The Daily Caller

The Daily Caller
Politics
 WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 21: James O'Keefe, the producer of "ACORN Revealed: The Philadelphia Story" takes part in a press conference at the National Press Club October 21, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)  

Fighting Irish activist seeks to upend mainstream media

12:03 AM 08/05/2011
Robert Spoerl

The Daily Caller: Who or what motivates you to do the investigative work you do?

James O’Keefe: Injustice in society, imbalance in society and a lack of media not doing the job. A lot of people come to me telling me they’re passionate about exposing certain things, and I want to train them to do it.

TheDC: Why should people of all political beliefs trust you?

O’Keefe: Because the footage speaks for itself and because I’ve released the full uncut, unedited footage. And it has prompted government reaction. The New York Times Magazine did a great piece the other day where they went through all the unedited tapes and said nothing is taken out of context. The president and Congress have reacted. Everyone who has seen these videos is outraged by them.

TheDC: Are you a journalist, an activist, or both?

O’Keefe: It doesn’t really matter what you label it; it is exposing things for what they are. That’s what it is. I think that most journalists today are either pundits or stenographers. They don’t actually do digging. They don’t actually do muckraking. So I think journalism probably defines what we do.

TheDC: Do you think it’s possible for someone who has been trained in a journalism school to go out and do the work you’re doing?

O’Keefe: I don’t think they teach this in journalism school. I’ve experienced a guy at [New York University], Jay something or other, who, all he does is criticize me. [O’Keefe’s talking about Jay Rosen.] My response to him the other day on Twitter was “Professor, what does it say about your profession that it takes 22-year-olds to launch multiple Medicaid investigations in Ohio and we’ve got [attorneys general] investigating Ohio Medicaid fraud and South Carolina Medicaid fraud and Virginia Medicaid fraud. Where are your journalism students doing this? Why does it take 22-year-olds to do it? That’s the state of journalism today.

TheDC: What’s the goal with your nonprofit Project Veritas?

O’Keefe: To investigate and expose waste, fraud, abuse, dishonesty, corruption in order to achieve a more ethical and transparent society.

TheDC: Who helps fund you?

O’Keefe: Small donors that send us money on the Internet, small donors that send us money through direct mail and people who send us checks to our P.O. box.

TheDC: Do you ever feel sketchy about the undercover work you’re doing?

O’Keefe: Do you feel sketchy about the undercover work that ABC News Primetime Nightline and Diane Sawyer did and the work that Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes did and the undercover work that NBC’s Dateline did to catch a predator and that won Emmy Awards and Peabody Awards? There’s no distinction between what I do and they do except that I release the full, unedited tapes. They don’t.

TheDC: Do you ever trust anything NPR says?

O’Keefe: It’s not that I don’t trust them. But if they are firing people because they disagree with their opinions [he’s referring to the ousting of commentator Juan Williams for comments about Muslims that some saw as intolerant], that is probably something that is wrong. But I don’t have any political problems with the subjects. If they are getting taxpayer money, millions and millions and millions of dollars worth, we deserve to know what these editors and people are thinking about the American people. We’re trying to expose that.

Tags: James O'Keefe
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  • Anonymous

    James O’Keefe totally frickin’ ROCKS!  Keep up the good work, James.  You are just what this country needs at a time when the LSM is corrupt, with a Far Left Wing bias.  These idiots are the reason Comrade Obozo is in the oval office and I hope they all become infected with terminal flea bites.  Morons.

  • lucifer666

    This guy is a liar and I hope slips and falls and bust his lying mouth open.

  • rowley

    Gota Love his Grit

  • http://twitter.com/trueholygoat Chuck Long

    James, you are as close to a hero as I can think of in my life right now, and your nearly half my age. What you have accomplished in under two years is astonishing, and you should be proud. The fact that you’re taking so much flak is the best proof that you are hitting your targets. Your aim is true. Keep up the great work.

  • clw

    This relatively young man has accomplished so much in so short a time and for the actual BENEFIT of other Americans! There are plenty of idiots out there doing things to our detriment! Could any one of us accomplish even ONE of those incredible things? He’s exposed so many LOSERS for exactly what they are, people who are breaking laws, and stealing and wasting our money and doing nothing useful in their lives but sucking up free air! I’m thoroughly impressed by James, and I don’t say that lightly. I genuinely appreciate him, and those who help him!

  • Bobo Brazil

    The guy’s a criminal and a liar.  The ACORN tape was a total scam.  It wasn’t until a California lawsuit pried the raw footage from his greasy hands that we found out, golly, he didn’t go into the offices in a pimp suit after all.  Oh, and the guy in the tape who sounded like he was helping him?  He was gathering information for the police, who he called right after O’Keefe left the office.

    He compares himself to Mike Wallace.  What a joke!  Wallace only jumped out of the closet after repeated attempts to get a subject on camera the normal way failed.   It was Wallace’s last resort

    I agree the Rutgers administration were idiots for banning cereal.  That was a good point.  I’m not a fan of political correctness.  But I’m less of a fan of liars and criminals like O’Keefe.

