Rachel Maddow is uncovering a ‘scandalous’ trend. On Thursday, after an investigation into James O’Keefe’s (unedited) ACORN tapes the California Attorney General released a statement saying “that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality.” Maddow draws some comparisons to another recent scandal.

Fox News has responded repeatedly to accusations that they are “not a news network” by pointing to the distinction between their news and opinion sections. And if critics still doubt what actual opinion looks like on Fox, they should click on the FoxNews.com Opinion Page. That’s where the network really lets its (and, this week, Nancy Pelosi‘s!) hair down.

The New York Times is eating some ACORN crow today. After being slow to cover the ACORN debacle back in September the paper proceeded to report on a number of occasions that James O’Keefe had appeared at the ACORN offices dressed as a pimp, which was apparently not the case. Today the correction.

A consolation prize for conservatives still sulking about health care reform: a month after announcing that some of its local affiliates were breaking off and renaming themselves in an attempt to escape the organization’s notoriety, ACORN is officially going out of business. Already having done some down-sizing, the group has set an April 1st deadline to shut down all major operations on the national level. And yes, officials say, this is the direct result of last September’s hidden camera scandal.

Yesterday, Slate released the second in what appears to be a series of profiles in various publications on internet mogul Andrew Breitbart, and for a figure as polarizing as he is, writer Chris Beam paints a remarkably favorable picture. It’s not a glowing biographical sketch but it’s the most candid, three-dimensional look the public has ever gotten of him.

Love is in the air at Andrew Breitbart satellite blog Big Journalism, where ACORN gumshoe Hannah Giles (the “prostitute” to James O’Keefe‘s “pimp”) is exhibiting some strangely moderate behavior. After a light-hearted crash course in the early life of a future CPAC superstar, Giles explains that she is not alone in being a young journalist out to find the big story, but she wouldn’t mind being a little less lonely at dinnertime. And she’s willing to reach across the aisle to find her Prince Charming. Ezra Klein, sounds like you have some cooking to do.

Time to add another scalp to Glenn Beck’s collection? ACORN revealed today it “is in the process of dissolving its national structure” and that state and local chapters will split off from the national group. So, is this a victory for Beck and Breitbart et al.? Maybe, maybe not.

By now, if you’ve been paying attention to our Conservative Political Action Conference coverage, you’ve likely already watched the video of my impromptu interview with Andrew Breitbart (if not, it’s coming after the jump). It’s the best of many “spirited” Breitbart videos to come out of this year’s CPAC. A display like this might damage the reputation of other public figures, but the Big Journalism creator and his fans have nothing to worry about. Just ask my editor

John McCain may have done his best to stow old Bush administration personalities away for his presidential campaign, but Fox News is reporting that a new poll shows former vice president Dick Cheney is actually a fairly popular choice among Republican voters to run for president in 2012. In a poll that was probably taken about a year too soon, 10% of a pool of 2,003 Republicans supported a Cheney presidential run.

Expect this to turn into a much bigger story very quickly. Yesterday, a U.S. Attorney Jim Letten (a holdover from the Bush administration, according to Rachel Maddow) recused himself from the James O’Keefe case for “various relevant factors” that have yet to be disclosed in detail (though not for long one imagines!). There’s more.

James O’Keefe has published a statement about this week’s misadventures in Mary Landrieu’s office on Andrew Breitbart’s site Big Government. Whether or not what it discloses is the same ‘truth’ O’Keefe hopes will “set him free” remains to be seen. If so, he may be in for a rocky ride. Apparently, O’Keefe went to Landrieu’s in disguise and that’s just the beginning of the story.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Once the toast of conservative “journalism,” feted by Republican members of Congress, obeyed by the US Senate, James O’Keefe now faces scorn in the wake of his arrest for allegedly trying to spy on Senator Mary Landrieu. The pimp-suited crusader who brought the mighty ACORN to its knees has been genuflected by the FBI, and his former supporters are scurrying. Will no one stand by James in his darkest hour? Who will offer O’Keefe a helping hand out from under that bus?

