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'''James E. O'Keefe III''' (born June 28, 1984) is a [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] [[United States|American]] [[activist]] who has produced videos, which were recorded secretly and heavily edited before release, of public figures and workers in a variety of organizations. He came to national attention after publishing video and audios of workers at [[Planned Parenthood]] in 2008 and at [[ACORN]] in 2009. O'Keefe edited the recordings to portray his subjects as unethical, criminal, irresponsible and/or racially biased. Such secret recordings are illegal in California and Maryland, which are among the states where he staged encounters.
'''James E. O'Keefe III''' (born June 28, 1984) is a [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] [[United States|American]] [[activist]]. He came to national attention after publishing video and audios of workers at [[Planned Parenthood]] in 2008 and at [[ACORN]] in 2009. O'Keefe edited the recordings to portray his subjects as unethical, criminal, irresponsible and/or racially biased. Such secret recordings are illegal in California and Maryland, which are among the states where he staged encounters.


Some of O'Keefe's projects have generated controversy and have influenced Congressional votes. Due to his videos of ACORN workers supposedly aiding a couple in income tax evasion and other crimes, the US Congress voted to freeze funds for the non-profit, which had aided low- and moderate-income people for 40 years; the [[Census Bureau]] ended a contract by which ACORN workers were doing urban counts for the 2010 census. The non-profit also lost most private funding, and in March 2010 had to close most of its offices across the nation. Shortly after that, investigation reports, including ones by the California State Attorney General and by the US [[Government Accountability Office]], were published that found that O'Keefe had misrepresented ACORN workers, that the organization had managed its federal funds appropriately, and that workers had not committed the illegal actions he portrayed.
Some of O'Keefe's projects have generated controversy and have influenced Congressional votes. Due to his videos of ACORN workers supposedly aiding a couple in income tax evasion and other crimes, the US Congress voted to freeze funds for the non-profit, which had aided low- and moderate-income people for 40 years; the [[Census Bureau]] ended a contract by which ACORN workers were doing urban counts for the 2010 census. The non-profit also lost most private funding, and in March 2010 had to close most of its offices across the nation. Shortly after that, investigation reports, including ones by the California State Attorney General and by the US [[Government Accountability Office]], were published that found that O'Keefe had misrepresented ACORN workers, that the organization had managed its federal funds appropriately, and that workers had not committed the illegal actions he portrayed.

Revision as of 15:22, 10 August 2011

For the Irish politician, see James O'Keeffe. For the cardiologist, see James O'Keefe (cardiologist).
James O'Keefe
Born
James E. O'Keefe III

(1984-06-28) June 28, 1984 (age 40)
Bergen County, New Jersey, U.S.
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationB.A. in Philosophy
Alma materRutgers University,
(2006)
Occupation(s)Conservative movement exposé-documentarian, lecturer, and activist
Years active2006–present
OrganizationProject Veritas
Known forActivism and Videography
Notable workHidden camera videos of ACORN workers (2009), NPR videos (2011)
Height6 ft 2 in (188 cm)[1]
Websitewww.theprojectveritas.com

James E. O'Keefe III (born June 28, 1984) is a conservative American activist. He came to national attention after publishing video and audios of workers at Planned Parenthood in 2008 and at ACORN in 2009. O'Keefe edited the recordings to portray his subjects as unethical, criminal, irresponsible and/or racially biased. Such secret recordings are illegal in California and Maryland, which are among the states where he staged encounters.

Some of O'Keefe's projects have generated controversy and have influenced Congressional votes. Due to his videos of ACORN workers supposedly aiding a couple in income tax evasion and other crimes, the US Congress voted to freeze funds for the non-profit, which had aided low- and moderate-income people for 40 years; the Census Bureau ended a contract by which ACORN workers were doing urban counts for the 2010 census. The non-profit also lost most private funding, and in March 2010 had to close most of its offices across the nation. Shortly after that, investigation reports, including ones by the California State Attorney General and by the US Government Accountability Office, were published that found that O'Keefe had misrepresented ACORN workers, that the organization had managed its federal funds appropriately, and that workers had not committed the illegal actions he portrayed.

Some of his sting operations have been discovered by his targets: sending men in disguise to hack the phone system of Democratic Party senator Mary Landrieu in 2010, to record conversations of her and her staff, resulted in the arrest on felony charges of O'Keefe and his three colleagues, including the son of William Flanagan, the acting US Attorney of the Eastern District of Louisiana. The four pled guilty to misdemeanor charges. Some subjects have filed civil lawsuits against O'Keefe.[3] Law enforcement agencies and news organizations have made lengthy investigations of O'Keefe's videos and found them to have been selectively edited to misrepresent his subjects and deceive viewers to persuade them of his point of view.[4][5][6][7][8] His actions have stirred a public debate on what it means to be a journalist and on what constitutes good journalistic practice when false pretenses are used.[9]

O'Keefe became politically active while at Rutgers University. He co-founded a conservative student paper, the Rutgers Centurion, and published his first secret video in 2005. After graduating, he continued to produce videos, partnering with pro-life activist Lila Rose in 2007. In 2009 Andrew Breitbart paid him for the option to publish new videos on BigGovernment.com exclusively. In June 2010, O'Keefe formed a 501(c)(3) organization, Project Veritas, with the stated mission to "investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct." [10]

Early life and education

O'Keefe is the elder of two children born to James E. O'Keefe Jr., a materials engineer, and Deborah O'Keefe, a physical therapist.[11][12][13] His younger sister became a painter and sculptor.

O'Keefe grew up in Westwood in Bergen County, New Jersey, where he still lives with his parents.[14] His home was politically "conservative but not rigidly so," according to his father.[citation needed] He graduated from Westwood High School, where he showed an early interest in the arts, theater and journalism. He played the leading role in his high school's 2002 production of the musical Crazy for You. He attained the highest rank, Eagle Scout, in the Boy Scouts of America.

O'Keefe started at Rutgers University in 2002 and majored in philosophy. Beginning in his sophomore year, he wrote a bi-weekly opinion column for The Daily Targum, the university's student paper. He left the Targum and founded the Rutgers Centurion, a conservative student paper supported by a $500 "Balance in the Media" grant from the The Leadership Institute. O'Keefe began shooting hidden-camera videos to generate content for the Centurion.[citation needed]

For his first video, O'Keefe and other Centurion writers met with Rutgers dining staff to demand the banning of the cereal Lucky Charms from dining halls because of its offense to Irish-Americans. O'Keefe stated objections to the leprechaun mascot of the brand, saying it presented a stereotype. He intended to have officials lose either way in the confrontation: to appear insensitive to an ethnic group, or to agree that Lucky Charms should not be served in the dining hall.[15] Though O'Keefe and the other students said they expected to be thrown out for the discussion[16], the Rutgers official took notes, was courteous and said their concerns would be considered. Rutgers staff say the cereal was never taken off the menu.[12]

Career

After graduating, O'Keefe worked for a year under Ben Wetmore at the Leadership Institute (LI), a conservative-funded organization in Arlington, Virginia. The institute sent O'Keefe to colleges to train students to start up independent newspapers. While at UCLA he met the budding pro-life activist Lila Rose. Officials at the institute asked O'Keefe to leave after a year. According to Morton Blackwell, the institute's president and founder, they had concern that O'Keefe's videos threatened LI's tax exemption as a nonprofit by trying to influence legislation (a legal characterization of lobbyists, which do not have tax exempt status).[11] Blackwell said O'Keefe wanted to catch liberals in videos "breaking the law."[12]

After working at LI, O'Keefe attended Western State University law school for one year.[citation needed]

Institutions I’ve gone after are the institutions that investigative reporters have refused to investigate.

— James O'Keefe, Newsweek, March 20, 2011[17]

Planned Parenthood

O'Keefe helped plan and produce undercover videos with pro-life activist Lila Rose in 2006 and 2007 that appeared to show several Planned Parenthood workers willing to circumvent state laws requiring that abortion clinics report statutory rape and secure parental authorization for underage girls to have abortions.[citation needed] The videos received national attention. O'Keefe met Rose, a UCLA student, while he was visiting the university as a Leadership Institute campus representative in 2006. Rose was the founder of an anti-abortion group on campus.[18] O'Keefe planned to have Rose pose as an underaged pregnant teenager, go to Planned Parenthood clinics for advice, and to record the conversations. They made two videos. In the first, a Santa Monica clinic advised Rose to "figure out a birthdate that works."[19][failed verification] Planned Parenthood of California filed a "cease and desist" order against Rose, charging that she was violating state laws against secret recordings and requiring that she remove them from YouTube and give all the recordings to the organization. She complied through her attorney to avoid going to court.[19]

