Written : Sep. 21 and 23, 2009
Remember Watergate? Investigative reporters were hailed for bringing down a U.S. president. A movie, “All the President’s Men”, was made to celebrate their persistent and diligent search for the truth. Remember the TV show “60 Minutes”, and how their reporters grilled rip-off artists and corrupt politicians in an attempt to be an American watchdog? I recall a “Saturday Night Live” spoof starring Martin Short portraying a nervous, cigarette-smoking target. He stated/asked while visibly shaking, “It’s not me, it’s them, right?” Hilarious, great stuff.
Things are different today. Have you heard of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now)? ACORN is an organization on schedule to receive 8.5 billion dollars of stimulus funds, and it defines itself a “grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people… committed to social and economic justice”. To be fair, check out their own page: ACORN Of course, ACORN has a right to exist and to aim for change it deems necessary; it’s the American way.
At the same time, ACORN is an organization in deep trouble. Accusations arose in 2008 from ACORN’s alleged registration of people not eligible to vote. They have been accused of falsifying documents, and registering underage and deceased voters. In addition, I’ve seen a story claiming that they used all the names of the Dallas Cowboys football team to register voters illegally. Even I, an ordinary citizen, know from personal experience that some people think it’s legitimate to stop at nothing to elect candidates they believe in. That’s just plain wrong.
Some may not know that recently several of ACORN’s offices were visited by two young, investigative reporters, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles (remember the bold Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the ones who uncovered Watergate?). Today’s truth digging reporters exposed ACORN employees who encouraged illegal activities (prostitution) and offered suggestions for the reporters, who were posing as a pimp and a prostitute, to evade taxes and the law. These bold, young reporters released videotapes to prove their allegations are true. To learn more, see: ACORN exposed. ACORN’s leaders eventually fired the employees in question. Their CEO, Bertha Lewis, has ordered an independent investigation into the story. Ignoring President Obama’s many ties to ACORN for the moment, shouldn’t the government suspend all funds going to ACORN and shouldn’t the government itself investigate the group in a rigorous manner for the purpose of reducing fraud?
In addition, where’s the “60 Minutes” report? Why is the mainstream media so relaxed about this particular investigative story? If the national media are so concerned about law breaking and corruption in businesses, shouldn’t they be jumping on this story and publicizing it, as they did for the Watergate investigation? Shouldn’t your local newspaper or local TV station be exposing the truth about ACORN on their front page and as their top story? Why have you not heard more about this?
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Keywords: Conservatism, Conservative, blog, politics, political, Mark Cohen, Mark A. Cohen, From The Left to the Right, conservative blog, conservative blogs, Investigative Reporting, 60 Minutes
Keyword Phrases: "Conservatism", "Conservative", "blog", "politics", "political", "Mark Cohen", "Mark A. Cohen", "From The Left to the Right ", "conservative blog", "conservative blogs", " Investigative Reporting”, “60 Minutes”
