Patterico's Pontifications

10/24/2009

My Letter to the Editorial Page Editor of the L.A. Times Regarding That Fact-Challenged Pro-ACORN Op-Ed Written by the ACORN Consultant

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General — Patterico @ 1:34 pm



I have sent the following e-mail to Nick Goldberg, the Editorial Page Editor for the Los Angeles Times:

Nick,

A recent op-ed in your paper defending ACORN makes at least two factual misstatements: 1) that ACORN staff offered to help shield an underage prostitution ring at only two offices, and 2) that no voter fraudulently registered to vote by ACORN had ever actually cast a ballot. Furthermore, your paper failed to disclose that the author of the op-ed, Peter Dreier, has been a (presumably paid) consultant for ACORN in the past . . . something that might help explain how he botched the facts so badly.

I think the paper should issue corrections of the two false facts, and disclose Dreier’s past consulting work for ACORN.

This e-mail will be a little long, because I’m showing my work. While it might seem like an imposition to ask you to read such a long e-mail, I believe I’m doing you a favor, because I’m laying out the research necessary to show that corrections are warranted.

Let’s start with Dreier’s false claim that only two offices offered to help shield an underage prostitution ring:

Two “gotcha” right-wing activists showed up at about 10 ACORN offices hoping to entice low-level staff to provide tax advice for an illegal prostitution ring. In most ACORN offices, the staff kicked the pair out. In a few cities, staffers called the police. In two offices, however, the staff listened and offered to help. That was wrong. But ACORN immediately fired the errant staffers.

“Two” offices? Try at least five, if not more. Let’s start with the two that Dreier appears to acknowledge.

1) Baltimore: ACORN employees were fired in Baltimore after being caught on tape advising James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles regarding ways to evade the tax laws while running a prostitution business that involved 13 girls from El Salvador that were aged 15 and under. One employee, after being told that Giles was a prostitute, suggested that Giles call herself an independent artist or a dancer. ACORN employees suggested that the underaged prostitutes could be claimed as dependents — and argued that the underaged girls’ income did not have to be reported because they didn’t have Social Security numbers. An ACORN employee also gave advice on how to deal with an abusive pimp, advising them to tell the underaged prostitutes to keep their mouths shut. You may view the videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtTnizEnC1U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNYU9PamIZk

And review a transcript here:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11078409/Complete-ACORN-Baltimore-Prostitution-Investigation-Transcript

2) Washington, D.C.: In Washington, D.C., ACORN employees were fired after they gave O’Keefe and Giles advice on how to run a brothel including underaged prostitutes. An employee advised them to create a false company name to disguise the “lady of the night thing.” Giles was told to call herself a “consultant” or a “marketer” and to be “low key.”

Employees didn’t bat an eye when told that there were 10 El Salvadorian girls involved in the underage prostitution ring. An employee told O’Keefe to say that he was just the landlord and that he has no knowledge of what was going on in the brothel. When they discussed where his money came from, he was told: “When the police ask you, you don’t know where it’s coming from.” View the videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWRTYD26Kxc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9MCk6GvQO4

And a transcript here:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11262293/Washington-DC-ACORN-Video-Child-Prostitution-Investigation-transcript

That’s two. Ah, but Nick . . . there are more.

3) Brooklyn: In Brooklyn, O’Keefe and Giles received advice from ACORN employees on how to obtain mortgage loans when they were using El Salvadorian girls, aged 13-15, as prostitutes. One employee said: “Honesty is not going to get you the house.” Another advised the couple to find another name for the business besides “prostitution” . . . and to bury the proceeds in a tin in the back yard. Watch the videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrpRGZq7Z-U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue_2_dhh1zo

And read a transcript here:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11298085/New-York-ACORN-Transcript

4) San Bernardino: In San Bernardino, a woman explained how to report income from trafficking in underaged prostitutes. She advised them to call it a “group home” and not to declare too much money on their tax returns — which would work, she said, because it was a cash business. View the videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHY3MHBl2ug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr-1rs5lBjA

A transcript is here:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11437661/Full-ACORN-San-Bernadino-Transcript

5) San Diego: In San Diego, an ACORN employee actually went so far as to offer his help smuggling in underage prostitutes across the border. He told O’Keefe and Giles that Tijuana is the best place to smuggle the underaged prostitutes over the border, because “I have a lot of contacts” in Tijuana. Giles and O’Keefe told him that they have 12 girls who are 13-15 years old that they wanted to use as prostitutes. The man’s response? He said he wanted to talk to them via e-mail. Here’s the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QV7kNMrsvI

And here is the transcript:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11602883/Full-Transcript-ACORN-Prostitution-Scandal-San-Diego

Now, the fellow in San Diego who offered his help in trafficking in underaged prostitutes apparently called his cousin, a police detective . . . two days later. I don’t know whether his cousin warned him that he might be the subject of a sting operation before the cousin talked to federal authorities, but I do know that the ACORN employee was later fired. And he sure seems helpful on the tape.

