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Last week, California Attorney General Jerry Brown released the results of his investigation into the Acorn sting videos by right-wing activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles. The two posted videos that supposedly showed O'Keefe and Giles getting advice from Acorn workers in various state offices on running a prostitution ring involving girls who'd been snuck across the Mexican border. The uproar led Congress to cut off support for Acorn, a community organizing group that worked in poor communities, and crippled Acorn's funding operation. On April 1, Acorn shut down its field offices.
It turns out the O'Keefe and Giles expose, at least in California, didn't hold up. Attorney General Brown wrote: "Things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality....Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor."
We invite you now to compare sting videos as played and replayed on Fox to the original footage on which Brown based his decision.
After the jump, Rachel Maddow's take:
From Maddow on the Tuesday show:
The unedited video tapes released by the California Attorney General's office last week clear ACORN employees in California of any criminal wrongdoing.
They do not clear ACORN offices in other parts of the country. And we've talked about ACORN's real various misdeeds before on this show -- including having an executive who embezzled funds, and some other problems. This is not meant to excuse what ACORN has done wrong in the past.
But the huge tide of negative publicity that followed these videotapes and the coverage they got on Fox? Was bull pucky. It was a dishonest political stunt that bears no resemblance to journalism and no resemblance to the facts. But it worked. This big organization serving poor people and registering thousands of voters and advocating for a higher minimum wage has been shut down -- means be damned, in the end it worked. Who do you think is next on their list.
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The video does not seem to be working
It didn't work for me either, initially, so I refreshed the page and it worked fine. You might try that. Hope it helps.
I hope the California Attorney General goes full throttle against these right wing frauds!
How is it that Fox still keep a licence to broadcast? Will they be held to account for their disgraceful behaviour? .... And how can their broadcasters sit there and spout the lies and bigotry that seems standard Fox fare?
Wish we had anything near as great as the Rachel Maddow Show in the UK but I guess that "there's only one Rachel Maddow, one Rachel Maaaaddow, there's only one Rachel Maddooow!!!" - (as a soccer chant)
Fox news is a disgrace to journalism. I hope they will be held accountable for their lies, but I am sure they will find some way to get away with it. Unfortunately many will not see them for who they are: FIXED NEWS.
Disgusting. O'Keefe & Giles should be prosecuted and jailed for libel and slander. And so should the executives at Fox news... but good luck proving that they (Fox) knew the tapes were edited. At the very least, they're (Fox) negligent in not verifying the validity of the tapes.
Wish you were as adamant with the rest of the media.
one out of how many acorn employees called the cops, 1 and only one. you libs kill me... pray for obama using psalms 109.8 as a reference.
I can't tell you how angry this makes me. To know Acorn was put out of business by a total pack of lies and now it's done and there's nothing that can be done to fix it. Just one small example of how FOX and its cohorts are tearing down this country bit by bit.
"Who do you think is next on their list?" Indeed.
Good work, Rachel. Shine the light into the dark corners. Maybe someday the truth will prevail.
ACORN needed to go anyway... Whether this was a hoax or not, do you have a CLUE Leslie what ACORN has done in other states?!?!?! ANY clue? All ACORN received was a taste of its own medicine! And I am really glad for it!
Bye Bye ACORN, you couldnt go FAST enough.
You Liberals have had it. November is coming and so are WE...
Good riddance ACORN!!! How many times have the Lame Stream Media put out falsely edited stories, but because those were the first stories put out there, they became accepted despite their falsehood. CBS and the rigged car explosions anyone? ACORN was a corrupt organization and needed to go. Rachel Madcow makes it sound like we're going to se something "revelatory" in her videos, and we don't.
Shocking indeed. I'm sorry (and a little surprised) that Acorn was not more aggressive in citing the facts in their defense.
Actually they did defend themselves noting the edited footage and the fact that many of the workers did call the police. After an internal investigation guilty parties were let go.
It's time for Congress to act! They need to start providing money once again for ACORN as they have for decades now, because despite what the WATB of the right wing says about ACORN, this organization does provide an excellent service to those in need. On the other hand, the republicans provide nothing good to our nation so they must go! LEAVE THE COUNTRY NOW!
I do not want my tax dollars going to an obviously partisan group like acorn. The bigger scandal is that they have government help to push one parties agenda with everyones money. Sounds like the old soviet union.
ACORN had to go. There's no reason for our tax dollars to fund a corrupt, racist group like ACORN. Particularly in todays' fiscal environment, we need to cut all unnecessary spending and balance the budget. If ACORN is truly worthy of funding, it should be able to secure its funding through VOLUNTARY charitable contributions.
"FOX News We Report you Decide" will be changed to "FOX News we make it up You Believe it"
I actually have a T-Shirt (made in the USA no less) that has a twist on their logo (Fāk News Changeling in place of Fox News Channel) with the caption "They Lied. You Believed." A second has "Faux News Changeling" that states "Mental and Unbalanced."
