The ACORN Grows into a Mighty Mess

Regular readers know I don’t ordinarily cover the big, sensationalist stories that go viral through the blogosphere, unless I feel I have something to contribute, so I haven’t said much of anything about these shocking videos of ACORN workers advising an undercover “pimp” and “ho” as to how they can get housing, evade taxes and -most repellent- traffic in underage prostitutes brought in from Latin America.

I had incorrectly and naively assumed that given the nature of the relationship between President Obama and ACORN (recall he promised the organization in 2007 that they would have a voice in shaping his policies) the Obama-loving mainstream media would feel obligated to report on these stories.

I should have remembered that Newsweek tried to spike the Monica Lewinsky story before Drudge broke it wide open. I should have known better than to think any story that could possibly besmirch a Democrat president would be disinteresting anathema to the press, or -as the sycophantic ABC Anchor Clown Charlie Gibson has sneered, “maybe this is one you leave to the cable networks.

The mainstream press is trying not to report it. In reporting that the Census Bureau was dissolving the “partnership” with ACORN, the NY Times did not assign a writer to the story, but worked off of an already-vague AP report, to render the story void of all troubling details, and did not mention anything about President Obama or his administration.

As they give the briefest coverage to the Senate GOP’s calls for the IRS to similarly dis-associate from ACORN, most mainstream reports carefully omit any reference to underage prostitution.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Pelosi’s congress has not been able to bring itself to vote on defunding ACORN. 130 House Republicans have signed this letter to President Obama, urging him to halt all taxpayer funding of ACORN.

The press wants to clean this up as much as it possibly can, because they spent all of their credibility on electing this president, and they do not want to see him tainted by association, with this dubious organization.

And why should the president’s name be dragged into this, you ask? Well, recall that as a “community organizer” President Obama helped to train ACORN workers. His stimulus plan included 8.5 Billion dollars for ACORN before the Senate voted to cut all federal funding to the group yesterday afternoon.

You would think at the very least, the press would have a few questions for President Obama on this issue, wouldn’t you? Surprise! They don’t. This story has been ongoing for five days, now, and the president has not said a word about it, and the press has not asked. Cozy.

And it goes without saying, if ACORN was called, oh, I don’t know, TUMBLEWEED, had been associated with, say, President Bush for years and had even benefited from his tutelage, the press would be similarly silent and incurious about this story “best left to the cables.” They would allow Bush the privilege of pretending none of this is happening, and gift him with their silence. Of course.

Doug Ross writes that -can you believe it- Obama’s ongoing website has scrubbed mentions of his association with ACORN. And it seems the Google cache is scrubbed, too.

What a remarkable presidency. History always begins today!

President Obama will be doing Five of the Sabbath Gasbag shows this Sunday, avoiding only Fox News. Do you think David Gregory, George Stephanopoulos or the rest will ask him about any of this? Will Jay Letterman?

So, here we are, the Breitbart crew presents Episode #4 in the Adventures of a Cartoonish Pimp and Ho at ACORN, and this time, the ACORN worker admits – hey, she doesn’t have a problem with killing people, if you can believe her.

Confederate Yankee says ACORN.com is down, the server likely overwhelmed, and he wonders if Mrs. Pelosi thinks they should be defunded, yet.

Ed Morrissey mocks the press for their frank unwillingness to address this story. Writes Ed:

Let’s pose the question this way. If the Federalist Society, which got a heaping helping of demonization during the John Roberts and Samuel Alito confirmation hearings, started giving advice to prospective pimps and hookers on tax evasion and hiding child-prostitution rings, does anyone think that the Charlie Gibsons and the Papers of Record in the US would let that slide to the cable networks? Or would it headline their outlets, complete with a dissection of Federalist Society support for Republicans?

Ace: we, as taxpayers, sure as hell shouldn’t be paying cold hard cash for the amazing advice “just don’t pay your taxes, put your money in a tin can and bury it.”

More:
Charlie Gibson Audio
Gay Patriot: Boxer’s office says “never spoke with her”
Allah: ACORN Murder in CA?
MSNBC’s Norah O’ Donnell: wonders if this is entrapment. Because all those old 60 Minutes undercover stories, they were entrapment, too? Is Breitbart the new Don Hewitt?
Will: The More Obama talks, the less anyone believes him
Riehl: goes slightly unreal
Radio Patriot: things are coming undone
Rich Lowry: ACORN is the EF Hutton of Prostitution
Conor Friedersdorf: Hurrah for Alternative Media
Maura Flynn: Media coverage would be good, but media outrage would be better
Instapundit: Another story getting no coverage