This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
A month ago, while covering the arrest of James O'Keefe after his attempt to tamper with the phones at Senator Mary Landrieu's office, the New York Times repeated conservative misinformation that smeared ACORN, and is now refusing to retract their "reporting."
James O'Keefe previously had released videos that purported to show ACORN employees supposedly advising a "pimp" on how to evade the law. These videos were widely publicized in conservative outlets as part of a larger conservative campaign to destroy ACORN, because the organization registers poor people to vote. Usually-careful major media outlets like the New York Times then picked up the "story" from these conservative outlets and repeated the false accusations against ACORN.
An an example of how the Times has repeated the misinformation, this Times story, High Jinks to Handcuffs for Landrieu Provocateur, contained the following:
Mr. O'Keefe made his biggest national splash last year when he dressed up as a pimp and trained his secret camera on counselors with the liberal community group Acorn -- eliciting advice on financing a brothel on videos that would threaten to become Acorn's undoing.
In fact, O'Keefe was NOT "dressed as a pimp." He represented himself as a candidate for Congress who was trying to help women who were being exploited. He then doctored the resulting videotapes to make it appear that ACORN acted improperly. He only dressed as a "pimp" when publicizing his videos, using the racist stereotype to amplify his false claims. This preposterous 1970's blaxploitation-movie costume seemed to resonate with media outlets like the Times. (The woman who played the "prostitute" in the videos has herself been videotaped verifying that O'Keefe DID NOT wear a "pimp" costume.)
Compare the impression left by this NY Times story with other independently verified facts of the case as explained in : ACORN Report Finds No Illegal Conduct, which describes former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger's investigation of the accusations. Among the investigation's conclusions,
The videos that have been released appear to have been edited, in some cases substantially, including the insertion of a substitute voiceover for significant portions of Mr. O'Keefe's and Ms. Giles's comments, which makes it difficult to determine the questions to which ACORN employees are responding. A comparison of the publicly available transcripts to the released videos confirms that large portions of the original video have been omitted from the released versions.
The Brad Blog has taken the lead with efforts to get the NY Times to retract their reporting. From yesterday's post, Exclusive: NYTimes Public Editor Declines to Recommend Retraction for Multiple Erroneous Reports on False ACORN 'Pimp' Story,
We've spent the last several weeks here reporting and demonstrating how the O'Keefe/Breitbart ACORN video hoax was exactly that --- a political partisan scam that was publicized uncritically by the New York Times, and dozens of otherwise reputable outlets.
Despite the Times' repeatedly misreporting that O'Keefe was dressed or posed as a "pimp" while meeting with ACORN employees in those videos, and even after being shown in no uncertain terms that he did not, the Times' Public Editor has declined to recommend the paper retract its reporting on this story.
The next day, in "NYT Public Editor Accuses The BRAD BLOG of 'Political Agenda' on Par With ACORN Smear Artists, Hoaxsters Breitbart and O'Keefe," New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt offered the following stunning statement,
The story says O'Keefe dressed up as a pimp and trained his hidden camera on Acorn counselors. It does not say he did those two things at the same time
Also at this Brad Blog post are links to a number of other blogs following this story.
You can take action by clicking through to: Tell the NY Times: retract anti-ACORN reportage.
Update March 1, 20910 - Andrew Breitbart in a videotaped interview explaining that there was no pimp costume at the ACORN offices.
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He represented himself as someone who wanted to get a house so he could move underage El Salvadoran girls in to work as prostitutes, and then take profits from that enterprise and run for Congress.
What do we call someone who recruits girl into prostitution, gives them a place to work, then takes a cut of the revenue? Go ahead, don't be shy. Just shout it out when you know.
A Pimp.
You are flat out lying when you said the transcripst never said that the girls from El Salvador were not going to work as prostitutes.
http://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/10/complete-acorn-baltimore-prostitution-investigation-transcript/
The parts on on pages 18 and 19. They are talking about prostitution and O'Keefe said "they can do this sort of thing".
Your attempt to rewrite history is not going to work.
You are wrong when you said the transcripst never said that the girls from El Salvador were not going to work as prostitutes.
http://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/10/complete-acorn-baltimore-prostitution-investigation-transcript/
The parts on on pages 18 and 19. They are talking about prostitution and O'Keefe said "they can do this sort of thing".
http://biggovernment.com/acorn
Judge for yourself.
GOP = LIES
As if "he picked up the gun and shot the deputy" in a news story could be describing events on two different days.
Astonishment is too mild a word for my reaction to the NYT public editor's remarks.
Brad must have had to pinch himself repeatedly during their exchange.
American service men dead so Vice President D.i.ck "Five Deferments" Cheney could reap increased profits in his Halliburton portfolio.
Oh, that's right, the troops were only a prop to stand in front of to pound their chests and rant about terrerrizers. They didn't actually care about them.
ACORN was caught red handed.
Doing what?
(Here's some more help for you if need it: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7710)
You've been scammed by Breitbart, O'Keefe and Fox, my friend. And so was the New York Times.
Acorn wasn't exactly talking about how to bake cookies were they.
is anyone pressing okeefe or breitbart on this?
and for all the cons. whining about the "liberal media",it seems clear that none of the msm care about this......
does anyone have a link for any article that covers this story from beginning to right now......the links in this article are mostly just bits and pieces....
i'd like something clear and concise to send to my cons. acorn hating family.
any good links?
He wore khaki pants, a blue shirt and tie at the ACORN offices.
Mike Stark confronted Breitbart and O'Keefe on this at a press conference. He posted videos of this at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-stark/all-you-need-to-know-abou_b_330643.html
But to me the bigger problem is that the 4 who broke into Landrieu's office are going to get their 2 Federal charges "dismissed," They are backed by the Koch money, well hidden in a few layers of course.
James O'Keefe was ordered to stay at his parents home. His parole officer let him attend CPAC.
There was a scheduled pre-trial hearing for Feb. 21. I can find nothing on this case.
It is all being swept away with the big money.
His hearing was canceled as his attorney is trying to work out a deal with prosecutors. With one of O'Keefe's fellow accused perps being the son of the acting US Attorney, how hard could that be?
Anyway, no new date has yet been set for the hearing, as far as I know, while O'Keefe's attorney works his background magic for him.
But where the NYTimes failed to get the ACORN story right, and allowed themselves to get hoaxed over and over by O'Keefe and Breitbart, and *still* refuse to cop to their failure (see this: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7715) that means it's very likely to happen again in the LA case!
Sign that petition Dave linked above!
1) O'Keefe tried to "hoax" the world by shooting B-roll of himself in a pimp costume, so that the world would think he wore the costume inside the ACORN offices.
2) O'Keefe shot B-roll to summarize the story visually: he is a pimp and Hannah is a prostitute. But he didn't intend to "hoax" anyone.
You believe scenario #1. I believe scenario #2. Let's just put that on the table.
Tell me, Brad. Did you know that the VERY FIRST FEW SECONDS of the VERY FIRST ACORN VIDEO presented to the world show . . . O'Keefe walking into the office dressed in his slacks and button-down shirt?
Which scenario does that evidence support?
That's right. It doesn't support yours. It supports MINE.
One would have thought after being used by Libby, Miller, and Cheney to start an illegal war they would be more careful; right.
Same is true here.
Liberal media my ass!
The New York Times does not correct errors like this.
It just won't.
Sorry. Don't you know Mama Times is always right?