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Why do Fox and its ilk pursue ACORN so vociferously?
It's as if they have to prove they were right about them during the campaign.
Problem 1: They weren't.
Problem 2: They still aren't.
(Hat tip to Atrios)
Apparently the recent hissy fit stems from a prank.
More from the San Francisco Chronicle (a conservative columnist, apparently).
Now the right has its own Borat-style entertainment. Equipped with a video camera, conservative activists James O'Keefe, 25, and Hannah Giles, 20, sought the answer to this question: "What if a 'prostitute' and her alleged law school boyfriend walk into ACORN seeking housing for an underage brothel to fund his future congressional campaign?"
The answer, they discovered, was that some of the folks who work at ACORN (the left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) were overly adept at looking the other way - even after O'Keefe and Giles told them that Salvadoran girls as young as 12 would be working as prostitutes in their brothel.
A prank that made it to Fox. And just a while ago, I saw Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA, famous as the man who began the recall against Gray Davis) call ACORN "a criminal organization" on CNN.
One ACORN worker told the couple they could list the under-aged prostitutes as dependents "because they live in your house, especially if they're under 16." Some organizers emphasized that it was not their job to judge others. A Baltimore worker tried to sign up the couple as dues-paying ACORN members.
ACORN has reacted by charging that the videotapes were "doctored" and charged O'Keefe and Giles with trolling for damning material. ACORN also claims the couple is not airing tape from offices where they were shown the door. The Philadelphia Daily News, for example, reported that the local ACORN office kicked out O'Keefe and Giles and filed a police report.
This may be more complex than it seems.
On Monday, the Senate voted 83-7 for a measure by Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., to prohibit granting federal housing funds to ACORN. California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer - yes, Barbara Boxer - voted for the measure.
This is progress. As recently as March, however, the Senate tabled an amendment banning federal funding for ACORN - which has received $53 million directly from Uncle Sam since 1994 - despite several state investigations into ACORN voter registration. Last year, ACORN was forced to acknowledge that election officials rejected 400,000 of the 1.3 million people the group had tried to register.
That last bit is pretty damning, but I can't confirm it on the ACORN site. It seems to be a widely circulated figure, but only among right-wing sources.
It would be nice if our so-called liberal (non-Fox) media defended the good work ACORN does.
I'd offer to hold my breath, but I have already turned blue.
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