FAIR’s Jim Naureckas appeared on GritTV yesterday to discuss media coverage of ACORN:
Julie Hollar
Julie Hollar is FAIR’s senior analyst and managing editor. Julie has a Ph.D. in political science from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Comments
Yes the Reich Wing won this though ACORN isn’t totally dead but it is broken up into regions. All because of a hoax that was identified by the ACORN staff itself and was shown to be a sham. Yet the Congress was so eager to pull funding and the corporate press did it dirty work lead by Fark News finished the smear job. What is their next target of destruction? [There is no Reich Wing version of ACORN because the fewer people who vote makes it easier for them to win with less manipulation of the votes.]
They operate from the same mode as the CIA where lying and cheating and misrepresenting are all good qualites that they can use to win against their enemies.
The conservative corporate media were too lazy and cheap to do the investigation on this story because it lended to their classist and racist biases. Why bother challenging those preconceptions? Since it confirms those internal narratives about “less than ethical urban people living down wind” looping through most people’s brains, staying with the uninvestigated story kept the audience coming for more validation of their preconceived ideas. Great for ratings!
When Michael Moore’s SICKO came out, however, the con/corp media got up on its hind legs and fought back by picking away at Moore’s claims, all of which were true. Con/Corp Media relate to their fellow corporate-state elite buddies at Big Pharma/Insurance/Hospitals. They are pieces of the same puzzle of greed and corruption. They live in the same gated neighborhoods, live well-to-do to obscenely wealthy lifestyles, and health insurance isn’t a problem for them. If other people have a problem with the “best healthcare system on the planet,” then they’ve made wrong choices and deserve their lot in life.
It’s utterly tragic.
This shows one of the worst effects of corporate/Wall Street control of the media. Short term profit trumps all, so they no longer do the work to investigate things like this. But the fact that their errors were later pointed out to them and they still refused to tell the truth shows the other side of corporate control. The corporations love the Republicans, the Republicans hate ACORN, and so the news media doesn’t correct its errors (or in a couple of cases, they made a partial admission of their mistakes, but not until ACORN was already ruined). Even NPR news, on the day ACORN folded, was still spreading the lies that had been thoroughly debunked. I don’t know what their exuse is, but they and PBS have been growing more and more conservative-biased for years. This is just one of many examples, not just of conservative bias, but of easily-disproved lies being spread by the mainstream media. I have totally stopped watching and reading it, and I suggest everyone do the same. The truth is still available, but you have to go to the right places on the Web to get it. (Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are a good balance to the conservative news media.)
The current version of the Republican party is neither Rpublican nor a party. They are just crazy assholes. Nutcases!
Fox News is largely responsible for getting the ‘smear ball’ rolling against ACORN. Fox News is not a true news journalism organization, but is in actuality a propaganda machine for extremist ring wing ideology. The fact that the rest of corporate mainstream media picked up the ‘smear ball’ and ran with it just shows the sad state of true news journalism today. Even sadder is how Congress then piled on.
unfortunately,the smear ball is so ubiquitous ,so damned omnipresent,that the debunked assertions are sometimes passed along by the few progressive,independent outlets.last september 17th “democracy now”‘s democracy now featured a segment with acorn’s natl spokeswoman bertha lewis-a clip which is in retrospect ,especially poignant in light of the fact that ,things being as they are,acorn is no longer a natl organization.
juan gonzalez,an award winning investigative reporter,and one of the “good guys’,asked ms lewis if acorn hadn’t contributed to its own problems by paying its voter registration canvassers “by the card”.it was painful to listen as ms lewis interrupted and wearily explained that THIS NEVER HAPPENED -ACORN NEVER PAID CANVASSERS “BY THE CARD”-IT PAID THEM BY THE HOUR.
mr gonzalez came to journalism,not through bourg idealism,or careerism,but through the grit and grime of his own past as a community activist and organiizer.on some level he knows the scrutiny any progressive grassroots group will encounter,especially if it is as effective as acorn was.yet,in this political climate,he speaks to a supurb,seasoned activist leader as though she was a shallow dilettante prone to errors in judgement usually committed by interns on summer break from radcliffe,and therefore in need of a gentle lecture on propriety.a moment’s reflection would inform a reasonable person that since acorn got 80% of its funding from dues paid by actual low income folks,it COULD NOT HAVE AFFORDED TO PAY “BY THE CARD.”operationally,this smear was effective only in a climate in which even people of good will seem to hold more sinister beliefs as to the sources of acorn’s funding.suffice it to say that if acorn had friends in high places,it would still exist.the ease with which the right wing destroyed this first rate organization would indicate that given the friends it had,it didn’t need any damned enemies.the startling 83-7 vote in the us senate to cut off federal funding without a smidgen of due process was thrown out by the courts-that’s not what ruined acorn-the problem is that we as a people don’t value an organization which helps people keep their homes,fight for rights and access which bourg whites take for granted,register to vote etc-in the other industrial countries THE GOVERNMENT ITSELF PERFORMS MOST OF THE FUNCTIONS,ACORN TRIED TO DO ON A SHOESTRING.in this country,with its casual contempt for the underprivileged,we stand by and allow the latter to be jived,disrespected,slimed,mocked,and finally destroyed,