ACORN Internal Investigator’s Website Downplays Scandal, Attacks Messengers
by PubliusFrom Center for American Progress:
John Podesta, Obama transition team co-chair and President of Center for American Progress (the group helped launch Media Matters in 2004). Podesta is a member of the ACORN Advisory Council.
…Hysterical Fox News commentators have blown this story up like a hot air balloon, and much of the rest of the media appear to believe that what Fox says goes. Andrew Alexander complains that “traditional news outlets like The Post simply don’t pay enough attention to conservative media or viewpoints.” But writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, Rick Perlstein responds: “Why would a newspaper like the The Post be training its investigative focus on ACORN now? Whether you think ill or well of ACORN, they’re a very marginal group in the grand scheme of things and about as tied to the White House as the PTA.”
This right-wing stunt proved such powerful catnip to mainstream media bigfeet that amazingly, George Stephanopoulos thought it worth discussing with the President of the United States during a rare one-on-one interview opportunity. The president quite understandably explained that that he wasn’t following the story very closely, and that the country was dealing with more serious problems right now. (U.S. grants to ACORN, already suspended, account for literally 52 seconds of annual U.S. government spending, according to one careful estimate.) Stephanopoulos had nothing else to say. As though he were correcting himself, he continued, “Afghanistan is a serious problem facing the country right now.” Oh, yeah, Afghanistan….
To be fair, outside of nakedly ideological outfits, most of the reporters in the mainstream media behaved responsibly when the tapes emerged on right-wing radio shows and blogs. The tapes didn’t become legitimately newsworthy until the Census Bureau dropped ACORN from its efforts to collect 2010 census data. Initial reports even left out mention of the videotapes. But the videos are what attract media, particularly television, to this story, not government action against ACORN. Census and congressional moves to dissociate government from ACORN have become excuses to show these tapes again and again. News outlets have used these tapes even though they meet no reasonable journalistic standards.
The press has taken the release of the tapes as an opportunity to rehash the same handful of connections to ACORN that have been discussed and exaggerated ad nauseum by the openly conservative punditocracy. The Associated Press ran a piece by Sharon Theimer and Pete Yost on September 20 whose title asks, “Did ACORN Get Too Big for its Own Good?” The reporters give a history of the organization, focusing on any bad press the company has received since it began in 1970. They also refer to Barack Obama’s “long” relationship with the group. They illuminate three connections between the president and ACORN, including an endorsement by Bertha Lewis, the CEO. In addition to its being nonsense, these arguments assume that the videotapes signal a systemic failure on the part of ACORN, which has been neither investigated nor proven…
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So, today's strategy is ignore it, marginalize it and those that report on it, and hope it goes away?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Big Government. Big Government said: ACORN Internal Investigator’s Website Downplays Scandal, Attacks Messengers: From Center for American Progress:.. http://bit.ly/1F8rbo [...]
Did you see Israel's speech at the UN. It was inspiriing. Then Chavez got up there and I felt it felt like a dose of food poisoning. Yuck
No big deal, ACORN lost contracts with the Census and IRS. Both house of congress, overwhelmingly vote to cut funding. No big deal, nothing to see here, move along people.
No big deal, ACORN lost contracts with the Census and IRS. Both house of congress, overwhelmingly voted to cut funding. No big deal, nothing to see here, move along people.
John Podesta?
David Axlerod told him there is nothing to worry about. Just a few far right loonies.
I wonder, has anyone told Axlerod, Robert Gibbs or the Main Stream Media that there are riots breaking out in Pittsburgh at the G-20 Summit? The Obamaites are restless……………
Podesta…why, oh why, do the UberLefties have to end up looking like Podesta, Carville, Barney Franks, Waxman and Waters to name just a very, very few. Must be in the genes. And, Rick Perlstein, why not years ago before they started to be investigated in so many states, indicated, charged and jailed in many instances? Why would ACORN allow the co-founder of SEIU and now thick in NY politics steal $1 million and then bury it? Why now? Because the entire corruption of this nation's political class, in particular the Uberleft, is now so rampant it would be hard not to! What it is with you people that you are so deaf, dumb and blind to the truth, of all things. Do you honestly believe the crap that slimes out of your mouths? Please, at least have the decency to hide under that rock you loonies find so comforting.
Podesta
Get real. This is exactly how your boss george Soross sounded when he dupped Hungary and manipulated their currency. They of course convicted him just like France gave him a conviction. Podesta, do you know why you surround your self with convicts?
Now tell the OIG from the Treasury what you know. Then we can talk.
Want to bet Podesta has not seen ACORN financial statements? The last two board members that asked to see them were terminated rapidly.
