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The Rightwing Witch Hunt Against ACORN
Mar 08, 2010
After 18 months of screaming headlines and attacks vilifying the
anti-poverty group ACORN--attacks reminiscent of a New McCarthyism that
threatened the group's very existence--it's clear now that this was a
right-wing witch-hunt which, sadly, too many Democrats and the
mainstream media failed to fact-check.
In December, the Congressional Research Service cleared ACORN of
allegations of improper use of federal funding and voter registration
fraud. The latest to weigh-in on the controversy is Brooklyn District
Attorney Charles Hynes. After a four-month investigation Hynes declared
"no criminality has been found" with regard to the conduct of three
ACORN employees in the infamous and--turns out--misnamed
"pimp-prostitute" video.
In fact, a law enforcement source told the New York Daily News that the unedited version of the video
which caused all the outrage "was not clear."
"They edited the tape to meet their agenda," said the official.
Conservative operative James O'Keefe--who was later arrested after an
alleged attempt to bug the office of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's
office in New Orleans--was in reality wearing a white shirt and khakis in the ACORN office and posing as a law school student trying to protect his girlfriend from an abusive pimp. The outrageous pimp outfit was shot later and used to promote the video.
"O'Keefe and the Fox attack machine targeted ACORN because of our
successful work to empower hundreds of thousands of low and moderate
families as voters and active citizens," said ACORN spokesman Kevin
Whelan. "Hopefully [the DA's] announcement, and similar results from
independent reviews, will make politicians and media examine the facts
more carefully the next time a valuable community organization is
attacked."
The damage already done to ACORN includes severely curtailing its work
helping low-income people with tax preparation and obtaining the Earned
Income Tax Credit, fighting foreclosures, and investigating wage and
hour exploitation of workers. The hysteria has also driven away private
funding, and there is "defund ACORN" language in the recently signed
Omnibus bill that ACORN and the Center for Constitutional Rights are
fighting in court.
As a result of the funding struggle, local chapters of ACORN are now
reconstituting themselves as separate, stand-alone organizations with
their own names. 17 state groups have either done that or will do that
by the end of the month.
Fox and tabloids like the New York Post did a hatchet-job on ACORN that
too many in the mainstream media were eager to run with. It seems to me
those outlets have a special obligation to now step up and tell the
full story. Also, contact New York Times Public Editor
Clark
Hoyt, Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander,
and other major newspapers. Tell them their publications should run
front-page retrospectives on the ACORN story--how and why the media and politicians got it wrong and what the consequences have been to
ACORN.
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Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Katrina vanden Heuvel is an American editor and publisher. She is the editor, publisher, and part-owner of the magazine The Nation. She has been the magazine's editor since 1995.
After 18 months of screaming headlines and attacks vilifying the
anti-poverty group ACORN--attacks reminiscent of a New McCarthyism that
threatened the group's very existence--it's clear now that this was a
right-wing witch-hunt which, sadly, too many Democrats and the
mainstream media failed to fact-check.
In December, the Congressional Research Service cleared ACORN of
allegations of improper use of federal funding and voter registration
fraud. The latest to weigh-in on the controversy is Brooklyn District
Attorney Charles Hynes. After a four-month investigation Hynes declared
"no criminality has been found" with regard to the conduct of three
ACORN employees in the infamous and--turns out--misnamed
"pimp-prostitute" video.
In fact, a law enforcement source told the New York Daily News that the unedited version of the video
which caused all the outrage "was not clear."
"They edited the tape to meet their agenda," said the official.
Conservative operative James O'Keefe--who was later arrested after an
alleged attempt to bug the office of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's
office in New Orleans--was in reality wearing a white shirt and khakis in the ACORN office and posing as a law school student trying to protect his girlfriend from an abusive pimp. The outrageous pimp outfit was shot later and used to promote the video.
"O'Keefe and the Fox attack machine targeted ACORN because of our
successful work to empower hundreds of thousands of low and moderate
families as voters and active citizens," said ACORN spokesman Kevin
Whelan. "Hopefully [the DA's] announcement, and similar results from
independent reviews, will make politicians and media examine the facts
more carefully the next time a valuable community organization is
attacked."
The damage already done to ACORN includes severely curtailing its work
helping low-income people with tax preparation and obtaining the Earned
Income Tax Credit, fighting foreclosures, and investigating wage and
hour exploitation of workers. The hysteria has also driven away private
funding, and there is "defund ACORN" language in the recently signed
Omnibus bill that ACORN and the Center for Constitutional Rights are
fighting in court.
As a result of the funding struggle, local chapters of ACORN are now
reconstituting themselves as separate, stand-alone organizations with
their own names. 17 state groups have either done that or will do that
by the end of the month.
Fox and tabloids like the New York Post did a hatchet-job on ACORN that
too many in the mainstream media were eager to run with. It seems to me
those outlets have a special obligation to now step up and tell the
full story. Also, contact New York Times Public Editor
Clark
Hoyt, Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander,
and other major newspapers. Tell them their publications should run
front-page retrospectives on the ACORN story--how and why the media and politicians got it wrong and what the consequences have been to
ACORN.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Katrina vanden Heuvel is an American editor and publisher. She is the editor, publisher, and part-owner of the magazine The Nation. She has been the magazine's editor since 1995.
After 18 months of screaming headlines and attacks vilifying the
anti-poverty group ACORN--attacks reminiscent of a New McCarthyism that
threatened the group's very existence--it's clear now that this was a
right-wing witch-hunt which, sadly, too many Democrats and the
mainstream media failed to fact-check.
In December, the Congressional Research Service cleared ACORN of
allegations of improper use of federal funding and voter registration
fraud. The latest to weigh-in on the controversy is Brooklyn District
Attorney Charles Hynes. After a four-month investigation Hynes declared
"no criminality has been found" with regard to the conduct of three
ACORN employees in the infamous and--turns out--misnamed
"pimp-prostitute" video.
In fact, a law enforcement source told the New York Daily News that the unedited version of the video
which caused all the outrage "was not clear."
"They edited the tape to meet their agenda," said the official.
Conservative operative James O'Keefe--who was later arrested after an
alleged attempt to bug the office of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's
office in New Orleans--was in reality wearing a white shirt and khakis in the ACORN office and posing as a law school student trying to protect his girlfriend from an abusive pimp. The outrageous pimp outfit was shot later and used to promote the video.
"O'Keefe and the Fox attack machine targeted ACORN because of our
successful work to empower hundreds of thousands of low and moderate
families as voters and active citizens," said ACORN spokesman Kevin
Whelan. "Hopefully [the DA's] announcement, and similar results from
independent reviews, will make politicians and media examine the facts
more carefully the next time a valuable community organization is
attacked."
The damage already done to ACORN includes severely curtailing its work
helping low-income people with tax preparation and obtaining the Earned
Income Tax Credit, fighting foreclosures, and investigating wage and
hour exploitation of workers. The hysteria has also driven away private
funding, and there is "defund ACORN" language in the recently signed
Omnibus bill that ACORN and the Center for Constitutional Rights are
fighting in court.
As a result of the funding struggle, local chapters of ACORN are now
reconstituting themselves as separate, stand-alone organizations with
their own names. 17 state groups have either done that or will do that
by the end of the month.
Fox and tabloids like the New York Post did a hatchet-job on ACORN that
too many in the mainstream media were eager to run with. It seems to me
those outlets have a special obligation to now step up and tell the
full story. Also, contact New York Times Public Editor
Clark
Hoyt, Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander,
and other major newspapers. Tell them their publications should run
front-page retrospectives on the ACORN story--how and why the media and politicians got it wrong and what the consequences have been to
ACORN.
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