(There is another tape that has recently been released from Philadelphia, but the audio of the ACORN employee has been muted due to ACORN’s legal actions against O’Keefe and Giles, so let’s just stick with the five examples above for now.)

I have spent some time here to gather together the evidence and summarize it in one place so that you can clearly see, with just clicks of the mouse, that Dreier is absolutely full of it when he says that employees offered to help in only two places. Who are you going to believe: Dreier, or your lying eyes?

This not the only falsehood Dreier tells in his op-ed. He also says:

Our study documented that many news outlets reported the voter fraud allegations without attempting to verify them. Had they done so, they would have discovered that not a single person who signed a phony name on a registration form ever actually voted. What occurred was voter registration fraud, not voter fraud, and it was ACORN that exposed the wrongdoing in the first place.

You might think that the extraordinarily sweeping nature of that statement would raise a red flag. Can he really know that no person voted after being fraudulently registered by ACORN?

And in fact, it is not so:

Darnell Nash of Cleveland, Ohio, was registered to vote by ACORN nine times for last year’s election. Nash cast a fraudulent ballot and was convicted of vote fraud and voter registration fraud. He’s currently serving a six-month prison term.

A spokesman for Cleveland’s Democratic prosecutor Bill Mason told me earlier this month that a local investigation of ACORN remains wide open.

Now, when I read this piece, I wondered: how could the man get these facts so badly wrong? A commenter of mine pointed out one possible motive: he has been a consultant for ACORN. As Dreier’s online bio states:

He has worked closely with a wide range of community organizations, labor unions, and public interest organizations, and has worked as a consultant for a variety of foundations and government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), VISTA, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the MacArthur Foundation, the Boston Foundation, the California AFL-CIO, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, ACORN, the Industrial Areas Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and others.

This was not disclosed in the L.A. Times piece, which says only the following about Dreier:

Peter Dreier is a professor of politics at Occidental College. His study of media coverage of ACORN can be found here.

The paper should have disclosed Dreier’s consulting work for ACORN. Don’t you agree?

I think the paper should do so now, and correct the two factual errors I have discussed in this e-mail. I look forward to your response.

Yours truly,

Patrick Frey
https://patterico.com

As always, I’ll let you know what I hear back.

UPDATE: It might also be worth noting that Dreier’s online CV also contains this entry:

Advisory Committee, ACORN (1997- )

He should have mentioned that, too.

UPDATE x2: Since writing this post, I have learned that the American Spectator article was incorrect to assert that Nash was convicted of vote fraud. He was charged with vote fraud and numerous other felonies, but was convicted of three counts of false registration. I have written the author of the American Spectator piece seeking a correction but have received no response. Details in an update to this post.

90 Responses to “My Letter to the Editorial Page Editor of the L.A. Times Regarding That Fact-Challenged Pro-ACORN Op-Ed Written by the ACORN Consultant”

  1. Wow. The original article surely wasn’t given any scrutiny at all. Sloppy.

    S. Weasel (9d9c27)

  2. I will be shocked if they even respond.

    JD (b78ff7)

  3. or better yet, contact Mr. Drier directly here: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier/

    respectful responses only of course.

    truthmattersfa (c92142)

  4. How long do you plan on holding your breath waiting for a response?

    Dave N (894918)

  5. You are so good, Patterico.

    MayBee (34a54a)

  6. I have Facebooked and Tweeted this post. Hope others do the same.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  7. Nick Goldberg’s response should be, “We’re running your email on the op-ed page on Tuesday.”

    Official Internet Data Office (203a2f)

  8. Contacting Dreier has about as much chance as contacting UCI’s idiot Middle East Studies chairman. I did notice they have clamped down on his publicity.

