Little Ochs from mighty ACORN grows

The New York Times gets around to the ACORN story today, portraying it as the culmination of months of efforts by conservatives to tar the Obama team with ACORN wrongdoing including “voter fraud and other transgressions.” Times reporter Scott Shane is not so much interested in the corruption exposed by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles as in the underlying forces at play:

Conservative advocates and broadcasters were gleeful about the success of the tactics in exposing Acorn workers, who appeared to blithely encourage prostitution and tax evasion. It was, in effect, the latest scalp claimed by those on the right who have made no secret of their hope to weaken the Obama administration by attacking allies and appointees they view as leftist.

In truth, conservative advocates also view the New York Times as leftist and harbor the thought that the Times has become the unofficial Obama administration organ, doing its best to keep unhelpful news from seeing the light of day.
What’s the other side of the ACORN story? Shane notes:

In a statement over the weekend, Bertha Lewis, the chief organizer for Acorn, said the bogus prostitute and pimp had spent months visiting numerous Acorn offices, including those in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia, before getting the responses they were looking for.

Hugh Hewitt producer Duane Patterson asks a few pertinent questions:

Notice any cities in Ms. Lewis’ litany of failed attempts by O’Keefe and Giles that do not appear in Mr. Shane’s list? I’ll give you a hint. It’s the largest city in the nation. Need a second hint? It also is the city that the Times is purportedly in business to serve. That’s right, New York.
Why is this important? After the release of the first two videos in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., Ms. Lewis wrote the statement on Saturday trying to reassure supporters that this was nothing but a racist smear campaign by Fox News, and tried to leave the impression that this stunt had failed far more times that it had succeeded, and in doing so, mentioned some pretty high profile big cities, including New York. Two days after her statement, the New York videos were made public, making the heart of Ms. Lewis’ claim inaccurate.
Did Scott Shane simply overlook New York while reading the statement? Or did he intentionally overlook New York when writing his story so he wouldn’t have had to do what any journalist should do, which is call ACORN’s office, talk to Ms. Lewis, and ask why the sting happened in New York after she said it hadn’t, and why her statement has vanished from the ACORN website already?

(The O’Keefe/Giles New York videos are here.) Patterson derisively titles his post “How the New York Times ‘covers’ the news.” The Times has certainly become a party organ, but I never thought it was necessary to read it as closely as the Kremlinologists used to read Pravda. Patterson suggests otherwise.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin notes a few other missing items from today’s Times story.
MORE: Glenn Reynolds adds:

And you have to love this: “Robert L. Borosage, co-director of the liberal Campaign for America’s Future, called the tactics used to go after Mr. Jones and Acorn ‘McCarthyite,’ and said the critics were harping on minor failings.”
Yeah, it’s exactly the same. Heck, compared to Joe McCarthy’s famous pimp disguise, this kid’s an amateur. And that Borosage thinks support for child-sex slavery is a “minor failing” says more about Borosage than anyone else . . . .

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