Media Research Center President and NewsBusters Publisher Brent Bozell appeared on this morning's edition of "Fox & Friends" to discuss how the mainstream media is downplaying or ignoring ACORN's history of legal trouble over voter fraud, all while casting the liberal community organizer as the victim of conservatives and Republicans.
Fox News anchor Steve Doocy had Mr. Bozell explain the inaccuracies in a September 23 USA Today article.
You can watch the video by clicking the play button in the embed at the right. A transcript appears below the page break:
Story Continues Below Ad ↓STEVE DOOCY, "Fox & Friends" co-host: First up, USA Today writes,"ACORN is a target of conservatives because of its ties to Democrats." Is that right?
BRENT BOZELL, MRC President: It was not a target of conservatives because of its ties to Democrats, it was an organization that conservatives were maintaining for years was actively involved in electoral politics, which is against the law when you're using taxpayer money. It's a huge difference. No, it's not right.
DOOCY: What about the headline, er, rather the passage from USA Today, "attacks increased after ACORN's aggressive voter registration and the get-out-the-vote [effort]."
BOZELL: Once again, ACORN's the victim. Those awful conservatives, they're the aggressors. Why, because evidence piled up and piled up and piled up that ACORN was involved in illegal electoral activity. So it's not that attacks increased, it's that the evidence increased of their illegal activity.
[...]
DOOCY: [O]ne other passage, ACORN videos, rather, the "videos showing ACORN workers giving advice... are raising questions about its tactics and finances and whether it can survive." Hmmm?
BOZELL, chuckling: Yeah. Tactics and finances. This was the advice given on how to set up a whorehouse. How not to pay your taxes. How to break laws. That should have been part of the narrative, but it wasn't.
DOOCY: Hey, is USA Today a liberal outfit?
BOZELL: You know, they're one of the better ones. That's the amazing thing. Yes, of course they are. But USA Today is a newspaper that sometimes does cover both sides of the story, but this really is a microcosm. That one paragraph really shows you the media at their present worst, and it explains why everyone is stopping reading newspapers, why they're not watching these network shows anymore. They're had it with this.
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Voter fraud
September 30, 2009 - 10:01 ET by KC MulvilleI'd read about ACORN's suspicious voter registrations in bits and pieces throughout the campaign. But almost all of it was reported as mere allegations and unprovable accusations. I vaguely remember some articles that proclaimed how useful ACORN had been in Obama's registration drives during the primaries.
The investigations done by the undercover kids has, to a small degree, deflected the greater danger. Yeah, we're all amazed at the shameless videos, but I don't want to be distracted by them.
The real problem with ACORN is that it's a political organization masquerading as a social service agency. It's a Democrat vote machine. Now, there's nothing wrong with organizing politically to get votes, but let's not obscure the line between social service and political vote gathering. They're getting how many million dollars in public support? Through three-card monte accounting, they're using public funds to get Democrats elected. That's corruption, plain and simple.
KC......DING-DING-DING....
September 30, 2009 - 10:08 ET by Timothy HDING-DING-DING! We have a winner. Now, I am not opposed to getting Al Capone on tax evasion. But I also wouldn't want to put all of my eggs into one basket. While it's all well and good that these tapes came out, and I do hope that these tapes become ACORN's "tax evasion", I don't want everything focused there, thereby letting ACORN get away with all of the other things they have corrupted, especially if the tapes just fade out of public minds.
Great point, KC!
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe. - Albert Einstein
ACORN Prosecutions
September 30, 2009 - 10:34 ET by slickwillie2001Much more going on with ACORN that will not be widely reported, in Las Vegas and upstate New York:
Massive Voter Fraud in NY Linked to ACORN: http://biggovernment.com
"Dozens of forged and fraudulent absentee ballots from people registered to vote on the Working Families Party line were filed in the Sept. 15 primary elections in Troy."
Former ACORN Worker Details Blackjack Voter Registration Bonuses: http://www.latimes.com
"In the summer of 2008, with presidential contenders battling fiercely over the swing state of Nevada, Christopher Edwards was racing to register voters. As the field director of ACORN's Las Vegas office, he brainstormed a way to motivate meagerly paid canvassers: If they turned in 21 or more registration cards in a day, they were each given a $5 bonus.
But Edwards' 'blackjack bonuses,' which he bragged about to other ACORN offices, broke the law, state prosecutors say."
Crime thru the MSM's 'GOP lens'
September 30, 2009 - 10:51 ET by Gary HallScandals, corruption, and fraud on the Democrat side seem only to exist thru the lens of the GOP - not via what in the past was understood to be the investigative media.
"Good night, and good luck."
(;~/ gary