Ultimately, here is the story as told by Giles and O'Keefe. After these initial videos came out, ACORN and some of its allies, mainly Media Matters, claimed that when they came to the Philadelphia office they were immediately thrown out. This was something said by CEO Bertha Lewis and Carol Hemingway, head of the Pennsyvlania ACORN. They said this on news outlets like CNN and CSPAN and in the local Philadelphia newspaper. OKeefe says the full video lasted about 32 minutes and his battery even ran out towards the end. This video is edited and about 9 minutes though O'Keefe says he plans on releasing the full and unedited video. What's also interesting about this video is that the interaction is mostly with Catherine Conway-Russell, the office manager at this ACORN location. She seems to have a lot of knowledge of tax laws for an office manager. Meanwhile, ACORN spokesperson, Scott Levenson, released this statement.
This is another example of Fox Entertainment treating concocted video as if it's actually news, The police report we filed contemporaneously proves our clear understanding of this scam that was being portrayed.
Finally, Andrew Breitbart also stated that there are more videos and they will be released though he was coy about time and place.
UPDATE: The video is also now posted on Big Government. Also, Media Matters, which was mentioned by name by O'Keefe, has responded on their site by characterizing the video as "heavily edited".
I've been following this story for a while, but I still don't understand how an organization like ACORN came into existence. If an organization is this corrupt at the bottom, how bad is the top?
ReplyDeleteThis just begs the question of whether or not ACORN has perverted the political process in this country to the extent that national elections have been thrown to the left by ACORN's fraud. There have been multiple razor thin margins in several elections in the past few years. How many outcomes were changed by ACORN if some of the accusations are true?
As Fox News continues to be marginalized by the White House and the Popular Rule in the interest of promoting state-run media as well other more favorable outlets, a great disservice is being done to the institution that is the Press. Our Founding Fathers respected this institution enough to include the RIGHT that protects it in the same Amendment as religion. They fully understood the importance of a free press and its ability to prevent tyranny from ever coming to our shores.
ReplyDeleteI am not saying that the work of Giles and O’Keefe should be thought of as transcendent or even patriotic, but I am absolutely stating that they should be commended for their efforts in every way imaginable. If their work inspired one person to engage in similar behavior to expose corruption, fraud, or mismanagement of government resources – at either end of the political or ideological spectrum – then they have done this country and the institution of the press a great service and we owe them our thanks.
http://republicanredefined.com/2009/10/21/war-popular-rule-wages/
ACORN was started about 4 decades ago in Arkansas as they organized against an issue, I think it was something related to low income housing. They were successful and expanded as the money rolled following this successful campaign.
ReplyDeleteThe corruption is absolutely at the top not at the bottom. Most of the workers are frankly taken advantage of. They work for very little money, ironically enough they aren't allowed to unionize, and they are thrown into rough neighborhoods.
I don't know how the process has been perverted. ACORN is very effective at campaign and voter registration is legendary. They are very tactical about how they do it and so it's usually done for candidates they support. Those are mostly dems but ACORN wants power and will get into bed with anyone that can serve that purpose, a la Michael Bloomberg.
I am not sure that the WH has marginalized Fox News. I know they are trying but I don't think they've been successful at all. I think it's been mostly counter productive.
ReplyDelete