Why We’re Not Covering ACORN
September 18th, 2009 by Steven GardnerI blogged about the ACORN mess, but don’t expect to see much coverage from our reporters on the issue.
We’ve been getting calls the last two days from Glenn Beck watchers and others who feel compelled to ask us why we’re ducking this issue.
To be honest, I’d like nothing more than to spend all day calling contacts in Washington, D.C. about this. A fun day, for sure.
But we’re a local paper, and from what I can tell there is not a single local angle related to ACORN, except maybe how our members of Congress vote on defunding the organization. The closest ACORN office is in Burien. I’ll admit I haven’t looked very hard, but I have yet to find evidence of the organization’s presence here in Kitsap County.
If ACORN had any local presence at all, I promise I or someone else would have covered it. I would have enjoyed it.
Instead I’m writing about the annexation issue mentioned in another post, the latest on the Manette bridge and about a guy who really doesn’t want to sell his property so Olympic College can have a parking lot. Let’s not forget my posts here and the renewal of my snarkfest with Port Orchard.
Chris Henry is working on a Port Orchard mayor’s salary story, a local story about backyard fruit and earlier this week covered a Port of Manchester meeting in which the port decided not to impose a tax. Josh Farley is culling police reports. On Monday he found 14 publishable police reports to write. Brynn Grimley wrote about the death of Ed Sheldon, a stolen lawn mower, a new dock at Keyport and the Hansville planning process. Chris Dunagan covered a Puget Sound Partnership education program, state government reorganization and an upcoming story on Quilcene Bay restoration. Ed Friedrich has your Hood Canal bridge not working, a story about a local seeing the president for a Medal of Honor presentation, the backlog at the shipyard and the latest on ferries. Rachel Pritchett has stories about the local jobless rate and Swine Flu. Derek Sheppard is working weekends and handling our own video work.
So, if we cover ACORN as you’d like us to, what do you want us to give up? Consider that before you call us. And I can be reached directly at (360) 792-3343.
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September 18th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I’m happy with the level of publicity you are giving to acorn and Glenn Beck. Write on!
September 18th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
For ACoRN and Glenn Beck coverage, I have other alternatives. I prefer the Kitsap Sun to focus on local news. If there is a local angle to these stories, I do expect the Kitsap Sun to cover it. But if not, focus local!
My two cents. Should I expect change?
Regards,
Kathryn Simpson
September 19th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Kitsap Sun is our local newspaper for what affects our communities the most. If we want additional information we can purchase other news sources or read about the subject on the Internet.
I agree with Kathryn Simpson. If there is a local angle to these stories I expect the Kitsap Sun to cover it.
Thankyou Kitsap Sun for keeping our Kitsap County communities informed with what affects us the most!
September 19th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Uh huh. Sure. Now you’re a LOCAL paper, yet you have a dozen AP national news stories posted right now. If you are a LOCAL paper, why are they there? If George Bush said something stupid, you’d be right on it, but Obama calls someone an a-hole (which he did) and you’ve got cotton in your ears. Here’s a story of trmendous importance and you’re saying “la la la la I can’t hear you.” You want something to cut out: Police Blotter.
And you wonder why circulation keeps going down. Hypocrites.
September 19th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Yes, Marvin, we have an app on our Web site that rotates AP stories onto our site. Some of the stories that have rotated through have been about ACORN.
And in our print edition sometimes national and international stories gain higher prominence than local ones.
The downfall of a political organization that has little or no relation to anything happening here is not one of those times.
You misquoted Obama. He said “jacka**,” not “a-hole.” Bush called a reporter an a-hole once. For all I know he may have been right, but that was long before blogging.
Steven Gardner
Kitsap Sun reporter
September 19th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Welll…you could give up half of all the local sports coverage and not lose anything.
You did well, Steven, but I understand that local news has to be a priority.
“keeping our Kitsap County communities informed with what affects us the most!”
I hate to tell you this, but Acorn and the Acorn shame and crime against young girls and taxpayers, DOES/WILL affect us here in KC and throughout this nation. It already has.
