Why let the facts or truth get in the way of your political agenda? Fox News broadcast repeatedly, a story that was a completely fictitious claim by a San Bernardino ACORN Employee Teresa Kaelke that she murdered her husband.
Glenn Beck started his September 15, 2009 broadcast with the lead in, "If you think it could get any worse after several employee's( in multiple locations) tried to help a prostitute buy a house, evade the IRS, and run a brothel with underage hookers from El Salvador, you were wrong. It gets much worse. In today's tapes the ACORN employee gives away the farm. She names names of politicians she talks with daily, plans what bills they are lobbying for ( with taxpayer money) and this ACORN employee, also a former hooker herself who ( in this audio tape) admits killing her abusive husband. Your tax dollars at work."
The only problem with this story is that it is completely false. Teresa Kaelke's husband is alive and well. No one at Fox News, not Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly or Gretchen Carlson or even Greta Van Susterin had the journalistic integrity to check their sources, or to even ask ACORN to respond.
My source's by the way are: Media Matters, The Baltimore Sun on line, Crooks and Liars, Newshounds and Fox Nation for this story.
Eric Burns from Media Matters summed up this incident this way, "This is journalistic malpractice plain and simple. A reporter right out of J-school would have taken the two minutes necessary to call the San Bernardino Police Department and verify Ms. Kaelke's statement. This never occurred to anyone at Fox News and it ran with the story. This kind of shameful work raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the entire campaign being waged against ACORN."
For her part Ms. Kaelke stated Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe were somewhat entertaining but not believable. She believed they were clearly trying to play her so she returned the favor by telling them every outlandish thing she could think of.
The two would be film makers have made their 15 seconds of fame from exposing several low level employee's of ACORN in a couple of offices, ( Baltimore and Washington D.C. ) engaging in really stupid if marginally criminal behavior. Both Giles and O'Keefe are no neophytes they are both political operatives. Giles is the daughter of Doug Giles the founder of Townhall.com O'Keefe is a veteran of the anti-abortion movement.
Fox News left out the part about Andrew Breitbart the money behind the video's, O'Keefe, Giles and Fox News are being sued by ACORN.. In addition the state of Maryland may try the couple with the same law that Linda Tripp was prosecuted under. in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In addition, if the ACORN employee's were ever brought to a trial the video could not be used and they would have a very likely successful defense of entrapment.
Unfortunately when you fail to live up to simple journalistic ethics and investigate a story to tell it accurately even if it doesn't fit your political beliefs it leaves you open to the charge you are engaged in propaganda. That will not sway someone like Glenn Beck who displays nightly that a moss plant has more integrity than him . Why let some small little thing like the truth or facts get in the way of pushing a political agenda. Beck wouldn't know the truth let alone tell it if his life depended on it.
As a former addictions couselor i can tell you, some alcoholics were liars and con artists and cheats when they were using . Some change thier lives and become the person they were meant to be once sober. Some become sober lying, cheating, con artists. Glenn Beck is proof you don't have to get rigoously honest to stay dry. Propagandists are nothing but lying con artists.
Propaganda is the use of information to persuade people. The information can be all true, partly true, or completely false. It is skillfully changing how people judge events and enables the propagandist to slide easily into brainwashing by changing the whole content of people's beliefs. Then the next step is to make someone an enemy by the skillful use of rumors and out and lies to make someone appear as an outsider, someone not like us. He's a Commie, A Socialist, terrorist, a Muslim even if you might have to ask after the fact what is that.
This creates a sense of fear and anxiety. At this point people can be united against this common enemy. This make people more easily manipulated and controlled for the purpose of the political movement. Is this Fox's motive, to be nothing but the Propaganda arm of an idea less solution less movement whose only goal is to derail the other side because all their solutions are what almost destroyed the nation economically, emotionally and spiritually? It would be easy to make that case.

Comments
So by your estimation, ACORN's activities were only "really stupid if marginally criminal" and it is more important to go after the people that videotaped these scumbags and those that aired the videos (propagandists).Is "marginally criminal" like marginally pregnant? Does this mean you not only support your tax dollars going to this organization, but you also don't have a problem with ACORN giving fraudulent tax advice on how to cheat the government? Apparently you also don't have a problem with any of these (now fired) ACORN employees not IMMEDIATELY calling the police as soon as talk of prostitution and child-smuggling was brought up? ACORN's office in San Diego was exposed yesterday, so you can now defend their actions for that office too.I guess it's just all meaningless Fox/Beck/Breitbart "propaganda" that caused the Census Bureau to sever ties with ACORN, and a bipartisan vote in the senate Monday night to squash federal funds going to ACORN?
You make a mockery of your own arguement when you excuse their entrapment by illegal means in filming the case. From a legal standpoint you may have no case because of how the evidence was obtained. That is a Constitutional Right and I believe from my days doing legal research falls under illegal searchs and seizures something the Bush White House abused with impugnity in illegal wiretaps so illegal spying must be a Right Wing fetish. The actions of the employee's is inexcusable but that is not ACORN, it is the actions of some people who should never have been hired. I would ask you if this investigation is so important why are you not equally irrate about Blackwater committing multiple homocides in Iraq among their other crimes. How about we have DOJ do a real investigation of torture? Those are real crimes as well. Until these employees are arrested their behavior is not criminal just really stupid. When are you going to open your mind ?
Yesterday on Hannity they said that none of the ACORN offices turned the pimp in a bikini down when in fact the Philadelphia ACORN office filed a police report on them. Also this last "video" is of some guy who was trying buy a date. FoxNews parades some pimp in a bikini and calls it news: This from the party of god.
" no no no"
(puts fingers in ears)
" beck doesn't lie"
" fox is not MSM"
" Fox never shared Ron Paul"
"fox never promoted bush"
" fox cares"
" I am not alone"
" beck is the only one fighting corruption"
" criminal acorn emoyees are Americas biggest issue"
"Ronald Regan wasn't the first to appoint czars"
"Sean hannity doesn't support subsidizing farmers, which is a form of scialism"
" there realy was 1 000 000 people in DC"
" bill Clinton didn't do better with the budget than Regan or bush"
"bill orielly didn't say he supported a public option after he thought it was dead"
" van jones isn't a well respected world authority on fixing the ghetto with green solutions that keep energy jobs in America"
"the Iraq war wasn't for oil"
" the left were loons when they were against the patriot act"
" No No No"
Phil--You have an excellent memory! Thank you for reminding us!
" no no no"
Is that a reference to Rev. Wright's "Goddamn America" sermon?