Jon Stewart on ACORN

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The new site Big Government has really done some pretty amazing video on ACORN's shoddy office practices.

Even reliable liberal Jon Stewart is aghast in the above segment, which is pretty funny.

Congress has defunded ACORN.

Comments

[John]

I give Stewart a lot of shit and genarally loath him. But that is damn funny. Bravo Stewart.

[Kurt]

Boy, the crowd is flat for that one. Where's the whooping and hollering?

[Kevin]

Even though ACORN is banned from receiving funds, don't they have related (aka "front") organizations that could still receive funds? I thought ACORN was a conglomerate of loosely connected orgs. Just wondering how strict this ban will be.

[Obama]

If I've lost Stewart, I've lost the 18-25 demographic.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I can see why Stewart doesn't attack left-leaning institutions more often. Either the audience didn't know what ACORN was or they were just not ready to laugh at something like this.

Then again, a joke about underage prostitution is a pretty tough sell.

[Mike M.]

Even though ACORN is banned from receiving funds, don't they have related (aka "front") organizations that could still receive funds? I thought ACORN was a conglomerate of loosely connected orgs. Just wondering how strict this ban will be.

Yes. ACORN may have been one of the big shells, but the Rathke brothers still plenty of little shells that will no doubt continue to benefit from the money spigot, with the SEIU being one of the more prominent ones.

Guys like these are like dandelions. You can never totally get rid of them, you can only hope to contain them.

[Jon Stewart]

You can never totally get rid of them, you can only hope to contain them.

Like prostitutes!

[jp]

Boy, the crowd is flat for that one. Where's the whooping and hollering?

Don't they add all that stuff electronically anyway?

[Tim Cavanaugh]

I actually think it's reasonable to count a prostitute as a performing artist. I mean, in the absence of a more suitable definition: It's an interactive performance with an audience of one. (Or thirty batchelors, or whatever.) If sex isn't a show why do men and women both get performance anxiety?

[Kevin]

I was wondering when Reason was going to mention this scandal.

[Mad Max]

Yeah, Tim, but a real performance artist is *glad* to get the clap.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Yet there are still some Acorn bitter enders:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/17/acorn_hysteria/index.html

[John]

Greenwald is such a douschebag. What a piece of shit. Essentially his agrument is that because we wrongly bailed out Goldman Sachs, it is somehow okay to give ACORN money. And that the organization is not corrupt even though a couple of college kids with as Stewart says "a video camera and their grandmother's fake chincilla coat" can go coast to coast getting ACORN employees to agree to assist them in crimes. People who object to ACORN are just blaming the poor, as if people are seriously claiming the ACORN is causing the deficit and it is not possible to be pissed about TARP and ACORN. What a worthless bag of piss he is.

[Johnny Longtorso]

I wonder if Greenwald noticed the number of people who oppose Acorn AND were against the bailouts?

[John]

There are few people in public life I would like to do physical violence to. I think Greenwald and Ezra Klein are probably the only two.

[Mike M.]

Yeah, seriously, just go fuck yourself Glenn Greenwald, you fucking asshole. Wall Street was bailed out under Bush, with the help of MOSTLY DEMOCRATIC PARTY VOTES in Congress. Furthermore, most conservatives and libertarians were as opposed to Goldman Sachs being bailed out as the ACORN corruption.

[Les]

There are few people in public life I would like to do physical violence to. I think Greenwald and Ezra Klein are probably the only two.

Holy fucking shit, John. You'd rather beat up a couple of liberal writers than go after people who actually do bad things to other people?

Personally, I'd rather slap around people who are in actual positions of power to take our money, put harmless people in prison, or blow up men, women, children in unnecessary military actions.

What did Klein and Greenwald do again?

[John]

"Holy fucking shit, John. You'd rather beat up a couple of liberal writers than go after people who actually do bad things to other people?"

I said public life. No they are not murders or gangsters or child molesters. Yeah, I would do violence to those people over Greenwald and Klein, but those guys are not public figures.

