About us Login Get email updates
County Fair
Print

At Fox News, guilty until proven innocent

March 18, 2009 10:03 am ET by Eric Boehlert

Back on its ACORN hobby horse, Fox News attacks the community organizing group and its possible role as a national partner with the Census Bureau to recruit more than one million temporary workers to go knock on doors for the upcoming census.

Fox stresses ACORN has "a history of voter fraud charges." Actually, that's how the headline is worded. In the actual online article, Fox News insists ACORN has a "history of voter fraud." (The pesky ref to "charges" gets dropped.) But does ACORN have a history of voter fraud? An ACORN rep tells Fox the organization has never been convicted of any crime, and the Fox article doesn't produce any evidence to the contrary. 

It's true Republicans, amplified by Fox News, aired endless unproven charges against the group last fall and painted the understaffed outfit as an all-powerful cabal. But there's no proof ACORN's done anything wrong. But now Fox News claims that because unproven charges have been waged in the past (amplified by Fox News), that the group is suspect.

That's a nifty Noise Machine trick.

Expand All Expand 1st Level Collapse All Add Comment
    • Author by mk3872 (March 18, 2009 11:59 am ET)
         
      Maybe FNC will offer up another "correction" again today for their "mistake"?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by fairliberal (March 18, 2009 12:08 pm ET)
         
      http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/795117FA8146E4F08625741F006D15C0?OpenDocument
      Report Abuse
      • Author by NiceguyEddie (March 18, 2009 2:29 pm ET)
           

        Another swing an a miss from the Adam Dunn of conservative politics.

        The article shows a confession to REGISTRATION fraud, not VOTER fraud.  ACORN was the VICTIM in this case, since they paid people to go out a register poepl who would then VOTE.  Fraudulent registrations don't lead to votes.  (Unless these people VOTED fraudulantly, how can it be VOTER FRAUD?!  Fraudulant registrations MUST be subimtted by third parties BY LAW to prevent disenfranchising of one group or another.  ACORN did nothing wrong.  These INDIVIDUALS stole from ACORN, by accepting pay for a jov they didn't do.

        By why let facts get in the way of a good story, huh?

        Report Abuse
        • Author by fairliberal (March 18, 2009 4:38 pm ET)
             

          Even you can figure out that registration fraud is the precursor to voter fraud, And to suggest that Acorn is the victim is rediculous, that may work once, but year after year and election after election it just doesn't hold water.

          Report Abuse
          • Author by mikehuck1976 (March 18, 2009 6:27 pm ET)
               

            Are you serious?  Or better yet, do you actually expect to be taken seriously?  Voter registration fraud means voter fraud to you?  Not even close.  How many of these fraudulent names voted?  None and, what's even worse, you know it.

            The law requires that these registrations be turned into the government.  Then they can check and sort out the fraudulent ones.  Otherwise, it would be up to ACORN to decide which registrations should be submitted and which ones should not.  Surely, even you can see that they are following the law - not disobeying it.  Your attempts to frame them as outside the law is just pathetic.

            Report Abuse
          • Author by NiceguyEddie (March 19, 2009 9:29 am ET)
               
            It will work unitl it is proven wrong.  And saying that "registration fraud" is a "precursor to voter fraud" is ridiculous.  The one as to happen before the other, but there can be no VOTER FRAUD without FRAUDULWENT VOTERS casting VOTES.  How many times do you have to be told that ALL REGISTRATIONS collected by third parties MUST be submitted BY LAW to prevent one party/group/block from being disenfranchised.  In many case ACORN was the one that REPORTED the fraudulent registartions!  They set aside as many of teh suspect ones that they could find, and called these out!  That's how this whole thing started!  You RW-Kool-Aid drinkers just can't stand to be wrong, can you?
            Report Abuse
    • Author by harley (March 18, 2009 12:52 pm ET)
         

      The Husband Of Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Is A ‘Protector Of The Palin Brand’

       Yesterday, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza revealed one of the reasons that Van Susteren may have so much interest in and access to Palin. It turns out that her husband, John Coale, is one of “the figures charged with guiding Palin’s political image in Washington”:

      Coale, a well-known Washington lawyer and the husband of Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren, drew national media attention when he endorsed Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid in protest of the way in which Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who he backed in the primary, was treated. Coale, in an interview with the Fix, described himself simply as a “friend” of the Alaska governor but acknowledged that he suggested she start a leadership PAC and helped her navigate through some of the questions surrounding her family that lingered after the campaign. Others familiar with Palin’s political team insist that Coale has far more power than he is letting on — essentially helping to run Sarah PAC. Coale demurred on that front, noting only that he talks to Palin regularly and that she is a “fascinating person” who is “definitely not what the right thinks or the left thinks.”

