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The Mighty Acorn

In conservative circles, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, is the devil. This group mobilizes left-wing voters and champions liberal causes, sometimes using tax money in the form of state and federal grants to pay expenses. That makes right-wingers seethe with indignation.

ACORN employees across the country have been indicted for voter fraud, and by its own admission, the group has submitted at least 400,000 questionable voter documents, according to a New York Times report dated Oct. 24, 2008.

Now two whistleblowers, Anita MonCrief and Marcel Reid, who used to work for ACORN have testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee that the organization took money to intimidate capitalist organizations like the Carlyle Group and H&R Block, and worked closely with the Obama presidential campaign to get voters to the polls. It is here where the story begins to rise to the next level.

According to MonCrief, New York Times reporter Stephanie Strom was getting close to documenting a story directly linking the Obama campaign to ACORN through the "Project Vote" organization. Barack Obama worked for "Project Vote" in the 1990s. There is speculation that "Project Vote" did a number of illegal things last November during the voter registration process. Strom was allegedly zeroing in on the situation.

But the Times' investigation suddenly stopped dead, prompting a call from Strom to MonCrief, her source.

A voicemail from Strom was left on Oct. 21, 2008:

"Hi, Anita, it's Stephanie. I've just been asked by my bosses to stand down. ... They want me to hold off on coming to Washington. Sorry, I take my orders from higher up."

The Times did run a story about ACORN's left-wing partisanship, but stopped there. The paper would not make Strom available to talk with me. Spokeswoman Catherine Mathis sent a statement saying: "Every day we make news judgments about which stories to publish and which ones not to pursue. Political considerations played no role in our decision about whether to cover this story."

The motto of The New York Times is "All the News That's Fit to Print." "Standing down" on a story with presidential implications does not seem to fit that motto. Or am I wrong?

But Congressman John Conyers, a fervent Democrat and head of the Judiciary Committee, is not standing down. He is calling for a full House investigation of ACORN's role in the presidential election and beyond. Good for him.

The story is somewhat technical, and thus does not hold much appeal for TV news operations. But it is important. According to the whistleblowers, ACORN is a corrupt organization with close ties to the Obama administration. That sounds kind of ominous. Let's hope Conyers continues to step up.

Veteran TV news anchor Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the book "Who's Looking Out For You?" To find out more about Bill O'Reilly, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. This column originates on the Web site www.billoreilly.com.