Thanks Steven and hope we’ll get a local connection…
Sharon O’Hara
September 19th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Sigh. Guess we’re going to have to do it for you
ACORN Story Grows But Mainstream Media Refuse to Cover It
This story has everything you could ever want – corruption, sleazy actions at tax-funded organizations, firings, government ties, sex, hookers. It is a network news director’s dream. Imagine the ratings. But almost no one is covering it.
Bruce Springsteen once wrote: “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come).” I doubt he expected that story of love gone wrong would become ideal political commentary for the group known as ACORN.
The small scandal showing an embarrassing video of Baltimore ACORN staffers looking like they were giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel, is now national news. — This story has everything you could ever want – corruption, sleazy actions at tax-funded organizations, firings, government ties, sex, hookers. It is a network news director’s dream. Imagine the ratings!
Only almost no one is covering it.
This is the news media in the era of Van Jones and President Obama. The major outlets cover what they want and create the themes they want. When they find something inconvenient, they let it pass. They didn’t like the Van Jones story, so they ignored it. The network news media liked the financial entity known as Fannie Mae, so they ignored that scandalous organization for years. ACORN is getting the same treatment.
But it isn’t working any more. The ACORN fiasco has now impacted three offices – Baltimore, Washington and New York – with laugh-out-loud videos reminiscent of the hookers and pimps from the 1970s “Starsky and Hutch” show. Huggy Bear returns! Four employees have been fired, with more likely to come. And the controversy was so laughably bad that the Census Bureau cut off all ties to the group known formally as the “Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.” — They called it the “tipping point” to shed themselves of ACORN. More nuts for someone else, I guess.
And yet. And yet it’s still been ignored by the network news. Nothing on ABC, CBS or NBC. The only thing any one of the three broadcast networks has done appeared in a blog post by ABC’s Jake Tapper. It’s hardly worth noting except to show that the networks know about what’s going on. They just don’t care to report it. Only FOX News has bothered to report on the controversy.
The video scandal is only part of the fiasco that is this Saul Alinsky-esque community group. Just last week CNN reported that other ACORN employees were arrested in Florida. “Arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for 11 Florida voter registration workers who are suspected of submitting false information on hundreds of voter registration cards, according to court documents,” said CNN.
That’s typical. The Web site “Rotten ACORN” is devoted to election fraud complaints against the organization. The site’s map shows 14 different states where complaints have been filed. The last time any one of the broadcast networks talked about that was before the 2008 presidential election. That was NBC on Nov. 1. Nothing since.
Yes, the newspapers have taken a passing glance at the video story. The Post wrote about the firings in D.C. The New York Times ran a story by the Associated Press. Nothing more. I am underwhelmed. At least the Times covered it this time. With Jones, the Times waited until he had resigned to report he was under fire.
What’s worse with ACORN is that we’re paying for all this. At least in part. The Washington Examiner writes that they “found that ACORN has received at least $53 million in federal money since 1994.”
For its own part, ACORN naturally blamed someone else. In this case, FOX News, calling itself “their Willy Horton for 2009.” The ACORN state reads like a paranoid’s interpretation of the videos. Here’s Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer, for the group:
“The relentless attacks on ACORN’s members, its staff and the policies and positions we promote are unprecedented. An international entertainment conglomerate, disguising itself as a ‘news’ agency (FOX), has expended millions, if not tens of millions of dollars, in their attempt to destroy the largest community organization of Black, Latino, poor and working families in the country. It is not coincidence that the most recent attacks have been launched just when health care reform is gaining traction. It is clear they’ve had these tapes for months.”
Yeah, all that about under-aged prostitution, corruption and government connections isn’t news. People are just out to get ACORN. No wonder their name symbolizes a kind of nut. Too bad the rest of the media don’t want us to know that.
September 20th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Beautifully said, Marvin.
Funny how folks believe outrageous corruption from a top organization doesn’t filter down to the little guy in little communities…including Kitsap County.
I would be ashamed and embarrassed to be connected to such a dehumanizing organization.
I AM ashamed to share the same gender as the Acorn women employees offering corrupt and slave marketing assistance for the exploitation of little girls brought into this country for illegal sex activity.
The Acorn women offered assistance to people they believed needed Acorn help to organize in order to victimize little girls supposedly being brought here to become slaves for sex!
