As we've noted below, O'Keefe, the right-wing media darling who dressed up as a pimp and secretly recorded visits to ACORN offices (visits that may have broken the law), was arrested yesterday by FBI agents for allegedly trying to interfere with the phone of Sen. Mary Landrieu.
We'll actually wait for more facts to emerge before making judgments about O'Keefe's action or the arrest. But in terms of the bigger picture, we can't say today's news comes as a surprise. O'Keefe's right-wing mentor, Andrew Breitbart, likes to go on and on about how he's reinventing journalism with his site Big Government, which relentlessly hyped the ACORN videos, and how we're all watching the dawn of conservative, activist journalism.
The problem, of course, is that Breitbart and his crew don't do journalism. It's more like juvenile, name-calling propaganda. They have no idea how journalism works, no regard for its standards, and don't actually want to practice it. So, voilà! Today we get news that the FBI allegedly caught O'Keefe and his pals were trying to interfere with* a U.S. senator's phone.
On what planet does that qualify as journalism?
It will be interesting to see how Breitbart and his sites deal with O'Keefe's arrest. Even money says Breitbart, forever embracing the right-wing ethos of victimhood, blames the liberal media, or Media Matters, or George Soros. Or somebody. (Was the FBI in on the liberal conspiracy, Andrew?)
And what about Fox News? It paraded O'Keefe around as a hero for his ACORN work. Is Fox News going to touch this arrest story? Is Fox News going to ask any tough questions? (Stop laughing!)
The point is, it's not that big of a leap from being a star of Breitbart's anti-journalism site to being cuffed for allegedly intending to commit a felony. As we've noted before, Breitbart's crew seems to have little or no grasp of the law.
UPDATED: Will Breitbart continue “advertising” O'Keefe's defense fund?
UPDATED: This might not be the best time, but I'll ask anyway: When are Breitbart and O'Keefe going to finally release all the unedited ACORN tapes? Or are they hiding something?
UPDATED: Breitbart told the Washington Independent he didn't have enough information about O'Keefe's arrest to comment.
Um, when did not having enough information ever stop Breitbart in the past?
*Correction: This post inaccurately stated that James O'Keefe was arrested in an alleged plot to wiretap Sen. Landrieu's office. The error was based on media reports (such as this one). The FBI affidavit actually alleged that O'Keefe and the others arrested were engaged in a plot to “interfer[e]” with Landrieu's telephone system. We regret the error.
