Thanks for Paying Attention Big Journalism

by Andrew Breitbart
In response to the Columbia Journalism Review’s accusing me of “blackmailing” the Attorney General of the United States, I must take notice that the mainstream media as a journalistic establishment IS paying attention to the ongoing ACORN scandal.  Good.  I thought so.
What the Columbia Journalism Review is doing is very similar to what Media Matters is doing: protecting the Democrat-Media Complex, the natural alliance of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media.  This ACORN investigation has been going on for two months and Hannah, James, and I have proven to be truth-tellers every step of the way, while the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now has been proven time and again to be liars.

Yet instead of engaging the real, newsworthy issues of ACORN’s possible corruption, malfeasance and illegal behavior, the CJR, like its more overtly political online counterpart Media Matters, and indeed every other MSM outlet, has been sitting it out on the sidelines, waiting – rooting – for Hannah Giles, James O’Keefe and me to make a mistake.  In fact, my appearance Thursday night is the only time in which the media has introduced itself into this ongoing narrative: proof that it’s paying attention and taking sides.
Neither, by the way, has the CJR challenged James Rainey, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, who has consistently shaded his coverage favorably toward ACORN since we first broke the story back in September, evincing little interest in the truth but instead muttering about the standards of the Society of Professional Journalists (take link, be sure to read the comments).  “But the Society of Professional Journalists has set a standard that deception should be used only when every other reporting approach has been exhausted and only then in certain cases, most notably to reveal a severe social problem or to prevent people from being harmed.”
A “severe social problem”?  Perhaps that’s exactly what Congress saw when both the Senate and the House de-funded ACORN (at least temporarily), and the group’s tie with the census was abruptly severed in the wake of our reports.  So thank you for the clarification, CJR, and thank you to its appropriately named Mr. Marx for showing that hallowed institution’s true colors at a moment when any sentient being can recognize that the credibility of journalism is on the line.   It’s a little like the Sarah Palin situation: the media simultaneously dismisses her as an inept idiot and yet hangs on her every word, hoping to entrap her.  Why else would MSNBC send Norah O’Donnell, armed with talking points, to “fact-check” a tee shirt being worn by a young woman at one of Sarah’s recent book signings?
And now to address the fever-swamp’s notion that what I said on “Hannity” last night was “blackmail.”  Blackmail occurs when one party threatens to reveal an unsavory piece of information about another party, and demands money in exchange for silence.  For obvious reasons, it is most often conducted in private.  I, on the other hand, went on national television with a challenge to the Attorney General to do his job; unlike this administration and its justice department, what I did was fully open and transparent.
There will be consequences if there isn’t an investigation into ACORN.  The videos will be shown and at a particular moment.  There is nothing illegal about my proposed response to the continued inaction from this justice department, and there’s nothing I’d like more than to have my day in court and let a jury hear why I have gone to such extraordinary measures to tell a major story that the dying, partisan, leftist media has worked so hard to suppress.
The days of the Democrat-Media Complex controlling the narrative are in their end times.  And if the AG wants to turn his focus on me instead of ACORN, then that day will be closer than many of them think.