ACORN Story Grows But Mainstream Media Refuse to Cover It

From FoxNews.com:

This story has everything you could ever want – corruption, sleazy actions at tax-funded organizations, firings, government ties, sex, hookers. It is a network news director’s dream. Imagine the ratings. But almost no one is covering it.

Bruce Springsteen once wrote: “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come).” I doubt he expected that story of love gone wrong would become ideal political commentary for the group known as ACORN.

The small scandal showing an embarrassing video of Baltimore ACORN staffers looking like they were giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel, is now national news. — This story has everything you could ever want – corruption, sleazy actions at tax-funded organizations, firings, government ties, sex, hookers. It is a network news director’s dream. Imagine the ratings!

Only almost no one is covering it.

This is the news media in the era of Van Jones and President Obama. The major outlets cover what they want and create the themes they want. When they find something inconvenient, they let it pass. They didn’t like the Van Jones story, so they ignored it. The network news media liked the financial entity known as Fannie Mae, so they ignored that scandalous organization for years. ACORN is getting the same treatment. (more…)

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Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 10:27 pm in ACORN, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 2518209 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/14/acorn-story-grows-but-mainstream-media-refuse-to-cover-it/ACORN+Story+Grows+But+Mainstream+Media+Refuse+to+Cover+It2009-09-15+05%3A27%3A02Publius

Full Transcript: ACORN Prostitution Investigation, New York, NY

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Listen to the full unedited audio here:

Part 1:

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Part 2:

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New York ACORN Transcript –

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Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 9:56 pm in ACORN | 2458166 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/14/transcript-acorn-prostitution-scandal-in-new-york-ny/Full+Transcript%3A+ACORN+Prostitution+Investigation%2C+New+York%2C+NY2009-09-15+04%3A56%3A14James+O%26%2339%3BKeefe

Senate Votes to Defund ACORN Housing

The Johanns Amendment # 2355 to H.R. 3288 passed by a margin of 83 to 7.

**UPDATE** View complete Senate vote here.

The seven “NAYs”:

*****

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases.The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The action came as the group is suffering from bad publicity after a duo of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on house-buying and how to account on tax forms for the woman’s income. Two other videos, aired frequently on media outlets such as the Fox News Channel, depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. (more…)

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Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 3:26 pm in ACORN, Congress, News, Politics | 2362415 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/14/breaking-senate-votes-to-defund-acorn/Senate+Votes+to+Defund+ACORN+Housing2009-09-14+22%3A26%3A09Publius

ACORN Corrupt? Count On It.

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Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 2:08 pm in ACORN, Political Humor | 233847 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cmuir/2009/09/14/acorn-corrupt-count-on-it/ACORN+Corrupt%3F+Count+On+It.+2009-09-14+21%3A08%3A16Chris+Muir

Johanns Amendment Would Defund ACORN

JOHANNS’ AMENDMENT BLOCKS FEDERAL FUNDING OF ACORN –

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Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 9:36 am in ACORN, Congress, News, Politics | 2206149 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mjohanns/2009/09/14/johanns-amendment-would-defund-acorn/Johanns+Amendment+Would+Defund+ACORN2009-09-14+16%3A36%3A22Sen.+Mike+Johanns+%28R-NE%29

John Fund to ACORN: Bring on the Lawsuit

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Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 7:04 am in ACORN, Justice/Legal | 189885 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/14/john-fund-to-acorn-bring-on-the-lawsuit/John+Fund+to+ACORN%3A+Bring+on+the+Lawsuit2009-09-14+14%3A04%3A08Publius

ACORN’s Lifeblood

The investigative journalism of James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles has opened yet another chapter in the corruption-tinged history of ACORN. For most Americans, ACORN is a political organization, running voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote efforts at election-time. With a rather alarming regularity, the pop into the news cycle with allegations of fraudulent voter registrations and, even, voter fraud.

No doubt, the recent undercover videos from ACORN Housing offices in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and, now, New York, are shocking. I’m a long-time observer of ACORNapalooza, and I found myself in stunned, silent disbelief as the interviews unfolded. It wasn’t just the subject-matter. No, it was the fact that not one ACORN employee seemed to even flinch when presented with the ridiculous scenario of a pimp and a prostitute trying to get a mortgage to house a dozen or so underage El Salvadoran child-prostitutes. They just oozed seamlessly into conjecture about whether or not a child prostitute could be considered a “dependent” for tax purposes. What do these employees hear on a daily basis that this scenario was just another problem that needed fixing?

