O’Keefe, ACORN, MSM and Idiocy
Tags: MSM, New Media.
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The MSM gets it wrong, again. This time about O’Keefe – he of the famed ACORN expose’ – and his efforts to investigate Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Reid’s Back Pocket):
…American journalists once cheered for those among their own who were brave enough to risk jail in the quest of exposing corruption and malfeasance. Yet when O’Keefe and his band of whippersnapper journalists went undercover, disguised as telephone repairmen in the hopes of exposing Senator Landrieu’s denying her own constituents phone access to her, the MSM fell all over themselves denouncing the young men.
Rush to judgment? No. It was a stampede.
From MSNBC, CBS, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Talking Points Memo and others came shrill, utterly false headlines about “attempted bugging” and the “new Watergate,” which are now being corrected or retracted with but a faint whisper. MSM “journalists” in high-and-mighty places haven’t had this much egg on their faces since their coffee-klatch therapy sessions over the misunderstood, “non-jihadist” Ft. Hood terror attack.
Bravo Mr. O’Keefe, honey!
Writing as a boomer conservative, who was in my youth a raging leftist, I know well the forces at work against you now, and can only salute your willingness to go to the mat to expose liberal corruption, wherever you find it. Although, as an old mom, I would discourage you from carrying through with, perhaps, not-thought-all-the-way-through plans in the future, I still must commend not only your intentions, but also your guts.
Though you may pay personal consequences for your actions in the Senator’s office, you have succeeded in bringing two important items to light.
One, you brought necessary scrutiny to the charge that Senator Landrieu may have been, on purpose, blocking phone calls from her own constituents. You learned firsthand, evidently, that her phone system was not unable to receive calls as she was apparently telling her constituents…
Second, you have demonstrated in full public view – once again – why the MSM is literally drowning itself in its own leftist ideology.
ACORN leaped upon this story when it broke – when the MSM was immediately trumpeting it as “Watergate II – as a means of rehabilitating itself. While the MSM, itself, was gleeful over the prospect of O’Keefe – who scooped all of them – getting in trouble. But the story seemed odd, right out the gate. Why bug Landrieu? What did he hope to find out? That Harry Reid was bribing her with taxpayer money in return for her Senate vote?
As the days have gone on since the story broke, it has become clear that it wasn’t some nefarious plot but, once again, just O’Keefe trying to get at truth the MSM refuses to uncover. Now, it could still be that O’Keefe violated a law – if so, then he’s going to have to pay the piper; there are no free rides on the right side of the aisle. But the most important thing is that Landrieu was broadcasting what appears to be a flat out lie, and the MSM never made a move to uncover it. It takes a gutsy, independent journalist to go where MSMers fear to tread.
So, if O’Keefe sets up a legal defense fund, I’ll donate to it. God bless this young man and best of luck in the future.
Thank you for visiting Blogs For Victory. If you enjoy our content, please consider making a donation to help us cover the costs of our servers.Mark Noonan is co-author (with Matt Margolis) of Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at Nevada News and Views. Follow Mark on Twitter.
40 Responses to “O’Keefe, ACORN, MSM and Idiocy”
Caucus of Corruption
Well that’s what happens when you run your mouth before you have all the facts. You get the facts wrong. Possibly someone recognized Mr. O’Keefe’s face and realized something was up. Calling the police and having them arrested was a nice deflection from the possibility that the Senator was doing something she didn’t want the public to know.
On the other hand as someone who lives in the Senator’s district I already know she is ignoring the people who elected her so it wasn’t really news.
As I said before, Mr. O’Keefe should face the same charges and penalties that the couple who bugged and recorded Newt Gingrich’s cell phone conversations.
OH WAIT…..
They were praised and protected for their expose of Speaker Gingrich’s feelings toward the first “lady” Hillary Clinton, his political views and strategies and any other dirt they dug up.
These people were treated as heroes to MSM and other leftist desperados who lost power in ‘94.
I can kind of understand the principles, like Landrieu, whining and bitching about intrusive journalism. After all, they are the ones being exposed, and can’t be happy about it.
But to have the Complicit Agenda Media doing the same is just plain weird. All THEY are doing is pointing out that they don’t know what investigative journalism is, and that’s nothing more than an indictment of them.
