"MAKING A VERY BIG DEAL OUT OF THESE TWO STORIES..."

Just in case, I've screenshotted this Kansas City Star rationale for not covering the ACORN stories.

The explanation is by Derek Donovan, the Star's Readers' Representative.

Two ACORN stories - big news?

Many readers have called this morning asking why the print edition of The Star hasn't had anything on two scandals involving ACORN.

In Florida, authorities arrested 11 ACORN workers suspected of turning in fake voter registrations last fall.

And in Baltimore, two ACORN workers were fired after hidden camera footage showed they gave a couple claiming to be a pimp and prostitute advice on cheating the IRS and how to cover up for teenage prostitutes they're planning on bringing into the country. There's also a second video showing a similar outcome at another ACORN office has surfaced.

Opinion columnist and member of the editorial board Yael T. Abouhalkah writes, "The future of ACORN is on the line today" on the Midwest Voices blog.

Fox News Network and many pundits are making a very big deal out of these two stories, so why weren't they in The Star today? (As of this writing, it's huge at the top of the main Fox News home page, with a graphic proclaiming "ACORN DOES IT AGAIN.")

The readers contacting me feel that because ACORN gets millions in federal money, this is important news.

I'm of two minds. The Star's covered allegations against ACORN quite a bit, especially when the FBI launched a probe last October that involved Kansas City registrations. That's news, no matter how you look at it.

In the Florida case, it's also about alleged violations in voter registrations, though I think it's a salient point that the workers were identified and turned in to authorities by ACORN itself. Still, that has to do with the organization's work. I think reasonable people could argue it should be big news in Kansas City -- or not.

Submitted by derekdonovan on September 11, 2009 - 2:37pm.
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It's no big deal? Wall Street Journal writer John Fund wrote on November 8, 2006 in Grapes of Rathke about ACORN voter fraud specifically in St. Louis and Kansas City.

In Missouri, St. Louis election officials were so inundated with bogus Acorn-generated voter registrants that they mailed a letter to 5,000 registrants, requesting the recipients to contact them. Fewer than 40 responded. Mr. Rathke attacked the officials as "slop buckets" and claimed they had "broken the law in trying to discourage new voters illegally."

"it's up to Acorn to explain why over 1,000 addresses listed on its registrations don't exist. "We met twice with Acorn before their drive, but our requests completely fell by the wayside," says Democrat Matt Potter, the city's deputy elections director. His election clerks were already putting in 13-hour work days and "dumping this on them isn't fair." In the past, several Democrats, including Mayor Francis Slay, have complained about bloated voter rolls leading to stolen votes."