James O’Keefe — the upstart investigative filmmaker whose undercover video work got ACORN’s federal funding stripped — has been arrested by the FBI in Louisiana for attempting to wiretap the offices of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, according to the Times-Picayune. Mediaite chronicled O’Keefe’s rise to prominence last fall, from his big ACORN take down to his Fox News pimp costume. Update: the US Attorney’s office released details in a statement, after the jump.

After seeing the stir caused by Andrew Breitbart’s “Ornament-Gate” story, I had to go back and review the footage and pictures that I shot of White House Christmas decorations a few weeks ago. Breitbart’s Big Hollywood made an eagle-eyed catch of an ornament that appeared to be mocking Chairman Mao, and leapt to his defense. Or something. I think we can do better than that. Without even looking, I found a White House display that featured nudity and beasts of burden. See if you can uncover a new “scandal:”

A new front has opened in the “War on Christmas,” but this is very different than what anything we’ve seen before. Yesterday, Big Government ran a headline for the ages: “Exclusive: Transvestites, Mao and Obama Ornaments Decorate White House Christmas Tree.”

And no, they aren’t making that up, nor is it some extremist conspiracy theory. The images of Chairman Mao and Hedda Lettuce really ARE hanging on White House Christmas tree. Video after the jump:

The GOP has been remarkably successful at picking off enemies like Van Jones and ACORN with concerted attacks.

Now, they’re taking on a much bigger target: the AARP, which numbers more than 40 million members. How is a campaign against a mainstream, powerful interest group going to play out?

At today’s White House Press Briefing, there was a pricelessly awkward moment when, after Christina Bellantoni asked Robert Gibbs what the President is going to do with his Nobel Prize winnings, a reporter from CongressDaily made a comment worthy of those “Would you please pass the jelly?” commercials:

Last night Bill O’Relly surmised that voter fraud perpetuated by ACORN may have been the reason why Al Franken was elected US Senator from Minnesota. An interview with guest Laura Ingraham started with O’Reilly admitting that “(he) despises Al Franken” because he’s a “dishonest man.” After raising the specter of Franken’s fraudulent election, O’Reilly quickly claimed it was unfair to make that claim, just ask the question.

Clark Hoyt, the New York Times ombudsman thinks the paper should stop running scared from Glenn Beck. Hoyt took the Times to task this weekend over their coverage (or lack thereof) of the ACORN and the Van Jones debacle. Apparently the problem is no one at the paper watches Fox News.

Much has been made of James O’Keefe and his remarkably successful effort to bring down ACORN through his shocking hidden camera interviews. At the start, this story was almost entirely reported by Fox News, the NY Post, Matt Drudge and Andrew Breitbart. And O’Keefe was mostly portrayed as more of a collegiate prankster than modern-day Upton Sinclair. Enter Chris Wallace, who finally gave O’Keefe his hagiographic due.

Someone tweeted the link to this AP story this morning (I don’t remember who), and wondered if Fox News would be reporting this. The headline is “Police: ACORN worker in video reported couple.”

ACORN is not popular these days. But Rachel Maddow doesn’t give a damn, because she thinks ACORN got screwed — by the self-reinforcing Conservative echo chamber, and by a credulous, lazy media.

Bill O’Reilly and Barney Frank had another spirited debate over the news that ACORN and two former employees of its Baltimore office had filed a lawsuit against the makers of a hidden-camera video. While not nearly as contentious as their previous debate over the financial meltdown, it was a very entertaining back and forth.

What troubles me the most about Glenn Beck is how he is slopping over into the new journalism. For those who are troubled over the lack of judgment, filters, and discipline in the handling of the new spontaneous news flows, his careless call-outs to his flock for dirt on enemies represents a new reach into chaos for the profession.

James O’Keefe, 25-year-old undercover journalist, has seen real results since his video exposés of ACORN were posted on BigGovernment.com and replayed on Fox News incessantly.

He made one PR mistake – dressing up in his pimp costume for a Fox & Friends interview. It didn’t really hurt him though – and now others on Fox News have started to play dress-up as well.