Fox News Punked By ACORN

[jefferson_dem]

Fox News Punked By ACORN
Reported by Ellen - September 16, 2009 -

Fox News conservatives, along with Foxnews.com and Fox Nation (screen grabs after the jump) were agog over what Sean Hannity called “the most shocking undercover footage… captured to date” by those two conservative media darlings, Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe. Giles and O'Keefe, you may recall, have released a series of videos of their escapades posing as a pimp and a prostitute to entrap ACORN on film (and without a care that they likely broke the law while doing it). Although their previous efforts seem to have uncovered some genuine wrongdoing by some low-level ACORN staffers, their latest “expose” seems to have only exposed how shoddy their own journalistic instincts and ethics are, along with those of their benefactor, Andrew Breitbart, and Fox News. With video.

Predictably, Giles and O’Keefe’s latest video release was treated as major news on Fox News yesterday (9/15/09).



Glenn Beck devoted his entire show to it. Sean Hannity was full of credible enthusiasm as he announced that in San Bernardino, CA, the supersleuths uncovered “a much more serious crime.”

On Hannity, as on Beck, earlier, viewers were treated to ACORN’s Tresa Kaelke's story about how she used to work for an escort service, her tips for how Giles and O’Keefe might cover up their prostitution business in order to acquire a home for themselves and their underage girls from El Salvador, and the “explosive” news that Kaelka had killed her husband.

The only problem? It’s not true. As ACORN has stated in its press release,

“They were not believable", said Ms. Kaelke of the two actors. "Somewhat entertaining, but they weren't even good actors. I didn't know what to make of them. They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me. Like Stephan Colbert does – saying the most outrageous things with a straightface." While her sense of humor might not be funny to many people, the fact is that she spun false scenario after false scenario and the videographer ate them up.

ACORN provided a copy of a San Bernardino police report of their investigation into the “homicide” of Kaelke’s husband. The police concluded, “the claims do not appear to be factual. Investigators have been in contact with the involved party’s known former husbands, who are alive and well.”

ACORN also points out that the fact that the filmmakers, Breitbart and Fox presented the video as truth, without any independent investigation, calls into question all of their journalistic standards. The organization also questioned why some footage that reflected well on ACORN had been edited out of the video.

<SNIP>

http://www.newshounds.us/2009/09/16/fox_news_punked_by_...

[Apollo11]

1. Jon Stewart was talking about this on last night's The Daily Show

You can watch it here: www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/248914/tue-september...

It looks like Jon didn't get the joke either, which makes me wonder who is telling the truth ...

[patrice]

2. Uh, why would someone say such things to near strangers with a video camera?

[drm604]

7. They're hidden camera videos.

Taping people like this may have been illegal.

[DarthPortnoy]

12. It WAS illegal

and the "filmmakers" will hopefully end up doing 5 years for this. This is all a set up. When the Truth comes out, and it will, Fox NEws will have egg on its face. Why else hasn't the mainstream media covered this story as much as FOX? Maybe because they know that this is all fake gotchya journalism, without substance or truth?

When the shit hits the fan, it will be great seeing Beck, Hannity, BigGovernment.com and FOX all scrambling to backtrack on this fake "scandal".

LOL...me thinks this is going to be a great week for us Progressives!

[Mike Daniels]

9. Why would ACORN (especially since they're already suspect to certain groups) even play along?

When you're already under the gun by some parties why would you even do anything that could create further problems for your group?

Did they expect someone to appear at the end and say "Smile!! You're on Candid Camera (or whatever)?"

Amazingly bad judgement by the staff even if they were just trying to "punk" the actors.

[mariawr]

15. This will make any thing FAUX says suspect, hopefully....

they can weasel if they want to, but Faux Noise knows it revels in deceptive 'reporting'.
Witness the utter attack on Rev wright. That was unbelievable-but 'people' bought it. Thirty seconds of tape to defame a life of service. What do YOU think of when you hear his name?
See what I mean? Same for Acorn, same tactics, same outcomes.

You all should know this plot by now.
Faux went to court, for pete's sake, in Florida to defend their right to lie..and won.

[drm604]

17. Possibly bad judgement,

but keep in mind that they didn't know that they were on camera.

Who knows what these people put up with all day? Who knows who comes into those offices? They may have been trained to humor obvious nuts rather than risking them becoming violent.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Are there any other resources that debunk this ACORN accusation?

I like seeing more than just one article about it.

[fugop]

4. They had this at Kos

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/16/782694/-ACO...

[jefferson_dem]

5. Here

http://www.mediaite.com/online/james-okeefe-and-fox-new...

[drm604]

6. "Although their previous efforts seem to have uncovered some genuine wrongdoing"

I'm not so certain about this claim. If this woman saw them as clowns and played along, who's to say that others didn't do the same?

[truckin]

8. Something doesn't seem right with these videos but I doubt

that several employees in different offices would act in the same way or coordinate the scam. I really hope this is the case but I'd be surprised if it was.

Also, ACORN would be telling everyone they could that they punked the filmmakers to save their reputation and especially since they may lose any federal funding.