In 2007 O'Keefe phoned several Planned Parenthood clinics and secretly recorded the conversations; he posed as a donor specifying that his gift should go to fund abortions of African Americans because "the less black kids out there the better."[20] Clinics in seven states reportedly agreed to accept his donation under those terms.[21] After the four audio recordings were publicized in 2008, Planned Parenthood apologized for the behavior of its staffers, calling it "inappropriate".[20] In a call to an Albuquerque office, O'Keefe discussed affirmative action and said there were too many black people competing with white Americans for admission to schools; the clinic's representative replied, "Yes, yes, it's a strange time for sure."[22][23] A representative of Planned Parenthood of Ohio replied, "For whatever reason we'll accept the money."[24] Autumn Kersey, the vice president of Planned Parenthood of Idaho, was suspended after the recordings showed that she had laughed and said to O'Keefe, "understandable, understandable" and "Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I've had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I'm excited and want to make sure I don't leave anything out." She was trying to keep him talking so that she could have the call traced and recorded, but was unsuccessful.[25]

In reaction, black leaders demanded the withdrawal of public financing of Planned Parenthood.[18] African-American pastors led a protest in Washington, DC and accused Planned Parenthood of perpetrating "genocide" by supporting abortions by African-American women.[21] The New York Times noted that black women were historically among early adopters of contraception when it became available. It also noted that they have abortions at a rate higher than women of other ethnic groups.[18] Planned Parenthood stated that it is active in black communities because it is responding to need.[21] Alveda King, a black minister and a niece of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had had two abortions,[26] spoke in support of the protest.[24][18]

ACORN

Main article: ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy

In September 2009, O'Keefe and his associate, Hannah Giles, published edited hidden camera recordings in which Giles posed as a prostitute and O'Keefe as her boyfriend in an attempt to elicit damaging responses from employees of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), an advocacy organization for persons of low and moderate income.[27] O'Keefe later said, "he targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does: its massive voter registration drives that turn out poor African Americans and Latinos to cast ballots against Republicans."[28]

The videos were recorded during the summer of 2009[29] and showed low-level ACORN employees in six cities purportedly providing advice to Giles and O'Keefe on how to avoid detection by authorities of tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution.[11] After the videos were made public, the U.S. Congress voted to eliminate federal funding to ACORN.[30] The Census Bureau and the IRS terminated their contract relationships with ACORN.[31][32] Several members of Congress introduced a resolution praising O'Keefe and Giles' work in October 2009, but the resolution was not considered in committee or voted on.[33][34][35] An external investigation of ACORN cleared it of any illegality, but concluded that ACORN had poor management practices that contributed to unprofessional actions by a number of its low-level employees.[36][37] In March 2010, ACORN announced it would dissolve due to loss of funding from government and private sources.[38]

An independent investigation of ACORN, reported by several news outlets in December 2009, concluded that there was no evidence ACORN workers had supported criminal activities, ashad been portrayed by the O'Keefe videos.[39][40][41] On March 1, 2010, the district attorney for Brooklyn concluded that there was no criminal wrongdoing by the ACORN staff in its jurisdiction.[42][43]

"The evidence illustrates that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality. Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor."

—  California Attorney General Edmund Brown, 1 April 2010[44]

During the several investigations, the California Attorney General's Office offered O’Keefe immunity from prosecution in exchange for providing the full, unedited videotapes related to ACORN to its office. [27] The AG's Report was released on April 1, 2010: it found the videos from ACORN offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino to have been "severely edited"; it did not find evidence of criminal conduct on the part of ACORN employees, nor of intent to aid or abet criminal conduct.[27] Attorney General Edmund G. Brown noted that the secret recordings violated California privacy laws.[44] The AG's report found that one of the ACORN employees, shown in O'Keefe's video as apparently aiding a human smuggling proposal, had reported his encounter with O'Keefe and Giles to a police detective at the time to thwart their plan. Following the AG's report, that employee, who was fired by ACORN after the video's release, sued O'Keefe and Giles in 2010 alleging invasion of privacy, and citing a California law that prohibits recordings without consent of all parties involved.[45]

On June 14, 2010, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its findings: it found no evidence that ACORN, or any of its related organizations, had mishandled any of the $40 million in federal money which they had received in recent years.[46][47]

As of January 2010, O'Keefe began a column on Andrew Breitbart's website, "BigGovernment.com". Breitbart said in an interview that he paid O'Keefe a salary for his "life rights".[48] In 2010 O'Keefe formed his own organization, Project Veritas (truth in Latin), whose stated mission is "to investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions in order to achieve a more ethical and transparent society."[49]

Arrest in Sen. Landrieu's office

O'Keefe and three conservative activists, including Robert Flanagan, the son of William Flanagan, acting U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Louisiana, were arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 25, 2010. They were charged with a federal felony for attempting to maliciously interfere with the office telephone system of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. Two of the activists had entered the federal building dressed as telephone repairmen, claiming to be responding to office complaints that the phones were out of order. They were apprehended after they attempted to gain access to the telephone equipment closet. O'Keefe was present, admittedly recording the events on his cell phone.[50] The four men were jailed and arraigned the following day on charges that carried a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, followed by three years of probation, and a fine of $250,000.[51] O'Keefe and the other men were released on $10,000 bond pending further court proceedings.[52][53]

The Christian Science Monitor noted that liberals portrayed the incident as another Watergate, while conservatives asked the public to hold off on judging the incident.[54] In a post-arrest interview, O'Keefe said he entered Landrieu's office to investigate accusations she was ignoring phone calls from constituents during the debate over President Barack Obama's health care bill.[55] Landrieu’s office denied ignoring calls. Her spokesperson noted that the voicemail systems of many senators had been strained from a flood of calls during the most contentious weeks of the debate.[55] O'Keefe said the group entered the office in disguise to hack the phone system to obtain what they considered truthful answers.[56]

Several months later, the charges were reduced from a felony to a single misdemeanor count of entering a federal building under false pretenses.[57][58][59][60] The U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. told the defendants that "perceived righteousness of a cause does not justify nefarious and potentially dangerous actions."[61] When O'Keefe and the others pled guilty on May 26, they submitted a factual basis with their plea, claiming there was no "evidence that the defendants intended to commit any felony after the entry by false pretenses", and the "defendants misrepresented themselves and their purpose to orchestrate a conversation about phone calls to Landrieu's staff and capture the conversation on video, not to actually tamper with the phone system, or to commit any other felony."[58]

O'Keefe was sentenced to three years' probation, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine. The other three men received lesser sentences of two years' probation, 75 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine.[62] The U.S. Magistrate Daniel Knowles III ordered the video footage removed from O'Keefe's cell phone before it was returned to him.[63]

U.S. Census

In June 2010, O'Keefe posted a video on the Internet claiming that payroll fraud was occurring at Census offices.[64][65][66] He had obtained a temporary job with the 2010 Census and secretly recorded part of his training course for door-to-door census takers.[67][66] According to O'Keefe's video, the supervisors apparently instruct O'Keefe and other trainees to submit time sheets for more hours than they had worked.[65] O'Keefe is seen protesting to supervisors that he had worked 16 hours at the office but was going to be paid for 19.5 hours, which included a lunch break that was 40 minutes longer than the time sheets indicated.[68] The video portrayed the supervisors as unconcerned with the discrepancy,[67] although O'Keefe pointed out the criminal penalties for filling out forms falsely.[64] O'Keefe quit on the third day of training.[66]

The Census Bureau responded that trainees are expected to work eight-hour days, but that they are paid for travel time and study time to review the manuals, as well as for time spent in the office.[68] They said the policy was unchanged from when O'Keefe attended training sessions in 2009, and that he had not complained or made allegations about fraud at the time.[65] The Census Bureau said it did not condone falsifying time sheets and that it would investigate and take action if warranted.[64][65][66] A Census Bureau spokesman said that O'Keefe had quit after his criminal background check.[67][65] O'Keefe said he quit due to privacy concerns.[66] The Washington Post reported that Census Bureau directives forbid the secret recording of conversations by employees.[66][69]

O'Keefe said he recorded the training sessions because he was concerned about government's misuse of taxpayer dollars. He said that all the 600,000 temporary Census workers had been overpaid by four hours, as he had been, "that's $48 million in waste".[66] In an e-mail to AOL News, O'Keefe said, "I was the only one in my training group who ethically recanted the false hours I was instructed to submit early each day I worked, despite objection from a payroll supervisor who told me not to worry because they 'don't audit at that level.' Additionally, two supervisors instructed all of us to report our travel times as one hour, though many of us lived five minutes away from the training center."[65]

Abbie Boudreau

In August 2010, the CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau, who was doing a documentary on the young conservative movement, agreed to meet O'Keefe at his office in Maryland to discuss an upcoming video shoot.[70][71] When Boudreau arrived at the address, she saw that it was a house located on a river, with a boat docked behind the residence.[70] Izzy Santa, a worker at the Veritas Project, warned Boudreau that O'Keefe was planning to "punk" her on the boat by trying to seduce and embarrass her—which he would film on hidden cameras.[70][72] Santa had also expressed her concerns to a donor that day, saying, "James has staged the boat to be a palace of pleasure with all sorts of props."[70] Boudreau did not board the boat and soon left the area.[72][70] As of September 29, 2010 Izzy Santa reportedly remained on the Veritas Project payroll, though with no responsibilities.[70]

CNN later published a 13–page plan it had obtained, written by O'Keefe's mentor Ben Wetmore,[73] that listed the props, including pornography, sexual aids, condoms, a blindfold and "fuzzy" handcuffs.[70][72][74] According to the document, O'Keefe was to record a preface to his encounter with Boudreau, and say,

"... I've been approached by CNN for an interview where I know what their angle is: they want to portray me and my friends as crazies, as non-journalists, as unprofessional and likely as homophobes, racists or bigots of some sort.... Instead, I've decided to have a little fun. Instead of giving her a serious interview, I'm going to punk CNN.... This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she'll get seduced on camera and you'll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath."[70][74]

CBS News quoted Wetmore's advice to deal with potential fallout: "make sure to emphasize Abbie's name and overall status to help burden her career with this video, incident and her bad judgment in pursuing you so aggressively."[72][74] When questioned by CNN, O'Keefe said that he invited Boudreau onto the boat, but denied that he was going to follow the plan. He wrote an email saying it was not his work, "he wasn't really going to follow through with the plan", and he found parts of it inappropriate and objectionable.[72][71]

Several days after CNN aired its documentary on conservatives, O'Keefe wrote on BigGovernment that he gets outrageous plans sent to him all the time, some of which he approves of in principle, like the "CNN idea", but that he never considered using the "over-the-top language and symbolism" in the memo,[75] and was never going to threaten or seduce Boudreau, "unless she wanted to be."[75] Boudreau commented "that does not appear to be true, according to a series of emails we obtained from Izzy Santa, who says the e-mails reveal James' true intentions."[71]

New Jersey Teachers' Union

Starting on October 25, 2010, O’Keefe began posting a series of videos entitled Teachers Unions Gone Wild, purportedly as an investigation of the New Jersey Education Association. The releases came as the union was locked in a struggle with New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie over teacher pay benefits and tenure.[76] The first video was derived from recordings made by “citizen journalists,” whom O'Keefe recruited to attend the NJEA’s week-long summer leadership conference at the New Brunswick Hilton. They secretly recorded meetings and conversations with teacher participants.[76] The published videos highlighted footage of teachers discussing the difficulty of firing a tenured teacher.

