SEIU: Today, former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger released his report on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform (ACORN) following an independent and aggressive review of the organization. Mr. Harshbarger deserves thanks for not only having the ability to see past the sensationalized headlines, but for recognizing and reporting on the steps that ACORN had already taken to address management weaknesses it had identified earlier. It is striking that despite the news coverage, Mr. Harshbarger found no pattern of illegal conduct by the staff of ACORN targeted in the ‘sting’ operation, even in cases that looked clear cut from […]
PW: Why The Right Hates ACORN, How They Took Them Down, And Why Philly Didn’t Take The Bait
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY There’s an old joke that goes like this: A pimp and a prostitute walk into an ACORN office and ask for advice setting up a brothel and smuggling in underage Salvadoran girls to whore out for fun and profit. The punchline is the pimp and the prostitute were in fact a pair of twentysomething right-wing media provocateurs armed with a hidden camera. Over the summer James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles visited an undisclosed number of ACORN offices on the East and West coasts—including Philadelphia. While the Philly office didn’t […]