But even these videos, no matter how disturbing, are just part of the ACORN story. As, too, is the pattern of problems with the voter registration system. This past weekend, Brandon Darby discussed his experience with ACORN when he was coordinating relief in post-Katrina New Orleans. ACORN saw New Orleans as their “turf” and targeted Brandon and his colleagues, trying to intimidate them to either submit to their “leadership” or leave. This is a pattern readers of Big Government will soon hear more about.

In fact, in the coming days, you’ll learn a lot about the full ACORN story. It is an amazing story, in its own way. After waiting years for the mainstream media to finally peel back the ACORN layers, Big Government will have to take it upon itself to do so.

To start this, we are publishing an internal quasi-employee manual Big Government has obtained. Given to all ACORN employees, it isn’t your normal manual. It doesn’t discuss things like sick leave or vacation time, but, rather, as the title states, the “Principles and Foundations of ACORN.” How an organization communicates with the public is important. How it communicates to its own employees, however, provides a richer understanding of an organization’s nature.

The whole thing is worth a read. I draw your attention to just one sentence (ACORN emphasizes it with italics):

ACORN’s lifeblood is conflicts with targets outside the organization.

Think about that. ACORN’s lifeblood isn’t empowering disadvantaged communities nor lifting people out of poverty. It isn’t concerned about increasing economic growth to improve the lives of its members. It’s lifeblood is conflict. Conflict with targets. It actually thinks of the world outside itself as targets.

It explains a lot:

Principles and Foundations of Acorn –

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Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 5:01 am in ACORN | 212279 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2009/09/14/acorns-lifeblood/ACORN%27s+Lifeblood+2009-09-14+12%3A01%3A42Mike+Flynn

ACORN Video: Prostitution Scandal in New York, NY

This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen.
-Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer, ACORN

So, we headed up to New York…
                            &nbsp

Alinsky Rule #10, “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.”

Bring it on. (more…)

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Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 12:35 am in ACORN, Exclusives, Featured Story, News | 19101,016 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/14/acorn-video-prostitution-scandal-in-new-york-ny/ACORN+Video%3A+Prostitution+Scandal+in+New+York%2C+NY2009-09-14+07%3A35%3A06James+O%26%2339%3BKeefe

ACORN Video: Prostitution Scandal in Washington, DC

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Listen to the full unedited audio here:

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Full transcript follows:

Washington, DC ACORN Video: Child Prostitution Investigation transcript –

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Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 12:11 am in ACORN, Exclusives, News | 1982116 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/14/acorn-video-prostitution-scandal-in-washington-dc/ACORN+Video%3A+Prostitution+Scandal+in+Washington%2C+DC2009-09-14+07%3A11%3A04James+O%26%2339%3BKeefe

On Why I Don’t Return Phone Calls from an Intrepid CNN Producer

As read on “The Rush Limbaugh Show”:

So far CNN has only reported on the breaking story on blatant ACORN CORRUPTION from angles that attempt to extricate the government funded “community organizing”  enterprise from the extreme crime we caught on videotape.

First CNN pushed the false ACORN line that “[t]his film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed.”

To set that record straight please check the Washington D.C. tape we dropped today at BigGovernment.com, which is also being aired on your cable news competitor with curiously higher ratings.

Now that ACORN lied to you, Jonathan Klein, what are you going to do?

Here’s what I have noticed from your coverage: You brought in the damage control crowd to FRAME the story. Before even airing our damning Baltimore video. You know your audience would turn on ACORN if you showed them the evidence. So instead you put your competitors in journalism in the crosshairs instead of airing a blockbuster report making massive waves elsewhere.

You even trotted out shameless Clinton era apologist Joe Conason to challenge the ETHICS of our expose. Unreal.

What about the ethics of those at ACORN caught on tape trying to help create a brothel featuring illegal immigrant age range 13-15 from El Salvador? (more…)

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Posted Sep 11th 2009 at 11:25 am in ACORN, Exclusives, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 1018599 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/11/on-why-i-dont-return-phone-calls-from-an-intrepid-cnn-producer/On+Why+I+Don%27t+Return+Phone+Calls+from+an+Intrepid+CNN+Producer+2009-09-11+18%3A25%3A14James+O%26%2339%3BKeefe

Washington, DC ACORN Video: Child Prostitution Investigation

And then, we drove down to DC…

~~

Read the full transcript and listen to the audio here.

