The top media fraud of 2009

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The breathless reporting of this story is a staple of every conservative media outlet in America. Faux News dedicates half of its broadcast day to pushing this story (only a slight exaggeration). Republican members of Congress repeat what they hear from the right-wing noise machine matter-of-factly in floor speeches in Congress and in comments to the media.

So much hype and hysteria was generated by this story that even supposedly credible news sources like the New York Times and Washington Post felt compelled to report on it — only to simply report what the right-wing noise machine was reporting without any independent verification or investigative journalism. Such is the sorry state of our news media today.

This story is a classic example of the old Mark Twain adage: "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."

What is the top media fraud of 2009? ACORN.

According to a new report issued this week by the Congressional Research Service Report Finds No Recent Funding Violations By ACORN:

ACORN has been investigated 46 times by federal, state, and local agencies as of October 2009, and 11 of those probes are still pending, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service released [Tuesday]. But the report finds no cases in which ACORN violated the terms of federal funding in the last five years.

The report, requested by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), also found no instances of voters who were allegedly registered improperly by ACORN attempting to vote at the polls.

The Treasury Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the California Justice Department are among the agencies that still have open investigations of ACORN.

And a legal analysis by CRS researchers found that legislation barring funding to ACORN (already halted by a judge) may be unconstitutional [a bill of attainder].

The full report is below.

Congressional Research Service Report On Acorn (Scribd)

An internal investigation commissioned by ACORN and conducted by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger earlier this month also found no illegality, but recommended improvements to management. ACORN Report Finds No Illegal Conduct:

ACORN employees caught in those undercover videos advising a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute on how to break the law acted unprofessionally and inappropriately, but did nothing illegal, a report commissioned by ACORN and conducted by an independent investigator has found.

The report, by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, recommends nine steps for ACORN to take in order to regain public trust in the wake of the scandal, including that it return to its "core competency – community organizing and citizen engagement empowerment, with related services."

On the key question of potential illegal conduct, it finds:

While some of the advice and counsel given by ACORN employees and volunteers was clearly inappropriate and unprofessional, we did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff; in fact, there is no evidence that action, illegal or otherwise, was taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers.

[Note: the employees in question were fired.]

Harshbarger also notes that the videos were sometimes less than perfect representations of the events they depict. He writes:

The videos that have been released appear to have been edited, in some cases substantially, including the insertion of a substitute voiceover for significant portions of Mr. O'Keefe's and Ms. Giles's comments, which makes it difficult to determine the questions to which ACORN employees are responding. A comparison of the publicly available transcripts to the released videos confirms that large portions of the original video have been omitted from the released versions.

In the wake of the scandal, Congress voted to cut off all federal funds from ACORN. In response, the group sued the U.S. government, arguing that the measure is a bill of attainder, and therefore unconstitutional.

You can read the full report here (pdf).

In fact, U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon has already ruled in favor of a preliminary injunction against the Congressional resolution that barred ACORN or its affiliates from receiving federal funds. Judge rules against House ban of ACORN grants

The court ruled that the resolution amounted to a “bill of attainder,” a legislative determination of guilt without trial, because it specifically punishes one group.

* * *

In the opinion, Judge Nina Gershon wrote of ACORN, “They have been singled out by Congress for punishment that directly and immediately affects their ability to continue to obtain federal funding, in the absence of any judicial, or even administrative, process adjudicating guilt.”

The U. S. Justice Department has appealed the decision in support of the Congressional resolution (one of its perfunctory functions). Justice Department Defends ACORN Funding Ban

ACORN has also sued the filmmakers and their sponsors. ACORN files suit against filmmakers:

ACORN filed suit in Maryland against conservative filmmakers James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles and conservative Web site Breitbart.com for secretly taping the organization’s employees at its Baltimore office.

In the complaint, ACORN alleges that the filmmakers entered into the organization’s offices in July with a “hidden camera and microphone” and taped employees Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams. Both employees are listed as plaintiffs on the complaint, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.

The crux of the lawsuit centers around a Maryland law which makes it illegal to tape someone without their consent – ACORN is alleging O’Keefe and Giles did so. ACORN is asking for $500,000 in damages to be awarded to each of the employees filmed by O'Keefe and Giles, and ACORN itself wants $1 million in damages.

Breitbart.com, one of the suit’s defendants, is run by conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, whose Web site BigGovernment.comfirst posted most of O’Keefe and Giles’ videos. Breitbart has appeared on television with the filmmaking duo, and has a content-sharing relationship with the Drudge Report.

ACORN had also considered naming Faux News as a defendant. ACORN mulls suit against Fox News

The first story here is how the right-wing noise machine created a narrative in pursuit of a political agenda and repeated it ad naseum in the right-wing echo chamber until the lazy media villagers and Beltway bloviators in the mainstream media picked up the story and started reporting the narrative because of the "buzz" in the right-wing noise machine. This is what passes for "newsworthy" in today's sorry news media. An organization was mugged and defamed by the lazy media villagers and Beltway bloviators, without any recourse. (Suing the media for defamation is difficult and costly, beyond the means of ACORN).

The second story here is how the mainstream media perpetuates the myth of wide-spread "voter fraud" – a myth that has been part of Republican election strategy for decades. It is designed to undermine the legitimacy of a Democrat being elected president. John Fund is one of the most prolific prevaricators of this myth. Recent polling among Republicans demonstrates how deep seated the myth is. Poll: Majority of Republicans Believe ACORN Stole the Presidential Election

The "voter fraud" myth is meant to distract media attention away from the reality of the Republican Party's other election strategy – voter suppression. I have done voter protection work for many years, and I have seen every dirty trick in the book. One of the GOP's voter suppression experts is Nathan Sproul, who lives and works right here in Arizona. Sproul was investigated for voter suppression in several states over the past decade, but the Bush Injustice Department never prosecuted. (He is now a "political consultant"). As the U.S. Attorney scandal revealed, the Bush Injustice Department was focused on political prosecutions of "voter fraud" claims against ACORN. There was never a successful conviction of which I am aware. Several U.S. Attorneys lost their job as a result.

The only conviction for "voter fraud" in Arizona in decades occurred this past year – a "snowbird" couple from Kansas living in Green Valley. GV couple plead guilty in vote-fraud case They had no connection to ACORN. They are Republicans (not that it matters).

Finally, ACORN itself is the victim of "voter registration fraud." Because ACORN pays employees by the number of voter registrations they obtain, this encourages some unscrupulous employees to submit fraudulent voter registrations to earn more pay. ACORN audits voter registrations and self-reports any fraudulent voter registrations, as it is required to do by law, to local voter registration officials. The offending employees are terminated. ACORN could pursue these employees for attempting to defraud the organization, but I do not know whether ACORN does. Local voter registration officials could also pursue these employees, but likely do not do so because of the expense of prosecution. Such prosecutions are extremely rare.

I suspect the open investigations into ACORN are of the "voter registration fraud" variety.