Ben Stein: "Free James O'Keefe"
February 01, 2010 2:29 pm ET by Media Matters staff
From Ben Stein's February 1 American Spectator column, headlined "Free James O'Keefe":
These men were journalists trying to get a story. They didn't even touch a phone as far as I can learn. They were undercover reporters and TV operators. But that doesn't matter. Their real crime was disturbing the peace and quiet of the nation's liberal establishment and embarrassing ACORN. For this, these young overeager guerrilla journalists are charged with a federal crime. ("First Amendment? What's that?")
Meanwhile, no charges against those thugs with the clubs at the polling place.
Does this give you the feeling that maybe the prison orange for Mr. O'Keefe and his pals is a mark of courage and honor and that the rest of us should be shivering about what the Obama Justice Department thinks is law? When was the last time you read about federal charges against a liberal reporter for going undercover? The behavior of the feds here is not just worrisome. It is something beyond that. But, Mr. Holder, here is a line from the civil rights struggle I worked in before you were born: We are not afraid. And we're not going away.
guys were invesigating too!! Strange what is ok for the republicans
when they get caught!
First Amendment? I think I predicted last week that they'd try to make O'keefe into a First Amendment martyr.
As for those "thugs with clubs"... maybe they're protected by the same rights that protect those Teabaggers who show up at Town Hall meetings with guns...? Just a thought.
I love when someone posted that the difference between Michael Moore and James O'Keefe is that, whereas Moore goes after those in power, O'Keefe goes after those who lend a helping hand to the powerless.
God: Will no one rid me of these troublesome right wing whiners?
How soon they forget the tee shirt arrests of '05.
No. I'd say it's fine example of what happens when self-proclaimed JOURNALISTS (do they even have PRESS CREDENTIALS?!) cross the line commit CRIMES. They should be made examples off. Not to show how "dangerous" Obama and the Liberals are, but to show how dangerous and deranged teh Blenn Becks and Andy Breitbart's of the world are.
And we're coming up on the 50th aniversary of the Greensboro 4, who "broke the law" by sitting at a lunch counter, and kicked off the beginning of the end of segregation. The differecne, when progressive "disrupt" the "conservtaive establishment" is astounding...
The broke law that shoul never have exsisted in the first place and was completely unjustified. And what di dthey do? SIT AT A LUNCH COUNTER! (OMG! THE HORROR!) but can anyone explain to me why private citizens should be allowed to tamper with, spy on or otherwise "disrupt" the communication channels of our federal government?!
Would he stand for this if Michael Moore had done this to John Boehner or Mitch McConnel?
Well... he wouldn't HAVE to. Michael Moore, for all his faults, has infinitely more common sense than that.
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I hope O'Queefe goes to jail until he ROTS. No - I hope he goes to jail until the JAIL rots, and then they can build a new jail, and put him in THAT jail until he rots! (Kudos to the Honorable Doc Hudson.)
He is not a child and should not be treated as one.
When was the last time a liberal reporter broke a federal law while going undercover for a story?
Apples to apples, Ben.
We all respect you for the role you played during those days and because of that respect I can say this--Don't even go there. To put that in this piece somehow suggests that somehow O'Keefe's civil right are being violated. That's utter nonsense and, quite frankly, insulting toward those, like you, who fought against true injustice.
Because those "thugs" weren't thugs after all, just some guys that like to play dress up. And they didn't commit a crime.