Fox News and the ACORN Charade

By the end of this month, FNC will likely have mentioned the community organizing group nearly 1,500 times. (The tally currently hovers around 1,480, which is roughly 1,300 more than CNN). The cabler's over-the-top obsession with the group's urban-based voter registration initiative has become something of a running campaign joke.

Yet asked about it in Politico, retiring Fox News anchor Brit Hume took great pride, boasting, "We had a great run on ACORN."

Hume's self-satisfying view really does capture the FNC ethos. Because in truth, Fox News never advanced the ACORN story one inch. It never broke any news. It never contributing anything journalistically to the story. Meaning, news organizations never (I don't think) had to cite Fox News for anything regarding its ACORN coverage. And its reporting certainly had no impact on the overall campaign.

Fox News couldn't stop talking about ACORN, and yet Fox News never managed to uncovering anything newsworthy about ACORN. It just rehashed and speculated, rehashed and speculated.

Still, Hume boasts FNC had a "great run" on the story. Why, because it filled up endless hours of Fox News programming? Is that how Hume determines a Fox News success?

Crossposted at County Fair, a Media Matters for America blog.

Comments

[lisakaz2]

01:21 AM on 11/02/2008

"Great run" means they whipped their audience up, in service to rethug talking points. Since when is there mission about news?

[9090]

10:20 AM on 10/31/2008

Do you guys read anything other the CNN and The Huffpost? Do you have any idea how many states ACORN has committed fraud in and how many phony names they have registered? If these actions were committed by Conservative groups you would be screaming at the top of your lungs.
As it is a Lefty group committing this fraud you simply deny it while thinking that the end justifies the means.

[KickerBoard]

05:30 PM on 10/30/2008

Right-wingers know that if ACORN succeeds in its heroic mission of enfranchising the historically disenfranchised (mainly the poor and the marginalized), their election-stealing strategies will be overridden by sheer weight of numbers. How sad to see a political party in a major democracy pin its hopes on voter suppression.

[Cyano]

03:40 PM on 10/30/2008

They're just trying to flatter their nutty audience by talking about acorns. Video of jealous Post-it brand squirrels at 11.

[chaz]

11:14 PM on 10/29/2008

Don't forget CNN. Tonight the great Lou Dobbs (at least he thinks so) spent an entire segment expanding the charade.

[vegas9999]

05:34 PM on 10/29/2008

And 1,499 more times then MSNBC

[Subversive]

05:27 PM on 10/29/2008

If Fox News is so concerned about voter fraud, where was it during Florida 2000? It would have been nice to see a story about Katherine Harris refusing to allow recounts in the disputed five counties. I would have been riveted to the TV watching a story about Republican thugs interrupting a local recount. It would have been fascinating to watch a discussion about Republicans who constantly complain and whine about activist judges who interfere with state elections, who then turned around and practically begged Bush to take the Florida vote dispute to the Supreme Court. Fox frequently invites conservative pundit John Fund on to bloviate about his latest book about stolen elections; perhaps Mr. Fund will one day write about Florida 2000. I only hope he doesn't have to write about Pennsylania, Ohio, and Florida 2008

[silverball]

06:10 PM on 10/29/2008

....or the suppressd voting and other manipulations) in ohio 2004......twice we was robbed.....

[radiclib]

05:02 PM on 10/29/2008

.
.
Fox deals in smears.
They are as clear as the warts on Brit Hume's face.
This is an ugly news channel filled with ugly people.
.
.

[vegas9999]

06:47 PM on 10/29/2008

Guess people just love ugly people.