ACORN Video Sting a Lesson in New Journalism

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 24, 2009 2:50 PM CDT

(Newser) – Andrew Breitbart may have an ideological ax to grind, but so what? The undercover ACORN videos he's posted illustrate a significant strength of 21st-century American journalism, writes Jack Shafer: "It will accept contributions from everybody from amateurs to entertainers (I'm looking at you, Jon Stewart) to gadflies to billionaires to activists to students to genocidal tyrants." Breitbart's right-wing slant doesn't taint the work.

"Viewing the world through an ideological lens can sometimes help a journalist to discover a story," Shafer writes for Slate. And don't believe the specious argument that the videos aren't a legitimate story. They smack of Borat and are "kind of a mess," but they've resulted in deserved national scrutiny of ACORN. Breitbart, a Matt Drudge associate, has similarly embarrassed the NEA of late. "Give the man two cheers. If he keeps up the good work, toss him a third."

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A Baltimore ACORN worker in one of the hidden-camera videos. (AP Photo/Biggovernment.com)

One of the hidden-camera videos, this one in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Biggovernment.com)

Andrew Breitbart. (Flickr)

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Among the many glorious things about American journalism is that no credentialing organization or regulatory body stands between an individual who wants to break a story and his public reporting of it. - Jack Shafer, Slate

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