[joeycola]

14. I think it was yesterday that they lost the HUD funding from the Senate

vote.

[drm604]

18. They wouldn't have to be coordinated.

Why would they have to be coordinated?

[truckin]

19. I didn't say they had to be coordinated. I said that it would either

be several employees in several different locations punking the filmmakers on their own or that the employees coordinated the scam. Either scenario seems unlikely to me. Not impossible, but unlikely.

Also, if ACORN did punk the filmmakers they should be shouting it from the rooftops given the negative attention this is getting.

[drm604]

21. I don't think it unlikely employees in different locations went along with what seemed to be a joke.

If I thought that people were pulling my leg it's possible that I'd go along with the joke. Keep in mind that we haven't seen the unedited tape. The woman who admitted to a non-existent murder says that she specifically voiced her suspicions that it was a joke. Others may have done the same. We need to see the unedited tapes.

I don't know why ACORN is not shouting it from the rooftops. Is ACORN shouting about this woman? She appears to be the only one disputing it (with backup from a police investigation). Why isn't ACORN speaking up about her? If they're not speaking about her, then why should we be surprised that they're not speaking about the others? Maybe ACORN is getting advice from lawyers to keep quiet about this for the moment? I don't know. The other employees may have also obtained legal counsel and are being told to stay silent for the moment.

Or maybe the others are fools who really did what they're accused of. We just don't know yet and I'm not going to make any assumptions.

[truckin]

22. Agreed. Not enough info to make any assumptions. nt

[truckin]

20. BTW, it sounds like the lady who said she murdered her

ex-husband did punk them. Not sure about the others.

[Beacool]

10. I saw their interview on Hannity last night.

Hannity did ask them if there was any proof that what the woman was saying was true and the girl said that they were investigating her claims.

[rucky]

11. Think any prominent DEMS have the cojones to defend ACORN?

[RandomThoughts]

13. I think the lesson is that anyone can be smeared.

It does not take any perspective if one small piece of information can be made to be thought is the entire story. Especially when it is then attached to other situations.

To quote the beginning of a TV show.

We can delude you with 1000 channels or expand one single image to crystal clarity and beyond, we can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive. We will control all that you see and hear.

When people gave their ability to perceive perspective to the people that choose what goes on TV, they choose to live in a world where they can be controlled by the fear of those smears.

Matt Damon explained it. If a group thinks you are what they call a 'terrorist' they will pick you up and put you in front of a news interview panel where they will torture with smears. Think about it, the power to control people has been given to people that distort information and perspective to create false ideas in peoples minds about the world. And if you can not think in perspective, then you enable that attempt of control over a society.

The way that society is threatened is by threatening people that do not go along with the propaganda, by using smears, they create perspectives and attachments that have nothing to do with reality.

Fox News, and other organizations are attacking people by using bad things outside of perspective, and only an organization that is perfect could be expected to survive the judgement of people when they are made to be seen for something they are not. Name any organization with over 1000 people that you can not find 30 seconds of one person in the organization then paint that as the entire groups actions. It is almost institutionalized stereotyping for an intent of smear.

How hard would it be to get a person to throw themselves under a bus with the threat of a smear? Especially if a smear had previously been manufactured and saved for that exact purpose. Gossip and blackmail used to control people in society.

The same thing was shown in the movie thunder dome, where the little guy was threatened to be lowered down into the pig pen.

Swift boats, Rev Wright, and how many others, all smeared to change peoples perspectives of reality.

On a side note, J Edgar Hoover was said to have files on lots of people and used that blackmail to get what he wanted. The Church report showed how information was gathered for those reasons. Many politicians have been destroyed by indiscreciones that do not define who they are, while others are not spoken about, again to give the discretion of what people believe to the people that choose what goes on TV. And they can even create smears where none exist.

The Mercenary parties in the Afghan camp were done only be a few people, but they called them initiations or hazings, which implies all new people that came into the camp had those things done at parties. If the mercenary group has any intelligence training, you know they know about how to gather blackmail evidence for future use. That is part of why some people are being scared into hurting others, for fear of smears, things taken out of context or done when they were not on their best behavior.

This is not a defense of the people in that video, there is not enough information in that video to know what kind of people they are, nor how they have lived their entire lives. But I do know the TV lies alot, so I give little merit to the deception of what we are told is news, that most of the time is more like intelligence operations that is propaganda.

I think that is the message that was meant by the saying that the person without sin should throw the first stone, and the drawing in the sand where people saw there own sins. If we live in judgement of people without perspective, then we live in a world where anyone that has a big megaphone can stone anyone for anything regardless of if it is real or not. Instead of trying to find a flaw to be used as a smear, look at the whole of their actions and help people work through their flaws, everyone has flaws, but if the world is to get better people have to find the real cumulative actions of people and how they contribute to the world.

Visceral smears and our own worst fears often are used to divert attention by people that are hurting millions of people every day.

[mariawr]

16. Random, I'd rec your comment if I could. nt

[ljm2002]

23. Excellent post...

...I also wish I could recommend it.