Now reopen Breitbart's ACORN fraud -- and get the story right

[kpete]

Now reopen Breitbart's ACORN fraud -- and get the story right
Sherrod's case parallels deceptions used in that other big smear -- and offers a chance to restore lost standards


Former USDA official Shirley Sherrod, a dedicated public servant innocent of the prejudice and misconduct falsely imputed to her, deserves justice. As soon as the White House and Tom Vilsack restore her job, with an appropriate apology, they will begin to remove a stain of cowardice from their administration. But while that may be all the government can do, it isn’t sufficient to close this case.

Real justice, as I suspect Sherrod would agree, also requires due process for Andrew Breitbart, the Internet impresario who framed her on his Big Government website. In these circumstances, that means a fair, thorough and tough examination of the media fraud that launched his operation last year: the ACORN tapes, whose misuse by Breitbart closely parallels his behavior in the Sherrod affair.

Recalling Breitbart from his days as eager lackey to Matt Drudge, I warned from the beginning that nothing he produced would resemble journalism. More than once since then, I’ve mentioned the accumulating evidence of deception by O’Keefe and Breitbart in creating and then publicizing the ACORN tale. It was a "scandal" that became a national story only after wildly biased coverage on Fox News Channel, followed by sloppy, scared reporting in mainstream outlets, notably the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and the national TV networks (some of whom flagellated themselves for failing to publicize this canard sooner!).

Investigations by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, California Attorney General Jerry Brown, and the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, among others, have served to exonerate ACORN of the most outrageous charges of criminality (while still criticizing ACORN employees and leadership). More important, from the perspective of journalistic ethics, those investigations revealed that the videotapes released and promoted by Breitbart’s website were selectively and deceptively edited to serve as propaganda, not news.

more:
http://www.salon.com/news/andrew_breitbart/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/07/21/acorn

[blm]

1. Exactly...let's make this WORTH SOMETHING. Exposing RW smear machine would be the most patriotic

move to make. Brush these fockers back....WAY back.

[mzmolly]

2. What's interesting is that Breitbart said ONLY Faux has the full, unedited video

tapes of the ACORN fiasco. Interesting huh? Why would Fox have these tapes unless they paid for their production? Perhaps they paid after the fact, but I'd like to see a formal inquiry. Perhaps a congressional investigation is in order? ;)

[jah the baptist]

3. never happen

unfortunately they would have to admit that they all dropped the ball on that one by buying the bullshit

unlike the administration

the corporate media admits no wrongdoing

[gateley]

5. The administration dropped the ball on this, too. nt.

[jah the baptist]

7. i agree nt

[Radical Activist]

4. Has anything changed since the lead-up to the Iraq War?

No, the corporate press is still useless.

[jah the baptist]

6. or al gore supposedly claiming to invent the internet? nt

[ljm2002]

8. Yes!

If there is something good that comes out of this, how awesomely ironic it would be if we started a movement to restore ACORN and instead of it folding, it reopened and grew into a mighty OAK with roots so far and wide that these asshats would never be able to even make it wobble, much less fall.

Now that would be some righteous poetic justice.

[Roland99]

9. Hear! Hear!

[yurbud]

10. get the media to admit the pass along right wing shit disguised as news: like Clinton sex probe

[bobbolink]

11. Oh, goddess, YES! But that would take spine.

We didn't elect spine.

:cry: