NPR Blames Republicans For ACORN’s Bad Image

I guess this is about as close to fairness as NPR is capable of in its reporting on ACORN.

The first few paragraphs of today’s NPR story on ACORN, by Kevin Whitelaw, tell you all you need to know about Whitelaw’s perspective on the embattled radical advocacy group: 

ACORN, the community organizing group, is fighting for its survival these days, but its current plight has been years in the making.

Part of the story is the group’s own missteps. ACORN was founded to help low- and middle-income Americans, but its edgy tactics and a series of gaffes fed the notion that the group was unreliable.

That image, however, was built in part by a long campaign of attacks and allegations of illegal activities from a host of opponents in the corporate world, the Republican Party and conservative media outlets.

ACORN attracted the scrutiny of these groups because its work — which ranges from campaigns for a higher minimum wage to voter registration drives — was often effective.

But as ACORN achieved some successes and grew quickly, its management woes led to additional missteps, including an episode last year where the brother of ACORN’s founder was accused of embezzling nearly $1 million from the group, giving its political enemies even more fodder. […]

Whitelaw has no idea what he’s talking about.

ACORN is a sinister organization that was created to get people on welfare as a means of bringing socialism to America. It’s that simple.

Big business, Republicans, and conservative media outlets never put a gun to ACORN’s head and ordered it to engage in racketeeting.

This is just a case of ACORN’s chickens finally coming home to roost.

And it’s a beautiful thing.