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THENATION.COM
01/05/2010 @ 4:32pm
On Christmas Eve, buried on page A24 of my edition of the New York Times, was this story:
"The controversial community organizing group Acorn has not broken any laws in the last five years, according to a Congressional Research Service report released Tuesday evening."
Indeed, the CRS report--requested in September by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank--finds no instances in which ACORN "violated the terms of federal funding in the last five years," and no instances of individuals allegedly registered to vote improperly by ACORN "attempting to vote at the polls."
Good to see that the New York Times ran the story.
But the placement and the timing--after 18 months of screaming headlines and attacks vilifying the anti-poverty group--is reminiscent of the McCarthy era when individuals and organizations were ruined by allegations that ran as front page news, while later evidence that vindicated them was relegated to the back pages.
There was little accountability for the false accusations, little redemption for those whose lives had been shattered.A "new McCarthyism" is seen in the manner in which guilt by association has been pursued by the likes of Glenn Beck and "mainstream" GOP leadership (if there is such a thing). A report by People for the American Way describes, for example, how "attacks on widely respected judicial nominee David Hamilton treated his one-month job as a canvasser for ACORN thirty years ago when he was 22 years old as if it had constituted a major portion of his career."
Continue reading here.