    Mike K (addb13)

  9. Interestingly, I just noticed that Dreier’s online CV also contains this entry:

    Advisory Committee, ACORN (1997- )

    I don’t exactly know what to make of this because I can’t find independent verification of it. A current listing of the members is here and doesn’t have his name:

    * John Banks, Vice President of Government Relations Con Ed
    * Dave Beckwith, Executive Director, Needmor Fund
    * Henry Cisneros, Executive Chairman, Cityview
    * Eric Eve, Senior VP of Global Consumer Group, Community Relations, Citigroup
    * Harvey Hirschfeld, President, Lawcash
    * Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Board Member, RFK Foundation, former MD Lt. Governor
    * John Podesta, President and CEO, Center for American Progress
    * Andrew Stern, International President, Service Employees International Union

    Ideas?

    Patterico (64318f)

  10. I’m probably going to run a post about this at Hot Air tomorrow and would like to nail down this Advisory Committee issue by then.

    Patterico (64318f)

  11. Big surprise here – Kennedy, Podesta and Cisneros are highly partisan cheerleaders for the Dems. What are the odds?

    Dmac (5ddc52)

  12. It could be the Advisory Committee for the local chapter.

    JD (db7dee)

  13. Maybe Dreier doesn’t actually know whether he is/was an Advisory Committee member of ACORN. Remember the summer of 2008 when the embezzlement scandal surfaced to the broader board, ACORN’s inside counsel wrote a memo which was excerpted in the NY Times indicating that a number of its board members weren’t even aware that they were supposedly serving on various affiliate boards or that the boards had supposedly met. The Advisory Committee was also restructured at that point. With 200+ affiliated entities not documenting officers, directors, meeting minutes, etc., corporate governance is definitely not one of ACORN’s strong points.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  14. Color me surprised that a Kennedy is on the list. What are the chances?

    PatAZ (9d1bb3)

  15. Lots of useful info at Discover the Network. Dreier’s from Chicago, into community organizing, and hob nobs with a who’s who of Lefty big shots.

    Here’s a short comment from DtN:

    On September 26, 2009, Dreier penned a piece for the Huffington Post that blamed a right-wing cabal — supposedly composed of “Big Business, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Lou Dobbs, the Religious Right, the Wall Street Journal, Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove” — for unjustifiably attacking leftist organizations such as ACORN.

    ropelight (91c668)

  16. Dreier’s at Occidental College? Mobbed up with ACORN, connected with SEIU, hard left background, Red apologist, faculty member at Occidental…

    Sorry, the antennae are twitching. Who recruited him to Occidental? How long has been there? What other Occidental faculty members have similar connections?

    Occam's Beard (f266fe)

  17. I finally gave up on the LA Times. I have had a subscription since the mid 70’s and cancelled it last week. It felt kinda good to put nail in this biased antique media’s coffin! I just couldn’t take the BS any longer.

    nicepresidentgranny (0d2823)

  18. Absolutely devastating. Top-shelf stuff, Pat.

    Jeffersonian (5363b6)

  19. You are certainly THE hot topic on Twitter right now. Good stuff!

    sybilll (1f51c6)

  20. Layers, and layers, and layers of fact-checking, eh?

    I’m very glad the last time I bought the LA Times was to wrap my china when I vacated the late great state of Confused California.

    Flighterdoc (130d35)

  21. Occidental College – OBAMA’S first Alma Mater.
    Drier – Professor at Occidental College.
    Coincidence?

    mad_as_H (bc14d9)

  22. A compendium of their unintentionally hilarious or outright false op-eds would make a howler of a book.

    My “favorite” op-ed, and the one that finally tipped the scales in favor on complete cancellation, was the one that stated that valet parking attendants were victims of Us capitalism and we should all park our own cars or walk to dinner.

    Unbelievable.

    Patricia (c95a48)

  23. In regards to the voter fraud claim I don’t think you negated the exact claim made in the op ed. The op-ed claims no one voted under a phony name, but you have not provided anything to show that happened. Only that someone voted more than once, it could have been under his actual name.

    I understand this is an extreme nit, but if you are going to take on this kind of fight better to be on all fours with your claims.

    Soronel Haetir (2b4c2b)

  24. I guess we can be somewhat grateful for the poor quality of “journalists” produced by our Liberal Arts programs. Soros is due a refund, or at least a discount. Because whats the point of funding propaganda thats inept? What good is having a newspaper in the tank for you if they are incompetent.

    Also, I can’t help but note that Team Obama regards the LA Times as a “real” news organization.

