Projo proven wrong, yet again

 In a vindication for the community group ACORN, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service has exonerated the organization of any wrong doing after employees were video taped by right-wing activists saying, admittedly, some really stupid things.

The report is also a vindication of our own Senator Sheldon Whitehouse who was one of only 7 US Senators who did not vote to end federal funding for ACORN ( a move, as David pointed out, was ruled unconstitutional.)

The real question for me is: will the editors of the Providence Journal have the courage of character to admit that they were wrong, that they rushed to judgment, and that they were caught up in a frenzy created by the rantings, and for the ratings, of right wing talk media?

In case you don’t remember, this is what Projo Columnist Froma Harrop wrote:

ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — has long served as a walking parody of the poverty pimp popularized by the right.

And here is what far right wing columnist and deputy editorial page director Ed Achorn wrote :

These crusaders want prostitution to be treated as just another business, and consider any opposition to it that is based on moral values to be hopelessly old-fashioned. It’s not a giant leap from there to ACORN employees volunteering advice for gaming the system to run a brothel of underage immigrants. It’s all about “jobs in the community.”

And this is what the full editorial board published:

The stench of fraud surrounding the community activism group ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) has become so pungent that the Democrat-controlled Senate — by the resounding margin of 83 to 7 — voted to strip the group of millions of dollars of funds in an appropriations bill.

How embarrassing to them now since, as NPR reports, the CRS says that their rush to judgment was complete baloney:

A couple passages are worth highlighting. I'm going to put some phrases in bold because they contain key information about what CRS actually did. The "you" CRS is addressing is Conyers:

-- You asked for a description of all federal funding received by ACORN over the last five fiscal years and a description of instances where ACORN violated the terms of federal funding. ... A search of reports of federal agency inspectors general did not identify instances in which ACORN violated the terms of federal funding in the last five years.

-- You asked CRS to research improper voter registrations that resulted in people being placed on the voting rolls and attempting to vote improperly at the polls. ... A NEXIS search of the ALL NEWS file did not identify any reported instances of individuals who were improperly registered by ACORN attempting to vote at the polls.

Read the full report http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/CRS-ACORN091222.pdf

If the Projo has a shred of decency they will publish a retraction and a full apology to ACORN and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.  Who’s willing to take odds on THAT happening?

But wait, there’s more!  NPR also reports  the video taping  leading to the furor over ACORN may have been itself an illegal act.  And even better, the video may have included evidence that would have cleared ACRON from the start…but the right wing activists that filmed it have refused to allow the full video to be released!  From NEWSHOUNDS:

One of them, Hannah Giles, has admitted to having an anti-ACORN agenda before she started the project and she has been caught lying on television about the results. Furthermore, exculpatory footage was edited out of the videos. Media Matters has called on Andrew Breitbart, the mentor for young Giles and her video “pimp,” James O’Keefe, to release all the unedited ACORN videos. So far, he has not.

So if you ever needed more reasons to doubt what you read from the Projo editors…here is an early Christmas present.  Let’s hope that Santa brings them something nice to open tonight….like a box of integrity.