Fox News revives ACORN-funding bogeyman to attack Obama budget
Fox News host Bill Hemmer raised the tired specter of ACORN receiving federal funding to attack Department of Housing and Urban Development funding included in President Obama's 2011 budget proposal. Conservatives in the media have exhaustively cited the possibility of federal money going to ACORN to attack health care reform legislation, the financial bailout bill, and the economic recovery act.
-Obama budget proposal does not direct funding to ACORN
Proposal does not mention ACORN. Media Matters for America searched Obama's 2011 budget proposal. The proposal contains no language specific to ACORN.
Conservatives previously cited ACORN to attack legislation that did not contain language mentioning the group
Media conservatives cited ACORN to demonize health care reform legislation. Media conservatives, including The Weekly Standard and Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, attacked the Senate health care reform bill by citing a general provision in the legislation to raise the possibility that ACORN would receive funding under the bill. Media Matters searched the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Sen. Harry Reid's manager's amendment. Neither the Senate health care reform bill nor the manager's amendment to the bill contained language mentioning ACORN.
Media claimed Democrats were attempting to direct millions of dollars in government money to ACORN in the financial bailout bill. During debate over the 2008 financial bailout bill, media figures advanced the claim that Democrats sought to direct millions in funding to ACORN. Neither the draft proposal nor the final version of the bill contained any language mentioning ACORN. Those making the false claim were misrepresenting a provision -- later removed -- that would have directed 20 percent of any profits realized on troubled assets purchased under the plan into two previously established funds: the Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund, funds that would have been distributed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the form of block grants to states, which would then award grants to qualified applicants.
Media figures adopted GOP spin that economic recovery act awarded funds to ACORN. During the legislative debate over the 2009 Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, numerous media figures adopted the GOP spin that the stimulus bill awarded funds to ACORN, despite the fact that no language in the legislation mentioned the group. At one point, conservative radio host Bill Cunningham claimed the legislation gave "up to $4.2 trillion" to ACORN.
Hate-Monger-In-Chief Glenn Beck: America Should Not Be OK With Smearing
I don’t know about you, but I found it pretty darned funny that a guy like Glenn Beck would be complaining about anyone else “tearing people apart without evidence, without any kind of substance, something that they did in their past… I don’t think America should be OK with that.” Beck was talking about President Obama - or was it the Democrats? But what was even funnier was that immediately after saying that, Beck went on to attack Bill Ayers over his past.The Millions of Americans that are unemployed or underemployed will be happy to know that Beck reportedly makes over $3 million dollars a year for......well, for creating fact-less smears. Nice work if you can get it. No honor or integrity required.
-Beck didn’t seem to notice how foolish he looked as he immediately segued from there into doing what he had just complained about. His target of the moment was Bill Ayers, but it could have been Robert Creamer or Van Jones or Anita Dunn, each of whom have been smeared by Beck, torn apart without any substantive evidence, other than something they did or said in the past, for the sake of Beck’s television histrionics.
