One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
The Anti-ACORN Doesn't Fall Far From the HOPE Artist
Studio No. 1 in March 2008. Photo by WagonMaster via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
People are pretty p-o'd about The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, aka ACORN, and the recent videos that have been released showing undercover conservative activists posing as a pimp and ho pair getting a bit too much help from staffers at several of the group's locations. Anti-ACORN activists expressed their dismay through graffiti left on the exterior walls of Studio No. 1 here in Los Angeles, which is the commercial design studio behind Shepard Fairey's iconic Obama HOPE posters, explains the Washington Post.
Says a Studio rep of the message and its medium:
"While we support free expression, it is ironic that...the conservatives and right-wingers who called pro-Obama art propaganda and if it was posted publicly, they called it vandalism, are now vandalizing private property in their campaign against ACORN," said Jay Strell, a spokesman for Studio Number One and Fairey. The graffiti has been removed, he added.
Studio No. 1 is a strange target, indeed, since they are not affiliated with ACORN, and are not government-funded. The relationship with the arts and the Obama administration has come under much scrutiny lately; Fox News' Glenn Beck singled outformer LA-resident Yosi Sergant, who served as the PR rep for Fairey and the Obama art campaign, in a pot-stirring discussion focused on the National Endowment for the Arts, where Sergant currently works.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
