Editor and Publisher published an excellent (albeit very long) analysis of the media's news coverage of ACORN and how 26 percent of Americans, including 52 percent of Republicans, came to believe the absurd claim that the community-organizing group somehow stole the 2008 presidential election. The piece by two college professors who've been studying the media coverage for a while presents some unsurprising evidence on how coverage from conservative Web sites bled over to more conventional media with little or no fact-checking. But their most important finding was that the only real sensible coverage came from metro beat reporters who worked the streets and, um, actually knew what they were talking about.
For example:
Because there had been some irregularities in Minneapolis-St. Paul in past elections, and because he “thought this would be a tight race,” Diaz decided to look into the allegations. After his investigation, Diaz reported on his findings published in a front-page Oct. 24, 2008 story.
“Yes, there had been a track record of voter registration fraud, but that’s different from voter fraud,” Diaz said. Diaz also had a different explanation for the source of the voter registration fraud. “The irregularities were perpetrated against ACORN, not by ACORN,” Diaz said, noting that ACORN employees at the street level tried to scam ACORN by not doing the work and turning in phony registrations. When their supervisors discovered the scam, the employees were fired and their phony forms reported to local officials. As Diaz wrote in his 2008 story, “Of 43,162 voter registrations, ACORN has flagged 135 potentially ‘fake cards’ and fired 20 people who were involved in turning them in.”
In other words, these "fake cards" were people trying to steal money from ACORN for registering people who didn't exist. If the scam had worked and the money had been pocketed, these fake and non-existent people weren't going to show up and cast real votes for Barack Obama. That just didn't happen, anywhere; if it had, the Republican Party, which spent millions of dollars on lawyers and related Election Day activities, would have been shouting about it from here to eternity. And for the election to have been stolen, it would have needed to happen not once, but 9.8 million times.
People believe what they want to believe. Tonight on the way into the office, I was listening to WPHT's Dom Giordano as he interviewed Sen. Bob Casey, and as Casey patiently explained some of the things that are in the actual healthcare bill. This was immediately followed by several callers making the groundless blanket accusation that Casey didn't know what was in the bill and hadn 't read it, rather than acknowledge that they didn't really want to know what's in the bill, lest it shatter their illusions about Obama's "socialist takeover." Ditto with ACORN and its "plot to steal the election."
(h/t Suburban Guerrilla)
These surveys are bogus. There will always be a fraction of people who respond in a way to try to make a negative statement about the survey subject, and essentially disregard the question. If the regular posters on this blog were asked if they believe that gphilly is guilty of inappropriately touching his neighbors' children, probably 50% would concur. They don't all actually believe that, they just think gphilly is a pud, and want to make a negative comment about her.— Mr. Smith
Comment removed.
But Will, there was one (as in 1, that's right, one more than zero and one less than 2), voter fraud case that was tied back to ACORN. Except that the charges against ACORN were dropped - because it was a case of a legal immigrant who was confused about voting regulations.— Talking point sleuth- ---}}} There will always be a fraction of people who respond in a way to try to make a negative statement about the survey subject, and essentially disregard the question. {{{--- LOL! And it just happens to be coincidence that 52% of Americans lie when asked the question about whether they really think that ACORN stole the election. It isn't that they really thought that. They just lied. And Mr. Smith knows this is a fact. Because, you know, he's a mind reader.— Talking point sleuth
- Will, there is a reason that ACORN is a target. I had read the linked article earlier, and it occurred to me that the article itself was written by liberals who were trying merely to defend ACORN. They make ACORN out to be this benevolent organization who is merely trying to help poor people, when that's not my impression of it at all. It seems to absolutely be a liberal political organization, and the reason they are out trying to get people registered to vote is because they want them to vote Democrat. It would have been interesting to learn more about what the demographics of the people ACORN gets to register -- is it 99% democrat, 75%?? Also, the article did not address the fact that ACORN has real organizational issues. If GE or WalMart had people committing crimes the way ACORN does, you can bet every liberal media outlet would be frothing at the mouth to decry how awful these people and this "big" company are. So they finally became a "target" for conservatives. Welcome to the big leagues.— IggleFan68
- Iggy. They try to register poor voters, many of whom live in inner city areas. Why does that bother Republicans so much? Would you prefer those voters go unregistered? Why wouldn't you want to have as many citizens as possible vote legally?— Talking point sleuth
"Why does that bother Republicans so much?" . . . . . I think what bothers many Republicans is that the NRA spent 40 million in membership dues to scare gun owners against Obama last fall and failed miserably. When their own "community organizing" efforts fail, they have to blame the other side's approach.- Comment removed.
So voter registration fraud is different than voter fraud? So if the mob only tampers with a jury selection process rather than tampering with the sitting jury, it's OK? Anyway forget about voter fraud, let's talk about teen hookin.— jmc- TPS -- I have no problems with organizations that try to register people to vote -- the more people that vote the better, unlike some of the liberal elites and conservative knuckleheads who say people are too stupid to vote. My problem is that it seems to me that ACORN is an organization with an agenda BEYOND just getting these people to register to vote -- they want them to vote a certain way.— IggleFan68
- IggleFan, possibly years of watching the Eagles lose has caused you to bang your head against a brick wall and you've suffered brain damage. "They want them to vote a certain way." Uh, duh! Just as when Republicans run voter registration drives in evangelical churches - you think they're trying to get more LIBERALS to vote? Just because you don't like the outcome of the game doesn't mean the game is rigged. It's how the game is played, by all parties.
- ACORN didnt steal the election...Oprah bought it. And she is positioning herself to do it again in 2012.— AngryWhiteMale
- ---}}} So voter registration fraud is different than voter fraud? {{{--- Hard to believe that you actually posted that question, jmc. You can have voter registration fraud that results in zero, no, none, nada, zilch, fraudulent votes. So yes, voter registration fraud is completely different than voter fraud. I'm sure you'll get it. Maybe after a while. If you really think hard about it. Eventually.— Talking point sleuth
ObamAcorn did not steal the election. They can't do that by themselves. But they sure were extremely partisian for what is supposed to be a non partisian organization. And with the MSM CONTINUING to turn a blind eye to their activities (That's you Will!!) they will continue to bleed the taxpayer dry for their partisian activity.— rudytbone- Comment removed.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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