Three weeks out from Election Day, surely more Americans are tuning into the Big 3 networks’ evening newscasts, right?

Wrong.

In the past two weeks, Big 3 evening newscast viewership has actually declined by 360,000, or 1.6%. What’s more, in percentage terms, viewership among “The Demo” of ages 25-54 has declined even further (220,000, down 3.1%).

Here are the rest of the gory details for total viewers (Source: MediaBistro’s TV Newser – week of Oct. 6; week of Sept. 29; week of Sept. 22; Year Ended Sept. 2008):

Here’s what it looks like for the 25-54 demo:

Yikes.

Given that almost anyone would have expected the nets to at least hold steady through Election Day, it’s not unreasonable to surmise that some of the declines above might be due to:

• Charles Gibson’s slanted and selectively edited interview of Sarah Palin on ABC.
• Katie Couric’s similarly biased effort for CBS. Her Palin interview likely accounts for the ratings bump during the week of September 29, but notice that CBS was back below it two-week-ago level the following week. Is that a backlash?
• The ongoing MSNBC-ization of NBC.
• Relentlessly biased reporting in general.
• All of the above.

This result offers some hope that viewers — and voters are looking for more accurate information in outlets outside of traditional media.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit, whose home state of Missouri has seen more than its fair share of ACORN subversion, has posted “The Complete Guide to ACORN Voter Fraud” at Pajamas Media.

Money graf:

Barack Obama was a key player in this organization, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, in the past. Obama trained its local leaders, represented the organization in court, and worked to funnel funds to the organization. The Obama campaign also donated $800,000 this year to an ACORN affiliate.

Read the whole thing. It’s very difficult to believe that orchestrated vote fraud is not an integral element of Team Obama’s election strategy.

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TOPSIDE UPDATE: Maggie Thurber and Alo at Brain Shavings, who have done much more with this story than yours truly, have posts up. Alo also tipped Michelle Malkin, who writes, “This should be done in every one of the states where ACORN ‘franchises’ operate.” Word.
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Plaintiffs Jennifer Miller and Kimberly Grant, residents and registered voters in Warren County, Ohio, with the help of the Buckeye Institute’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, filed suit today against ACORN and Project Vote in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

A PDF copy of the complaint is here.

Obama’s name comes up at least three times in the complaint (bolds are mine):

(Page 3) 18. Defendant is engaged in massive voter registration drives and political canvassing throughout the state of Ohio and the United States of America; some of this work is performed on behalf of current United States of America presidential candidate Barack Obama.

(Page 3) 19. ACORN’s political wing has endorsed Barack Obama for president, and during the primary season, the Obama camp paid Citizen Service Inc., $832,598 for various political services according to Federal Elections Commission filings. Citizen Services, Inc. and ACORN share the same board of directors.

(Page 9) 69. In Texas, where ACORN’s affiliate, Citizens Services Inc., has provided contract work on behalf of Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, the Houston Chronicle reported on August 17, 2008 that “About 40 percent of the 27,000 registration cards gathered by ACORN from January through July have been rejected or placed in limbo pending the gathering of more information, according to the county” while “about 6,600 were filled out by people already registered, and many others contained insufficient information.”

Will Old Media report the claims raised by plaintiffs?

As they say, developing …..

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UPDATE: Plaintiffs are seeking the following (references are to the Ohio Revised Code):
(1) The dissolution of Defendant ACORN, pursuant to R.C. 2923.34(C)(3).
(2) The revocation of any license or permit that allows Defendant ACORN to carry on its business in the State of Ohio, pursuant to R.C. 2923.34(C)(4).
(3) The imposition of restrictions upon Defendant ACORN’s future political and elections-related activities, including restrictions that prohibit the Defendants from engaging in the same type of activity that has produced the pattern of corrupt activity articulated in this Complaint, pursuant to R.C. 2923.34(C)(2).
(4) The imposition of a restriction prohibiting ACORN from circumventing such a court order through the use of third-party operations or sham organizations.
(5) The awarding of attorneys fees to Plaintiffs, pursuant to R.C. 2923.34(G).
(6) The awarding such other and further relief as the court shall deem just and equitable.

