Whatever the truth turns out to be about the current ACORN scandal, the speed at which Congress moved to de-fund the organization without conducting its own investigation stinks out loud. One strongly expects that an organization catering to wealthy white people that was caught in the same sting would have been treated differently.
It is vital to assess how this backlash was accepted so quickly in light of videos that were from someone whose films are funded by conservative backers, videos that misrepresented ACORN through editing and not disclosing other failed attempts at their desired response, which may well have been dubbed over, if O’Keefe would dare to release the unedited tapes in their real context to prove otherwise. …
… Is this same adolescent accountability accepted by defense contractors, when Blackwater and its owner Erik Prince are implicated in murder? He just keeps getting contracts.
The Right turned ACORN into the Bogeyman some time back, to the point that the mere mention of the name ACORN sends righties into mouth-foaming, irrational hysteria. I think some of them genuinely believe that ACORN is the only reason their candidates crashed and burned in the last couple of elections.
ACORN is suing the filmmakers and Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart.com for conducting electronic surveillance without their consent, which is a felony under Maryland law. Ben Smith writes, “I’m not sure of the P.R. value of suing without challenging the substance of the videos, but in the short-term, at least, it’s probably good for Breitbart et al.”
Probably, but perhaps ACORN’s real plan is to subpoena those unedited tapes, if they haven’t already been shredded.