      Report Abuse
    • Author by fairliberal (March 18, 2009 1:13 pm ET)
         
      http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003982533_acorn30m.html?syndication=rss
      Report Abuse
      • Author by NiceguyEddie (March 18, 2009 2:30 pm ET)
           
        WRONG AGAIN!!! See above.  You're not worth the effort of my typing it again.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by pros2pros2940 (March 18, 2009 5:26 pm ET)
           

        Even the Bush Doj didn't find anything

         In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud

        WASHINGTON, April 11 — Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews

        "There was nothing that we uncovered that suggested some sort of concerted effort to tilt the election," Richard G. Frohling, an assistant United States attorney in Milwaukee, said.

        http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html

        Report Abuse
        • Author by foghornleghorn (March 18, 2009 7:04 pm ET)
             
          Yet fairlibrul probably has no problem with voter caging, purging the voter rolls just because you have the same name as a felon, and Diebold's chairman guaranteeing Ohio would go to Bush.
          Report Abuse
    • Author by fairliberal (March 18, 2009 1:16 pm ET)
         
      http://www.poligazette.com/2008/10/09/acorn-already-guilty-of-voter-fraud/
      Report Abuse
      • Author by NiceguyEddie (March 18, 2009 2:33 pm ET)
           

        The article says "accuses" not "convcted" and while it uses the words "voter fraud" if you actually read it you will find out, again, that it is registration fraud that they are accused of.  And again: ACORN is the VICTIM HERE!!!  They are the ones who paid to register voters that didn't exsist.

        3 up, 3 down - NOW SIT. DOWN. and STFU.

        Report Abuse
    • Author by magnolialover (March 18, 2009 2:13 pm ET)
         
      Fairliberal, I think you should read your links before posting them, since they totally go against what argument I'm sure that you're trying to make.

      And Poligazette? Really? They first call ACORN a far left liberal organization, they're not. They have no party affiliation. They are not connected to Obama, any longer. He once represented them in a lawsuit, or more appropriately, the firm that Obama worked for represented them. And, ACORN has never received any federal funding. Never.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by mikehuck1976 (March 18, 2009 2:17 pm ET)
         

      Your third reference is pathetic. And, to even use that as a reference for anything shows you to be nothing but a pure partisan.  It is even more pathetic than using your frankenlies website to support your beliefs.  Surely, you can see from the first two sentences that nothing this "article" purports to be true can be taken at face value.

      However, I will comment on your first two references.  I am curious as to whether or not you (or anyone on the right) knows the difference between voter registration fraud and voter fraud.  There is a substantial difference.  I can register Mickey Mouse a hundred different times, but it is not going to alter an election unless somehow Mickey Mouse actually shows up to vote on election day.  I hope you can understand that simple idea.  Also, both of these articles seem to explain that these employees were registering false names in order to justify their pay.  That would make ACORN the victim of the fraud.  You get that, right?  I can only assume you are trying to defend ACORN at this point.

      Report Abuse
    • Author by pros2pros2940 (March 18, 2009 5:28 pm ET)
         

      Even the Bush Doj didn't find anything

       In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud

      WASHINGTON, April 11 — Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews

      "There was nothing that we uncovered that suggested some sort of concerted effort to tilt the election," Richard G. Frohling, an assistant United States attorney in Milwaukee, said.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html

      Report Abuse

my.MediaMatters.org

Login  Sign Up

About the Blog

Feed Icon
  • County Fair is a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the Web as well as original commentary, breaking news and rapid response updates to major media events from Media Matters senior fellows and other staff.

Weekly Columns

Feed Icon

Most Popular Tags

Feed IconRSS Feeds

Get personalized rss or email alerts

Connect & Share

Facebook Twitter Digg YouTube MySpace