ACORN Gone Wild
September 17th, 2009 by Steven GardnerIf you haven’t seen the videos, I offer you this embedded link to The Daily Show as a way of introducing the subject. WARNING: There is language on this video you might consider offensive.
For ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, this is beyond bad. The left-leaning organization, which has been targeted by the right for a long time, is shown helping people learn legal magic to engage in highly illegal and immoral behavior.
More videos are coming out on biggovernment.com, the organization that posed a girl as a hooker and a guy as a law student planning to use her winnings to pay for his eventual congressional campaign. They used hidden cameras and recorders to tape the encounters, which could get them in some trouble. But I wouldn’t think that would be the problem for them that their tapes have made for ACORN.
Investigations are beginning as a result of the videos, which I hope means the unedited tapes will be revealed. I can’t see how broader context is going to save these people, but at least we’d be more certain. Biggovernment says there are more tapes, but so far I’ve found the first one to be the most damning, unless that lady in San Bernardino really did kill her husband.
As for the tactics used to get this information, I know it’s something we wouldn’t do, but I don’t necessarily say that as a criticism of the method. Television journalists do this all the time. One network was criticized for dressing someone as coming from a Middle-Eastern country and taking a hidden camera to a NASCAR race. The suspicion was the network was looking for people to act racist, or something. NBC catches sex predators. Other organizations use hidden cameras to show abuses at animal facilities. Police do it. I’ve thought of doing something similar, like sending fake resumes to see if I could get a job interview for something I’m absurdly unqualified for.
Of course, some of you might argue that’s how I got this job.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
September 17th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Good job, Steven!
The silence from the White House is deafening.
Sharon O’Hara