FDL blogger: O'Keefe's statement is riddled with falsehoods
January 30, 2010 9:57 am ET by Eric Boehlert
James O'Keefe released a statement yesterday in which he pushed the it-was-just-a-prank defense for being charged with intent to commit a felony in Sen. Mary Landrieu's office.
O'Keefe claims he was just doing what journalists do; uncovering wrongdoing and that, yeah, maybe he picked the wrong method. Basically the point was to paint himself as a victim, which makes sense since he's Andrew Breitbart's proud protégé. (Just so you know, Breitbart pays O'Keefe a regular salary but apparently has no idea what stories O'Keefe is actually working on.)
But O'Keefe's statement also spends a lot of time justifying the caper by making false claims about his previous ACORN work, and false claims about Landrieu. And that's where Firedoglake blogger Marcy Wheeler (aka emptywheel) comes in, as she systematically dismantles his thin claims.
Some highlights:
-O'Keefe claims he “revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN.”
False.
-O'Keefe claims Landrieu was guilty of "taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the care bill."
False.
-O'Keefe claims Landrieu had insisted her phone lines were "broken."
False.
-O'Keefe claims he and his pals visited Landrieu's office simply to "ask" if the phones didn't work.
False.
To say that Breitbart and O'Keefe are completely out of their league with Wheeler would be the Understatement of the Week. And while I'd love to read their point-by-point response, I doubt they have the nerve to try. (Facts aren't the duo's friends.)
UPDATED: Louisiana's Republican Gov., Bobby Jindal, has condemned O'Keefe's infiltration of Landrieu's office [emphasis added]:
Jindal, who is not known to have a particularly close relationship with Landrieu, said the maneuver was "not acceptable" and said he trusted the federal law enforcement system to "punish those actions."
Didn't Jindal get the Breitbart memo? O'Keefe is the victim here.
UPDATED: Here's more proof that Breitbart and O'Keefe can only survive within the friendly confines of the right-wing media bubble, where nobody ever questions their loopy logic.
And it's also why you have to censor so many posts on your site, and constantly shut down the comments on articles. Propaganda doesn't mix well with free expressions, so you constantly have to filter out those who drink the kool-aid.
this is an excellent article from HuffPo a few days ago:
www.huffingtonpost.com/john-atlas/acorn-is-back-in-the-news_b_438324.html
The new journalim is here and the halls of Government shall ring with fear, as we artificially manufacture stories and scenarios to use against our elected officials during the toughest parts of their election campaigns.
No one shall be safe from the new press. We shall take your employees out of context, smear their intentions, and then use that very wide brush to paint any government official that we don't agree with as evil and corrupt.
The lives of those people, their families, and their futures are of little consequence to us. They are merely pawns in our mighty chess game, and they will be sacraficed for the greater good in our relentless pursuit of what we perceive to be the truth.
Veritas! Veritas!!
http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_Project
It's rather impossible to really *know* what his intentions were. That would require telepathy.
Certainly, the information we have on the incident - primarily the FBI affadavit - support that his intentions were otherwise.
But labeling that bit "false" is akin to so many people on websites misusing the term "truth" when it comes to supporting their own agendas or maligning the agendas of others.
The Bobby Jindal article:So the reason O'Keefe was there, was because the state Govenor had asked a delegation to secure funds for the State Budget Office. He then refused to support a Senator, called a prostitute by many Conservatives, after she secured that Medicaid package that his administration had requested. This resulted in an increase in phone calls by upset constituents who "jammed" her lines in protest. These same people begin claiming "we can't get through," which only served to increase the phone call frequency, and O'Keefe decides it is time to investigate the Senator and her staff for not caring about the calls coming in from her constiuents. This apparently justifies the falsification of identities, secretly recording from a hidden camera in the office of a Homeland Security Chairperson's office, and tampering with her phones and communication systems.
From the Marcy Wheeler article: (I don't know if this is true, but if it is then it is PRICELESS)Admit it... how funny would it be if after all of this he had gone to the wrong office?
Louisiana Democrat Party uses OKeefe, Landrieu Matter as fund raiser
No mystery where Louisiana Democrats get their ideas from.
Yeeesh. This is pathetic.
"Republican political operative" is an apt description, given that 31 Republicans cosponsored Rep. Pete Olson's congressional resolution honoring O'Keefe for his "journalism." The Republicans have adopted O'Keefe as one of their own, and there's nothing you can do to erase the congressional record.
How often do I get to point out here that people who are NOT victims are pretending to be victims?
Personally, I thought that the Pimp Anti-Defamation league should have gone after O'Keefe for that horrible outfit he used in his ACORN con. I've seen Saturday Night Live skits with more believable pimps.
That's hilarious in and of itself. He wasn't "uncovering" anything; he was attempting (illegally) to provoke an incident where he could possibly accuse his victims of wrongdoing.
If I had a grudge against my fire department, would it be "good journalism" to slash the fire truck's tires, trip a fire alarm, and then complain that they didn't respond fast enough?
This guy may be a nut case but; it is a good read.
That would be "good" as in entertaining.