How Bias at the NYT Helped Kill ACORN

[Judi Lynn]

Weekend Edition
March 26 - 28, 2010

The F Word
How Bias at the NYT Helped Kill ACORN
By LAURA FLANDERS

So, the New York Times finally ran a correction. But after six weeks of "considering" the errors in its own reporting, the Times’ correction of its misleading ACORN story, came way, way, WAY to late.

The correction ran the same day that the anti-poverty group ACORN called it quits, after a year under attack -- and a day after the paper's public editor wrote that yes indeed, the paper has "mistakenly reinforced falsehoods" from right wing activists against the group.

When right-wing journo-hucksters released videos appearing to show ACORN workers offering advice to people posing as a pimp and a prostitute, the Times fell for an editing trick. The videos gave the impression that two hucksters were dressed in outlandish costumes when they visited ACORN offices. They weren't.

Video transcripts also contradicted what the video makers claimed, namely that ACORN staffers appeared to endorse talk of using underage girls as prostitutes. The Times also fell for that. In fact, the transcript reveals that ACORN staffers believed they were discussing a plan to protect two girls.

Responding to a complaint from the media critics at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Hoyt said Sunday that the paper's editors were "considering issuing a correction."

They'd had six weeks (since the transcript was first brought to their attention) for that. "Considering." Synonyms include chewing over, cogitating, contemplating. Just what were they contemplating?

What Times readers might want to consider is New York Times prejudice. If Hoyt and his friends had been taken for a ride by the Yes Men, say, who regularly pose as captains of industry saying outrageous (or not so outrageous) things -- would the paper have cogitated over a correction for weeks?

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/flanders03262010.html

[n2doc]

1. The NYT never lets facts get in the way of a good story... n/t

[tom_paine]

2. If the NYT can lie about the Iraq War, they can lie about ACORN.

That's our Corporate-Controlled M$M: always willing to help out a Bushie PsyOp.

[amborin]

3. or pronounce that the corporate subsidy, aka HCR, as helping ease

inequality

:rofl: