Jackson Free Press

Gov. Haley Barbour has decided to pull state funding from an organization that no longer exists in the state. Barbour released a Sept. 21 press statement entitled: "Governor Barbour Cuts Off ACORN Funding," seemingly unaware that the laws of economics had already beat him to it.

"I have instructed the state fiscal officer to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's relationship with ACORN, and all state agencies are to cut off funding for any current contracts with ACORN to the extent the law permits," Barbour said in the release.

Barbour's press release said Mississippi "is joining a growing list of states severing ties to the group," although he is trying to hop a bandwagon that apparently left the state last February. The Association of Community Organization for Reform Now closed its only Mississippi doors on Hooker Street, in Jackson, due to a lack of community participation.

"There had always been funding issues," said former Mississippi ACORN President Diana Barnes-Pate Tuesday. "It's a shame, because Mississippi really needed ACORN."

Pate added that ACORN's only Mississippi branch got no funding from the state: "I don't really know what the governor's talking about. Our sole revenue came from our membership dues, which were $10 a month."

ACORN began in Arkansas in 1970 as a group looking to influence local politics to provide better, safer housing for its members. It has since grown to include more than 350,000 families, according to its Web site, and exists in more than 100 U.S. cities, as well as in countries like Mexico and Peru.

But the non-profit organization recently came under fire after the release of hidden camera video showing a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp. On the video, two ACORN workers advise the couple to lie about the prostitute's profession and launder her earnings to get housing aid. The group is suffering from other issues, as well. ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the brother of the company's founder, Dale Rathke, embezzled almost $1 million from the organization nine years ago. ACORN leadership fired founder Wade Rathke immediately after uncovering his brother's embezzlement.

ACORN, which is comprised primarily of Democratic-leaning low-to moderate income members, endorsed Obama's presidency in the months leading up to the election. Obama also represented ACORN as an attorney in a 1995 lawsuit against the state of Illinois for not adhering to "motor-voter" laws.

The group's Democratic leanings and successful voter registration work last year, which helped lead to Obama's win, make the organization a favored punching bag for Republicans, who are leading the congressional effort to deny the group any federal funds.

Obama told the Associated Press that he was not following the story regarding the recent undercover video very closely but endorsed the investigation.

ACORN Board Chairwoman Maude Hurd announced this morning on the group's Web site that former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger (who is also former president and CEO of government accountability watchdog group Common Cause) "would lead an independent inquiry" into the organizational systems and processes surrounding the social services of the organization.

"We are pleased that a man of Mr. Harshbarger's standing is going to be conducting this review," Hurd said in the press statement. "The board is very concerned to see that ACORN is able to carry out its mission of bettering low- and moderate-income communities."

Meanwhile, Jaribu Hill, executive director of The Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights, called the governor's move "hasty."

"That shows you how out of step he is, and shows clearly that there wasn't a thorough investigation before the press release," Hill said, adding that there appeared to be "tremendous backlash" against some non-profit organizations following the election.

"There is a double standard as to the level of expectation for organizations with perceived connections to the new president. We have to be careful to make sure nonprofits don't fall victim to any witch hunts or unfair characterization."

Previous Comments

ID

152210

Comment

Here's the verbatim press release. Note how many other state media outlets picked up this story yesterday without factchecking Barbour's statements: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Dan Turner (601) 576-2009; [email protected] Laura Hipp (601) 576-2020; [email protected] DATE: September 21, 2009 GOVERNOR BARBOUR CUTS OFF ACORN FUNDING Jackson, Mississippi – Governor Haley Barbour issued an executive order today stripping any state funds away from an advocacy group tied to illicit activities in at least one other state and already cut off from federal funds. The executive order, delivered to the Secretary of State's Office Monday afternoon, seeks to shut off taxpayer dollars to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – known by the acronym "ACORN." "I have instructed the State Fiscal Officer to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's relationship with ACORN, and all state agencies are to cut off funding for any current contracts with ACORN to the extent the law permits," Governor Barbour said. Mississippi joins a growing list of states severing ties to the group after a video was released showing employees in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y., advising two undercover activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute to lie about the prostitute's profession, suggested they launder the money and advised how to hide underage prostitutes. The U.S. Census Bureau also dropped the organization as a community partner after the news of the sting surfaced. ACORN is being investigated by at least 20 states, and the Internal Revenue Service is conducting a review of its relationship with the group. # # #

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-22T12:36:00-06:00

ID

152211

Comment

How could the Governor be so out of touch with this Organization (ACORN) and the fact that this State does not have a contract with them. It is awful that ACORN has done so much good work accross the country but, a few bad apples have spoiled the whole barrell. Barbour's press release was laced with hateful speech and a sense of relief that still another organization that represents the poor and down-trotten will be knocked out of the box by him, our GREAT LEADER. HIM and HIM alone. I wish that Barbour had taken the same position about the federally earmarked money for the Katrina Project that was illegally spent. Oops, I forgot, Barbour was the person who drew up the deal. When you talk about ACORN prostitutes and pimps, they are the ones that can be easily identified because they lack sophistication. Some of the public scams we have had in MS are worse or for sure, just as bad. Let's just call all of the wolves UGLY.

Author

justjess

Date

2009-09-22T13:01:56-06:00

ID

152212

Comment

Speaking of ugly, here's a piece I did back in 2005 about Barbour's "unholy alliance" with Tom Delay and a nursing-home PAC scandal. You don't see Barbour calling out the rascals in his own back yard, huh? This latest stunt was just dumb, and treats Mississippians as if we were media. And the state's media, including even the AP, just lap it up and spit it out.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-22T13:19:16-06:00

ID

152213

Comment

In a classic example of a fundamental misunderstanding of how our constitutional republic works: "I have instructed the state fiscal officer to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's relationship with ACORN, and all state agencies are to cut off funding for any current contracts with ACORN to the extent the law permits," Barbour said in the release. Besides being oblivious to ACORN's lack of presence in Mississippi, one would think that an attorney such as Barbour would understand what 'Due Process Of Law" is, unless there was a trial that I missed. In a related issue with the actions of Congress, there are those pesky prohibitions in the Constitution against the passage of a 'Bill Of Attainder'. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_attainder) From Politico (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27376.html): "Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties — and one of the 75 Democratic nays — made the case in a floor speech last Thursday, saying the bill was "done in the spirit of the moment, and nobody had the opportunity to point out that this is a flat violation of the Constitution."

Author

Macedonian

Date

2009-09-22T13:41:15-06:00

ID

152214

Comment

From a tiny ACORN, grows the mighty joke...

Author

Xanhead

Date

2009-09-22T14:02:28-06:00

ID

152220

Comment

New analysis about how media have reported about ACORN; this will be a test study in journalism schools for years to come: 9/23/09 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Peter Dreier, E.P Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and Urban & Environmental Policy Program director, Occidental College, (323) 259-2913, [email protected] Christopher Martin, professor of journalism, UNI Department of Communication Studies, (319) 273-7155, [email protected] Note: Read "Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong" online at http://www.uepi.oxy.edu/acornstudy or http://www.uni.edu/acornstudy. Accurate reporting sidelined as mainstream media repeats allegations of Republican Party operatives and politicians Recently released study finds widespread inaccuracy in the reporting of an alleged "voter fraud" scandal involving ACORN Los Angeles, CA -- An independent study by two prominent academics, released this week, found repetition of unverified allegations and distortions was the rule in national reporting of a purported "voter fraud" scandal involving the community organizing group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) during the 2008 presidential campaign. This self-funded study, "Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong" by Professor Peter Dreier of Occidental College and Professor Christopher Martin of the University of Northern Iowa, reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effect in which both conservative and mainstream media outlets propelled the Republican agenda with a barrage of unfounded allegations of alleged "voter fraud." (cont.)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-23T08:46:03-06:00

ID

152221

Comment

(ACORN study, cont. from above) The study found that both conservative and mainstream media reported allegations by Republican Party operatives and politicians without seeking to verify these claims or to provide ACORN with equal opportunities to challenge the accusations of voter fraud. The analysis of the narrative framing the ACORN stories demonstrates that -- despite long-standing charges from conservatives that the news media are determinedly liberal and ignore conservative ideas -- the news media agenda is easily permeated by persistent conservative media campaigns, even when there is little or no truth to the story. The authors conducted a content analysis of all 647 stories about ACORN that appeared in 15 major news media organizations from 2007-2008. The news media analyzed included USA Today, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). They also examined all stories about ACORN from three local newspapers representing cities in which ACORN has a long-time presence: the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, the report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how what the authors call opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the "conservative echo chamber" orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN. In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings: 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud. 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN. 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats. 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal. The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example: 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare. 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law. 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems. 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans. 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-23T08:46:49-06:00