"What did Klein and Greenwald do again?"

They are lying nasty pieces of shit who poison the well of civil discourse with their lies and distortions.

And if I met either douschbag, I would not actually beat them up. Not worth the trouble to speak to either of them letalone beat them up. But that doesn't mean they don't richly deserve a good beating.

[HamsterGram]

You know if you squint just right that ACORN logo looks exactly like Warty's erect penis.

[Les]

I said public life. No they are not murders or gangsters or child molesters. Yeah, I would do violence to those people over Greenwald and Klein, but those guys are not public figures.

Again, good fucking Christ. The only "public figures" who regularly imprison and kill innocent people work for the fucking government, John. But you'd rather beat up a couple of bloggers than people who actually harm others?

They are lying nasty pieces of shit who poison the well of civil discourse with their lies and distortions.

If you actually think that Greenwald and Klein lie more than Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, Coulter, and Malkin, then we're living in two different worlds.

Finally, please list some "lies" that Greenwald has told ("lies" doesn't mean "things I disagree strongly with"). I understand disagreeing with the guy, but Greenwald has held Obama's feet to the fire more than any other liberal I've read.

[ed]

Even reliable liberal Jon Stewart is aghast

No he isn't. He's expedient. Cynical. Pragmatic.

[Joe M]

Greenwald, while dickish, does make a decent point that the banking and big corporate interests really do have way too much influence on policy. But he shoots himself in the foot when he conflates that with ending restrictions on free speech.

[Johnny Longtorso]

But he shoots himself in the foot when he conflates that with ending restrictions on free speech.

But what's the bigger crime, child prostitution or that people who disagree with Greenwald have enough political influence to sometimes stop what Greenwald wants? The Ecuadorian girls will just have to take one for the team.

[Emperor Norton]

"If you actually think that Greenwald and Klein lie more than Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, Coulter, and Malkin, then we're living in two different worlds."

This. And the staffs of the National Review and the Weekly Standard and Commentary and...

[Les]

But what's the bigger crime, child prostitution or that people who disagree with Greenwald have enough political influence to sometimes stop what Greenwald wants?

I think you mean "imaginary child prostitution," and yes, the damage done to U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike by the government and its enablers far, far surpasses anything ACORN has done.

I don't care for ACORN and I don't think the government should give them any money, but unlike, say, Blackwater (now "Xe") ACORN hasn't killed any civilians and they've been defunded.

But I guess if, instead of gunning down people in the street, Blackwater had agreed to work with imaginary child prostitute pimps, folks here would be really outraged.

[Johnny Longtorso]

I think you mean "imaginary child prostitution,"

Then release everyone from jail on conspiracy charges to commit a crime that the police stopped.

[SKR]

Les, I certainly remember people here being quite enraged just about the war let alone government outsourcing its monopoly on violence. Neither position is mutually exclusive with outrage against ACORN.

[highnumber]

It looks like Fox still found a way to embarrass themselves.
Fox News reports fake murder story from ACORN video as fact

[the innominate one]

John and Johnny:

"As for ACORN, nobody is apologizing for them or suggesting that they've done nothing wrong. Any group that large will have individuals in it who do bad things. The issue is one of proportion. If someone ostensibly opposes government waste and unfairness in tax policy yet spends most of their time focusing on a tiny group that helps the poor and receives a miniscule amount of government money -- all while ignoring or even revering the enormous, omnipotent industries which eat up trillions in taxpayer waste and dwarf the impact of ACORN by many, many magnitudes -- then any rational person would question what the real motives are..."

[Neu Mejican]

It looks like Fox still found a way to embarrass themselves.

I am shocked...SHOCKED to hear that FOX may not have used proper fact-checking and verification on the ACORN videos.

Reminds me of the early anthropologists that dutifully wrote down the "myths" of the Dine' a hundred years ago.

Dine' translator: "Yeah, he says that's, ummmm, a god who squeezes young girl's tits to make their nipples hard and grabs warriors balls to make them miss their shot when they are hunting." (snicker)

Anthropologist: "Fascinating."