They didn’t care!! Those Acorn women didn’t care!
Acorn, a organization for the minority downtrodden? Clearly NOT!
Sharon O’Hara
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:24 am
So, if ACORN is discredited because of the scandalous actions of some of its members, is the GOP also discredited because of the scandalous actions of some of its members?
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Sharon,
Marvin didn’t put anything well, he plagiarized his entire post.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=%22ACORN+Story+Grows+But+Mainstream+Media+Refuse+to+Cover+It%22
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Elliot…It is my belief that the people greeting the public at the door of any organization reflects the attitude of that organization.
If a chain is only as good as its weakest link…and if we consider a business weakest link as the folks who have the first direct contact with the public . they certainly do reflect the business…or they wouldn’t be there. Any business can have a bad apple, but if management is on the ball, such a person doesn’t last long.
The Acorn shame would be understandable if it were confined to one office in one location. A poor manager could misjudge and hire the wrong people to represent the organization. That isn’t the case here. The filmed, documented Acorn shame was spread out, at least one was filmed in California. Each episode was filmed in a different location and different office manager and employees.
The rot, Elliott, had to come from the top…not a place I want my tax dollars going.
In my view, the employees slithered in the mud of corruption and human rights indifference.
The KS once had a receptionist/phone person who worked there a million years. She was a treat to speak with. She was helpful, pleasant, and showed pride in her work and helpfulness to the customer. She had an uplifting lilt to her voice…she was a direct positive reflection of the Kitsap Sun and its management. They may well have another person of the same caliber now…I don’t know.
Why mention the GOP?
Is Acorn Democratic? If so, why would tax payer dollars go to any single party organization?
If Acorn had a mission to help the minority and downtrodden and illegal procurement of little girls for sex purpose, Democrats must be hanging their heads in shame…
Sharon O’Hara
September 24th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Sharon,
I could make exactly the same point about the GOP – the scandals have been so sidespread geographically and at so many different levels, including the mayor of Spokane, two Speakers of the US House of Representatives, a US Representative from Florida, etc., that the inescapable conclusion must be, as you said, “the rot had to come from the top.”
I’m mentioning the GOP because 99% of the attacks on ACORN were originated from within the GOP, and I was taking a “let those without sin cast the first stone” approach.
September 24th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Make that “widespread”, not “sidespread”.
September 24th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Elliot, As I understand it, Acorn is an ORGANIZATION supported in part, by taxpayer dollars, headed by a CEO.
You are rebutting by speaking of Republican INDIVIDUALS in a job by way of an election. INDIVIDUALS, Elliot, committing INDIVIDUAL crimes, if that is what they did.
I am not a registered Republican, nor a Democrat. I am an independent voter and outraged woman who takes exception to the trafficking of children for immoral purposes by anyone much less a tax supported organization who is supposed to be PROTECTING and helping minorities and, I thought that included CHILDREN!
Acorn seems only outraged by the public DISCOVERY of the crimes. Acorns lawsuit against the filmmakers for showing the PROOF of the ROT is incomprehensible.
So is your defense. I’ve read your posts, Elliot, that make your defense of the Acorn shame and crime, surprising. Human beings, decent human beings, do not traffic or assist in the trafficking of children for immoral purposes.
Stone throwing doesn’t have a place in this crime against children.
Sharon O’Hara
September 25th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Sharon,
I’m not defending ACORN, or the individuals.
I’m pointing out that the actions of some ACORN workers should have the SAME level of impact on ACORN as a whole as the actions of some REPUBLICAN workers have on the REPUBLICAN party as a whole.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Elliott…
“should have the SAME level of impact on ACORN as a whole as the actions of some REPUBLICAN workers have on the REPUBLICAN party as a whole”
It does! It really does. Because there are commenter’s like yourself who take pretty much every opportunity to point out misbehavior by Conservatives or Republicans and tie it back to the party as a whole. I don’t mean that in a snarky way, it’s just the way it is. When the Democrats screw up, I try to point it out. ACORN is screwing up and Sharon is pointing it out.
ACORN has had a pretty easy and long ride of being taken at face value by the American public. They have lost that untarnished perception now and can’t ever get it back. Because of this scandal there will be a hesitation or an outright reluctance in any new people who think they might want to get involved with the group to actually do so.
