O'Keefe gets charges reduced

Anti-ACORN pimp James O'Keefe won't be facing felony charges after all for allegedly trying to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu's office phones. Justice Department prosecutors have decided to reduce the charges against O'Keefe and his three cohorts to one count each of entering real property of the United States under false pretenses, a misdemeanor. TPM

O'Keefe doesn't like being investigated

James O'Keefe, the conservative activist who embarrassed ACORN with his pimp videos and who was arrested last week for allegedly trying to tamper with Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's phones, is pushing back against media reports that suggest he's got extremist views. Simon Owens at Bloggasm reports being on the receiving end when he linked to a Salon story that said he had a "race problem."

Embrace your inner Dumpster diver

Joe Mathews of the New America Foundation argues that journalists could learn a thing or two from the methods employed by anti-ACORN activists to dig up dirt on the organization:

The best thing about the anti-ACORN reporting is that it may revive two journalistic methods that have long been dismissed as sleazy: surreptitious taping and dumpster diving on journalistic subjects.

In a skeptical age, there is no substitute for getting the goods: the video that shows the subject damning herself with her own words, the documents that demonstrate malfeasance. As institutions become more sophisticated about dodging journalistic inquiry, journalists need every investigative tool to hold institutions accountable.

But mainstream news organizations have shied away from these tactics, in large part because of terrible state laws and precedent that, in the name of privacy, protect powerful people and institutions against investigation.

Before investigative reporters run out and buy pimp and hooker gear, it's important to remember that the real differences between journalists and the anti-ACORN crowd is motive.

Yes, journalists should be more persistent and push more envelopes, tough to do in this age 24/7 deadlines, distractions and shrinking staffs. But the anti-ACORN folks resorted to unusual tactics because they were fixated on finding dirt, and because they have a political agenda. Is that really the role of the press? Should reporters learn to hack email chains, given the revelations discovered in what's now known as Climategate?

That being said, I don't know how many important stories lie at the bottom of a Dumpster. I'm sure there's a time when you have to jump in. Changing the law will be difficult because mostly because the trash rats are likely to be paparazzi sifting through celebrity garbage. Still, one can see the benefit of grabbing documents from, say, Countrywide's trash pile.

Secret phone calls seem less important to me, but maybe I'm not thinking creatively.

The corrections

A finger-pointing session broke out this week in the L.A. blogosphere.

Patterico claims James Rainey at the Los Angeles Times got only one side (the wrong one) in the ACORN saga ... Celeste Fremon at WitnessLA calls some of the coverage in the LA Weekly "cringe-makingly slanted" ... new LA Weekly blogger Dennis Romero points out a few mistakes in Neon Tommy's feature on the incoming editor ... and fishbowlLA slaps back at the Weekly for getting so defensive about Neon Tommy's take.

(And most of these links come via LA Observed)

Nuts about ACORN

Hopefully we've reached the string-pushing limits of the ACORN-as-pimp-enabler story, but the Opinionator has a nice roundup of the fallout and what it all might mean for journalism, poor people and the media freak show.