'The Times Botched the Story', Author Says About ACORN 'Pimp' Hoax on 'Democracy Now!'

[BradBlog]

'The Times Botched the Story', Author Says About ACORN 'Pimp' Hoax on 'Democracy Now!'
President of National Housing Institute decries: 'Act of defunding ACORN by Congress is a national disgrace'...

"This reporting was done by not just the right-wing press, but every one of the mainstream press, and I’m talking about...the New York Times," said John Atlas, author of the new book Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America’s Most Controversial Anti-Poverty Community Group on this morning's Democracy Now!.

"And there’s a whole movement out there now trying to get the public editor to go on record saying the Times botched the story," Atlas, the president of the National Housing Institute, continued.

He was on the show to discuss this week's finding by a federal judge that Congressional legislation crafted specifically to defund ACORN was unconstitutional. He described it as "a national disgrace" brought on as Congressional Democrats cow-towed to the Rightwing's years-long scapegoating of "the most effective anti-poverty organization in the country."

"The first thing I want to say, that needs to be said over and over again, is that the act of defunding ACORN by Congress is a national disgrace. We should all be outraged about that. Basically what happened is Congress bowed to Fox News, Glenn Beck, the rest of the right-wing echo chamber --- we’re talking about the United States Congress --- and then scapegoated the most effective anti-poverty organization in the country. That’s a scandal of enormous proportions," Atlas chided.

In the bargain, he set the record straight about what ACORN does, how important their work is to those in our country who most count on them, and how the story of the ACORN "Pimp" Hoax was so unforgivably misreported over and again by the New York Times (and others) who still continue their journalistic malpractice by flat-out refusing to responsibly correct the record, as The BRAD BLOG has detailed in great length over the past several weeks…

FULL STORY, VIDEO, TRANSCRIPT EXCERPTS: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7743

[yurbud]

1. K & R

[Botany]

2. The Old Grey Lady ain't what she used to be.

Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Like many Americans, I spent the evening of the 2004 election watching the returns on television and wondering how the exit polls, which predicted
an overwhelming victory for John Kerry, had gotten it so wrong. By midnight, the official tallies showed a decisive lead for George Bush — and the
next day, lacking enough legal evidence to contest the results, Kerry conceded. Republicans derided anyone who expressed doubts about Bush's
victory as nut cases in "tinfoil hats," while the national media, with few exceptions, did little to question the validity of the election. The Washington
Post immediately dismissed allegations of fraud as "conspiracy theories1," and The New York Times declared that "there is no evidence of vote theft
or errors on a large scale2."

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen

***************

The Times is part of the problem not part of the solution.

Brad please remember that Cheney and company would plant stories in the NY Times and then quote the same stories as proof of their case.

[bleever]

4. Judy Judy Judy.

We thought the NYT had learned something.

[BradBlog]

5. No reminder necessary on that one, Botany...

Unfortunately.

I remember it every damned day.

[Botany]

6. I am sure you do get reminded of it everyday

Fun story in 2004 on the day after the election I tried to call the Ohio dem party fraud hot line ..... it had
been hacked into and all you got was a weird music and forever hold that dumped you after 5 minutes ...
it was really creepy .... I tried to call the NY Times about the story and I could not speak to one reporter
or editor or manager ..... nobody would take the call .... I talked to two people and they wrote the # and
promised to get somebody on it.

BTW after Kerry conceded the block was changed to a fast busy signal.

Bottom line the NY Times like all the media knew that 2004 was dirty but have worked 24/7 to keep the
cover story going that new voters turned out in record #s to vote for bush in Ohio because of values.

BTW II ACORN is now leaving Ohio because of a suit that the republicans in Warren County (Terror lock
down 2004) brought against them in fall 2008.

[rhett o rick]

3. The Times is a piece of crap. nt