Any organization that has experienced some tarnish by certain individuals in their organization being publically ousted for their misbehavior has the same problem. You only mention the Republicans, but the same could be said for the Democrats as well. Shady opportunists are shady opportunists and when given the opportunity within ANY organization they WILL take advantage.
The defining moment of impact for the organization itself is how it deals with the misbehavior and what it does to make sure that its own philosophy and policies don’t continue to provide such a lush breeding ground for continued misbehavior. People will be watching and judging how ACORN takes its lumps and how it changes to move forward.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
My mother died unexpectedly on June 2, 1999 of a heart attack on the way home from cataract surgery. She had both a heart condition and diabetes, which often accelerates the growth of cataracts. After my father died in 1990, my mother had established a trust for our family farm and I was designated as the executrix. However, two days after she died we discovered that she had entered into a loan for nearly $80,000. She had signed the paperwork a week before she died, when she could barely see what she was signing.
Our lawyers said that it the note was legal, but hardly ethical and moral. Long before Congress would look at the issue of predatory subprime lenders, those who prey on vulnerable adults, we experienced it first hand. In other to create the loan, the lenders had gotten a quick claim deed that pulled the farm out of the trust. I contacted everyone, who was anyone – local congress men and women, state legislators, the attorney general, et al. No one could or would help us with this matter. We were stuck with the debt and to make tragic matters worse, there was no evidence that she had obtained any money from the loan.
Representatives of ACORN were the only people who helped me. They were the only people back in 1999, as far as my research showed, who were looking at the problem of the subprime mortgage mess and how it targeted widows, women of color and disabled adults. I spoke to ACORN reps frequently.
As far as a local angle goes, when Beneficial Financial attempted to convince us that they could offer us a better deal on our home in Washington State, I had to laugh. We owed no more than $30,000 or so and had just three years to go on the note, if I remember correctly. They were going to offer us this amazing deal, they said. They would give us a loan for $150,000 for 30 years. The hilarious thing was that we would get all of $3,000 back. The loan they were designing would have eaten our entire equity.
I laughed and faxed the paperwork from Beneficial immediately to ACORN. They were documenting these types of loans.
When I went to Washington D.C. two years ago, I joined in a rally of ACORN folks on the mall. I even got a hat with the logo. They would call me periodically for get the vote out pushes.
When I watched those videos, I had to laugh at the absurdity of them. A Georgetown law student is pimping his girlfriend to cover his future political campaigns? Seriously? That is the best story they could come up with? Would anyone really believe that story? My thought is “No.”
I think they hired actors to pay these roles. I don’t believe for a minute that these were real ACORN reps. If they were, they are too stupid for words. Typically people in the position of serving the population ACORN serves would be very street savvy. These women acted like imbeciles.
I don’t believe the videos. I think ACORN did an amazing get the vote out push and it’s being blamed for Obama’s election. That’s what I think.
Unfortunately, the amazing work that the organization has done for so long is being overshadowed by this deceptive, supposed “detective” work. Don’t believe it?
Did you see the silly coat the future politican and Georgetown law student was wearing? What of the girlfriend’s outfit? It was as if they were dressed for Halloween and not very convincingly at that.
I think they set up stages, hired actors and filmed the whole thing.
September 26th, 2009 at 10:24 am
If they staged the WHOLE thing and hired ALL actors, then why has ACORN openly admited that it fired several of its own staff members (Baltimore and San Diego) who appeared in the video?
September 26th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I’m sorry, Mary…you and your family had a tough time…
‘… I don’t believe for a minute that these were real ACORN reps. If they were, they are too stupid for words. Typically people in the position of serving the population ACORN serves would be very street savvy. …”
Street savvy is exactly what I thought the employees had…so ‘street savvy’ they were beyond the realm of decency.
“Did you see the silly coat the future politican and Georgetown law student was wearing? What of the girlfriend’s outfit? It was as if they were dressed for Halloween and not very convincingly at that…”
The Acorn employees were convinced, Mary. Maybe the clothes were what convinced them that these folks were legitimate traffickers in children for sex purposes and they intended to help them.
