From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

Bob Garfield is away this week. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

This week, the House voted to deny the federally funded group Acorn any more money.

Acorn staffers have been fired, and the group, which provides assistance to low-income families,

is now conducting its own

internal investigation. All prompted by a sting conducted by two young activists, James O'Keefe,

playing a pimp, and Hannah Giles posing as a prostitute, who taped acorn workers offering

advice on how to cheat the system in five different cities.

Their incriminating videos were posted on the conservative website, big government.com.

Let me make sure there's a code for it, okay?

A code for prostitution.

Okay, let's see what we got here.

Performance are independent artists.

You can be that.

The Daily Show's John Stewart had harsh words for the mainstream media.

You're telling me that two kids from the cast of High School Musical 3

can break this story with a video camera and their grandmother's chinchilla coat.

And you got nothing?

So what is the role of the mainstream media here?

They didn't break the story, but they could contextualize it, describe acorn its function,

and yes, even its role as a political lightning rod since the election.

But mostly what we get is the tape, which definitely is news.

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