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ACORN Sting Raises Media Ethics Questions

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

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 23, 2009 10:35 AM CDT

(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—... Read full story »

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'Serpent Pastor' Dies of Snake Bite

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Media • Politics

prostitution • video • sting operations • hidden camera • scandal • undercover video • Acorn • mainstream media • James O'Keefe • Hannah Giles

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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»

Stingers Release Philly ACORN Video

Says it proves ACORN lied about incident

(NEWSER) - The ACORN stingers have released another video, this time of their visit to the Philadelphia location—where, ACORN has until now insisted, they were kicked out. In the new, edited video, James O’Keefe says they weren’t kicked out, but instead sat for more than half an hour with an office employee, who gave them her business card and scheduled a future meeting. More»

ACORN Takedown Campaign Overblown, Misguided

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

(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.” 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»

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»

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ACORN Sting Raises Media Ethics Questions

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

prostitution • video • sting operations • hidden camera • scandal • undercover video • Acorn • mainstream media • James O'Keefe • Hannah Giles

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More Newser Stories

ACORN Sting Duo Says Nobody Put Them Up to It

Call themselves 'concerned citizens'

Stingers Release Philly ACORN Video

Says it proves ACORN lied about incident

ACORN Takedown Campaign Overblown, Misguided

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

US Census Bureau Axes Community Group ACORN

Group called 'distraction' after sting catches employees advising prostitute

ACORN Chief Blames Everyone But ACORN

Bertha Lewis not contrite enough for Dana Milbank

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