Honest people run from board memberships that expose liability. As a director, the IRS can nail Podesta regarding their non payment of employee income tax withholdings.
Blah Blah Blah …….. Internal investigations are Pointless, Waste of Money, Waste of Time, and will only attempt to cover up the coruptness of ACON. I hope that after the IG is done with Bagdad Bob and her superiors, that ACON reimburses the Taxpayers for the expense of her pointless Internal Investigation.
How about a congressional investigation, an IRS audit, and an FBI investigation. Let's see if they come up with the same stuff as Podesta.
So the fact that “the Census Bureau dropped ACORN from its efforts” is newsworthy but the reason for dropping ACORN is not?
How much contradictory spin can you put on a single story?
"It didnt happen"
"It only happened once"
"We fired all of them"
"We are suing the videographers"
"Its not really newsworthy"
Podesta?
Media Matters?
Here is the list of the Uber-mensches at Media Matters. Liberal Fascist Militants all:
http://mediamatters.org/p/about_us/staff_advisors
They are a vile group of obnoxious hairey legged, Birkenstock wearing snot-nosed little pukes……
If you haven't seen what he is talking about – click the link – Glenn Beck puts the "smackdown" on his "behind" –
Glenn had better be careful… Around 17 mins but worth it….
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=...
What do you expect from these commies/fascists, whatever you want to call them, the TRUTH? They don't know the meaning of the word.
And Scott Harshbarger is a member of Center for American Progress? But he promised an thorough investigation…
YEAH, OK Buddy. Acorn may not be a global corporation, but an investigation into Acorn? That is something else. Acorn leads to the SEIU. The SEIU leads to The Apollo Alliance. The Apollo Alliance leads to the TIDES foundation. Teachers Unions, AFL-CIO, if they can tie it all together it's the biggest scandal ever. Forget about Watergate.
Wow, what a way to downplay how our tax dollars are being trashed. Follow the money. ACORN uses tax dollars, in the end, to garner registration and votes for the Democrats and for Obama, illegally. Not only is ACORN corrupt to the core, if enough time were spent on their ties and where the money has gone, and the illegitimacy of votes, Obama, may indeed not be legally the POTUS. This is not a fluff story. This story has not only teeth, but claws. Please keep digging. Corruption at ACORN runs to the very top, as we have seen with the embezzlement charge, and no doubt, to the top of the White House.
I'm telling you, they actually think we are that stupid just like congress does – we got it up here, you little people move on…
John Conyers is a joke to America …..
>> "(U.S. grants to ACORN, already suspended, account for literally 52 seconds of annual U.S. government spending, according to one careful estimate.)" <<
Which is an indictment in and of itself as to how out of control Big Government spending has become.
So, if government spending is tripled (Hopey/Changey), Podesta & Co. would be able to prevaricate away ACORN's waste and corruption because it only then account for 18 seconds of U.S. government spending.
Or, something.
Has anyone noticed that all the people on the panel supposedly "investigating" ACORN internally are Democrat connected? But, But… I thought they were supposed to be "non-partisan."
The very internal advisory council they selected to do this "investigation" shows that they are a Democrat operation. Why in the hell are we or were we ever giving tax dollars to a fully Democrat front group? Why did we allow them to be associated with the IRS and the Census in the first place?
The depth and extent of Democrat corruption and the media cover up that turns a blind eye to it and they way they end up using our own tax dollars to advance their radical agenda is breathtaking.
Quote of the day:
"I would rather have Michael Vick watch my dog than have Barack Obama run my health care."
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
http://www.ZippyBall.com
YES!
Tried to read Media Matters recently and had to give up. Thanks for going there so I don't have to.
Another good quote, it could be applied here:
"Have you no shame, have you no decency?"
~Benjamin Netenyahu~
9/24/09 address to the United Nations
So I guess Mr. Podesta et al condone the enslavement of underaged South American prostitutes being underwritten by the U.S. government. Nice.
"ACORN circles the wagons"
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la...
"ACORN staffers were suspicious of the young couple that swaggered into the community organizing group's downtown Los Angeles office last summer seeking tax help, one claiming to be a USC student, the other a prostitute on the run from an abusive pimp in Miami.
When the woman refused an offer to be taken to a battered women's shelter, the staffers dismissed the incident as a "joke" and asked the pair to leave."
OK folks let’s let them do their phony investigation into ACORN. Clearly there is no bias /sarc. What is even better is to wait until Jan 2011 and start the real investigation. Why 2011? Because the Republicans will have taken back the house and senate and will have the votes to get er done. Until then let this waste of skin bloviate all he wants about how “marginal” ACORN is. Give it another year and we’ll have them on the run.