    Fen (b1f3a8)

  25. Patrick, you’re still da man!

    MDr (fd1f4b)

  26. Can I get Vegas odds on how long before Pelosi, Reid and Team Obama are found to be neck deep in ACORN corruption?

    Fen (b1f3a8)

  27. You Rock!

    Great job documenting your sources, they’ll have to pay attention now, Sisyphus…. uh sry, Patrick.

    Jason (317de8)

  28. Soros is getting his moneys worth. The people who still read the L. A. Times and watch the T V news have been so dumbed down by their teachers and collage professors that they can not tell the difference between the truth and the lies that are printed in the L. A. Times.

    Allan E. (d89095)

  29. There’s precious little Henry Cisneros won’t slap his name on. He’s sort of promiscuous.

    happyfeet (f62c43)

  30. Well done, Patterico.

    DRJ (dff2ca)

  31. Thanks for your hard work on this, Patrick. We taxpayers appreciate it.

    Liberty Jane (2bb9ba)

  32. Soronel,

    I believe the op-ed said voter fraud did not occur, correct?

    Patterico (6d190d)

  33. Very good job. . .thank you!

    Barbara Raines (1afea2)

  34. People voting under false names is by no means unprecedented. This case in the NYT is an example from nearly a century ago from a slew of naturalization fraud cases (PDF)

    DREW PAY AND VOTED UNDER FALSE NAMES; Man Under Arrest for Election Frauds Makes Confession.
    September 29, 1904, Thursday
    Page 6, 926 words

    What Superintendent of Elections Morgan says is the most remarkable story unearthed by him in his investigations of naturalization frauds came to light yesterday in the arrest of Rosario Gamino of 161 Chrystie Street, charged with having registered at the last election under a false name and with having voted illegally , , ,

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  35. I sent a 1 word E-mail to Mr.Peter Dreier that 1 word was PUTZ …his response follows

    Thanks for displaying your intelligence. I imagine that your personal and professional life is quite satisfying, since you spend your spare time sending anonymous, ignorant one-word emails to people you don’t know and which have absoutely no impact on anything. Congratulations for living such a meaningful life.

    Peter Dreier.

    J.Wallace (d6528f)

  36. Why don’t you people contact Oprah Winfrey and ask her to do a show on this very issue, underage illegal immigrant girls being put up a hookers? She is so very, very concerned of the fate of legally married girls at the Yearning For Zion Ranch, (“COMPOUND according to Oprah”), in Texas. She did an entire show on the topic. Not only did she find no criminal activity, vis a vi the multiple marriages, (as did the authorities), but she was so desperate to make a mockery of these good people that she had to resort to ask the following question of a group of the women…”What’s with the hair”? Imagine, Oprah critizes their hair while making no mention of the plight of under age black girls in one parent families in the ghetto who, by the way, have the most outrageous hairdos I have ever seen outside of an African Jungle. No there is a demographic being exploited sexually by older men.

    Mike Boileau (1bd437)

  37. Had they done so, they would have discovered
    that not a single person who signed a phony name on a registration form ever actually voted

    The conviction you point out may well not fulfill this condition, regardless of his having voted more than once.

    Soronel Haetir (2b4c2b)

  38. Progressives know exactly how to deal with a story if the facts and the story-line differ. Go with the story-line; the facts be damned.

    ROBERT MCPEEK (0e321c)

  39. […] look would reveal that other organizations on Dreier’s list have ties to ACORN). Finally, the LA blogger fired off a letter to the editor demanding a detailed retraction of misstated facts and disclosure of Dreier’s ACORN […]

    BizzyBlog (f24158)

  40. […] Times is covering for ACORN How can we trust the press when they do things like this?  Just report the news of corruption wherever it occurs and stop covering for just one […]

    L.A. Times is covering for ACORN « What Bias? (d9a4c0)

  41. Soronel,

    You’re cherry-picking one line from the article and ignoring another, but to address your cherry-picked line: read up.

    Patterico (6d190d)

  42. Great job, Patterico.

    I’ll be most pleasantly surprised if Mr. Goldberg actually reads through the entire email, let alone clicking links, before just deleting it once he sees your name in his in-box.

    Dana (e9ba20)

  43. That’s gonna leave a mark!!

    Chris G (464d0f)

  44. My email to Peter Dreier:

    Would you care to defend yourself for what Patterico calls your lies and your conflict of interest? Or are you going to let the facts stand for themselves and show you for what you are?