(more…)

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Tags: abortion, ACORN, ACORN DC, acorn prostitute, acorn prostitute video
Posted Sep 11th 2009 at 7:08 am in ACORN, Exclusives, News | 970511 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/11/washington-dc-acorn-video-child-prostitution-investigation/Washington%2C+DC+ACORN+Video%3A+Child+Prostitution+Investigation2009-09-11+14%3A08%3A26James+O%26%2339%3BKeefe

In the Bowels of Baltimore’s ACORN

The Baltimore adventure with ACORN started off as a silly idea, both absurd and incredible by all accounts. But it stuck, and quickly escalated into a full blown operation with scripts, method acting, undercover gear, scandalous outfits, fast minds, good hearts, plenty of humor and healthy homemade blueberry muffins.

When I pitched the “prostitute goes into ACORN seeking housing” idea to James O’Keefe at the beginning of the summer, I had absolutely no idea how he would respond. He came back with, “Would you be willing to portray the prostitute?  And if so, when can you do this?”

Needless to say, the project had officially begun.

An idea conceived on an afternoon jog would soon birth material evidence.

Most people come up with ridiculous ideas, things that graze against societal norms. However, not all are capable of action because not all are comfortable with action. Many lack the desire for truth and justice, most don’t even know to want it.  But on occasion, the previous join forces. The right people with the appropriate calling unite against a common enemy, then the sky is the limit and hell is the target. There will be no compromises, only adaptation and infiltration. (more…)

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Posted Sep 10th 2009 at 9:00 pm in ACORN, Exclusives | 302594 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/hgiles/2009/09/10/in-the-bowels-of-baltimores-acorn/In+the+Bowels+of+Baltimore%E2%80%99s+ACORN2009-09-11+04%3A00%3A48Hannah+Giles

Complete ACORN Baltimore Child Prostitution Investigation Transcript

Video footage here.
Complete audio here.

Complete ACORN Baltimore Prostitution Investigation Transcript –

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Posted Sep 10th 2009 at 6:49 am in ACORN, Exclusives | 390446 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/10/complete-acorn-baltimore-prostitution-investigation-transcript/Complete+ACORN+Baltimore+Child+Prostitution+Investigation+Transcript2009-09-10+13%3A49%3A43James+O%26%2339%3BKeefe

Chaos for Glory: My Time With ACORN

A famous community organizer once said, “The only way to upset the power structure in your communities is to goad them, confuse them, irritate them and, most of all, make them live by their own rules.  If you make them live by their own rules, you destroy them.” Impossible demands can irritate modern leftists in ways nothing else can, whether it’s by banning Lucky Charms cereal because it’s racist against Irish people, calling Planned Parenthood saying you want to donate money for black abortions in the name of Margaret Sanger, or making Sen. Snowe sign an oversized bailout check for a billion dollars to Amtrak, in her own office.

~

The scenario we posed the ACORN Housing employees in Baltimore is due to the application of similar power tactics. We gave ACORN a taste of its own medicine.  ACORN was alleged to be thug-like, criminal, and nefarious.  This criminal behavior was evidenced by a video of Baltimore ACORN community organizers breaking the locks on foreclosed homes.  Instead of railing against their radicalism, it is best to bring out this type of radicalism. Hannah Giles and I took advantage of ACORN’s regard for thug criminality by posing the most ridiculous criminal scenario we could think of and seeing if they would comply–which they did without hesitation.

Additionally, instead of focusing on foreclosure itself, which has become seemingly as politicized as abortion, we focused on crimes more difficult for the left to defend: trafficking of young helpless girls and tax evasion. The first group represents the severely disadvantaged, the second a threat to the distribution of wealth. (more…)

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Posted Sep 10th 2009 at 6:10 am in ACORN, Exclusives, Featured Story, News, Politics | 2741,725 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/10/chaos-for-glory/Chaos+for+Glory%3A+My+Time+With+ACORN2009-09-10+13%3A10%3A12James+O%26%2339%3BKeefe