Reminder to journalists: O'Keefe was not dressed as a pimp inside ACORN offices

Written by Eric Boehlert

Published

With Andrew Breitbart's protégé back in the news this week for allegedly having no common sense, it's important that reporters be accurate about James O'Keefe's most infamous claim to fame and remember that he was not dressed up as a pimp, nor did he ever “pose” as a pimp, when he entered ACORN offices last year and unwittingly taped its employees.

That, thanks to the art of deceptive editing, was a con O'Keefe and Breitbart pulled over on the press. But that hoax was exposed and there's no reason why reporters today should give O'Keefe credit for something he concocted.

For instance, from washingtonpost.com:

It was a “punk” set-up by James O'Keefe, the same guy who famously dressed up as a pimp to interview members of ACORN. Say what you will, this guy is willing to commit.

And CNN clearly implied O'Keefe was pimped out while punking ACORN:

Last year O'Keefe and fellow activist Hannah Giles dressed up as the pimp and prostitute in a sting operation to uncover alleged wrongdoing at ACORN. ACORN was a group that advocated for low and middle income people and worked to register voters. O'Keefe and Giles visited several ACORN offices describing their illicit business and they taped ACORN workers allegedly giving them advice on setting up a brothel and other advice on how to skirt the law.

On the flip side, here's a tip of the hat to the Newark Star-Ledger's John Atlas who nailed the specifics in this recent write-up:

In fact, O'Keefe never posed as a pimp when he talked to ACORN staffers. He presented himself as a friend, or boyfriend, or a colleague of Giles, who was posing as the prostitute. O'Keefe wore a dress shirt and Khakis when he entered ACORN offices, and later spliced in shots of himself wearing the pimp outfit in the final videos to make it appear that he had worn them in the meetings with ACORN. To sensationalize the tape, O'Keefe dressed up in cartoonish pimp garb for the bumpers shown on television. The outlandish costume aimed to make ACORN's African-American intake staff look like buffoons.

(h/t The Brad Blog)