Story arc of a smear

Some Republican, in this case Todd Rokita, Indiana Secretary of State, loudly calls for an investigation of a left-wing organization that finds new voters who generally are not Republicans. ACORN tried to register the Jimmy Johns sub shop, he cries, call the law!

CNN has investigative reporters. (Did you know that?) They print up and publish the Republican's Chicken Little bullshit. Oh, sure, they notice that ACORN has a response, but they defer investigating who's telling the truth until some later date.

The RNC just happens to notice this story - no coordination - and is outraged. They pimp the CNN story in their press operation. Other smaller pimps put the lies in bold.

The bottom-feeding wingnut media is a willing conduit for these lies.

Then, ACORN shows documentary proof (PDF, see p. 19) that they in fact flagged the Jimmy Johns voter registration as suspicious and that they in fact fired the employee who submitted it. This is what they have said since the very beginning. CNN writes about ACORN's response, but doesn't actually show the documents. You and I have to find them for ourselves.

No Republican who matters ever renounces the bullshit. They just move on to the next dishonest press manipulation, knowing that the media will never catch on as long as they are paid by organizations that prefer for them to be obtuse.

And I'm not even bringing up the Rove-influenced network of US Attorneys who are primed by the firings of their past colleagues on this very issue to jump on it with both feet.