Study Finds Corporate Media Coverage of ACORN Follows GOP Script

Interview with Christopher Martin, journalism professor at the University of Northern Iowa, conducted by Scott Harris

When two conservative activists, posing as a pimp and prostitute released covert video tapes showing the staff of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, offering the phony couple assistance to evade federal tax laws, conservative groups with the support of corporate media, immediately demanded an investigation and the defunding of the group. Congress quickly complied, passing resolutions cutting off federal funds to one of the nation's leading social justice organizing groups.

ACORN, has long been a target of the Republican party and the conservative movement for their successful voter registration drives, getting large numbers of low-income and minority citizens to the polls. But the group, with 400,000 members and offices in 75 cities, also effectively advocated for increases in the minimum wage across the nation and assisted poor families in purchasing homes.

It was this largely unreported history of political antagonism between ACORN and the GOP that prompted journalism professor Christopher Martin at the University of Northern Iowa and politics professor Peter Dreier of Occidental College to conduct an independent study of the corporate media's flawed coverage of ACORN during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. Here, professor Martin summarizes his study titled, "Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong," which found the media often repeated unverified allegations and distortions regarding charges that ACORN was engaged in committing "voter fraud."

Read the study online at www.mediacrit.com

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