In a second video, also released on October 25, another "citizen-journalist" posed as a parent and called Lawrence E. Everett, assistant superintendent of the Passaic City Schools,[76][77] to ask whether a teacher would be fired for using the “n-word” against his child. Everett responded that the teacher would likely be demoted, but not fired. The assistant superintendent also offered to move the parent's child from the class.[77]

A third video released on October 26, 2010 featured audio of a voice identified as NJEA Associate Director Wayne Dibofsky alleging voter fraud during the 1997 Jersey City mayoral election.[76] Jersey City municipal clerk Robert Byrne, who was also heard talking in the same video, said that election was monitored by lawyers for both candidates.[76]

After watching the video, Governor Christie said "nothing on it surprises me".[78] However, NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer called O'Keefe's videos a "complete fabrication" and "a calculated attack on [the NJEA] organization and its members". Wollmer said that the man who recorded Ploshnick "was offering her both romance and a glass of wine to get her to open up", and he called O'Keefe "flat-out sleazy".[78]

NPR

In March 2011, shortly before the US Congress was to vote on funding for NPR, O'Keefe's partners Simon Templar (an alias) and Shaughn Adeleye secretly recorded a discussion with Ronald Schiller, National Public Radio's then-senior vice president for fundraising, and an associate.[79] Due to questions about its veracity, the released video was later analyzed, including comparison of the edited video with the raw videotape (which O'Keefe made available after the fact.) Subsequent analysis of the raw videos showed that O'Keefe's video was edited to intentionally lie or mislead, much of the context of the conversation was changed, and elements were transposed and chronology shifted.[80]

On the edited, released video, it appears that the NPR executives were led to believe they would be meeting with representatives of a self-described Muslim group that wished to donate money to NPR, "partly out of concern for the defunding process the Republicans are trying to engage in." On the recording, Schiller said that he would speak personally, and not for NPR; then he appears to contrast the fiscally conservative Republican party of old that didn't get involved in people's personal and family lives with "the current Republican Party, and in particular the Tea Party, that is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian — I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move." Schiller said some highly-placed Republicans believed the Republican Party had been hijacked by this radical group, and the Republicans characterized them as "Islamophobic" and "seriously racist, racist people". This video was released March 8, 2011.

On March 17, Martha T. Moore of USA Today reported: "According to The Blaze analysis, Ron Schiller's most inflammatory remarks, that Tea Party members are "seriously racist," were made as he was recounting the views of Republicans he has spoken with — although he does not appear to disagree. It also shows Schiller appearing to laugh about the potential spread of Islamic sharia law, when the longer version shows he laughed in reaction to something completely different."[81]

Later in the edited video, Schiller seems to say he believes NPR "would be better off in the long run without federal funding, and the challenge right now is that we'd have a lot of stations go dark", explaining that removal of federal funding would allow NPR more independence, and remove the widely held misconception that NPR is significantly funded by the public.

But, USA Today reports that the raw, unedited tape is substantially different. On the raw tape, Schiller says that withdrawing federal funding would cause local stations to go under and that NPR is doing "everything we can" to keep it.[81]

Further comparison of the raw video with the released one revealed editing that was characterized as "selective" and "deceptive" by Michael Gerson, opinion writer in the Washington Post, who wrote, "O’Keefe did not merely leave a false impression; he manufactured an elaborate, alluring lie."[82] Time magazine noted that the video "transposed remarks from a different part of the meeting", was "manipulative" and "a partisan hit-job".[83]

In a statement released before the O'Keefe video was revealed to have been deceivingly edited, NPR said, "Schiller's comments are in direct conflict with NPR's official position." They also said, "The fraudulent organization represented in this video repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5 million check with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept."

O'Keefe released the raw, 2-hour video. People who reviewed it said that Schiller told the "two men that donors cannot expect to influence news coverage." On the longer tape, he says, "There is such a big firewall between funding and reporting: Reporters will not be swayed in any way, shape or form."[84] The broadcast journalist Al Tompkins, who now teaches at the Poynter Institute, noted that Ron Schiller was a fundraiser, not an official affecting the newsroom. He commented on the long tape: "The message that he said most often — I counted six times: He told these two people that he had never met before that you cannot buy coverage," Tompkins said. "He says it over and over and over again.[84]

As in the ACORN case, O'Keefe parcelled out his videos. In a second one, Betsy Liley, the senior director of institutional giving at NPR, appeared to have checked with senior management and said MEAC was cleared to make donations anonymously but added that, in order to proceed, additional background information would be required, including an IRS Form 990.[85] In the video, Liley advises the man that NPR executives would investigate them before accepting any large donation, examining tax records and checking out other organizations that have received donations from them.[86] Liley raises the possibility of NPR's turning down substantial gifts and stresses the "firewall" between the revenue-generating part of NPR and its news operation.[86] In emails released following the video, NPR showed that Liley had consulted with top management and notified the purported donors of problems with their desired method of donation.[87]

