Pro-ACORN media conspiracy?

Few things get me more outraged than the worldwide slavery trade. I’ve learned about this through the years as I made trips to Washington and met with high-level State Department officials. Slavery is more rampant today than it was 150 years ago, and much of it has to do with the sex trade.
And so the allegations against ACORN, that it offered advice on setting up a brothel that would feature under-aged girls from El Salvador, makes my blood boil. I was glad to see the Senate and House both pass measures stripping ACORN of all public funding.
But I’ve been dismayed and, quite frankly, angered at the way many right-wing conservatives have been calling my office and e-mailing me this week, accusing the Deseret News of being part of a conspiracy of silence on this story.
Apparently, some right-wing radio host started these accusations on Monday, aided by right-wing cable TV hosts. I have nothing to do with the news side of things here, but the truth is the Deseret News had a prominent story on the Census Bureau cutting ties with ACORN on Saturday. (Read it here.) The Web site ran a news story on Wednesday. (Read it here.) We are publishing an editorial on it tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the L.A. Times ran an editorial on the subject. (Read it here.) And numerous other mainstream media outlets covered it, as well.
And yet people have called my office, threatening to cancel subscriptions and sounding so angry they were on the verge of tears; all because some guy on radio or TV told them to.
Do you know what the most important story was for Utahns this week? It was the results of the local-government elections. Nothing else will affect people more closely or immediately. And yet, had we ignored these, we wouldn’t have gotten nearly as angry a response as we got from supposedly ignoring the ACORN story.
Frankly, I find that frightening.