Fox gets punk'd: ACORN volunteer knew 'pimp' and 'prostitute' were fake, was putting them on

from MediaMatters

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Washington, D.C. - Today, Media Matters for America highlighted the fact that Fox News repeatedly broadcast and promoted a shocking but entirely fictitious claim made by San Bernardino ACORN employee Tresa Kaelke that she murdered her former husband.

Media Matters also released a video of its own, titled, "Caught in a Smear," which can be viewed here.

"This is journalistic malpractice, plain and simple," said Eric Burns, president of Media Matters. "A reporter right out of J-school would have taken the two minutes necessary to call the San Bernardino Police Department and verify Ms. Kaelke's statements. But that never occurred to anyone at Fox News before the network ran with the story. This kind of shameful work raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the entire campaign currently being waged against ACORN."

BACKGROUND

On September 15, Fox News' Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity both broadcast Tresa Kaelke's assertion, recorded on a hidden camera, that she had killed a former husband.

(Continued here. Here's CrooksandLiars's account:)

Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity were all over the latest video release in the self-concocted ACORN "scandal" they've been pitching all over the cable and airwaves the past week. This time, they supposedly caught an ACORN volunteer named Tresa Kaelke giving them advice on how to set up their pimping operation.

Now, you'd think they would clue in that they were being put on when the woman talked about having killed one of her ex-husbands, but no. They proceeded apace -- and then splashed it all over Fox News this week, credulously.

Ellen at Newshounds has the rest of the story:

The only problem? It’s not true. As ACORN has stated in its press release,

“They were not believable", said Ms. Kaelke of the two actors. "Somewhat entertaining, but they weren't even good actors. I didn't know what to make of them. They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me. Like Stephan Colbert does – saying the most outrageous things with a straightface." While her sense of humor might not be funny to many people, the fact is that she spun false scenario after false scenario and the videographer ate them up.

ACORN provided a copy of a San Bernardino police report of their investigation into the “homicide” of Kaelke’s husband. The police concluded, “the claims do not appear to be factual. Investigators have been in contact with the involved party’s known former husbands, who are alive and well.”

(Video here.)