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Pulitzer Prize winner Clarence Page began his career in journalism as editor for the Middletown Journal and Cincinnati Inquirer, and received his ...
Read more about By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services.
Pulitzer Prize winner Clarence Page began his career in journalism as editor for the Middletown Journal and Cincinnati Inquirer, and received his ...
Read more about By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services.
ACORN Gave Ammo to Its Enemies
By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services
Never underestimate the power of a 20-year-old woman in hot pants.
Just hook her up with an apple-cheeked young man dressed as a sort of preppie pimp, add a video camera and send them off for a chat with some dimwitted neighborhood financial counselors for ACORN. Stir in enough chutzpah to make Borat look like a shrinking violet and you've got one heckuva scandal.
Young conservative activists, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, hardened up their fresh-faced looks just enough to pose as a pimp and prostitute seeking advice at ACORN offices on setting up a brothel. Their hidden-camera videos have provided a bonanza of what President Obama characterizes as "catnip" for commentators and late-night comedians.
They've also spurred Washington's usually sluggish funding gears to spin into warp drive. The Democratic Congress and Washington's bureaucracy have cut off funds to ACORN for such work that includes tax advice, housing counseling and census taking.
Suddenly an activist organization that used to beg for media attention to the issues for which it campaigned is receiving an abundance of the sort of attention that nobody wants. Of course, you'd never guess that from the hyperventilated claims of conservative talk show hosts who regard ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, to be a bigger menace than the swine flu.
Most of the right's recent obsession with ACORN, which was founded in 1970 in Arkansas as an organization for poor people, does not grow out of concern for poor people. It grows largely out of a faint hope that bringing down ACORN, the nation's largest community organization, will help them to bring down President Obama. Back in 1995, young Harvard Law grad Barack Obama helped ACORN and a team of Chicago attorneys -- along with the U. S. Department of Justice -- win a lawsuit forcing the state of Illinois to implement the federal "motor-voter" bill. The organization and the former community organizer have not had much contact since, other than connections that have been alleged or exaggerated by conservative media.
Yet mere mention of ACORN can transform Fox News' Glenn Beck into Howard Beale, the deranged commentator in "Network" who leads the nation in shouting, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore."
"Right now, get off the couch," Beck demanded in a recent broadcast. "While I'm talking, you pick up the phone. You call the newspaper." If ACORN isn't a top priority with your newspaper, he said, "then what the hell are they good for?"
Yet, conservatives underestimate their successes in framing this debate long before Hannah put on her hot pants. Most ACORN coverage in major media has been overwhelmingly negative, according to a recently released study by Peter Dreier, a professor of politics at Occidental College, and Christopher R. Martin, a professor of journalism at University of Northern Iowa. Of the 647 newspaper and broadcast news stories about ACORN that they found in 2007 and 2008, most were on allegations of massive voter registration fraud against the organization.
Some of the names included "Mickey Mouse" and other questionable celebrities. Yet more than 80 percent of those stories failed to mention that there is no record, for example, of Mister "Mouse" actually casting a vote and almost all of the other allegations proved to be unfounded, too.
You may recall, in fact, that failure to find cases of voter fraud to prosecute led to the controversial firing of some U.S. attorneys under pressure from President Bush's political czar Karl Rove. That does not excuse the stupid, immoral and possibly criminal assistance that several ACORN staffers were caught on video offering to the young pimp-and-ho duo. But it does offer a valuable lesson: When people are out to get you, try not to hand them more ammunition.
It is somewhat reassuring that the video pranksters reportedly were turned away at some offices, including two that actually reported the phony clients to the police. It is also comforting to know that ACORN immediately fired the offending employees and has since hired Scott Harshbarger, a former Massachusetts attorney general, to conduct what he calls a "robust, no-holds-barred" and transparent review.
Nevertheless, ACORN brought most of their troubles on themselves long before conservatives piled on. The group's enormous growth since its humble start around a kitchen table in 1970 has brought scandal, financial calamity and internal rifts over charges of bad management. They were an inviting target for political adversaries. Now their big embarrassment sends the worst possible picture to the world of low-income Americans, the very people whom ACORN was trying to help.
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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage(at)tribune.com, or write to him c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.
