- "A lawyer involved with legal action against Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
- The New York Times had killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign
- because it would have been a “a game changer.”
- a “confidential informant for several months to The New York Times reporter, Stephanie Strom.”
- During her testimony, Ms. Heidelbaugh said Ms. Moncrief had told her
- The New York Times articles stopped when she revealed that the Obama presidential campaign had sent its maxed-out donor list to ACORN’s Washington, D.C. office.
Ms. Moncrief told Ms. Heidelbaugh the campaign had asked her and her boss to “reach out to the maxed-out donors and solicit donations from them for Get Out the Vote efforts to be run by ACORN.”
Ms. Heidelbaugh then told the congressional panel:
“Upon learning this information and receiving the list of donors from the Obama campaign, Ms. Strom reported to Ms. Moncrief that
- her editors at The New York Times wanted her to kill the story because, and I quote, “it was a game changer.”’
- Ms. Moncrief made her first overture to Ms. Heidelbaugh after The New York Times allegedly spiked the story — on Oct. 21, 2008.
U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., the ranking Republican on the committee, said the interactions between the Obama campaign and ACORN, as described by Ms. Moncrief, and attested to before the committee by Ms. Heidelbaugh,
- could possibly violate federal election law, and “ACORN has a pattern of getting in trouble for violating federal election laws.”
- He also voiced criticism of The New York Times.
- it is a not an impartial observer of the political scene,” he said.
- Academicians and journalism experts expressed similar criticism of the Times.
- Mr. Kline mentioned Gov. Sarah Palin was cleared by investigators of improperly firing an Alaska State Trooper,
- but went unnoticed by The Times.
- “If this is true, it would not surprise me at all. The New York Times is a liberal newspaper. It is dedicated to furthering the Democratic Party,” said Dr. Paul Kengor, professor of Political Science at Grove City College.
ACORN has issued statements claiming that Ms. Moncrief is merely a disgruntled former worker.
“None of this wild and varied list of charges has any credibility and we’re not going to spend our time on it,” said Kevin Whelan, ACORN deputy political director in a statement issued last week.
- Stephanie Strom was contacted for a comment, and The New York Times’ Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications Catherine Mathis replied with an e-mail in her place.
- won’t comment except to say that political considerations played no role
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