Schiller had submitted his resignation on January 24, and announced a week before the video was released that he was leaving NPR for the Aspen Institute. This preceded the recorded meeting; after the release of the video, NPR immediately put him on "administrative leave." [88][89][90][91][92] The next day NPR's CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation) announced she was resigning her position, effective immediately.[93] Ronald Schiller made his resignation from NPR effective immediately on the evening of the video's release and the next day decided also to cede his new position at the Aspen Institute.[94]

As in the ACORN case, the NPR sting brought up larger questions about the role of journalists, political activists, and the media. For instance, "Edward Wasserman, a journalism ethics professor at Washington and Lee University, blames the media for jumping on the story without evaluating the video fully. 'You have timid media that is frightened to death of being called out on the Internet for ignoring this stuff. They're being panicked and stampeded into giving this a credence and a respect that there is no reason on earth to believe it deserves.'"[81] Gerson in The Washington Post wrote,

"There is no ethical canon or tradition that would excuse such deception on the part of a professional journalist. Robert Steele of the Poynter Institute argues that undercover journalism can only be justified on matters of 'profound importance' when 'all other alternatives for obtaining the same information have been exhausted.' "

[82]

Political and personal beliefs

O'Keefe described his politics as "progressive radical",[95] though media coverage consistently describes him as a conservative.[96][11][97][98] He expresses admiration for the philosophy of British writer G.K. Chesterton.[1][11][99] He refers to himself as a muckraker.[100][101]

Praise and criticism

Andrew Breitbart and other supporters say that O'Keefe is the right wing's answer to a long line of left-leaning "hybrid troublemakers who get put on the cover of Rolling Stone, like Paul Krassner and Abbie Hoffman."[102]

In the same March 2011 article by Tim Kenneally and Daniel Frankel, Marty Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, said,

"What [O'Keefe] does isn't journalism. It's agitpop, politi-punking, entrapment-entertainment. There is no responsible definition of journalism that includes what he does or how he does it. His success at luring his prey into harming themselves is a measure of how fallible and foolish anyone, including good people, can sometimes be."[102]

After a 5-month investigation into the ACORN videos, the Brooklyn District Attorney assigned to the case stated that the videos were a "heavily edited" splice job.[103] The journalist Chris Rovzar of New York Magazine, in reporting on the NPR video, wrote that O'Keefe's videos are "edited in a highly misleading way."[104]

In reporting on O'Keefe's attempt in 2010 to hack into Senator Landrieu's office phone system, Jim Rutenberg and Campbell Roberston of the New York Times wrote that O'Keefe practiced a kind of "gonzo journalism" and his tactic is to "caricature the political and social values of his enemies by carrying them to outlandish extremes."[105]

In discussing the NPR video, Scott Baker of the conservative website The Blaze wrote in March 2011 that O'Keefe was "unethical" because he calls himself an "investigative journalist" but "uses editing tactics that seem designed to intentionally lie or mislead about the material being presented."[80] Later in March 2011 some notable journalists wrote that they regretted having given O'Keefe's NPR videos "wider circulation without scrutinizing them for themselves, given his past record and some of the objections that The Blaze first raised. They include Ben Smith of Politico, James Poniewozik of Time magazine and Dave Weigel of Slate."

The NPR journalist Bob Garfield said to O'Keefe, describing the ACORN scam:

"So let's just recap for a moment the ACORN scenario. You lie to get into – the offices. You lie, subsequently, about the lie you told to get into the offices. You edit the pimp shot into the trailer to create the illusion that you were somehow wearing it during your sting. You go on television wearing the same pimp outfit and let interviewers observe, uncorrected, that that’s what you were wearing when you confronted the ACORN employees. If your journalistic technique is the lie, why should we believe anything you have to say?"[106]

O'Keefe responded:

Investigative reporters have used [...] quote, unquote, "false pretenses" like To Catch a Predator, ABC’s Primetime Live. Even Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes went undercover. You go undercover in order to get to the truth. Now, is it lying? It’s a form of guerrilla theater. You’re posing as something you’re not, in order to capture candid conversations from your subject. But I wouldn't characterize it as, as lying.[106]

References

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