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.

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Senate minority leader Phil Berger had a letter published in the Wall Street Journal in which he blasted proposals to levy sales tax on Internet sales.

The Eden Republican said Amazon.com's decision to end a commission program for referrals to its online products proves that his party is right about new taxes. 

Actions have consequences. Amazon.com's decision to pull out of our state proves the point North Carolina Republicans have been making for months: Raising taxes on small businesses destroys North Carolina's jobs, slows our economic recovery, and makes us uncompetitive with other states.

Like their brethren who control the federal government, North Carolina Democrats have an unquenchable thirst for wasteful spending. Unlike their colleagues at the federal level, North Carolina Democrats, lacking the ability to print money, have resorted to a job-destroying billion-dollar tax increase to balance the budget.

Freedom's Watch is continuing to tie Kay Hagan to Jimmy Carter.

The Washington-based conservative advocacy group has sent a mailer to North Carolina voters linking Hagan's support for a windfall profit tax on oil companies to the former president's proposal.

"Why is Kay Hagan using Jimmy Carter's failed policies to fix the current energy crisis?" the mailer says.

Inside, it cites an editorial in Investor's Business Daily and a guest column in the Wall Street Journal by Republican Rep. John Shadegg to argue that Hagan would "make America dependent on foreign oil."

"Kay Hagan opposed offshore drilling to make America less reliant on foreign oil," it says.

Hagan initially opposed lifting a ban on offshore drilling, but later backed a failed bipartisan compromise that would have allowed some drilling and encouraged alternative energy.

Previously: Robocall targets Hagan on drilling.

Chris Kromm wonders if Barack Obama is leaving the South.

In a post on Facing South, the executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies points to a recent story in the Wall Street Journal that says Obama has focused on the traditional swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan this month.

Kromm wonders what effect a narrower map would have on North Carolina.

"A lurking question: if Obama pulls up stakes in North Carolina and other used-to-be-battlegrounds in the final weeks, what will that mean for down-ticket Democrats counting on his voter-turnout coattails?" he writes. "Or has the Obama base in those states already been energized?"

Is the Republican Governors Association looking to boost John McCain?

A recent Wall Street Journal article offers another motive for the GOP group's national fundraising efforts in North Carolina's gubernatorial race: bringing more voters to the polls for Republican Pat McCrory should help McCain win the presidency, Dan Kane reports.

"We are the equalizer in this campaign," said Nick Ayers, the association's executive director, in the article. A contributor to the association also mentioned the strategy to the Journal.

Association spokesman Chris Schrimpf told The News & Observer that there was no such strategy.

He said association leaders were merely pointing out that competitive governors races would naturally bring more Republicans to the polls, and those voters would likely support McCain.

Schrimpf wrote a rebuttal letter printed in the Journal a week after the July 3 article that said:

"It is basic political science that the party as a whole benefits when we have well-run gubernatorial races and more Republican governors. The article took the obvious political truism that strong gubernatorial tickets strengthen their respective tickets, and stretched it beyond recognition to create a story where there is none."

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U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge is definitely not one of the delegates in Barack Obama's camp.

At least not yet.

Etheridge's spokeswoman, Joanne Peters, said the Lillington Democrat has not yet made a decision about whether to endorse Obama or Hillary Clinton, reports Barb Barrett. 

That contradicts a story on the front page of Wall Street Journal today that Obama was ready to announce the endorsement of all of North Carolina's Democratic Congressmen.

Obama's spokesman also said the story was inaccurate. 

Barack Obama would be happy to get endorsements from North Carolina's Congressmen, but he says he doesn't have them yet.

The Democratic presidential candidate's campaign e-mailed Dome this morning to say that the Wall Street Journal's report it had all seven Democratic Congressmen lined up for a group endorsement was a bit premature.

(So far, only Rep. G.K. Butterfield has endorsed Obama. Reps. Brad Miller, David Price, Heath Shuler, Mel Watt, Bob Etheridge and Mike McIntyre have not made any endorsements yet.) 

"We're pleased to have the support of Rep. Butterfield and are working to earn the endorsement of his colleagues in the N.C. Congressional delegation," wrote spokesman Dan Leistikow in an e-mail to Dome. "Despite the Wall Street Journal's optimism, none of them has (told) our campaign that they are ready to announce their endorsement of Senator Obama, so we'll keep working on it." 

ANDERSON, S.C.—Conservatives have sometimes complained that John Edwards has received favorable treatment from the news media.

But in the closing days of the South Carolina primary, the Edwards campaign has been accusing the national news media of ignoring Edwards, and is asking voters to send them a message, Rob Christensen reports.

Ben Jones, a former Congressman from Georgia who played Cooter on the old TV series "Dukes of Hazzard" has been particularly outspoken. (Jones, a native of Tarboro, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill.)

In introducing Edwards around the state, Jones suggests that the major media outlets are removing Edwards from the story because they are owned by big corporations who don't like his populist message.

"When they take a good man like John Edwards and remove him from the story—it's wrong," Jones said in Seneca.

In Greenwood, Jones says that Edwards will not be defeated by NBC or the Wall Street Journal.

Edwards is more careful in his comments. But he does note that former President Bill Clinton is getting more attention from the media than he is.

What Edwards does not say is that if were winning some primaries or caucuses he would be getting more attention.

John Edwards has been in a dust up with Fox News.

The former North Carolina senator called last week for Democrats to oppose the merger of the News Corporation, owned by British media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and the Dow Jones Company which owns the Wall Street Journal, Rob Christensen reports.

Edwards said media consolidation was a bad trend. And he also asked Democratic presidential candidates to not accept money from News Corp. executives, a slap at one of his rivals, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton who has received $20,000.

"The time has come for Democrats to stop pretending to be friends with the very people who demonize the Democratic Party," Edwards said in a statement.

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