I expected nothing less….ACORN's fix is in with Podesta and company doing this "investigation"….It's almost like letting a fox take inventory in a chicken coop.
"ACORN Internal Investigator’s Website Downplays Scandal, Attacks Messengers"
LMAO!! Of COURSE he does – which is exactly why there MUST be legitimate, independent OUTSIDE investigations into the policies, practices, deceptions and criminal aspects of ACORN and all of its many far reaching "tenacles".
That's the Saul Alinsky way. Too bad most have figured this out already and it doesn't work anymore. It's kind of like using the "race" card. Neither attack works anymore.
I guess now I understand why liberals thought the Clinton escapade with the cigar in the oval office wasn't really a big deal. From their perspective their was some real heavy and serious corruption and scandal that they were aware of and relatively speaking, I suppose it makes sense.
Interesting: Incidents like this actually surprise some people, while others don't even notice.
The really irratating thing is that toward the end of the article he boasts of and defines ACORN as the largest community organizing group in the US with over 500,000 members. I literally shook my head at the ignorance of the contradiction. Do they not have editors over there are at the center. Apparently progress has nothing to do with continuity of logic and thought or journalistic integrity.
The really irratating thing is that toward the end of the article he boasts of and defines ACORN as the largest community organizing group in the US with over 500,000 members. I literally shook my head at the ignorance of the contradiction. Do they not have editors over there are at the center? Apparently progress has nothing to do with continuity of logic and thought or journalistic integrity.
There is nothing like opening an independent review with a preexisting viewpoint.
If Media Mutters is correct about the parity of White House connections between the PTA and ACORN then Obama must have worked for the PTA for years in Chicago and paid the PTA 800 thousand for "staging and lighting" in the last election. Who knew?
That article is a crock!
But thanks for posting the link to it !
They are running scared. Keep the pressure on. Email, call, snail-mail and visit your congresspersons. Remember, PRESSURE CAUSES PAIN! I did not pledge to stop torturing!
keep telling us how small potatoes they are. But when you follow the links it start with Obama and runs through what 3 different non-profits so far that we have found, ACORN and all 300 branches which connects to unions, which connects to us and our jobs. Americorp, which where the first lady, and Valerie Jarret are in it up to their noses. Jarret is a known communist, with a known communist father who had ties to who? Frank Marshal Davis who is linked to Obama in his childhood. The Tide foundation links to all of them and who worked for them at one time? Obama's mother. Americorp also ties back to Van Jones and all of the green rip off of the American people. Now we add the NEA and in comes Robin Wicks, tied to the Obama whitehouse.
And tell me they are small potatoes? Everything is connected, and we are just starting to unravel it.
Even Barney Frank, the worst of the worst, can see that ACORN is corrupt! What does that say about the rest of the "worst"?
OF COURSE its no big deal to them….they are trying to downplay it because they dont want anyone to know how deeply involved their “dear leader”, Obama is! He’s up to his NECK in corruption with ACORN! And they dont want anyone finding out to “besmirch his presidency”
IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH!!!
Podesta, the brain of the lefist frankenstein monster Obam refers to as "Fundemental Change"
That is one evil dude, wonder how many skeletons he has in his closet…hmmm…might be something coming from that direction soon…
Still time to leave the country Mr. Pedopheista (sic? no dont think so)
Podesta states of Investigative journalism: "These shows make for crassly compelling television, and they expose the flawed, even criminal possibilities of human behavior, but they mustn’t be mistaken for journalism."
============ Well, here's the word on the street…The American people have figured out that the Media formerly known as Mainstream died in 2008 with Tim Russert.==========The Watergate break-in of the DNC HQ led to the White House…..ACORN already has ties to the White House and everybody knows it.============== The people smell blood and they're hungry, ACORN's just the appetizer.
"The tapes didn’t become legitimately newsworthy until the Census Bureau dropped ACORN from its efforts to collect 2010 census data. Initial reports even left out mention of the videotapes."
Uhm… the tapes were legitimately newsworthy and were the very reason the Census Bureau dropped ACORN. I just love reading some the wacko liberal responses to the undoing of this obviously corrupt "organization".
You never get a criminal to investigate another criminal…it never works.
Because ACORN hired this kook, their credibility to do an internal investigation is…..ZERO!
Obama is so deep-seeded in the Acorn scandal!!! He actually had the nerve to go on National television and refuse to say whether or not he supported the de-funding of Acorn and that he hadn't given it much thought as it's not at the top of his list (not quoted but close). I say we CRACK THE NUT, TAKE A LOOK INSIDE AND SEE HOW ROTTEN IT REALLY IS!