[PapayaSF]

Neu Mejican and highnumber: If you actually read the Media Matters post, you see things like:
"it seems like this is a potential admission of murder."
"Did she make the story up? I don't know."
"admitted to -- or claimed to have killed her husband"
"we don't know if it's true yet"

The closest thing to "reporting it as fact" is a country singer on a panel, who said "a lady who admits to killing her husband."

So I think it's incorrect to say Fox News reported it "as fact."

As for ACORN, I'd like to see their 501(c)(3) status revoked. That would likely be a death blow.

[just asking]

is "Les" Greenwald's newest sock puppet?

[Neu Mejican]

For the record:
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/129151.html#1097059

BDB | September 30, 2008, 11:47pm | #
Elemenope-

If they lose, they blame ACORN as the bogeyman. You heard it form me, first.

Must repost this on the ACORN thread.

Synchronicity day.

[Neu Mejican]

OOOPS,
Stupid cut and paste...props to Sugarfree for relinking to this classic thread...

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/129151.html#1097059

For the record:
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/129151.html#1097059

BDB | September 30, 2008, 11:47pm | #
Elemenope-

If they lose, they blame ACORN as the bogeyman. You heard it form me, first.

[just asking]

haha, yes its just a conspiracy by the dumb partisans to trick poor ACORN workers into aiding in criminal activity! give it up. there are worse targets out there. but they got ACORN. stop with the hemming and hawing bc ACORN rubs your sticks the right way.

[Neu Mejican]

PapayaSF,

Sure, sure, but they've run the video LOTS.
Typically you verify, then broadcast, not the other way around.

[PapayaSF]

Of course they've run the video a lot. Wouldn't you? It's sensational.

But I don't think they need to verify the statements of everyone caught on hidden-camera footage. Setting aside the issues of fake/tampered footage, if someone just says stuff, it's "verified" in the sense that they really did say it, whether what they said was true or not. Media Matters is acting as if Fox hosts said "murderer confesses on camera!!" when the actual transcripts make it clear that they never did. And O'Reilly never even mentioned the "murder confession" part in yesterday's show.

[dmf]

They are lying nasty pieces of shit who poison the well of civil discourse with their lies and distortions.

yes. totally unlike professing the desire to physically harm someone for their viewpoints...

[PapayaSF]

Remember when Bush was caught calling Adam Clymer a "major league asshole"? Did the media verify whether Clymer really is a major league asshole before they ran with the story? Of course not.

[highnumber]

I read the transcripts from Fox first, and it didn't seem as bad as MediaMatters implied, but then I watched the videos. Fox was running with it. I'd say shameful, but that's Fox.

Remember when Bush was caught calling Adam Clymer a "major league asshole"? Did the media verify whether Clymer really is a major league asshole before they ran with the story? Of course not.

What the hell? The news story was not that Clymer was an asshole. The news story was that Bush said that into a live mic. In this case, Fox went with "Acorn employee confessed to MURDER on tape!"

[zoltan]

Remember when CBS said that there was memo regarding Bush's National Guard service? Did the media verify whether Bush really served in the Guard like it said he didn't before they ran with the story? Of course not.

[PapayaSF]

Well, (part of) the news story was not that an ACORN employee committed a murder, it was that she said she did. That's what Fox reported.

[Tony]

Jon's funny a lot. You should post him more often. Maybe even times he's not in line with the Drudgeosphere.

[bendover]

Glenn Beck: This is twisted, bizarre, macabre. I mean, is this theater? I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a jury. Um, but gosh even to me it seems like this is a potential admission of murder and the way she was describing doing some groundwork beforehand, you know so everyone in town knew exactly what was going on, a case might be made for premeditated murder. In fairness, I don't understand people who stay in abusive relationships. I don't. I get it. I get it. And maybe a jury might conclude that it was justifiable homicide. I don't know but we haven't been even able to confirm from the state of California whether Theresa's husband from ten years ago was killed. Or if he's dead. Or if she even had a husband. Did she make the story up? I don't know. Nobody is asking questions. See if the mainstream media will follow this one. This is shocking. It raises serious questions about what is going on inside of ACORN.

