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Are the News Media Scared of ACORN
Townhall.com ^ | September 18, 2009 | Floyd Brown

Posted on 09/19/2009 4:10:32 AM PDT by Kaslin

Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?" is the title of a July 2009 U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report by Congressman Darrell Issa. The report draws some shocking conclusions: "The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systemic fraud. Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors..."

It is a shocking statement to absorb: "to conceal a criminal conspiracy." Yet you won't see this on your TV unless you happen to be watching Fox News. Others are refusing to report this corruption.

America is a country that is dependent on a dynamic, bombastic, independent and informative free press. During every period of great change and trial, we have relied on the honesty and unbridled courage of America's press to help us find solutions to our problems.

Pamphleteers helped launch the American Revolution. Abolitionist newspapers played a central role in ending slavery. Muckrakers' stories of meat-packing workers falling into rendering tanks and being ground, along with animal parts, led to child labor and food-safety laws early in the 20th century.

From Teapot Dome to Watergate, we depended upon a free press to uncover government corruption at every level.

President Teddy Roosevelt captured this American tradition in 1906 when he said: "I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in turn remembers that attack is of use only if it absolutely truthful".

But now this fine tradition has been abandoned by those Rush Limbaugh calls the "Drive-by Media".

Instead these reporters, editors and publishers have prioritized advancing a left-wing agenda ahead of the truth. And to advance an agenda, they must control the news, not report it.

Their first tactic is to simply ignore a story. In most cases, it works. But when it comes to questions regarding ACORN, it hasn't worked because Glenn Beck and some other courageous journalists have refused to let the story die.

When ignoring the story doesn't work, the next recourse is to distort or spin the news in order to regain control over the story. This didn't work either. The Pew Research Center for People & the Press found that 74 percent of Americans surveyed think news stories "tend to favor one side of an issue over another, up from 66 percent two years ago." Americans see through the distortions. "If people believe that news reports are often biased, they will say they're inaccurate," says Pew Director Andrew Kohut .

With the ACORN scandal, the secret filming in ACORN offices by twenty-something journalists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, they have caught America's attention. These brave young people have done the type of gutsy journalism that used to be the domain of once-powerful "60 Minutes" on CBS.

Ironically, the media that used to catch this type of corruption have instead had the audacity to attack O'Keefe and Giles for entrapment.

The impotence of this once-powerful force, America's mainstream media, is embarrassing. Today "60 Minute"s is the domain of the most slavishly pro-Obama interviews and propaganda.

The mainstream media are hoping that at some point in the process, the American people will tire of the ACORN corruption issue and simply move on. This is what happened with the Monica Lewinsky and corruption scandals of the Clinton presidency. Whether this happens or not to the ACORN fraud and criminal activities problem is up to all of us. Will we succumb to fatigue before we hold the media and the officials they are protecting accountable? This question remains to be answered.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: acorn; fearfuldems; floydbrown; hannahgiles; liberalmedia
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1 posted on 09/19/2009 4:10:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The mainstream media are hoping that at some point in the process, the American people will tire of the ACORN corruption issue and simply move on. This is what happened with the Monica Lewinsky and corruption scandals of the Clinton presidency.

Monica Lewinsky was not demanding millions and millions of our tax dollars.

2 posted on 09/19/2009 4:17:31 AM PDT by Bahbah (Only dead fish go with the flow)
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To: All

Why do they use black people as the face of the organization when it’s run by rich white guys? They want any any challenge to be deemed racist. That is what the media fears, they don’t want to end up on Obama’s enemies list.


3 posted on 09/19/2009 4:18:10 AM PDT by newnhdad (The longest of journeys begins with one step.)
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To: newnhdad

Wrong. They are not scared. They are part of the corruption. The Corrupted Media is as bad as the Corrupt Officials.


4 posted on 09/19/2009 4:21:46 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: Kaslin

The article doesn’t answer the title question. It asks the question, “is the media afraid of ACORN” and then goes on to repeat what we already know: that the media has prioritized advancing a left-wing agenda over getting at the truth. That is true, but it doesn’t answer the title question and doesn’t even suggest that there’s a particular reason for asking the question.

If the media is on the same side of every issue with Obama and ACORN, and they act as a propaganda organ for Obama and ACORN, and they love doing it and it’s what they want to do, where does “fear” play a part?

