A new study covering the journalism of the recent scandals regarding ACORN blames right-wing media blogs and conservatives for stirring up controversy about the community organizing group during last year’s presidential campaign and the first months of the Obama administration.

The study, “Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why Acorn Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong,” says a well-orchestrated, anti-ACORN blitz appeared in October 2008, reports Barb Barrett.

It continued in a “conservative media echo chamber” through the following months, say the authors, Peter Dreier, director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Program at Occidental College; and Christopher R. Martin, a journalism professor at the University of Northern Iowa.

They report that firms created front groups, such as the Consumer Rights League and the Employment Policies Institute, to attack ACORN on battles against predatory lending and in favor of “living wage” laws.

More after the jump.

   Comments (11)