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Monday, September 28, 2009

DENNIS PATRICK: ACORN NEWS - WHAT’S IMPORTANT, WHAT’S NOT

A story of sleaze and corruption involving a taxpayer-funded organization consisting of sex, hookers and government ties at high levels has to be a news director’s dream. Yet, this very scenario was essentially ignored for days after the story broke. The mainstream media, or should I say the old-line media, chose simply not to cover the recent ACORN scandal. There was a time when investigative reporting dominated the news in the grand tradition of “20/20” and “60 Minutes.” Apparently that heyday has passed. In a word, ACORN employees were caught on video tape advising a “pimp” (James O’Keefe, 25) and his “prostitute” (Hannah Giles, 20) on how to launder their earnings and avoid detection. Working under cover, O’Keefe and Giles were advised by Baltimore ACORN employees how to bring underage illegal alien girls into the United States to work as prostitutes from a brothel which ACORN would help finance. Portrayed in the video, all discussions were up front and straight forward. The Baltimore video tape was the first, but by no means the last, incident recorded and the ACORN scandal appears endemic. ACORN offices in three other cities were also willing to help support, organize and arrange loans for houses of prostitution. Film maker O’Keefe taped the identical scenario with the same advice provided by ACORN workers in Washington, New York and San Bernardino. At this writing O’Keefe says that there are more tapes to be released. ACORN employees helping a “pimp” and his “prostitute” should be a huge story, but major news outlets did not see it that way. Instead, MSNBC ran an investigative story on the informercial “ShamWow or Sham?” They also produced razor edge reporting on another product, the Snuggie. No time for the ACORN scandal. CNN broke a different story. They ran with an account about jilted women facing trial for staging a motel tryst that ended with the women gluing the man’s private parts. CBS chose to air an investigative report about a divorcing couple named Jon and Kate Gosselin in lieu of the ACORN scandal. To its credit, ABC mentioned the ACORN scandal, albeit loosely, by announcing that the two Baltimore ACORN employees had been fired. Aside from that, details were sketchy and ABC excoriated O’Keefe and Giles for malfeasance. In spite of the lack of coverage, ACORN’s relationship with federal agencies has been called into question. In all probability ACORN will lose federal funding as well as its 501(c) (3) status. The Census Bureau has severed ties with the group for all work related to the 2010 census. The IRS has also severed their favorable relationship with ACORN. Clearly there was a pattern of improper partisanship and fraudulent activity. ACORN’s reputation is tarnished. In unrelated incidents involving voter fraud, over 30 ACORN officials have been convicted. Investigations continue in seventeen states. Although ACORN has promised to sue O’Keefe, they have yet to make good on their threat. For his part, O’Keefe say, “Bring it on.” There may yet be some truth in the old adage that just because a watchdog has its eyes closed does not mean it’s asleep. On the other hand, the term “main stream media” has probably become a euphemism. Losing viewership and, consequently, advertising revenue, the main stream media has become anything but main stream. Slowly but surely they’re losing their influence. In addition to not covering the ACORN scandal, the old-line media news gave very scant coverage to other recent stories. The Van Jones scandal and the National Endowment for the Arts scandal, until recently, were passé. Both Van Jones, head of the Council on Environmental Quality, otherwise known as the “green jobs czar,’ and Yosi Sergant, head of the NEA, both resigned in disgrace. If you don’t recognize these scandals, you probably take your news from the old-line media. Point made. Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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Comments

Avatar for Chatcath

And our president tells us he didn’t know Acorn was getting all this money. Who is going to believe anything coming out of his mouth?

Chatcath on September 28, 2009 at 05:28 pm
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