the agenda to discredit them is far more vocal about the bad apples, than all the good they do for obvious reasons - they want to silence the people who are most benefited by ACORN and those would be the underprivileged minority voter or PROSPECTIVE voter. They just don't want THAT to happen.
I also responded to the “few bad apples” comment earlier in the thread with a lengthy list of arrests and convictions.
I responded to the “voter registration” versus “voting” thing earlier in the thread as well.
And you never responded to my question directed to you, “So, you’re OK with federal tax money continuing to fund ACORN; is that what you’re saying?”
It’s apparent to me that you won’t even give the courtesy of considering a response from those willing to take the time to debate. So, don’t hold your breath waiting for me to supply a list of links to support my point of view, but apparently if you’re the Ohio Secretary of State you have some flexibility in what gets investigated and what doesn’t. The voter fraud allegations were not investigated, and I agree it does sound ridiculous and stupid – such is politics in Ohio.
And finally, I find it horrifying that your complaint regarding the recent ACORN expose` is how the ACORN corruption was exposed and not in the corruption itself.
I read your prof...
I also responded to the “few bad apples” comment earlier in the thread with a lengthy list of arrests and convictions.
I responded to the “voter registration” versus “voting” thing earlier in the thread as well.
And you never responded to my question directed to you, “So, you’re OK with federal tax money continuing to fund ACORN; is that what you’re saying?”
It’s apparent to me that you won’t even give the courtesy of considering a response from those willing to take the time to debate. So, don’t hold your breath waiting for me to supply a list of links to support my point of view, but apparently if you’re the Ohio Secretary of State you have some flexibility in what gets investigated and what doesn’t. The voter fraud allegations were not investigated, and I agree it does sound ridiculous and stupid – such is politics in Ohio.
And finally, I find it horrifying that your complaint regarding the recent ACORN expose` is how the ACORN corruption was exposed and not in the corruption itself.
I read your profile Ptete, and since I’ve challenged you, I suspect that you’ll block me. I propose to you Ptete that the politicians have plenty of arrogance and belligerence for all of us. We the people had better learn to do what they seem to be unable to do and that is communicate, or they will bankrupt and / or kill us all!. If the only answer is to block your ears from another point of view, it doesn’t seem to accomplish anything positive.
If you guys don't want to talk about this stuff, why are you here?
Am I beating a dead horse? Sometimes it feels like it. But, not to worry Bob and Ptete, I'm out of here, because like beating a dead horse, debating with people that have no interest in listening and only talking is a waste of my time. So, unless I'm baited or goaded - I'm not coming back to this thread. Good luck with that hope and change thing.
Contracted would be hiring companies just like Blackwater and Halliburton- supposedly after bids. Funded would tax dollars going directly to the organization itself - as in schools or direct recipients of tax dollars. At least that is MY understanding of it - I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong.
“Funded” versus “contracted services” seems to be a difference without a distinction – we’ll go with your words.
I'm sure you understand that whether it's funded or contracted, the taxpayer still is paying for it.
OK, so ACORN is/was/will be contracted (not funded) - That distracting detail, whether it's accurate or not, doesn't change a thing about ACORN's credibility (to a conservative such as myself).
Ptete - I'm going to have to take your word that ACORN has done something good. It seems to me that ACORN and it's 361 affiliates have become to large to manage effectively. And, frankly, that seems to have been done on purpose. In the same way it has become a "tough sell" for Blackwater and / or Halliburton, supporting ACORN just doesn't make sense to me.
ACORN has done tremendous amounts of good all over the country. Just because some kids decided (or was it put up to - part of my point) to go filming and "outing" some bad apples (which I don't even know - if this were brought into court it would have to meet much stricter criteria for a "conviction") - however in the court of opinion, which is already tainted by the GOP's relentless attempt to discredit this organization - an easier "conviction" obtained - regardless of whether or not it's even true. My point is that I don't trust or believe the "legitimacy" of their "undercover work". While I'm sure...
ACORN has done tremendous amounts of good all over the country. Just because some kids decided (or was it put up to - part of my point) to go filming and "outing" some bad apples (which I don't even know - if this were brought into court it would have to meet much stricter criteria for a "conviction") - however in the court of opinion, which is already tainted by the GOP's relentless attempt to discredit this organization - an easier "conviction" obtained - regardless of whether or not it's even true. My point is that I don't trust or believe the "legitimacy" of their "undercover work". While I'm sure that there are some workers who shouldn't be working there, that is true in almost every organization. And, could they survive such "vigilent" scrutiny themselves? Look at the bush administration. They were running like rats deserting the sinking ship, and came out with books on top of it! But conservatives turn on them, instead of what they are saying and attack the messenger rather than the message.
The GOP is trying desperately to prevent the underprivileged from having a voice, and the right to vote. This is just further evidence of such. They are terribly intimidated by anyone who in their perception "caused" this country to have a black president. They want to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Since I haven't been reading the entire thread, I haven't viewed all your responses. Sorry if they seem repetitious to you. What I do is cut and paste them rather than "repeat what I've already said" - and don't expect others to "go looking for them".
Like I already said, ACORN does LOTS of good things and I'm sure that there are lots of bad apples - as in any organization -INCLUDING the government. You can't tell me that every government official is corrupt, while corruption DOES run rampent within our system. ACORN has helped homeowners stay in their homes and avoid forclosure, amon...
Since I haven't been reading the entire thread, I haven't viewed all your responses. Sorry if they seem repetitious to you. What I do is cut and paste them rather than "repeat what I've already said" - and don't expect others to "go looking for them".
Like I already said, ACORN does LOTS of good things and I'm sure that there are lots of bad apples - as in any organization -INCLUDING the government. You can't tell me that every government official is corrupt, while corruption DOES run rampent within our system. ACORN has helped homeowners stay in their homes and avoid forclosure, among many other things. Sure, they have to clean up some of the trash that they have as workers, so does Washington. My tax dollars go to funding wars that we should have never gotten involved in. My tax dollars goes to Blackwater and Halliburton. Do you approve of those?
"The original campaign, they note, was concocted by conservative politicians upset with ACORN’s community organizing efforts to help poor Americans improve economic conditions and gain a stronger political voice"
....and this is a continuation of that same plot on the part of the GOP to cast doubt on the Liberal base. They are using every despicable tactic to weaken the Democratic voting party before the next election.
Exactly! You hit the nail on the head. While I'm not going to argue that they have to clean up some of the deadwood in their organization a bit, the organization itself isn't corrupt. They do a lot of good, and of course they are in direct opposition to the GOP agenda - keep em poor and quiet.
If anyone thinks for a minute that this is unique to ACORN and for that, their funding s/b cut really needs a reality check on what goes on in business organizations, dishonest employers and the money in large charitable entities that mostly winds up in the hands of their administrators instead of the people they're supposed to be helping.