I am not sure that it would surprise anyone that biggovernment.com has been caught misrepresenting the news, but USAToday?
The headline at biggovernment.com blares:
O’Keefe Census Video Sting Forces Bureau Rule Changes
http://biggovernment.com/...
The biggovernment.com "article" cites USAToday as the source:
USA Today reports that the United States Census Bureau is overhauling its hiring and security procedures following James O’Keefe’s video exposing supervisors encouraging enumerators to falsify time sheets
.
http://biggovernment.com/...
Yet, when you click on the link to USAToday, you find this headline:
Census Bureau makes changes after sex offender hired
By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
Indeed, it appears to be from the June 3, 2010, USAToday online version of the newspaper. Here is a sample of the body of the story:
The Census Bureau has made some changes to its hiring and security procedures after reports that a convicted sex offender was hired to go door-to-door in New Jersey and an undercover video surfaced showing Census supervisors paying workers for hours they did not work.
http://www.usatoday.com/...
But wait a second. I thought I read something about this earlier. Let me check...yes, I most certainly did. I read it here:
Census Bureau adopts strict jobs screening after incidents
By Carol Morello
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Census Bureau is adopting stricter rules for screening new hires after a registered sex offender using an alias got a job as a census taker in New Jersey, the bureau's director said Wednesday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
This news isn't new and it most certainly had nothing to do with the James O'Keefe video. It's a week old. And, when you compare the two, they contain the same information almost word for word. So why is USAToday stating the changes were made, in part, due to the James O'Keefe video? And what exactly is biggovernment.com crowing about? The USAToday article implies that the changes were made after the James O'Keefe video was released. As I recall, that video was released on June 1, 2010, which was five days after the Post story on the Census Bureau changes.
There is one difference between the USAToday story and the original Post story, and that is this addition:
Conservative activist James O'Keefe, best known for an undercover video showing ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) counselors appearing to encourage him to hide a prostitution venture to get housing money, released another video this week. This one shows O'Keefe at two New Jersey Census offices where he was hired and took a two-day training course. O'Keefe quit after working 16 hours but was paid for 19.5 hours. The video also shows supervisors giving 70-minute paid lunch breaks — 40 minutes longer than allotted.
"At the time of training, we expect each day to be an 8-hour day," [Census Director Robert] Groves said.
Trainees are paid for class time, reviewing training materials and travel time.
"Once they begin work in the field, each day they record the number of hours they worked, the number of miles that they drove and report to the crew leader," he said.
http://www.usatoday.com/...
I can not verify when Mr. Groves made those statements, as USAToday does not indicate when he was interviewed, etc.
But what Mr. Groves stated is not any "change" to Census Bureau policy. It sounds like he is just restating what everyone from Census has been telling O'Keefe all along, including in the video, i.e., that the reason they told O'Keefe to put down that he worked eight hours was because of travel time and work he should have been given to take home. (We don't know if O'Keefe was given that work as he edited the video before releasing it.) But Mr. Groves didn't say that because of the O'Keefe video, trainees would have to stay in the classroom for the entire eight hours.
Again, while no one should be surprised that biggovernment.com has inflated their headline, I think it is worth while to point it out when it does occur since they are so keen on playing "gotcha politics," and since their star cub reporter is James O'Keefe. Remember, with him, you have to consider the source.
As far as USAToday's innaccuracy, I think they should be ashamed of themselves and run a correction as soon as possible.