Highnumber & Neu - this is the transcript from the GlennBeck show. Please note what Media Matters left out of their hysterical report.

By the way George Soros needs his dick sucked, please be good little butt-boys and get on it.

[TrickyVic]

"""So I think it's incorrect to say Fox News reported it "as fact.""""

I agree. They are trying to get you emotionally charged about ACORN using a story they know is not worthy of airing. Look how charged up Beck is in the video. It's two minutes hate.

Hype up the front with information you don't know to be true and put the caveats in the footnotes. Where have I seen that before??

[TrickyVic]

Maybe ACORN is just getting them to comply with this republican idea. 😉

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/the_irs_versus_pimps/

[TrickyVic]

""
Highnumber & Neu - this is the transcript from the GlennBeck show. Please note what Media Matters left out of their hysterical report.""

I'm not sure, is it the part when Glenn beck is trying to nullify the anxiety the view got for after being hyped up from Beck's exciting and forceful statements. Or the part where he's question if the mainstream media will run the story he's not sure is true?

More importantly Beck understands that the first things and last things said are what people walk away with most. So after he implies the story might not be true, he finish up with this "This is shocking. It raises serious questions about what is going on inside of ACORN."

He wants you to believe the story is more of a reason to question what is going on inside ACORN.

[TrickyVic]

Maybe it's the part where I forgot how to type a coherent sentence.

[Best line in the whole thing:]

"I'm the whitest guy ever."

The fur coat was ludicrous. And did you get a load of those sunglasses too? ACORN fell for this!

Yeah, if the DMV were run this efficiently, we would have "universal" health care... from the DMV.

[bendover]

"More importantly Beck understands that the first things and last things said are what people walk away with most. So after he implies the story might not be true, he finish up with this "This is shocking. It raises serious questions about what is going on inside of ACORN."

Tricky - really, get a grip, you're beginning to sound just like Charles Johnson over at LGF.

[bendover]

Furthermore - let me put my tinfoil hat on, can anybody ever recall the speed at which a democrat controlled congress moved as quickly as this to de-fund an organization? Makes you wonder what they are trying to cover up.

[Hazel Meade]

Holy shit. Jon Stewart appears to be making fun of himself, not to mention his core audience, in that video.

That's different!

[JB]

Boy, the crowd is flat for that one. Where's the whooping and hollering?

They were too busy fisting each other while going 'omgz, Stalin!!!11! jizz, jizz! Stalin!'

[PapayaSF]

Hype up the front with information you don't know to be true and put the caveats in the footnotes. Where have I seen that before??

For starters, how about every anti-war rally for the last six years? We were endlessly told Bush went into Iraq to "steal oil," but I have yet to see any proof (or even a vaguely plausible instance) of any "stolen oil." And, of course, there were never any caveats in footnotes.

[hmm]

Whoopi thinks we need more regulation and everyone but Democrats (translation of not republicans for her simple mind) hates poor people.

Someday I hope to make enough money to get a lobotomy so the world is this simple to me.

Did you guys draw straws to see who had to post an article about a subject Beck and fox broke? Or was it a rock, paper, scissors ladder?

[Les]

Then release everyone from jail on conspiracy charges to commit a crime that the police stopped.

That's the point. There was no crime. Those ACORN employees, pathetic and deserving of unemployment as they were, didn't actually enable a crime to occur.

[Les]

SKR,

The people most outraged here about stuff like this are the people who tend to be the least outraged by things like torture and the indiscriminate killing of civilians.

You're absolutely right that they're not mutually exclusive, but there are degrees of outrage, and ACORN scores much lower than Blackwater, despite the fact that, unlike Blackwater, ACORN is defunded (as it should be) and it never indiscriminately shot civilians in the street.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

The child prostitution part was of course completely unacceptable and of course ACORN should not receive any federal funding, but isn't the libertarian/typical Reason point to take away from this that prostitution should be legal so pimps would not need such assistance? Isn't the fact they are assisting them an tacit endorsement of the idea that prostitution should be a legal act? If ACORN supported that, would it not be a plus for ACORN from a libertarian perspective?