The writer should either answer his own question or change the title of the article to: “The Media is a Leftist Front”


5 posted on 09/19/2009 4:22:03 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: newnhdad
Why do they use black people as the face of the organization when it’s run by rich white guys?

Human shields. When BOR interviewed Bertha Lewis a while back, she brought an elderly blind black minister with her. The minister didn't appear to have anything useful to say. She was nothing but a human shield for Lewis.
6 posted on 09/19/2009 4:23:21 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
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To: newnhdad
Why do they use black people as the face of the organization when it’s run by rich white guys?

Use is the definitive word. They use them as slaves and the dumb people don't even recognize it

7 posted on 09/19/2009 4:25:28 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for 0bama: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

ACORN is OBAMA and the DEMOCRATS and the Media MUST PROTECT THEIR GUYS!


8 posted on 09/19/2009 4:30:22 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Bahbah
millions and millions?

try billions and billions.
9 posted on 09/19/2009 4:44:38 AM PDT by Dan in Wichita
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To: Kaslin

The media, like any corporation, is intimidated by any group that can bus thousands of unemployable pieces of sh!t to your doorstep (see Rainbow PUSH, for example). I love how somebody pointed out that the TEA parties have to be held on weekends; similar to the “Why don’t I see Obama bumper stickers on my drive to work?” thing...


10 posted on 09/19/2009 4:45:19 AM PDT by Carlos Martillo II (Guernica was a work of art...and I don't mean the painting.)
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To: Kaslin
The fringe media is afraid of ACORN and here is why.


11 posted on 09/19/2009 4:57:18 AM PDT by South40 (Islam has a long tradition of tolerance, ~Hussein Obama, June 4, 2009, Cairo, Egypt)
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To: Kaslin
Yet you won't see this on your TV unless you happen to be watching Fox News. Others are refusing to report this corruption.

You know this is no different than when Hussein said he "had visited all 57 states but may have missed one or two" during the '08 election campaign.

Our buddies like Charlie Gibson in the SRM got right on that too. < /sarc>

12 posted on 09/19/2009 5:17:58 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Jimmy Carter - now the second worst POTUS ever. BHO [the LIAR] has #1 spot in his sights.)
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To: screaminsunshine

The ACORN story has disappeared from NBC Nightly Nooze.


13 posted on 09/19/2009 5:34:43 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: screaminsunshine
Structural corruption.

Even European and Asian well-to-does I know who are not stupid, but have a good analysis of the US, can see and and confide in me that we are indeed corrupt and controlled in our national media.

The reason this story is ignored is that, traced all the way up, it could well lead right into the Oval Office, and could lead right to issues surrounded the election of 2008 and legitimacy.

And they CAN NOT have that.

14 posted on 09/19/2009 5:38:43 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (For only donating $100 bucks online to JOE WILSON, I sure feel like *A MILLION BUCKS* myself. Try it)
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To: Kaslin
FOX ain't scarted of them.
I don't watch the others. . . . .
15 posted on 09/19/2009 5:38:46 AM PDT by DeaconRed (AMERICA'S HEMORRHOID: jimmy carter. Worst President So Far; Zero IS closing in fast)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Why would NBC ever report on ACORN? NBC is no longer a News Organization. NBC is a Liberal/Socialist Infomercial operation.


16 posted on 09/19/2009 5:39:03 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: All

bump


17 posted on 09/19/2009 5:40:32 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (That cracking-type noise? Oh, don't pay no never mind. That's just ACORN's nuts getting crushed.)
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To: screaminsunshine

Exactly. You should see the puff piece in our local paper. Major barf aleart. http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-news.asp?id=BL790K3207M


18 posted on 09/19/2009 5:40:57 AM PDT by Ladysmith ("A community organizer can't bitch when communities organize." Rush Limbaugh)
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To: Kaslin

It’s clear the White House exerts pressure on the media to limit unwanted coverage. I understand that that is one of Rahm’s little gems that he oversees.

And it appears to work until things bubble over.


19 posted on 09/19/2009 5:42:28 AM PDT by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
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To: AmericanInTokyo

I believe the Liberal Information Media gets its daily storyboard directly from the White House. I often hear Rush play the Montage of Liberal Info operatives repeat the same line of the day over and over and over. Only Fox News reports a differnet line. That is why Fox is so popular. I liken it to having 10 car dealers in one city. 9 of the dealers sell only GM. The other dealer sells all the other cars on the market. Who will do the most biz?


20 posted on 09/19/2009 5:44:07 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (!!)
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