FOX Goes Nuts Over ACORN

FOX News never met a community organizer they didn't hate.  Desperate to exacerbate the GOP's recent attacks on ACORN, FOX is fueling the fire of misinformation about the nation's largest grassroots community organizing group.  They attacked ACORN's Chief Organizer Bertha Lewis last Thursday for endorsing Barack Obama in a video, claiming ACORN should not be allowed to make public endorsements since they are partly government funded.  Once again, however, FOX is dead wrong.

According to Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party in New York that created Lewis's video, "ACORN is not a c3 non-profit. Quite the opposite -- it has long fought to engage low-income Americans in politics, and its political action committee has long endorsed candidates for president on down to dog catcher in the attempt to hold politicians accountable to working people."  

Working Families has fought successfully for a minimum wage hike, paid family leave, and to extend healthcare coverage, among other recent campaigns.  And as Cantor points out, voting the Working Family line for Obama (which ultimately is added to the total number of Democratic votes under a New York provision that allows two parties to endorse the same candidate) conveys a message for real progressive change. 

Lewis is the co-chair of the Working Families Party, just as ACORN has many members who belong to other organizations fully capable of making public endorsements. ACORN also has numerous political action committees at the state level working directly on various electoral races.  Not to mention ACORN Votes, a federal PAC that endorsed Obama back in February.  

Nathan Henderson-James, an ACORN spokesman who explained all the ways in which FOX bungled this story, told me, "We understand that these kinds of nuances are such that even the amazing brains over at FOX have trouble grasping them, but FOX continues to get practically everything about ACORN wrong."

FOX is so infatuated with waging the Republican party's war on ACORN that they won't let a little thing like the truth get in the way.  If you think "infatuated" is perhaps too strong a word, Media Matters reports that FOX mentioned "ACORN" 1,500 times in October alone -- 1,300 more times than CNN.  And yet FOX's stories are about as accurate -- and almost as laughable -- as The Daily Show's send up of all the recent ACORN bashing.  

What this boils down to though is that Republicans (and by extension, FOX News) are facing an overwhelming defeat in this election.  Rather than throwing in the towel, however, they are giving in to their racial anxieties by going after the organization that registered hundreds of thousands of people from low-income minority districts who would otherwise have gone disenfranchised.  But nothing, not usurping the Justice Department, not attack ads from GOP hatchet man Richard Berman, and certainly not wildly inaccurate reports from FOX, will deprive progressives of this victory.

Comments

[lapdogs]

Whose FAUX?

For that matter, whose ACORN?

[blood1]

Pretty obvious that those at FOX are incapable of, or unwilling to read in order to provide information of substance to their viewers. They might consider reading the DOJ rules and regulations regarding investigating suspected voter fraud. After all, it was updated in March,2007 by their buddy A Gonzales...or hire someone with a nominal IQ to read it and tell them what it means.

[Butch864]

"If you think "infatuated" is perhaps too strong a word, Media Matters reports that FOX mentioned "ACORN" 1,500 times in October alone -- 1,300 more times than CNN."

This is because CNN is in the tank for Obama with the rest of the MSM. They are just slightly less biased than MSNBC but biased nonetheless. Any one with half a brain can figure this out just by watching 30 min of their election coverage.

[totalliberal]

I suppose that's how you figured it out.

[luvangelHussein330]

$5 says Faux Spews blames ACORN for an Obama win

[ENOS]

Give me a break. The GOP hires staffing agencies to do the same type of work. I just wished FoxNews viewers would think outside the box that Rush Limbaugh put over their heads.

[XME]

Oooo...poor people and minorities are voting. Scary!

[Petey131]

FAKE NEWS MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE AIRWAVES AND SHIPPED TO ALASKA. PLEASE MAKE SURE HANNITY GOES ALONG!

[castleberry]

Yeah, we used to have regulations, alright. We used to have the Fairness Doctrine in media.

Now, the only way to resist this Republican strong-arming is to VOTE!!!

[BadKitty]

I'm sorry, but I am sick to death of Fox and their carp while claiming to be 'objective'. It goes beyond the pale and what I need to know is this; doesn't the US have some regulatory body which oversees programming to ensure that television stations are airing only that which falls within their licensing? If Fox is claiming to be an "objective" NEWS source then it is obvious to anyone with even half a brain that their reporting involves little or no investigative efforts, blatant fabrication, mangling or complete omission of facts and gander stepping partisanship. It is tabloid television at its worst as it is filling the heads of the uneducated masses with its vile phlegm. Consequently all their viewers can do, in the absence of being able to partake in thoughtful discourse, is spew great gobs of green slimy stuff. Honestly - can't something be done about them?

[JAMES60]

To BadKitty:
I'd say, "please back off" on the talk of trying to "regulate" what the right wing-nuts are continually spewing. It plays right into their paranoia and justifies their more extreme rants. Let them have their fist admenment rights and let's work on educating the "masses" so they (us) can reject the "green slimy stuff." If we try to "do something about them" it tends to make "them" stronger. Lets do something about "us" (i.e. get smarter). Hope I'm not sounding to preachy.

[moxieme]

I have decided to be as nonsensical as the extremists at Faux News and over in the RNC lair.
All this hype and spin about ACORN is just a tactic to divert attention from Rove and Co while they try to steal this election. I, frankly, don't know how these individuals look at themselves in the mirror. My adult daughters would have called me out so long ago if I descended into the gutter like this trying to win anything. If one has to go that low, perhaps they should consider it just isn't meant to be. Tony Snow was so dignified in his declining days; so admired and respected across the spectrum for the most part. On the other hand, there are numerous written and video accounts of how Lee Atwater (the Republican strategist of Willie Horton) suffered in the end. He could barely speak his few words of regret. His body was ravaged. I wonder what is going through John McCain's head. I can't imagine he is proud of himself.

[exploder98]

Does it appear to anyone else like they're cracking up? I thought that woman was going to blow a gasket at something that, all things considered, is a completely non-issue.

[ramblingjohnny]

"FOX Goes Nuts Over ACORN" Anybody get the joke around the title! lollll

[Torita]

Can't ACORN sue Fox for libel or something? There has to be a way to rein those guys in. They should absolutely not be allowed to spread outright lies about people and organizations. It's one thing to report and investigate aggressively, but they go way beyond that. Fox is absolutely toxic and damaging to our democracy.

[JoeLib]

Might I suggest that we all tune to Fox tonight.... oh, I would say about 10pm eastern when the results are pretty much evident... just to watch Hannity and Co's collective heads implode with impotent, frustrated rage.

It will be HILARIOUS! I mean, they can't complain about Obama... that would be hating America... but Obama isn't American... but he's the President elect, which means democracy works, but if... then.... freedom...

[WADIIAH]

I cant wait

[Gidster]

It will just be Hannity suggesting that ACORN stole the election, with Fox News pundits agreeing and talking to their pin headed base for some frothing........

Entertaining, yes.
Productive, not so much.
An indictment of the divisional politics of the last 8 years, definitely.

[ElBruce]

This factor might boost their ratings. I'd like to see them bawl after it's called too.

[naviline]

I'm sure we could find clips online... instead of boosting their ratings by tuning in.

[votedemo]

Joe, I was thinking the same thing...what will O'Reilly, Hannity, and the like do when we elect a democratic president. They have said time and time again that those who criticized Bush were unpatriotic America haters. It will be fun to watch!

[PJBroughton]

These are just facts. Fox has no use for those.