Friends and Colleagues:
An independent report released today has concluded that while ACORN, the community organizing group, needs to improvement its management structure, it did not engage in illegal activities when two videographers, one posing as a prostitute, sought to entrap ACORN employees.  ACORN, the nation’s largest community organizing group, has found itself embroiled in controversy after some of its employees in different offices were recorded (with hidden video cameras) talking to couple posing as a pimp and prostitute.

The controversy caught ACORN off-guard, trapped in a web of false accusations that has led some philanthropic foundations to cut off ACORN’s funding, as John Atlas and I discuss in our article (“The ACORN Scandal Offers Key Lessons to All Charities“) in the current issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

In my new article in The Nation magazine today, “Waffling Democrats’ Health Care Hypocrisy,” I note that Sen. Joe Lieberman, the former Democrat-turned-Indepedent, and six key Democratic senators smear the public option. But each one supports the Veterans Health Administration– the nation’s efficient and high-quality version of government-run “socialized” medicine. How do we explain this ideological contradiction? And what can health reform advocates do to get them to vote for real reform? Here’s the magazine’s home page.

Lots of other good reading there this week, including articles by Katrina vanden Heuvel and Tom Engelhardt on Obama’s Afghanistan speech and the need for a progressive national security policy. Also, Ben Ehrenreich’s great piece on the fast-growing student activist movement in CA challenging the huge increase in fees and tuition at the University of California.

In the new issue of The American Prospect, Paul Starr has a great article on what the Dems need to do – on jobs and health care, in particular — to show voters immediate progress in order to set the stage for the November 2010 elections.

In his article today’s Huffington Post, “The Housing Crisis and Wall Street Shame,” Robert Reich describes how the banking inddustry is fighting legislation to help troubled homeowners, even as the federal government is still shoveling billions of dollars into the pockets of Wall Street executives and stockholders.  Dean Baker addresses the same issue in “Mortgage Modification: Bank Bail-out by Another Name?”  Also on Huffington Post, Robert Kuttner explains how Obama and Congress can stimulate the economy to create more jobs and reduce the deficit.

In the new issue of Dollars & Sense magazine, Sam Pizzigati’s article, “Have the Rich Won,” summarizes the incredible upward concentration of wealth and income over the past three decades — and argues that progessives need to focus on the widening economic divide.

In the current issue of The American Prospect, Dalton Conley has a very different view. In “Don’t Blame the Billionaires,” he says we shoulded focus on the excesses of the rich, but on the plight of the poor.

Peter Dreier

Janette Sadik-Khan

We don’t have all the details worked out, but we’ve got some great news for the 2010 Bicycle and Pedestrian Summit: our keynote speaker will be Janette Sadik-Khan!

Sadik-Khan currently serves as the Transportation Commissioner for New York City. She has overseen an unprecedented effort to make New York City friendlier for bicycling and walking. From Summer Streets ciclovia-events to Madison Square to Ninth Avenue, New York’s streets are being transformed from auto-centric to people-centric. It’s an inspiring story, and Sadik-Khan is the department head that’s making it happen.

If you’re unfamiliar with “JSK” I recommend checking out this 10-minute video interview with her at Streetfilms. It’s inspiring!

I knew Janette from when we attended Occidental College together in the early 1980’s. She was a courageous activist at the time, one of the leaders in pressing for the college to divest from companies doing business in racially segregated South Africa. She was a very strong role model in inspiring my budding political consciousness and my activism.

The date is still somewhat tentative (more details soon) but it’s most likely that Janette Sadik-Khan will be speaking the evening of Thursday March 18th 2010. The bike/ped summit will probably take place mainly Saturday March 20th. Locations for additional details/confirmations to be announced soon.

London Bicyclist - image: Wikimedia

The Urban and Environmental Policy Institute  has just gotten started on the 2010 Bike Summit. One big change is that we’re planning to make it both a bicycle and pedestrian event! We’ve just started work, so we  haven’t confirmed a date or location yet – but it’s likely to be similar to last year – around March 2010 in a central transit-accessible location like LA Trade Tech College. Here’s the event web page – same as last year – and it’s a wiki, so if register, you can contribute materials to the site.

We’re trying to get a couple of great inspirational out-of-town speakers, and we’ll be hosting plenty of local workshops. If you have ideas for speakers you’d like to hear and/or topics you’d like to learn about or present, please add your suggestions to the idea page for the 2010 L.A. Bike / Ped Summit.