    • Anonymous

      From Bobo:  It’s OK for Mike Wallace to use such tactics if none of his other attempts work.” 

      Nice justification there.  Now discuss the other videos he’s made and/or the Congressional investigation into ACORN that turned up some dirt.

      I suppose everyone had bad luck moments just at the right time for O’Keefe, eh?  Talk about being in the right place at the right time with a camera!

      • Bobo Brazil

        “Now discuss the other videos he’s made…”

        I’m only aware of the ACORN and NPR tapes. 

        O’Keefe didn’t release to raw footage for the ACORN smear job, and even though he did for the NPR smear job, what difference does it make?  He got his headlines.  Analysis of the raw footage, which belies the edited release, is only found on Internet backwater sites like, say, The Blaze:

        http://www.theblaze.com/stories/does-raw-video-of-npr-expose-reveal-questionable-editing-tactics/

        And even in the ACORN video, what you see is not what you get:

        http://www.foxnews.com/us/2009/09/22/acorn-worker-video-reported-duo-police/

        Now let’s discuss two he didn’t make.

        Using impersonation to get into Sen Landrieu’s office because, in his own words on the Hannity show, “We wanted to get to the bottom of the claim that she was not answering
        her phones or her phones were jammed. We wanted to find out why her
        constituents couldn’t get through to her. We wanted to verify the
        reports.”

        Really?  The phones were jammed?  That’s what he risked a criminal record to discover?  Well, that’s his story anyway.  You may be willing to give him a pass but then you should give a pass to the guy caught with the slim jim in your parking garage.  Fair’s fair.

        And what about that Abbie Boudreau fiasco?  That was just plain mean, to even concoct a scheme like that to humiliate someone.  Too bad O’keefe is beyond the reach of humiliation.

        Oh, Google “O’keefe dildo” and you get 37,000 results. 

        As for Mike Wallace, if you know ANY other journalist who impersonated a telephone
        repairman to get into a data closet in a federal office building, has a
        criminal record resulting from his “journalism” and is being sued in
        several states because he mistakenly thought his “journalism” tactics
        were not subject to criminal statues, then maybe I am wrong about him.

        Also, no congressional ACORN investigation found any dirt.

        • Anonymous

          “I’m only aware of the ACORN and NPR tapes.  ”

          So you’re admitting you’re an uneducated moron?  Because there were several high-profile tape releases that have had major impacts on their intended targets.  Why is it our job to explain stuff to you like you were our mentally challenged little brother?

          “Also, no congressional ACORN investigation found any dirt.”

          Again, I’m trying to ascertain if you are a lying troll, or if you really are this stupid.  There was never ANY congressional investigation into ACORN.  The Dems controlled both the House and Senate, so no investigation was ever allowed.  They simply cut off ACORN’s funding because the videos were incontrovertible. 

          BTW, O’Keefe isn’t being sued anywhere.  There were threats (including ones from ACORN, which caused him to have to take down the unedited tapes that were up on Breitbart’s site when they were first aired), but in the end they were never followed through with.  Libtards threatened lawsuits so they could save face (somewhat).  Again, you’d know this if you weren’t borderline retarded. 

          • Bobo Brazil

            What I’m trying to ascertain is why are the people who are first to call someone a moron so stupid themselves.

            I encourage you to click the Fox News link I posted above, not Daily KOS, describing the results of the GAO investigation of ACORN.  Get your facts straight, imbecile.

            For your information, the GAO is part of Congress.  Again, you are an imbecile. 

            Furthermore, please use your advanced social skills on BigRMV above, whose claim it is that “the Congressional investigation into ACORN turned up some dirt.”  Obviously even conservatives require a steady, educational hand and guidance.  Even from an imbecile like you.

            As far as there being no lawsuits, again if you were not a drooling imbecile you’d know of them, especially the state of California lawsuit where O’keefe broke the law.

            You’d know this if you had two brain cells to rub together.

    • http://twitter.com/trueholygoat Chuck Long

      The ACORN tapes were exactly as advertised, which is why they got shut down.

    • Anonymous

      Really?  You’re so stupid that you didn’t know he never wore the pimp suit into ACORN?  Because I knew from the first video.  Evidently being a Libtard really does mean you’re barely intelligent enough to walk and breathe at the same time.

      BTW, you’re lying about the guy calling the police “right after” O’Keefe left.  You’re mixing up California (where the guy claimed he knew people who could smuggle in underage girls) and Philadelphia (where they called the police a day later after they figured out what was going on).  Perhaps you should read something that didn’t originate on the DailyKOS some day.  You wouldn’t sound like such a moron.

    • Anonymous

      Really?  You’re so stupid that you didn’t know he never wore the pimp suit into ACORN?  Because I knew from the first video.  Evidently being a Libtard really does mean you’re barely intelligent enough to walk and breathe at the same time.

      BTW, you’re lying about the guy calling the police “right after” O’Keefe left.  You’re mixing up California (where the guy claimed he knew people who could smuggle in underage girls) and Philadelphia (where they called the police a day later after they figured out what was going on).  Perhaps you should read something that didn’t originate on the DailyKOS some day.  You wouldn’t sound like such a moron.

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