Fox news seems to be the republican version of Nickelodeon
The vitrolic nature of the RM Show makes people like me, a Tea Party member who trusts neither republican, Fox, Maddow or msnbc see more truth in Disney Channel's kids news. When one of you "news" or "opinion" types begin to understand that just yapping your bad taste and attitude is just as bad as Beck yapping his idiotic banter. Sadly, you do not report anything, do not inform anyone and do little to make this world better. But as a member of the USMC, H&HS 1st MAW we heard you accusing us of "removing bullets from dead "enemy" corpses and we ask ourselves..when as she been embedded with our brothers in the WZ and we want you to have the guts to come over for a ride in one of our LV's. See the friendly nature of the insurgeants and tell us face to face how you can keep calling us murderers!
What does this have to do with ACORN?
I have some trouble seeing exactly where Rachel Maddow is being vitriolic unless by vitriol you mean reporting facts. But sure you keep banging the wacky drum there gmonet.
gmonet
That's right... when presented with Proven Facts, Still Deny!!
first: get a dictionary
then: get a clue
p.s. on digging bullets out of innocent victims: see you in hell on that one!
ummm...challenging absolute bull@!$%# with multi-sourced facts is "yapping your bad taste and attitude is just as bad as Beck yapping his idiotic banter"? and then that is followed by a rant invoking the honor of our military to justify illegal action in the field by the fact that those we occupy are not 'friendly'?
really?
what are you on? seems like the one not to trust is your own perceptions of reality.
excuse me, but are you speaking english? Its a little difficult to determine precisely what point you are trying to make...
Perhaps you should stick to drinking tea?
For a long time Olberman kept a running count of the number of days that Bush had declared mission accomplished in Iraq. I think you should start keeping a running count of the number of days that Fox has refused to apologize to its viewers and set the record straight.
for forumlogic ... http://www.philly2philly.com/politics_community/politics_community_articles/2009/6/29/4854/fox_news_wins_lawsuit_misinform_public
Fox News Wins Lawsuit To Misinform Public
Will someone please find a way to hold these liars accountable for their actions. I don't know if an act of congress can be reversed or if it should but fox news could certainly fund ACORN 2. WHO IS NEXT !!!
Do you get what's happened to America? Fox News is clearly not journalism. Not in any way possible. Yet, they continue to have a broadcast license and they continue to spew lies.
This is one of the main reasons why I no longer consider my 75 year old father a sane individual. He doesn't know how to use The Google, so he relies on the abject lies of Fox to provide him with an ever-slanted slice of unreality. Sad for him, and sad for the other Fox News watchers who believe rather than know.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
Just as President Obama's concise answer in W.Va should have been, "No ma'am, here's the truth: if you make less than $250K/year your taxes will be lower," the Acorn story should have been: "Here's what they showed you (VIDEO CLIP) and it was all lies. And now here's the truth." (VIDEO CLIP).
But one question: why did it take these months and the end of a group of community-minded, lower-income folks to get the story our? Have we so few actual journalists working in America these days?
I enjoy and appreciate your important newcasts. Thanks. Jim
Great Job. FNC is destroying America with lies. I wish Non-Profit organizations would lose Tax Exempt status when spreading lies or misleading informaiton. Such as FreedomWorks. Tax Exempt is for those that provide a public service, lies are not a public service. Why Big Corps get Tax Breaks for paying Ad Agencies pretending to be Non Profit.
That is a really, really good question. Here's an even better one: Why did a Democratic-controlled Congress so quickly pull the plug on ACORN for providing business consulting services to a pimp, and yet they can do nothing about BLACKWATER, which has been accused of everything up to and including outright murder?
I have to say Rachel, you make me laugh. Your defense of a corrupt organization like ACORN is pathetic. Of course Jerry Brown is going to defend ACORN. He’s running for governor this year under the democratic ticket. A farce organization such as ACORN can make this happen with all the voter registration fraud they seem to provide. Oh, you left that part out of your story. Along with voter registration fraud, California investigating ACORN for tax evasion, obstruction of justice and misappropriation of confidential documents. Seems they filled a dumpster full of paperwork right after the story broke. What are they trying to hide? Additionally, why did it take 7 months to find out this ACORN worker called the police right after James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles left the ACORN office? Hard for me to believe that wouldn’t have come out a lot sooner. No one has come forward, not even the police to verify if that is true. If so, where is the police report?
As for the video, who cares what kind of shirt James O’Keefe was wearing. You’re going to discredit the entire video and the reprehensible behavior of ACORN because of a shirt sleeve? That’s your smoking gun?
Finally, you claim the video was heavily edited and doesn’t show the entire truth. Fox news is guilty of skewing the story. I occasionally flip you’re your show during commercials and happened to catch your babbling about something Newt Gingrich said on Fox News. I happened to see the entire interview on Fox and was amazed how you edited what Newt stated in mid-sentence to distort his statement.
Stop being a hypocrite Ms. Maddow and maybe you can gain some viewers of your pathetic show. If you are going to be critical of Fox News then stop doing what you claim they are doing.
