Throughout the ACORN undercover sting video saga, no one has been more willing to assassinate the character of ACORN's opponents than the hired guns at the left-wing group Media Matters for America.Headed by former journalist and confessed serial liar David Brock, the extremely well-funded Washington, D.C.-based defamation factory has gone out of its way to attack conservative activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, online news entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart, and this website -- the truth be damned.
It's worth noting that even the New York Times describes Media Matters as a "highly partisan research organization."
Media Matters is only interested in generating a body count and won't let facts get in the way. Nothing better illustrates the depths to which Media Matters is willing to sink in order to protect its allies and smear its opponents than its outrageously irresponsible commentary on the ACORN undercover video saga.
Remember that ACORN provides the "shock troops" of the left. ACORN gets the vote out. ACORN wins elections. Those Democratic politicians who don't love ACORN fear it -- and for good reason. To the establishment left, ACORN must be defended at all costs.
This helps to explain why Media Matters has lashed out so viciously at the enterprising journalists O'Keefe and Giles. The pair have steadfastly insisted that every time they visited an ACORN office and acted out the same now-familiar scenario involving a pimp and prostitute seeking ACORN's help in establishing a brothel, ACORN employees helped them and provided advice on their make-believe illegal plans.
With the release of the latest video, this time showing ACORN's Philadelphia office offering helpful advice on the finer points of lawbreaking, Media Matters has once again been shown for what it is: a relentless attack machine determined to smear conservatives at all costs.
Slime first; ask questions later.
It turns out O'Keefe and Giles were telling the truth, but barely a word of truth has escaped the lips of Media Matters and ACORN.
Now that what really happened in Philadelphia has been revealed, let's recap and break down what Media Matters has said about ACORN's Philadelphia story and about the undercover sting video operation in general.
In a Sept. 17 blog post titled, "Police report filed by ACORN exposes false claims by individuals behind videos," Media Matters uncritically accepted ACORN's version of events even after a series of damning videos showing ACORN's illegal conduct in cities across America had already been released to the public. The Media Matters post states
However, in a newly released video, ACORN Housing Corp.'s Katherine Conway Russell directly rebuts those claims, citing a police report ACORN filed as evidence that she asked the filmmakers to leave the ACORN office in Philadelphia and called the police after the filmmakers asked suspicious questions.The Philadelphia video shows that no one working for ACORN ejected O'Keefe or Giles from the office or asked them to leave. If the Philadelphia police complaint depicted in the blog post was actually filed, that fact still doesn't establish much because the video shows ACORN cooperating.
If ACORN called the police, it was only after O'Keefe and Giles departed, which was long after ACORN bent over backwards to counsel the couple on establishing a brothel. The only time in the video the ACORN employee discusses the police is to assure O'Keefe and Giles that she wouldn't call the police to turn them in.