    I do comment on Patterico’s Pontifications and a few other sites. I also run my own blogsite and cross-post on another. I would be interested in how a college professor explains falsehoods the professor made by commission and by omission. There is another college professor who regularly comments on Patterico’s Pontifications who I’m certain would like to see your response.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  45. John, you won’t get a response.

    Mike K (addb13)

  46. Nit retracted.

    Soronel Haetir (2b4c2b)

  47. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is on their Bd. of Directors???? And to think she almost became Governor of Maryland. Thank God Bob Ehrlich ran a good campaign back then.

    Carl (767dd5)

  48. I was reading more about ACORN and voting when I came across a May 2009 WSJ article that had this interesting statement:

    But Acorn’s registration tricks may soon be unnecessary. Congressional Democrats are backing a bill to mandate a nationwide data base to automatically register driver’s license holders or recipients of government benefits.

    This “would create an engraved invitation for voter fraud,” says Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission member, who points out that these lists are filled with felons and noncitizens who are ineligible to vote.

    I can’t find anything on this at Thomas.gov so maybe it didn’t go anywhere.

    DRJ (dff2ca)

  49. Mike K, I did get a response, I think. I got 2 hits on my blog with this search:

    +”john hitchcock” +”acorn”

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  50. In addition to voter registration fraud and vote fraud, it’s also possible that groups don’t turn in valid voter registrations and otherwise valid votes won’t count. This could be a result of carelessness but it could also be due to partisanship.

    DRJ (dff2ca)

  51. Somehow, I doubt starling will be making any actual substantive comments any time soon.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  52. My, my. Will Mr. Rainey castigate his newspaper for concealing the ACORN affiliation of an author and making him out to be only a “professor.”? Or his he too busy lambasting FOX- which rather carefully discloses affiliations of speakers on its programs? Tsk, tsk Mr. Rainey!

    richard smith (2230bc)

  53. starling was spam that got through. There have been a couple of dozen like that over the past two days but I usually catch them before they’re seen by most. I removed it so the spam filter will learn to catch it.

    Stashiu3 (44da70)


  54. It would be incredibly difficult to imagine any organization more corrupt than ACORN other than some organization with whom John Podesta had political ties…

    Charlie Harris (32347b)

  55. Dear L.A. Times……

    Patrick Frey of Patterico’s Pontifications dispatches a friendly letter to Nick Goldberg, the Los Angeles Times’ editorial page editor:
    Nick,
    A recent op-ed in your paper defending ACORN makes at least two factual misstatements: 1) that ACO…

    Ed Driscoll (a3d746)

  56. It is always a suprise when i see the foundations an unions working together so closely on these boards.

    Arie (182be0)

  57. […] But in fact it’s the Los Angeles Times. […]

    Sure—If It Were a Real Paper. | Little Miss Attila (62389c)

  58. Really nice work, but good luck with that!

    drjohn (488550)

  59. Do we really want criminals and thieves spending $13 trillion of our tax money or in charge of our health?
    http://livingfortruth.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/questions-need-to-be-answered-in-health-care-debate/<

    living for truth (9c7267)

  60. For publishing a hoax story in a major newspaper for political propaganda purposes, he needs to be dismissed from his university position. I, for one, will be contacting the Occidental this week, to encourage them to rid themselves of this disgraced professor. I encourage you all to do the same.

    GSH (146c1b)

  61. “Massive Vote Fraud in New York Linked to ACORN”

    http://tinyurl.com/yz8oqwb

    Dr. Bogus Pachtsandra (8d8fe9)

  62. Apologies if my previous comment appeared to be spam. It was surely not. It is entirely true that posts in the last few months have caused me to put Patterico near the top of my regular blog reading list. As you’ll note from the links below, I do academic research on political blogs and as is my custom, comment under my own name–something very few, if any, spammers can claim.

    http://papers.ssrn.com/author=100352
    http://ssrn.com/abstract=1418625

    starling (6bf323)

  63. GSH,
    Dreier’s LAT op-ed was a relatively minor offense, compared to his co-authorship of a pro-ACORN “study” that was just another propaganda piece.
    That “study” was uncritically picked up and amplified by lefty media tools who presented it as a piece of unbiased scholarship and failed to note the authors’ far-left politics.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  64. starling,

    The apologies are mine. Your comment wasn’t clear and didn’t seem to relate to the post (common to much of the spam that was getting through), but I’ve been guilty of that myself more than once so I pulled the trigger too quickly in your case. I also looked at the link to your original post and it resembled many of the spammer sites we get. I will be on the lookout for any of your future posts to ensure they are not lost. No offense intended and again, I sincerely regret the error.