(c) 2008 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
This news arrived on: 09/27/2009
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Posted Comments:
09-29-2009 16:03
JCE wrote:
When one looks at the most pertinent, and least discussed fact of all, the whole thing falls into place. ACORN has registered millions of voter. Most have been democrat simply because they were minority or young, those who traditionally don't vote republican. This registering of millions of potentially non republican voters is something the republicans can't handle. The fact is, out of 100s of 1000s of voter fraud allegations and investigations, less than 2 dozen have been proved. Bush had so many attorney generals fired because they couldn't or wouldn't lie, make up stuff, and find stuff that wasn't there. They looked, and investigated, and the voter abuse just wasn't there. Except for in Florida, and that was simply refusing to allow democrats to vote when it was election day. Before that, the republicans traditionally used guns to keep democrats from voting, and used dead peoples votes. But ACORN threatens to shift the traditional balance from the conservatives in favor of the people. So there has been a war on ACORN. Just as there has been a war of social security and Medicare. As politicians, the best tools of the republicans has been lies, misinformation, distraction, legislation that is bad, or will cause them to be more inefficient, or bills that if passed can then become controversial, and used for votes. Like abortion and gay rights, something to make the people mad, for votes, but something you won't ever change. The republicans intend to destroy ACORN and social security and medicare, because they are for the people of America, and have done so much good, and potentially, can do so much more. Wake up people. Smell the elephant dung.
09-29-2009 01:12
old cowboy wrote:
to JCE
I know what you are talking about. Imagine what it is like to be born and raised in Wyoming with the views I have. Should I mention how much I detested Cheney?
09-28-2009 20:15
martyb wrote:
Acorn
The whole thing was a setup and Acorn was duped. The people involved got fired and they should have. Now lets get on with the real important news in the world and remember that Azcorn has done a lot of good and hopefully will continue to.
09-28-2009 18:14
JCE wrote:
old cowboy
I think the typical RWETs like Ann and HHJ don't know what to think of those of us who, having lived and learn, think for ourselves and don't just spout party dogma. I think they tend to surround themselves with people who support their views, as it makes them feel more normal and right. Any other point of view leaves them threatened. They panic easy, and look for something to hold onto. Some of us are more used to thinking for ourselves, and holding onto what we know is true. We do realize that those we don't really know personally, and have trusted, could be wrong. Some of us don't like being wrong, or on the wrong side, and that is a major part of our ethics. Some people study ethics, especially applied ethics. Some just seem to have and know them. And all to many seem to lack them. Those are generally the ones who assume, attack and generally hate those who disagree with them. The old, if you aren't with me then you are against me isn't valid anymore. If you aren't with me, maybe you just don't understand. Or maybe I am wrong. Or maybe someone is trying to keep us disconnected for their own gain. So if you don't agree with me, it isn't because you are wrong or my enemy. And those without certain ethics tend to forget that. The tragedy in that is that when one needs friends, allies, and understanding, without ethics, they tend to push all those possibles away, find themselves alone, feeling threatening, and they just come out swinging. Vicious circle.
09-28-2009 18:01
JCE wrote:
Redneck It is one thing to do the research, and be able to back up opinions with facts as I do all the time, and many others on here do as well. Then, there is doing what you do most of the time. Hearing something that supports what you wish to believe, or even occasionally something that you actually know is true, and saying ok, it fits with what I already think, so it is true. The danger of that is shown in your posts. Much of it isn't true at all, neither fact or truth. So you end up being what you accuse others of, and part of that is your own guilt. You become a mouthpiece for the enemy. I am neither for or against ACORN. I am for truth and justice. I like the good ACORN has done, and I abhor the wrong. It is just like the main groups behind the bagger astroturf. I don't hate them. I just wish the truth would come out, and they would be cleaned up as needed, prosecuted where warranted, and that we move on fixing the country.
Rumple I don't take the words of Fox seriously, and I boycott their sponsors. But I do take the dangerousness of Fox, and their proven ability to incite treason, violence and murder very seriously.
HHJ While admittedly it isn't the 6 piece puzzle that you are used to, but rather more like the 3D puzzles, being one who has put it together, I hate to burst your bubble, but you sure haven't come close. Stick to the 6 and 12 piece puzzles till you get good at them. This is a hard one.
Ann You leave out the fact that the conservatives get the tax benefits of contributions, and you also leave out that most of those contributions are not to liberal charities, but to conservative ones. Also, conservatives tend to make sure everyone knows they help out. Many charities are fronts for political and religious groups. Follow the money trail. Conservatives are not bleeding hearts. Jesus had a lot to say about those conservative rich guys giving to charity, and none of it was good.
Rumple I don't take the words of Fox seriously, and I boycott their sponsors. But I do take the dangerousness of Fox, and their proven ability to incite treason, violence and murder very seriously.
HHJ While admittedly it isn't the 6 piece puzzle that you are used to, but rather more like the 3D puzzles, being one who has put it together, I hate to burst your bubble, but you sure haven't come close. Stick to the 6 and 12 piece puzzles till you get good at them. This is a hard one.
Ann You leave out the fact that the conservatives get the tax benefits of contributions, and you also leave out that most of those contributions are not to liberal charities, but to conservative ones. Also, conservatives tend to make sure everyone knows they help out. Many charities are fronts for political and religious groups. Follow the money trail. Conservatives are not bleeding hearts. Jesus had a lot to say about those conservative rich guys giving to charity, and none of it was good.
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