Quaker Oats/Goodbite.com “Awaken Your Senses” Challenge
With a click of the thumbs-up button under the Cherries video, you can help Jen win $10,000 to benefit the National Farm to School Network.

Twelve food bloggers shared their favorite food memory via a video diary posted at YouTube.com/QuakerTalk. Website visitors will vote for their favorite oatmeal topping, and the blogger associated with the winning topping will receive $10,000 to donate to the charity of their choice.

To help Farm to School, just watch Jen’s video here and click the thumbs-up button that appears at the bottom of the frame – then tell your friends and family so they can help, too!

Voting on the video runs until Thursday, October 22nd at 11:59pm.  The idea is to mobilize supporters to vote for Jen so that we make it into the semi-finalist round.  Voting for the grand Prize (10K!) will then take place among the 3 semi-finalist on 11/9/09.

So how can you help?

1) Visit Quaker Talk on YouTube (just click the link) by this Thursday, October 22nd.

2) Click on the Vote or Watch & Vote button.

3) Select Jen’s video (it isn’t always in the same position depending on how you get there, so you’ll have to actually READ for her topping: Cherries Jubilee) and click on the GREEN THUMB to vote for her topping!

4) Spread the word.

Help nourish kids and communities!

Friends and Colleagues:

Stephen J. Hemsley is one of the most powerful people you’ve never heard of. But Health Care for America Now (HCAN) hopes to change that.

Hemsley is the CEO of United Health Group, the nation’s largest health insurance company and a key player in the industry’s effort to thwart health care reform.  In my article today Huffington Post, “Meet Stephen Hemsley,” I profile the man, his company, its neglect of policy-holders, its abuse of doctors, and its political influence-peddling. 

Despite Hemsley’s best efforts, however, the grassroots movement for health care reform is gaining momentum.  Yesterday and today, activists in about 60 cities will circle industry offices with yellow tape, drawing attention to the crime of so many Americans who lack health insurance or are under-insured. One of yesterday’s protests took place at UnitedHealth’s headquarters. About 100 people participated and six of them engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience and were arrested. My article includes a link to a video of yesterday’s protest.

Also yesterday, 30 health reform activists showed up Thursday at conservative Rep. John Boehner’s place to challenge his claim that he’s never met “anyone” who supports the public health insurance option.

While that was happening, President Obama hosted 150 physicians (at least one from each state) on the Rose Garden law who support his plan for a public option to compete with the private insurance companies. Although there are still significant obstacles to overcome, the chances for real health insurance reform, including a public option, are growing stronger, according to this article in Salon and other analyses.

Most of the protests in different cities around the country will happen on Tuesday.
To find out more about local events, and to learn more about the health reform movement, click on the HCAN website: http://healthcareforamericanow.org/
In California, demonstrations will be held in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, and Santa Ana.

In Los Angeles, 11:00 AM at the offices of Anthem/Blue Cross (California’s WellPoint subsidiary) at  801 S. Figueroa
Contact: Angela,  or 213-413-3587

In San Francisco, 11:30 AM at 1 Market Street near Embarcadero Ctr.
Contact: Patrick,  or 707-853-3888

In Sacramento, 12 noon at 1121 L Street
Contact: Zak,  or 916-813-6658

In Santa Ana, 11:30 AM at 3100 Lake Center Drive
Contact: Marisol

In San Diego, 12 noon at 3655 Nobel Drive, # 250
Contact: Sandra

Friends and Colleagues,

I just posted this piece, “First They Came for ACORN,” about the need for progressives, and Democratic Party politicians, to stand up for ACORN, or else the Right will pick off each progressive and liberal group one-by-one.  This is based on the famous poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller, written about the passivity of people of conscience during the Nazi regime.

I would also recommend reading John Atlas’ article, “What Is ACORN?” Harold Meyerson’s Washington Post column, “For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din,” and David Morris’ article on Alternet. I also recommend watching Jeremy Scahill’s appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show on Friday about the many corporations with government contracts who are chronic lawbreakers, but who the Republicans are NOT trying to defund.

Our own Peter Dreier was a featured expert on the Rachel Maddow show talking about his recent report on ACORN and refuting the rightwing campaign against ACORN and our healthy school food Organizer, Elizabeth Medrano, discussed and analyzed the school food crisis on a PBS Special Report on Health Care with Tavis Smiley.