    Stash

    Stashiu3 (44da70)

  65. One can only hope that Drier and al his ilk will someday be replaced by “wiser latino women”!

    What better justice than to have an Acorn sponsored illegal be given tenure at Oxy, I ask?

    Abdul Kareema Wheat (443b42)

  66. Maybe I misread the college he professes at. I thought it said Occidental. Was it Accidental College?

    BTW, I got those to hits to my site in response to my email but I didn’t get an email response. I still consider that a response. He checked me out but didn’t feel the need to defend his (lack of) honor.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  67. John,
    Perhaps Dreier also is wary of saying anything that might further implicate him as an ACORN shill disguised as a professor.

    If Dreier is any indication, the liberal arts faculty at Occidental has succumbed to complete intellectual and ethical collapse.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  68. Prof. Dreier to ABC “news”:<i>”I understand the impulse to regroup and scale back but I think it’s premature,” said Peter Dreier, an Occidental College professor of public policy who served on the Obama campaign’s urban policy task force and did some training in Los Angeles for Camp Obama. “I’m not against compromise when it is necessary, but you have to test the [object]first and I don’t think that’s happened yet.”

    [note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]

    shiva irons (bbf54b)

  69. As always, I’ll let you know what I hear back.

    They’re probably so busy right now trying to keep the doors of their workplace (ie, LA Times) open, too busy fretting over the termination of all their colleagues, to really care about their multitude of errors and tons of bias, and to scrutinize letters like the one you wrote.

    Mark (411533)

  70. Whatever happened to my “w” in “two”? I suspect the ObamaNation stole it, thinking it was representative of GWB.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  71. Prof. Peter Dreier: “I understand the impulse to regroup and scale back but I think it’s premature,” said Peter Dreier, an Occidental College professor of public policy who served on the Obama campaign’s urban policy task force and did some training in Los Angeles for Camp Obama. “I’m not against compromise when it is necessary, but you have to test the power of the opposition first and I don’t think that’s happened yet.”

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-dropping-public-option-end-government-takeover-rhetoric/Story?id=8476656&page=2

    I hope Prof. Peter got to ride the candy Unicorn at Camp Obama.. weeeee…. weeeeee……

    shiva irons (bbf54b)

  72. Their two most likely responses are: complete silence, or a vicious personal attack on Mr. Frey as an ignorant, racist, Nazi homophobe (even though they have never met him and know absolutely nothing about him).

    Like nearly all U.S. newspapers today, the L.A. Times knowingly, shamelessly and repeatedly lies through their teeth. As a fully controlled subsidiary of the Democratic National Committee, their main function is to dishonestly and unfairly trash conservative people and ideas, and to mindlessly cheerlead and cover up for all liberal people and ideas.

    The activities of the L.A. Times have long since ceased having anything to do with “news”. ACORN members could have been video-taped hacking children to death with chain saws, and the L.A. Times would still breathlessly rush to their defense.

    Their irrational bias is so overwhelming that they do not even care they have completely squandered the most valuable thing a journalist or a news organization can ever have: their credibility.

    Their irrational bias is so overwhelming that they do not care that readers are cancelling their subscriptions, layoffs have come (and more are coming), and it is quite possible they will drive the L.A. Times out of existance in the forseeable future.

    Wil (de9914)

  73. ps. I have lived in SoCal most of my life. First started reading the L. A. Times 40+ years ago, when my Dad done with Sport’s page.

    And, in one of the truly most freeing actions of my adult life I cancelled my subscription about 2 years ago.

    Free at last, free at last… the internet makes it free at last… although I only look at it anymore through the protective prism of Patterico’s website/hazmat suit… or to check out my Clipper boxscores.

    Thank you for your service.

    shiva irons (bbf54b)

  74. Most journos, like those at the LA Times, don’t grok how the Internet is undermining them. They think it’s because of free news. But also important is that the public can at last easily fact-check the MSM. The results are not pretty.

    This Luddite ignorance of the Internet explains why so many journos, even at the highest levels, publish statements and even entire editorials whose inaccuracies are revealed with a simple Google search.