This is what happens when the lunatics run the asylum. We've been watching these people on rightriot for a while now, they're as shady as they come. Time to clean 'em out. All the president's men anyone?
Only way to have gotten MSM to actually investigate ACORN was to have Sarah Palin join as a volunteer or employee.
Whether you think ill or well of ACORN, they’re a very marginal group in the grand scheme of things and about as tied to the White House as the PTA.
Laughing… choking… can't breathe!
This story right below the "Pledge to Obama" one… Does Not Help!
Need air!
lets see the proof
And are we supposed to believe the findings of an internal investigation? Puuhhleeez!!
We have one more quote… Mr. Frank had no comment on the merits of the suit, but did offer this pithy summary: "People have said, 'Well, the sting [against Acorn] is terrible.' I will tell people there is a great defense against being stung. Don't do the kind of things that put you on television." — WSJ
But Chavez did point out that the smell of sulfur is not in the air anymore. That now there's a certain "Eau de Poop".
This is so wrong on so many levels. But that's the only way the obamaites know how to operate.
Here is a thought in the case of Acorn v. O'Keefe, Giles, Breitbat, and Fox… The whistleblower protection acts are supposed to protect those who blow the whistle on illegal activities, discrimination, racketeering, etc. Giles, O'Keefe, and Breitbart, along with Fox News blew the whistle already.
The rest of the media appear to believe that what Fox says goes? Oh, yeah, that's pretty much the way it's always worked, Fox calling the shots, the rest of the media falling into line behind them. These folks exceed their personal best at stupid with every passing day.
It might be time for a little look into SEIU as well. There is alot of $ being channeled their way to help push the agenda.
Everyone should know the history here: John Podesta is from Chicago, an Alinskeyte.Rahm Emmanuel is from Chicago, also a student of Saul Alinskey. Emmanuels father was a member of a secret Jewish militant group, his mother was a community organizer. Tomothy Geitner, while born in New York, had Temple connections to Emmanuel in Chicago. Geitners father knew the Obamas………
The tangled web gets more tangled, the lines further blurred………
Taken from Wiked pedia:
John Podesta has supported efforts from the UFO research community to pressure the United States government to release files to the public that could bring light on the simmering allegations of conspiracies and cover-up of the issue. At a 2002 news conference organized by Coalition for Freedom of Information Podesta stated that, "It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon"
I wonder if he will be wearing his tin foil hat as he leads the investigation?
This guy is a joke.
Tinfoil hat? They only work shiny side out……..
He probably got a grant for it.
How dare these two-bit chislers try and smear the people who broke this case wide open! They are beyond sleazy!
Why don't they put their energy into cleaning up the cesspool called ACORN? They cannot intimidate these kids and they cannot intimidate the American people! They are playing right out of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals but it will backfire, BIG TIME. The truth is on our side, you miserable creeps!
The Census Bureau has farmed out data entry & other positions to Vangent, Inc. That is the company that Kathleen Willey went undercover for WND in the Cash For Clunkers fiasco. Her 2 wk job was a disaster — low-life non-professionals, don't give a darn attitudes of employees & mgmt. Read the newspaper, do nothing job paying $14.71 per hr.
I sent the Census Bureau another email regarding this matter. I have the email with links to another disaster that the Census 2010 is involved in: <a href="http://bit.ly/2o15dv” target=”_blank”>http://bit.ly/2o15dv
This was brought to my attention by a man in my email group.
No joke, man. I guess screwing an intern is peanuts compared to screwing the country.
Wow! Acorn funding accounts "for literally 52 seconds of annual U.S. government spending". I don't know about anyone else but I would like, oh I don't know, how about only a half second of annual U.S. government spending?
Which only goes to show not all ACORN workers are as dishonest, or as stupid, as the ones who got caught. More tapes are on the way, BTW.
I thought Marshall Applewhite died with is Heaven's Gate followers.
Prove it!!!
I'm glad ACORN is filing a lawsuit aganist Andrew Breitbart, James O'Keeke & Hannah Giles they did brake the Maryland law, like Nina Easton said. Plus, they weren't supposed to be in that video helping with FOXNEWS with their evil scandal. I am personallty holding them accountable. Also, they need to sue FOXNEWS(it shold be 5x the amount than Hannah Giles & James O'Keefe). I'm not just saying this because i'm somehow obsessed with Hannah Giles, but let it be clear that they helped FOXNEWS demonize the President. EVIL SCANDAL(EVIL RADICAL PLOT FOR DOMINION OVER THIS COUNTRY).
grace site.
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