UPDATE 2: I’d ordinarily be inclined to see the humor in the Mickey Mouse voter registration noted here. But this is about whether a congenitally corrupt organization will be allowed to desecrate the secular temple known as the voting booth. So, excuse me, I’m not laughing.

UPDATE 3: This is wayyyyyyyy too late to matter, and totally ineffectual, for the reasons noted —

The Obama campaign is now distancing itself from Acorn, claiming Mr. Obama never organized with it and has nothing to do with illegal voter registration. Yet it’s disingenuous to channel cash into an operation with a history of fraud and then claim you’re shocked to discover reports of fraud. As with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, Mr. Obama was happy to associate with Acorn when it suited his purposes. But now that he’s on the brink of the Presidency, he wants to disavow his ties.

The Justice Department needs to treat these fraud reports as something larger than a few local violators. The question is whether Acorn is systematically subverting U.S. election law — on the taxpayer’s dime.

Updating what was noted in a Positivity post in January, Readers Digest recently published an article about Ish and Arlene Hatch (a related slideshow starts here; HT NixGuy in an e-mail):

Frugal Farmers Ish and Arlene Hatch left behind a secret fortune and enriched their community forever.

A year ago August, Dave Fuss lost his job driving a dump truck for a small excavation company in west Michigan. Dave and his wife, Gerrie, lived in Alto-a small community (population: 8,694) only 20 miles outside Grand Rapids that even now is more small town than suburb.

Gerrie was still working in the local grade school cafeteria, but work for Dave was scarce, and the price of everything was rising. The Fusses were at risk of joining the millions of Americans who have lost their homes in recent years. Then Dave and Gerrie received a timely gift–$7,000, a legacy from their neighbors Ish and Arlene Hatch. “It really made a difference when we were going under financially,” says Dave.

Dave had plowed the Hatches’ driveway in the winter and in the summer sat listening to Ish’s stories about farming in the old days; still, he had no reason to expect that the Hatches would leave him or Gerrie anything but memories after they died. But the Fusses weren’t the only folks in Alto and the neighboring town of Lowell to receive unexpected bequests from the Hatches. There were the Van Weeldens, the Vander Ziels, Jim and Norma Peterson, Dave Fuss’s parents, Paul and Lois, and his brother Jerry–dozens of families were touched by the Hatches’ generosity. In some cases, it was a few thousand dollars; in others, it was more than $100,000.

It surprised nearly everyone that the Hatches had so much money, more than $3 million-they were an elderly couple who lived in an old house on what was left of the family farm–but no one was surprised by what they did with it. “Money isn’t what drove Ish and Arlene,” says their friend Steve Vander Ziel, who spent many evenings with his wife, Joan, chatting with the Hatches on their back porch. “This is small-town America, neighbors helping neighbors.”

Neighbors helping neighbors-that was Ish and Arlene Hatch’s story, in death as in life.
(more…)

….. But I Don’t Have Any Time For:

• Plumbing the depths of socialism (video here; HT Liberally Conservative) — Obama told an Ohio plumber who questioned why he should pay more taxes that: “It’s not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance for success too ….. My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody … I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” Karl Marx said, “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” There’s an echo in here.
• Speaking of echoes (echoes, echoes …..) , “Obama: Adultery You Can Believe In.”
• From AP last Friday, “Leading in polls, Obama plays it safe.” First, Zogby says the race is “a statistical dead heat.” Second, Obama is NOT leading in the critical state of Ohio. But after the plumber incident, he will likely become even less accessible than the AP article indicates. And there’s this howler: “Obama now reads his speeches from teleprompters, reducing the chance of gaffes” — as if that’s something new.
• That’s a few more than “Only 5″ — “ACORN in Lake County, Indiana: All 2,100 of First 2,100 ACORN Registrations Fraudulent.”
• Great moments in government-run health care, from the UK (HT Hot Air) — “NHS trust spends £12,000 treating staff privately.” Echoing Orwell’s Animal Farm — Some patients are more equal than others.