CNN Omits ACORN's Role in Organizing Foreclosure Protest

On Friday’s Newsroom program, CNN anchor Heidi Collins failed to mention ACORN’s role in sponsoring a rally against foreclosures in an Oakland, California neighborhood. During her brief, video clips from the protest clearly showed the presence of the group’s signs, name, and logo.

Collins characterized the rally as “[a]nger over the foreclosure crisis pouring out into the streets of Oakland, California -- protesters had a rally in a neighborhood where last month, more than 165 people lost their homes, or now face the possibility of foreclosure. They’re vowing to stop the banks from taking control of the properties.”

Local media in the San Francisco Bay area did a better job of covering the protest. A news brief in the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday mentioned ACORN by name: “Community group ACORN...is launching a campaign to encourage families in foreclosure to refuse to leave their homes. The group staged a rally...at the East Oakland home of Rosa Gonzalez, who has been foreclosed upon but not evicted. ACORN held similar events at foreclosed homes in Los Angeles, New York, Tucson, Baltimore, Orlando and Houston. About 100 ACORN members and local residents listened to speeches urging a moratorium on foreclosures.”

This isn’t the first time CNN has omitted the liberal group’s name from a news brief about them. In October 2008, anchor Kiran Chetry referred to ACORN as merely a “non-profit group” that was “disputing claims it committed voter registration fraud,” after authorities in Nevada conducted a raid on their headquarters in Las Vegas.

The full transcript of the brief, which aired 15 minutes into the 10 am Eastern hour of CNN's Newsroom program:

(CNN CAPTION: “Rally Cry in a Foreclosure Hotspot”)

(CROWD CHANTING AND CHEERING)

HEIDI COLLINS: Anger over the foreclosure crisis pouring out into the streets of Oakland, California -- protesters had a rally in a neighborhood where last month, more than 165 people lost their homes, or now face the possibility of foreclosure. They’re vowing to stop the banks from taking control of the properties.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: To get them to do something productive with the properties can change the quality of life in the neighborhood.

COLLINS: Many troubled homeowners refinanced their mortgages with an adjustable rate, and when the rates shot up, they couldn’t keep up with the payments.