Publius:

At this point, we can begin to see ACORN's true importance. The "video" is important not because it reveals some larger "truth" about ACORN, but because it is useful in this larger institutional battle to control national media narratives.

Frankly, the MSM has gotten much better since 2002 about ignoring the more absurd stories emanating from the Noise Machine. Beck and the birther nonsense haven't helped the cause in that respect. For that reason, though, the Noise Machine desperately needed to rehabilitate and strengthen the "MSM is biased" argument. Without that crucial weapon, it's very hard to storm the MSM's castle.

ACORN has, at long last, delivered the goods (much like Dan Rather before it). But ACORN itself is not essential to the strategy. It can be anything -- from town halls, to school songs, to whatever. The Noise Machine just needs a tool for bullying the media into accepting their garbage.

Exactly.