Breitbart's tired ACORN smear campaign took an even lamer turn today with BigGovernment's attempt to manufacture a “San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandal.” “Licensed” investigator Derrick Roach dug through the garbage of the San Diego office and found some sensitive documents. To be clear, the documents he purportedly found - a few of which BigGovernment provides in the post - contained sensitive employee and donor information and should have been shredded rather than just dumped in the trash dumpster so that such information couldn't be used by anyone else (e.g. rabid right-wingers with an ACORN obsession).
That said, the information found in the documents BigGovernment provides in the post appears to be so inane that the only scandal promises to be if the conservative media actually continues to run with this tired charade. BigGovernment does promise that "[o]ver the weeks and months ahead, BigGovernment.com will continue to release information from this shocking document dump by ACORN, slowly revealing the ugly truth of ACORN: the fact that their stated mission of helping the poor and downtrodden is just a ruse and a cover for an organization that is highly partisan and highly political, and thus rotten to the core." But if there was really anything that damning in the documents, would BigGovernment really wait weeks and months to release it?
And if the information Breitbart and crew found did show hard and fast evidence of anything criminal, isn't Breitbart ethically - if not legally - obligated to turn over such information to the authorities?
But Breitbart's investigation takes a turn toward the bizarre and downright creepy with what Roach claims is a video shot from outside the San Diego ACORN office, showing several purported ACORN employees talking around someone's desk. Roach explains: "[T]he video clip, from the evening of the document dump, shows ACORN operatives clearly engaged in some kind of discussion - likely related to the activities of that evening." Activities of the evening? Like where to grab dinner and drinks? Or maybe they were discussing whether to see “Zombieland” or “Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself.” Who knows? But we can be certain that they were discussing something.
Breitbart should do one of two things (or both) immediately: Release everything to the public - tapes, (redacted) documents, etc. - and/or hand everything over to the proper authorities. Unless, of course, it's all just smoke and mirrors...