In other good news, the City of Vernon dropped their plans for the mega-watt power plant.  Kudos to CBE, East Yard Communities, EJ orgs, churches, community, and labor who have been organizing for three years to stop this project.  Learn more about the great work of our community partner Angelo Logan and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice.

Now if the California Air Board would only vote the right way today on controlling rail emissions in California….

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Peter Dreier, E.P Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and Urban & Environmental Policy Program director, Occidental College, (323) 259-2913, dreier@oxy.edu

Christopher Martin, professor of journalism, UNI Department of Communication Studies,
(319) 273-7155, martinc@uni.edu

Note: Read “Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” online at www.uepi.oxy.edu/acornstudy

Accurate reporting sidelined as mainstream media repeats allegations of Republican Party operatives and politicians

Recently released study finds widespread inaccuracy in the reporting of an alleged “voter fraud” scandal involving ACORN

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — An independent study by two prominent academics, released this week, found repetition of unverified allegations and distortions was the rule in national reporting of a purported “voter fraud” scandal involving the community organizing group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) during the 2008 presidential campaign.

This self-funded study, “Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” by Christopher Martin of the University of Northern Iowa and Peter Dreier of Occidental College, reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effect in which both conservative and mainstream media outlets propelled the Republican agenda with a barrage of unfounded allegations of alleged “voter fraud.”

The study found that both conservative and mainstream media reported allegations by Republican Party operatives and politicians without seeking to verify these claims or to provide ACORN with equal opportunities to challenge the accusations of voter fraud.

The analysis of the narrative framing the ACORN stories demonstrates that — despite long-standing charges from conservatives that the news media are determinedly liberal and ignore conservative ideas — the news media agenda is easily permeated by persistent conservative media campaigns, even when there is little or no truth to the story.

The authors conducted a content analysis of all 647 stories about ACORN that appeared in 15 major news media organizations from 2007-2008. The news media analyzed included USA Today, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). They also examined all stories about ACORN from three local newspapers representing cities in which ACORN has a long-time presence: the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, the report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how what the authors call opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the “conservative echo chamber” orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

• 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.
• 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.
• 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.
• 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

• 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.
• 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.
• 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.
• 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.
• 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

Download the full report at www.uepi.oxy.edu/acornstudy

– END -

Peter Dreier, Ph.D., is the E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Center at Occidental College in Los Angeles. He is coauthor of several books on urban policy and politics, including Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21^st Century (University Press of Kansas), Regions That Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together (University of Minnesota Press), and The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City (University of California Press). His research has been published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, Harvard Business Review, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of the American Planning Association, North Carolina Law Review, National Civic Review, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Media and Society, and other scholarly journals, as well as the Columbia Journalism Review. His research has been funded by the Brookings Institution, Ford Foundation, the Eisenhower Foundation, and other funders.

Dreier can be reached at (323) 259-2913 or dreier@oxy.edu.

Christopher Martin, Ph.D., is a professor of journalism at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He is co-author of Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, now in its 7th edition, and author of Framed! Labor and the Corporate Media. He also writes Mediacrit, a blog of news and journalism criticism (http://mediacrit.com). His research has been published in Journalism Studies, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Communication Research, and the Journal of Communication. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Communication Inquiry.

Martin can be reached at (319) 273-7155 or martinc@uni.edu.

XXX

Friends and Colleagues:

The movement for health care reform is picking up steam. Today,  Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is sponsoring protests in about 150 cities, targeting 3 major insurance companies, including the nation’s largest – WellPoint  — an arm of Blue Cross-Blue Shield.   The protest messages: “Big Insurance: Sick of It” and “If the Insurance Companies Win, You Lose.”

I’ve written an article for Huffington Post  about today’s day of protest and about WellPoint, one of the poster children for health care reform.

If you want to find out where and when a protest will occur in your city, or get emails about future protest events, go to the HCAN website.

In the next few days  and weeks , I will post pieces on the other major health insurance companies,  as the protests escalate around the country, focusing public attention on the efforts by the insurance industry to thwart real reform and wield influence to get conservative Democrats in Congress to oppose Obama’s plan.

A victory for real health care reform is possible. Join up with HCAN – a broad coalition of community, religious, labor, MoveOn, and other groups – to shift the political momentum for a progressive solution to the health care crisis.