{"id":7692,"date":"2010-02-10T11:55:52","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T19:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=7692"},"modified":"2010-02-24T16:01:53","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T00:01:53","slug":"follow-up-on-nytimes-sr-editor-of-standards-refusal-to-correct-okeefepimpacorn-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=7692","title":{"rendered":"Follow-up: On NYTimes Sr. Editor of Standards Refusal to Correct O’Keefe\/Pimp\/ACORN Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some folks have been ringing in on my exclusive yesterday<\/a> on the embarrassing emails from Greg Brock, the NYTimes’<\/i> Senior Editor of Standards, explaining why the once-great “paper of record” stands behind its gross misreporting on rightwing operative and accused federal felon<\/a>, James O’Keefe as having “posed” as a pimp inside ACORN offices when he secretly made his highly-edited and apparently illegally-recorded hit videos — since all public evidence shows that he was never dressed as a pimp in those offices<\/u>!<\/b><\/p>\n

I expect to have an official statement from ACORN soon on the Times’<\/i> disastrous reporting of this key and oft-repeated element of O’Keefe’s scam, as well as on Brock’s extraordinary excuses for it (quickly summarized below).<\/p>\n[Update: ACORN’s statement is now covered here…<\/a><\/em>]\n

Until then, please see Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel’s quick take on the story: “NYT Thinks TeaBugger James O’Keefe Entitled to Own Set of Facts,”<\/a> as well as Eric Boehlert’s over at Media Matters: “I’m not sure ‘standards’ means what the NYT thinks it does”<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, I appeared on the Randi Rhodes Show<\/i><\/a> yesterday (Randi was snowed in, so Nicole Sandler of Radio or Not<\/i><\/a> was guest-hosting) to discuss this mind-blowing matter. You can download the interview here [MP3]<\/a>, or listen online (appx 15 mins) here: [audio:http:\/\/bradblog.com\/audio\/RandiRhodes_NicoleSandler_BradFriedmanNYT_OKeefe_020910.mp3]\n

For those who didn’t get the time to read yesterday’s lengthy, detailed story<\/a>, which includes the amazing, complete email thread with the Times’<\/i> veteran Senior Editor of Standards<\/i>(!) who, in 2007, after working for the paper since 1995, identified himself<\/a> as the “senior editor who oversees corrections,” here’s my best attempt at the very quickest of summaries of those remarkable emails…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to the December 7th, 2009 report [PDF]<\/a> from former MA Attorney General Scott Harshbarger finding no wrong doing by ACORN employees: “Although Mr. O’Keefe appeared in all videos dressed as a pimp, in fact, when he appeared at each and every office, he was dressed like a college student – in slacks and a button down shirt.”<\/b><\/p>\n

Since the release of that independent study — which the New York Times<\/i> has never reported on — they’ve run at least eight stories suggesting the fiction that O’Keefe was dressed as a pimp in the ACORN offices — and God aren’t those stupid ACORN employees idiots, who shouldn’t receive any federal money to help poor people because they’re just so dumb they couldn’t recognize a phony pimp?<\/p>\n

Yet, Times’ Senior Editor for Standards Greg Brock, explains in the emails that no correction is due because:<\/p>\n