ACORN Takedown Campaign Overblown, Misguided

The actions of a half-dozen employees doesn't represent the huge organization

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 18, 2009 11:50 AM CDT

(Newser) – The conservative campaign against ACORN—which has now, thanks to a few video “sting” operations, lost its federal funding—is built on an outrageous set of exaggerations and falsehoods, writes Joe Conason for Salon. “No doubt it was fun to dupe a few morons into providing tax advice to a ‘pimp and ho,’ but what ACORN actually does, every day, is help struggling families.”

Claims that ACORN perpetrated massive voter fraud are likewise ridiculous. Only a handful of workers falsified registrations—in 2004, for example, six workers faked fewer than 24 registrations, out of more than a million registered that cycle. Judging the whole organization on the actions of a few workers is like condemning the Republican Party for the actions of, say, prostitute clients David Vitter and Ken Calvert. “Nobody is cutting off their federal funding,” Conason observes.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Estela Jimenz, right, and other supporters of Acorn, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, protest outside a home under foreclosure in South San Francisco, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Steve Kest, executive director of ACORN, right, and ACORN member Hugh Alleyne listen to a question during a news conference in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

An investigator enters the ACORN office in Las Vegas, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

Like so many conservative attacks, the crusade against ACORN has been highly exaggerated and even falsified to create a demonic image that bears little resemblance to the real organization. - Joe Conason

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

OTHER STORIES ON OUR RADAR

Getty Images

White Grandfather Cuffed for Walking With Black Granddaughter (NewsOne)

Man in Mugshot Explains Why He Has Half a Head (HuffPost)

These Exes Were Spotted Making Out … and That's a Bad Thing (Bleacher Report)

Help! I'm Having an Incestuous Relationship With My Twin (Slate)

Proof that Twitter Users are Sexier Than Facebook Users? (GeekSugar)

Partner Links

A snapshot of the day's best news stories.

View Larger Grid

All Today Yesterday Pick a Date

COMMENTS

Read the comment policy

Showing 3 of 69 comments

Speedbump2001

Sep 22, 2009 11:11 PM CDT

I think the article's author is ignoring all of the other states that have voter fraud investigations going on. It's so interesting how convenient it is to only display the facts that are relevant to the bias. Oh, and demonizing an organization....the demonizing ploy is right out of the Democrat's playbook.

Guest

Sep 20, 2009 7:54 AM CDT

Don't forget Bill Clinton started it. You libs are big hypocrites. I'm from louisiana and I don't approve of what vitter did, but I learned a long time ago that libs will vote for anything, so we have to take what we can get.

Guest

Sep 20, 2009 7:43 AM CDT

Acorn had it coming, pure and simple....Sorry guys, it happens....

What's Popular Now on Facebook

Guy Buys $123 Safe on eBay, Finds Major Cash Inside

Study Finds Arsenic in Baby Formula, Cereal Bars

Salon (Source Grid »)

Politics

prostitution • voter fraud • DC Madam • video • David Vitter • hidden camera • activists • Acorn • Ken Calvert

More Newser Stories

ACORN Sting Raises Media Ethics Questions

Hidden video subterfuge made news, but where was the reality check?

(NEWSER) - “You've got to give James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles credit for abundant chutzpah and guile,” writes James Rainey in the Los Angeles Times. The pair’s hidden camera ACORN takedown “likely will do for guerrilla video what Ashton Kutcher did for Twitter—popularize and expand the form.” But Giles and O’Keefe play by their own rules, he notes, leaving the media fumbling to respond to these newsworthy, but also bizarre and Comedy Central-worthy stings. More»

ACORN Chief Blames Everyone But ACORN

Bertha Lewis not contrite enough for Dana Milbank

(NEWSER) - ACORN chief Bertha Lewis wasn’t in the mood to apologize at the National Press Club yesterday. For anything. Not for the internal ACORN review showing that $5 million had been embezzled from the group, rather than the previously alleged $1 million (“This is speculation, completely false”), not the voter registrations allegedly filled out for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (“an utter fabrication”), and certainly not for the “highly edited” pimp and prostitute tapes. More»

ACORN Sting Duo Says Nobody Put Them Up to It

Call themselves 'concerned citizens'

(NEWSER) - James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles say there's no conservative conspiracy behind their decision to dress up as a pimp and prostitute and walk into ACORN offices with a hidden camera. They’re just a pair of concerned citizens, who’ve managed to wound the mighty activist group on a budget of just $1,300, they tell the Washington Post. But they do have major conservative connections. Giles’ father runs the Clash Church in Miami, and the pair were advised by columnist Andrew Breitbart. More»

US Census Bureau Axes Community Group ACORN

Group called 'distraction' after sting catches employees advising prostitute

(NEWSER) - The US Census Bureau will not allow community-organizing group ACORN to participate in next year’s national census, the Wall Street Journal reports tonight. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is a “distraction,” Census director Robert Groves writes, after members of its Baltimore and Washington offices were caught on hidden cameras offering tax advice to people posing as pimps and prostitutes. More»

'DC Madam' Guilty, Guilty, Guilty

Palfrey faces 55 years on racketeering, money-laundering convictions

(NEWSER) - Rejecting the defense that she didn't know her escorts were having sex with clients, a federal jury convicted the "DC Madam," who, WTOP–FM reports, met today's verdict with a sigh. Deborah Jeane Palfrey, whose prostitution-ring bust implicated Washington highbrows, including a Louisiana senator, faces up to 55 years on racketeering and money-laundering charges at her sentencing in July. More»

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website

ACORN Takedown Campaign Overblown, Misguided