I seriously doubt Newt is a good guy who is edited by the right. He makes himself very clear. Like when he ranted and raved about Clinton and lewinsky...while he was having an affair himself. Save the moral highground.
Kudos for your attempt to use the tried-and-true conservative tactic of attacking your opponent for the very thing that is your own biggest weakness: in this case, selective editing of the facts. Sadly, your content was lacking, as you provided at best spotty circumstantial evidence for your claim. You should probably take a look at the following; it's an excellent resource for understanding the basics of logical argument: http://www.fallacyfiles.org/glossary.html -- pay special attention to "cogency" and "contextomy".
Please do keep trying though. I like my politics mixed with a healthy dose of humor. :)
"Additionally, why did it take 7 months to find out this ACORN worker called the police right after James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles left the ACORN office? Hard for me to believe that wouldn’t have come out a lot sooner."
That's because you drank the kool-ade in huge gulps, bonehead.
Hey Tommy S...
How IS that Hope and Change workin for ya? Hmmmm? How is this "Historic President" doing?
Obama's election was historic all right. For the FIRST time in the history of this country Americans voted in a man who is supremely unqualified to be President. PERIOD!
I know I know, Americans, weary of the Iraq war, voted in a Rebound Girlfriend, an Accidental President. This charlatan in OUR White House does not represent YOU or ME, and has sold Black Americans a bill of goods he cant possibly deliver on. He has lied to the American People time and again, and has broken EVERY SINGLE CAMPAIGN PROMISE to you. And still YOU with YOUR Kool Aid see him as Historic and your Messiah.
November is coming! And so are we....
@CallSteve00... ahem. Ah, Steve... what the HELL are you doing presenting substantive, factual information on this gassy, Fox-bashing party? You crazy, man! lol
Great job on this story. This is the kind of thing that should be making front pages and top stories.
FOX "News" should be taken to task more often for it's long history of misinformation and lack of anything resembling journalistic integrity.
Maddow is the one political pundit I have ever been able to stomach because she is respectful and fair with a good sense of humor. I still don't watch television news, but clips like this are worth following up with online.
I'd like to see a left wing version of FOX "News" that is just as dishonest, unfair and unbalanced to level the playing field and get the left wing loons up in arms as well. Maybe we could thin the herds that way. Yes, I'm a terrible person. lol
LOL @ Tea Baggers & FAUX "News" viewers getting angry and bashing Maddow because ACORN was cleared of any wrong doing here. That's the typical intellectual dishonesty and self-delusion that I have come to expect from those types.
First of all, gmonet, what, exactly, does this have to do with the egregious dishonesty involved in the Fox 'news' piece on Acorn? And second, where else did you see this, or any of the numerous other exposés that have first seen the light of day on the Rachel Maddow show? I saw the piece Rachel did on the raid in southeast Afghanistan during which a man and 3 women were killed. At no time was the word 'murderers' used. She reported on the Feb. incident, the ensuing statement from McCrystal's office claiming the women had been tied up & killed prior to the raid, the piece by the Times of London regarding the removal of the bullets & the washing of the wounds with alcohol, and the subsequent denial of a cover-up by Nato & other forces. Your comments do not factually represent or address the coverage that was given to the issue to which you refer. If you intend to cast aspersions on a piece, it would serve you better to at least get your own facts straight. I suggest you watch the piece again, and try very hard to listen more carefully without the 'attitude' you seem to abhor. Because even a Tea Partier must surely understand that any time an incident like that happens, it further endangers your brothers in the WZ. By the way, you didn't mention, but I'd be interested in knowing when and where you served. I can't imagine why you'd leave that info out, as you seem to identify so strongly with the situation. I have the greatest respect for our troops, and understand that it's absolutely in the best interest of all when any bad apples are identified and removed from the barrel. Putting a lid on the barrel doesn't remedy the situation.
This was intended as a reply to gmonet, but it seems to have posted out of sequence. Sorry for any confusion resulting from the disjointed placement.
YK
Gmonet Get out of the bradley. The Carbon monoxide has made you brain dead.
But thanks for the input.
If you drove down my street in an armoured vehicle threatening anything that moved, I might not be glad you are there.
If you kill innocent women and claim they were dead before you arrived, You are a murderer.
You do seem to have an awareness of idiotic banter but sadly, no self awareness.
Thanks for this report Rachel. Its sad that this won't get nearly a tenth the coverage that the original story did. How do so called young conservative activists find the time or money to visit acorn offices from coast to coast? Someone please follow the paper trail.
YOU GO GIRL !!! Keep these human hemorrhoids honest. Smoke them out !!!
Thank you Rachel for being the only journalist courageous enough to call Fox out on their McCarthy-istic campaign of lies with this news piece. I haven't found any other news outlet that even mentions the audacity Fox displays at the level of editing they have performed to lie to the American public. No other news organization seems to be willing to report against Fox News.
I don't understand why so many appear to be afraid of them but keep up the GREAT WORK!