We’ll use the editorial page of the New York Times as well as a report by then California Attorney General Jerry Brown to highlight some of the many egregious activities of ACORN.

From the Times:

Acorn’s supporters appear to hope that the whole story will fall apart over the issue of what O’Keefe wore: if that was wrong, everything else must be wrong. The record does not support them. If O’Keefe did not dress as a pimp, he clearly presented himself as one: a fellow trying to set up a woman — sometimes along with under­age girls — in a house where they would work as prostitutes. In Washington, he said the prostitution was to finance his future in politics. A worker for Acorn Housing, an allied group, warned him to stay away from the brothel lest someone “get wind that you got a house and that your girlfriend is over there running a house of women of the night. You will not have a career.” FAIR said that in Brooklyn, O’Keefe and Giles seemed to be telling Acorn staffers that “they are attempting to buy a house to protect child prostitutes from an abusive pimp.” That’s right, but FAIR left out the part about their clear intention to operate a brothel, which the Acorn workers seemed to take in stride, with one warning: “Don’t get caught, ’cause it is against the law.”

From Jerry Brown's report:

• ACORN consisted of a tangle of separate affiliate organizations whose activities and

management were confusingly intertwined. ACORN in California was disorganized and

very poorly managed. It failed to recruit, train and monitor its employees to ensure

compliance with California law. • The recordings establish ACORN employees across the country were willing to discuss

with O’Keefe and Giles their plan to conduct a prostitution business, and a few even

made suggestions for disguising profits and avoiding detection by law enforcement

agencies. The most offensive conversations occurred outside California. • Although highly inappropriate, the evidence does not show that the ACORN employees

in California violated state criminal laws in connection with their conversations with

O’Keefe and Giles. • O’Keefe and Giles received immunity from prosecution in exchange for providing the

full, unedited videotapes. As a result, we did not determine if they violated California’s

Invasion of Privacy Act when they recorded the ACORN employees. If the

circumstances meet the requirements of the Act, the ACORN employees may be able to

bring a private suit against O’Keefe and Giles for recording a confidential conversation

without consent.

Considering that neither the New York Times nor Jerry Brown could ever be considered friends of James O’Keefe, it’s of particular note how they responded.