Acorn, spin, and crummy journalism

A couple of weeks ago, David Sommerstein wrote a great post in this blog.

He told how a political activist had spread a rumor among journalists –in that case, a Democrat was trying to spark negative coverage of Republican Dede Scozzafava.

The operative then disseminated a resulting news story as evidence that there was something to the rumor.

That’s the spin cycle.

We’re seeing it again with the Hoffman campaign’s Acorn attack on Scozzafava.

Conservative Doug Hoffman is accusing the Republican of suspicious ties to “radical” leftists. The claim is ludicrous.

Hoffman’s people are upset with me for dismissing their attack out of hand, but please.

Whatever your opinion of Acorn, the notion that a veteran Republican Assemblywoman from Gouverneur is sympathetic to leftist agitators simply doesn’t pass the sniff test.

Unfortunately, not every journalist uses the sniff test.

The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza (whom I generally admire) lists Hoffman’s accusation as evidence that the Acorn issue could pose a significant political challenge…for Democrats.

The ACORN effect is even hitting the campaign trail. In New York’s 23rd district special election, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman is hitting state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R) for her alleged ties to ACORN.

The efficacy of these attacks remain to be seen —

Note that Cillizza only thinly points out — with that tiny “R” — that this particular attack is being made against a Republican, not a Democrat.

In fact, the Republican leading the charge against Acorn, minority leader Rep. John Boehner, is supporting…Dede Scozzava.

Boehner says he hopes to place Scozzafava on the House Armed Services Committee — hardly the place for a radical leftist.

Despite this obvious disconnect, the Hoffman campaign distributed the Washington Post article to support the notion that there’s traction to this narrative.

Obviously, the Conservatives aren’t the only folks going negative early. Scozzafava’s campaign issued a press release a couple of weeks ago suggesting that Hoffman was foaming at the mouth.

In a fast special election, voters — and journalists — will have to be savvy enough to pick through this stuff, identifying the issues and questions that really matter.

What do you think? Am I missing something? Is Acorn a big deal to you? Comment below.