    The MSM’s old guard is very good at conveying opinion; lousy with facts.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  75. With this kind of shoddy work, is it any wonder the Tribune Company is going belly-up faster than Kirstie Alley on slip-n-slide?

    RickS (553397)

  76. Questions that should be asked about government run health care!

    Do we really want criminals, tax cheats and bureaucrats determining our health care options and spending 13 trillion dollars?

    living for truth (9c7267)

  77. Newspapers that posted this slanted drivel are only biding their time till closing time.

    Even if the Feds bail out their newspapers, they will only be read by thier own sheeple that will gladly gulp down their ink flavored Kool aid.

    Joetheposter (b24cbc)

  78. Excellent job indeed! It’s past time to bring honesty and accountability back.

    Christene (c4dd19)

  79. Well I guess we know why the L.A. Times and the Chicago Tribune are bankrupt, morally and financially. They wouldn’t know the word journalism if they tripped over it walking into the newsroom!

    Peter Robinson (3cced8)

  80. AMERICAN CITIZENS there is MORE to this story than you will never know. Let me begin by ENLIGHTENING YOU to the reality that Elections (local, state, and Federa) have been STOLEN from American Citizens over decades with the help of ACORN. Here is how it works: ACORN Gathers names, ss#, addresses of individuals (legal or not) along with the names of their “dependents”. ACORN focuses on “large population access” such as nursing homes, churches, half way houses, drug dependency programs, asylums, orphaniages, prostitutes, homeless people, college students, prison populations, hospitals, AND anyone/everyone OVER the age of 18 whether there are LEGAL RESIDENTS/CITIZENS or not!
    Then they OVERLOAD the “Voting System” with “new Registrations” which could never be confirmed prior to the Election.
    Then they “self report” and turn in 4-10 “false registrations” to make it look like they are “self policing”. This is a FRONT and a diversion.
    Then they work with “transporting” old people, in droves, to voting locations. If the elderly person is too sick to vote they just have then sign blank forms and ACORN does the rest.
    ACORN controls, dispurses, manipulates, etc. the DATA (i.e. names, addresses, ss numbers, etc.) Whoever controls the DATA can control ELECTIONS.
    ACORN then works with the “results”, during the day, and if need be they find a way to get 1 thousands or 1 hundred “ballots” discovered at the last minute. OR they happen to find “ballots that are absentee which happens to be 99.9% for THEIR Candidate.
    Also, ACORN ENCOURAGES their workers to DESTROY any “registrations” of anyone who is NOT a Democrat and then they laugh about it.
    AMERICA needs to WAKE UP and start DEMANDING that ACORN be prosecuted and that ALL of their ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, over the past few decades, be known to the general public and every elected Officail should be called out to inform us of what they did and what they received. NUFF SAID

    Jeff Schrembs (444ad0)

  81. Look. The New Counter Culture is getting its sea legs.

    The LA Times is a fish wrap. Push back against those who still pay for the ink-leaching wood pulp.

    Dirtt (b7e4f6)

  82. NYT is fish wrap. LAT is a dog trainer.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  83. Excellent work. I’ll watch for a correction or announcement in the paper.

    Sunroom Desk (e22403)

  84. […] the LA Times still hasn’t disclosed to its readers that Professor Drier has been a consultant to ACORN. Still a small step […]

    Big Government » Blog Archive » LA Times Issues Correction on its Op-ED: The War on ACORN (d59464)

  85. […] to my complaints about a recent misleading op-ed about ACORN by Peter Dreier, the L.A. Times today printed the […]

    Patterico's Pontifications » L.A. Times Corrects Most Blatant Error in Op-Ed by ACORN Consultant, But Leaves Others Uncorrected (e4ab32)

  86. […] Not long after receiving Professor Martin’s email I understood why he and Dreier would hesitate to participate in a fair and open manner. The two took to Editor and Publisher to write a defense of ACORN. E&P, which bills itself as “the authoritative journal covering all aspects of the North American newspaper industry, including business, newsroom, advertising, circulation, marketing, technology, online and syndicates,” failed to point out that Professor Dreier is on the ACORN advisory committee, a point that Patrick Frey, also known as the blogger Patterico, pointed out. […]

    » Academia-Gate — the Nanny State & The Professors: My Brief Email Exchange With The Co-Chair of the “Cry Wolf” Project - Big Journalism (d59464)


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