Until that tape showing on Fox, I knew next to nothing about Acorn, including that it is a Democratic organization… I’ve learned that here. Decency doesn’t carry a label, Mary…not Democrat or Republican…only the rule that we PROTECT CHILDREN, we do not exploit them!
Sharon O’Hara
Child trafficking is immoral, illegal and the people who do it should be lined up and shot.
Your comments sort of remind me of the people who claim the Holocaust never happened. In spite of all the facts and proof that it did…they deny it.
People will believe what they want to believe – no matter the facts or proof…they will claim it is all fabricated.
September 26th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I’m sorry…I meant to erase the end of that sentence. Thinking of the folks who don’t believe in the Holocaust reminded me of a town square that was German occupied in northern Norway during WW11. The Jewish prisoners of the German’s were lined up against the wall and shot. My dad told me what happened and I touched the holes in the concrete wall the bullets carved out. The blood had long since been washed away through the years of harsh weather.
Please. take the last half of that sentence off…
Sharon O’Hara
September 27th, 2009 at 12:52 am
I have no problem believing the Holocaust happened. I just believe that ACORN did a lot of good. If those were real employees of ACORN, they were some of the dumbest imaginable. The people I worked with were very knowledgeable and helpful.
Possibly, it is not unlike Kitsap Community Resources. That organization hires from within its clientele. Subsequently, the people employed are often poorly trained and little educated. KCR pulls in a huge amount of tax money. I have often wanted it investigated for the quality of the service rendered to people.
Maybe ACORN did the same, offering jobs to people with little or no skill. I don’t know.
As far as the trafficing in children, Sharon. No one believes that is acceptable. It seemed as if the women in the videos glossed over that fact. That was another absurd piece of the story. In fact, the stories were so preposterous, that I cannot believe that anyone could possibly have fallen for them.
But, I have no desire to debate anyone here. I just wanted to express that ACORN has done great work in the past, and had done great work for me. Work that no one else was doing or willing to do. They investigated what others overlooked, whether due to greed, ignorance or negligence. I still believe that means a lot.
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:13 am
I guess it all depends on what local papers decide is the real meaning of serving the needs of their local readers (i.e. what constitutes “local interest”).
When I was in school, we were instructed that journalists always have a choice – just take a slant on a national story and, BOOM, it’s… (surprise!)…LOCAL!
I actually think this is a great opportunity for local papers to shine like they’ve never shined before – to scoop and upstage the MSM! I urge all local papers to chew on this idea
.
I can only speak for myself, as a reader, when I say, what happens in our town (Port Orchard) is not the ONLY thing I find “critical” to my interests and that I would be MOST proud of any local paper defining stories based on a poll of actual readership interests, like (or unlike) mine.
Let’s face it, while it’s been fun, reading about bickering over paint colors isn’t half as important to me as knowing where my tax dollars are going and to what impacts local, small businesses. Just one example – to my knowledge, no one has yet done a top-notch, in-depth feature on the damage the federal CPSIA legislation is having on small, local businesses like mine. This is a law that impacts every parent (if you believe in parental authority, it should get you steaming mad), every garage-sale-host, every library, you name it – the list goes on…but, where is the real local story being told? The MSM is burying this and other stories (you can find links on my blog about CPSIA – there are many of us doing all we can to shed light on this nightmare – http://tristansepinion.blogspot.com/2009/09/campaign-for-small-business-equal.html ).
Again, I think the what is now happening in America presents nothing but the PERFECT OPPORTUNITY for local newspapers to elevate themselves to the status of oh-so-incredibly-superior-to-the-MSM in actually SERVING the REAL interests of its (yes, local) readers.
Let’s face it – people are leaving MSM sources in droves, now that all the corruption and bias is being revealed as…utterly blatant. Could there be a more perfect time to consider a re-definition of what constitutes a “local interest” story?
October 7th, 2009 at 1:10 am
“I actually think this is a great opportunity for local papers to shine like they’ve never shined before – to scoop and upstage the MSM! I urge all local papers to chew on this idea…”
…Exactly as Fox is doing and has been doing for some time now. If MSM means Main Stream Media … I began to lose faith during the 60 Minute fiasco a few years ago.
Sharon O’Hara