In the week after it erupted, Congress defunded ACORN and O'Keefe and Breitbart became heroes at Fox News has been using it to hammer Obama with thinly-veiled racist attacks and theories that the election was stolen. O'Keefe appeared on Fox and Friends in his pimp get-up, Sean Hannity has been practically masturbating on-air has gleefully laughed at how stupid ACORN must've been to fall for what looks like a frat party Pimps n' Hoes costume.
In a story closely followed by Media Matters' Eric Boehlert, it has now come to light that Andrew Breitbart, the right-winger whose website 'exposed' these videos (and who used this controversy to launch himself into the wingnut stratosphere) was either duped by 'filmmaker' James O'Keefe, or (more likely, IMO) went along with a great shining lie: The videos were heavily edited to show the message that the right-wing wanted shown. O'Keefe was shot in the pimp outfit outside the ACORN offices, but when he went in, he was not wearing the outfit. The "B-roll" footage was later spliced in, a charge that Breitbart admits, but dismisses as not important.
In other words, it didn't happen and there's no 'there' there.
By the way, O'Keefe was arrested in January for attempting to bug the phones of Sen. Mary Landireu, presumably for another 'gotcha' expose.
Sadly, as ACORN runs an accountability campaign, The New York Times, while admitting it got its facts wrong when it ran with the story, hook, line and sinker, has refused to print a retraction or an apology.
Not surprisingly, Sean Hannity, who has flogged the story to death, has been silent about the revelations. Colbert addresses this:
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