ID

152222

Comment

(ACORN study, cont. from above) The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives -- and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts -- have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove's role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans' target. - END – Peter Dreier, Ph.D., is the E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Center at Occidental College in Los Angeles. He is coauthor of several books on urban policy and politics, including Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century (University Press of Kansas), Regions That Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together (University of Minnesota Press), and The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City (University of California Press). His research has been published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, Harvard Business Review, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of the American Planning Association, North Carolina Law Review, National Civic Review, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Media and Society, and other scholarly journals, as well as the Columbia Journalism Review. His research has been funded by the Brookings Institution, Ford Foundation, the Eisenhower Foundation, and other funders. Christopher Martin, Ph.D., is a professor of journalism at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He is co-author of Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, now in its 7th edition, and author of Framed! Labor and the Corporate Media. He also writes Mediacrit, a blog of news and journalism criticism (http://mediacrit.com). His research has been published in Journalism Studies, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Communication Research, and the Journal of Communication. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Communication Inquiry. XXX

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-23T08:47:09-06:00

ID

152223

Comment

Looks like Mississippi is not the only state where ACORN doesn't get state money -- and conservative governors are acting a fool. But the Associated Press still hasn't caught up with Adam's story above about Mississippi. And remember that the AP put Barbour's statement out immediately about cutting ACORN's funding without checking it out. One wonders when all these media outlets are going to update/correct the bum story about ACORN funds in the state. Or, will they just be mouthpieces for the Republican Party? Which is it?

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-23T08:55:33-06:00

ID

152225

Comment

ACORN represents something conservatives dislike and that is what it all boils down to. ACORN represents Obama and therefore it is a major target. It does not help that ACORN has some employees that need to be fired, but all of this fuss is more about going after Obama than anything else. Compare what has transpired with ACORN to the letter from Diebold(voting machine co.) President telling Bush that he would "deliver" the election. Which is more disturbing? I do not recall Republicans wanting to look into that possible corruption.

Author

Goldenae

Date

2009-09-23T09:29:30-06:00

ID

152229

Comment

And Bobby Jindal signed an executive order to stop state funding of ACORN in Louisiana, though Think Progress reports that no state funding currently exists, while USA Today didn't report any current funding.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2009-09-23T10:30:56-06:00

ID

152238

Comment

Hey, Baquan! Isn't that Walt's shtick? The whole "Minorities should think democratically"? As for Barbour, perhaps a little research wouldn't hurt once in a while.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2009-09-23T12:25:05-06:00

ID

152250

Comment

If you think what Barbour, Jindahl, et al are doing is bad, check this out at http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3571/text and for a human readable bit at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whoops-anti-acorn-bill-ro_n_294949.html The money quote is as follows: "The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things. In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops."

Author

Pilgrim

Date

2009-09-23T13:39:23-06:00

ID

152251

Comment

I was wondering why calling someone a "Tom" was still acceptable, given it's history.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2009-09-23T13:52:58-06:00

ID

152253

Comment

Ah, okay. "Stroked". So.. the "evil" republicans are putting one over on him? I suppose people just don't have their own opinions anymore, right? We're all manipulated by the mass media?

Author

Ironghost

Date

2009-09-23T14:42:59-06:00

ID

152256

Comment

Ironghost: Republicans make the claim all the time that the Democratic Party is getting over on African Americans. So, couldn't the reverse be possible also? As far as the term "Tom" goes, first we have to ask ourselves is it a legitimate term. An Uncle Tom was basically a Black person that was willing to "sell out" other Blacks in order to make things better for himself. Or basically a Black person that sought to curry favor from Whites. The term represented individuals in slavery and the Jim Crow era that operated in this manner. So, the question is, even though circumstances have greatly changed, could there be African Americans that still seek to do that. The answer is yes, but I think it is much harder to prove today because the situation is less life or death than it was back then. I probably would never call anyone that, but I do know African Americans that are ashamed to be Black and will do anything they can to shed any association with Blacks. I personally do believe in a lot of instances the Republican Party uses African Americans because they use particular ones to act like certain behavior is acceptable, but electorally they have little if any Black representation. A Black conservative/Republican can not speak on racial issues because it is frowned on by that particular base. It should not be that way.

