TPM's Justin Elliott reports:

Three of the four young men charged in the alleged bugging attempt at Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office Monday were involved in the well-funded, opportunity-rich world of conservative campus journalism in recent years, a link that provides potential clues about how the men knew each other and why they came to hatch the alleged plot.

James O'Keefe, Joseph Basel, and Stan Dai each founded or lead the alternative conservative newspapers on their respective college campuses.

After graduating, O'Keefe, the filmmaker behind the ACORN stings, actually worked for a year as a recruiter for the Leadership Institute, one of a handful of conservative organizations that provide seed money to students who want to launch alternative newspapers.

[...]

Our first case is Stan Dai, who served as the editor-in-chief of the GW Patriot at George Washington University. Dai was also a Club 100 Activist of Young America's Foundation, and an Undergraduate Fellow on Terrorism of the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies, according to a scholarship citation at the conservative Philips Foundation (h/t Lindsay Beyerstein).

[...]

Both O'Keefe and Basel seem to have gotten their start in the conservative college press with a little bit of help from the Leadership Institute, the group that aims to recruit and train conservative activists.

In an interview with the two men posted Jan. 14 on the Leadership Institute's CampusReform.org, it's noted that O'Keefe founded The Centurion at Rutgers and Basel launched The Counterweight at the University of Minnesota-Morris. Both “were started with assistance from the Leadership Institute's 'Balance in Media' grant.”

Leadership Institute Vice President David Fenner confirmed to TPMmuckraker that O'Keefe received $500 from the Leadership Institute to start the Centurion, but couldn't confirm any details of Basel or Dai's possible Leadership Institute backing.

It is possible, however, that O'Keefe met Dai or Basel through his work with the Leadership Institute.

For about a year around 2007, O'Keefe was an employee of the Leadership Institute, Fenner confirmed. His job was to visit college campuses to recruit and train conservative activists who might want to start publications on their own campuses.

“I have no idea if [O'Keefe] met [Basel] through the training,” Fenner said. “There's obviously a high likelihood. Only Basel could tell us that.”

Read Elliott's entire piece here.