On October 22nd, the Los Angeles Times gave space on its pages to Professor Peter Drier who rose to defend ACORN. After trying to spin away ACORN’s continuing troubles with election law, Professor Drier turned to the ACORN video scandal:
And what about the prostitute-and-pimp video? It also isn’t quite what Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly would have you believe. Two “gotcha” right-wing activists showed up at about 10 ACORN offices hoping to entice low-level staff to provide tax advice for an illegal prostitution ring. In most ACORN offices, the staff kicked the pair out. In a few cities, staffers called the police. In two offices, however, the staff listened and offered to help. That was wrong. But ACORN immediately fired the errant staffers.
Today, the LA Times issued the following correction and attached it to the original op-ed:
An Oct. 22 Op-Ed article about the community group ACORN stated that, in two ACORN offices, staff members offered advice to a pair of videographers posing as proprietors of a prostitution ring. While tapes of all the offices visited by the pair have not been released, it is clear from those that have been that ACORN offered advice in more than two offices. The article also said that the pair were “kicked out” of most ACORN offices. Because unedited versions of the tapes have not been released, it is unclear how the encounters ended, but it is unlikely they were ordered to leave most offices.
Unfortunately, the LA Times still hasn’t disclosed to its readers that the op-ed’s author, Professor Drier, has been a consultant to ACORN. Still a small step forward.