Author

Goldenae

Date

2009-09-23T15:44:21-06:00

ID

152258

Comment

Come on, now, Ironhead. Sorry, I meant Ironghost. When are you going to stop swinging or shooting at me when I'm not ready to shoot back? Do you like punishment or do you just miss me? LOL. As everyone with any sense knows, I don't care what party anyone belongs to. All I know is when I see the cavalry coming after me with the letter R inscribed across its chests, in those one-piece suits and funny hats, I'm shooting at everybody coming my way without looking to see who is under the suits or leading the charge. Euphemistically speaking that is! Some of my best ex-friends are republicans. We get together often for stare-downs and verbal battle-royals. As you might imagine, I always win. As a man of faith and hope, Ironghost, I still hold out to fantasy that the republican party will one day come up with a colorblind program or policy that most of the populace can respect and live by, like it did in its glorious past. You are my brother, Ironghost. If I saw you broke down besides the road, I'd come to your aid. I know you wouldn't do it for me though. You're a republican. You don't believe in charity and love for your fellow man. We out!

Author

Walt

Date

2009-09-23T16:46:26-06:00

ID

152276

Comment

baquan..could ya to email me asap. re: A closer Look. [email protected]

Author

Kamikaze

Date

2009-09-24T08:39:28-06:00

ID

152335

Comment

Jerry Mitchell of The Clarion-Ledger re-did Adam's story from above on page 1 of their Sunday edition yesterday, without mentioning the JFP's breaking story of last Tuesday, of course; Ledger never gives credit where it's due, and they are following our reporters constantly these days. You'd think a star reporter would have better things to do than pick up stories other media broke and rework them. Also, WLBT tried to catch up with story yesterday, too, but mucked up the headline: ACORN seeks money from state Posted: Sep 27, 2009 8:37 PM Updated: Sep 27, 2009 8:40 PM JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - The embattled community activist group ACORN has not received money from the state of Mississippi. That is according to a national leader of the group Brian Kettenring. Story says nothing about them asking for money. (We expect them to go edit this, by the way.)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-28T12:42:46-06:00

ID

152337

Comment

Now that he's received that $500,000 award, Mr. Mitchell should be able to get back to some original reporting.

Author

kudzuking

Date

2009-09-28T15:50:20-06:00

ID

152338

Comment

Also, WLBT tried to catch up with story yesterday, too, but mucked up the headline: These are the same people who said they had the "exclusive" story on the house Frank Melton and his minions destroyed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jerry Mitchell didn't get the whole half-mil. It was shared between all those who won.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2009-09-28T16:01:15-06:00

ID

152339

Comment

No, golden. It's $500K to each fellow, spread over five years, to do with as they wish and with no strings attached. Congratulations are due to Jerry; he did work back on the Killen, Evers and Cherry cases that helped put people in jail in old crimes. Personally, I hope that he puts the money to use in the community, and to do more cold-case work. It's unfortunate that he and the Ledger decided a few years back that Killen was "the last" one who would be brought to justice (and later proved wrong, thankfully). I look forward to seeing what he does with the fellowship.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-28T16:37:18-06:00

ID

152340

Comment

I stand corrected. That's a nice chunk of change there. I hope he does do some good things with the money.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2009-09-28T18:15:48-06:00

ID

152342

Comment

BTW, here is the JFP editorial about Barbour's ACORN stunt from last Wednesday. Here's the Gannett-owned Hattiesburg American's editorial today (almost) accusing Barbour of "playing politics." Just for comparison purposes. ;-) Once again, Adam hangs the Ledger its butt, and they don't acknowledge who broke yet another story that they put on page 1. Jerry Mitchell himself should demand higher standards out of their editors, or at least ask to work on stories that aren't simple rehashes of our work that comes out almost a week later. It seems his time would be more valuable.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-29T09:03:44-06:00