The funniest part is that they didn't even bother to ask why, as he is supposedly obviously running a criminal enterprise, he would want to pay taxes and file his business with the government?

[Les]

is "Les" Greenwald's newest sock puppet?

I'm my own fella, just asking. I don't agree with Greenwald all the time, but I've never caught him in a lie. And he genuinely seems to care more about the Constitution than either the Obama administration or his critics.

[hmm]

Living close to IL and dealing with progressive politics and real estate here I feel pretty comfortable in my conclusion that ACORN is as bad or worse than any thugish union. They do more to destroy neighborhoods and communities than help them and their political meddling is straight up Chicago/Tammany hall style politics.

[Neu Mejican]

CBS was rightfully vilified for running the Bush national guard thing prior to vetting it (pretty heavy hitter no longer there if iirc). FOX won't fire anyone over this. Just saying.

All the questions Beck is asking, for instance, should have been answered in the newsroom prior to running the video. Probably a couple of hours work.

[BakedPenguin]

What Hobo Chang Ba said - there's a huge difference between consenting adults and underage sex slaves.

Although I'm fine with ACORN not receiving any federal money, of course.

[Democrats]

Who cares about this fluffy, inconsequential stuff? You fucking right-of-center hillbillies just need to shut your goddamn pieholes and let us get on with finishing the job of destroying this country and turn it into East Germany Part Two. That way, we can put you seditious pricks in gulags just like our real heroes. Sigh.

[Abdul]

The funniest part is that they didn't even bother to ask why, as he is supposedly obviously running a criminal enterprise, he would want to pay taxes and file his business with the government?

I thought it was obvious that He was trying to buy a house and needed 1040's for the mortgage application. But, when the salvadorean junior high whores come into the picture, I can see how someone would miss it.

[R C Dean]

The new site Big Government has really done some pretty amazing video on ACORN's shoddy office practices.

"Shoddy office practices" makes it sound like they don't clean out the coffee pot. What these people did goes far beyond shoddy.

[R C Dean]

CBS was rightfully vilified for running the Bush national guard thing prior to vetting it (pretty heavy hitter no longer there if iirc). FOX won't fire anyone over this. Just saying.

Because there's no difference at all in running a hit piece on a Presidential candidate during a campaign based on obviously forged documents with no provenance, and insufficiently caveating someone's statement on videotape that they committed a murder.

[TrickyVic]

Did ACORN acutally fill out any documents or submit any false information for processing for the two people on the video?

If someone helps you fill out a form and helps you with the lies, in the end, it's still you lying on the form, not the person helping you out. The person helping you would be a co-conspirator. No?

I'm not defending ACORN, I'm just trying to understand what crime has been committed.

"""as Stewart says "a video camera and their grandmother's fake chincilla coat" can go coast to coast getting ACORN employees to agree to assist them in crimes."""

John, If I assisted you in a crime, wouldn't we both go to jail?

I'm not sure if to ordainary people can conduct a sting that would give them a pass on a conspiracy charge. Anyone know?

[TrickyVic]

"""For starters, how about every anti-war rally for the last six years? We were endlessly told Bush went into Iraq to "steal oil," but I have yet to see any proof (or even a vaguely plausible instance) of any "stolen oil." And, of course, there were never any caveats in footnotes."""

Since you admit there were no footnote, it doesn't compare.

[PapayaSF]

TrickyVic, the fact that numerous ACORN people didn't blink an eye at helping a pimp set up a brothel with underage girls should tell you something, even if it didn't as far as actually setting up the brothel.

And you're missing my point. Your complaint was that Fox was being sensationalistic, but having the caveats in footnotes. My point is that standard lefty ranting about "blood for oil" is just unsupported sensationalism, without the saving grace of caveats in footnotes. That makes it worse, see?