Someone went out and did what they were supposed to be doing, over and over again, and instead of being embarassed into finally delving into actual journalism instead of just regurgitating Leftist talking points fed to them, they continued to act as nothing but mouthpieces for the Left. (Though a few have actually written rather tepid complaints about the failings and shortcomings of Saint Barry, no one has bothered to actually go out and INVESTIGATE anything, much less UNCOVER anything.)
O’Keefe has not only exposed the dirty underbelly of ACORN and the moral deficiencies of Landrieu’s lies to her constituents, he has spotlighted the rot at the heart of what used to be the worldwide standard for journalism, the American press.
Trapping cell phone frequencies is a serious crime and the couple that did that to Gingrich in 1996 were fined $500 which is what fit the crime because they were private citizens listening to a pre cell ban scanner for their own amusement. O’Keefe on the other hand is a partisan attack dog who along with others misrepresented themselves in an effort to gain access to the telephone system of a US Senator in a federal building for purely political purposes. The maxiumum penalty for O’keefe’s crime is ten years ion federal prison. I think the tarnishing of his reputation by this act, in an age oif terrorism, will serve to be enough punishment.
Sorry sadie, the idea that the Marins just “stumbled” onto the phone call for their own amusement is bogus.
According to CNN the Martins intercepted and tape recorded a cellular phone conversation involving Newt Gingrich and some other Republican political types discussing how they should respond to the ethics committee hearing. The Martins say they were recording it for their unborn grandchild, so that when he got older they could play him tapes of famous people talking. They said they recorded it with a recently purchased police scanner. The Martins are said to be active in local Democratic politics. (just private citizens? no different than O’keefe).
2. The Martins took the tape to their local (Democratic) congressional representative (listened and recorded just for their amusement? then why report this to their pet democrat?), and were advised to pass it on to Congressman McDermott, who is on the Ethics Committee (so this was not for purposes of attacking Gingrich and counter his political strategy?). They did so (as private citizens or an attack dog?).
3. Someone, presumably McDermott, leaked the tape to the news media.
4. Critics of Gingrich alleged, and supporters denied, that the tape showed Gingrich violating an agreement he had made with the ethics committee not to orchestrate a campaign in his defense.
5. Some commentators claim that the Martins’ account is implausible–that it would have required some technical expertise to make that good a recording of an intercepted phone call, especially given that scanners currently sold are not supposed to be able to scan the relevant frequencies.
Working for a major cellular communications service at this time, I can tell you that this was not some “accident” and the Martins could not have simply “stumbled upon the conversation”.
Your talking points are weak. O’Keefe is and has done credible undercover investigative journalism. As a “journalist” you should know that he has uncovered the sleeze of ACORN. But to you, the only “investigative journalism” that is relevent or credible is that done to non-leftists.
I would not expect you to be intellectually honest. If you were a true journalist your bias would not be so blatent.
Don’t bother responding, you have nothing credible to say nor would I waste my time respondindg to your drivel on the matter.
tiredoflibs,
You miss my point. Both groups are guilty of crimes. O’keefe’s crime is misrepresenting himself to gain entry into a federal office. That is a serious crime. If muslims had done this you would be livid.
sadie, your point is irrelevant to the topic. As usual it is a distraction away from the rush to judgment on O’Keefe’s actions by the MSM lapdogs.
The response by the MSM in both cases are and were as predictable as yours.
well tired to a partisan like you anything that deflects away from crimes on the right is good news.
I’m going to agree, somewhat, with Sadie, in that if a crime was committed, O’Keefe should pay the piper, as Mark points out.
That said, Sadie, what is your opinion of the way the media, and the left wing bloggers, portrayed this issue? They were dead wrong in their reporting. What do you say?
sadie, what about partisans like you that deflects away from crimes on the left?
While I agree that both examples were crimes, I think it is very telling of your partisan approach to give the Gingrich phone tappers a light slap on the wrist with a $500 fine but are more than happy to slam O’Keefe with a 10 year stay in a federal prison.
Mark
it sure was nice with the forkers in exile once again we must put up with the rat droppings from the filthy porno commie site and it’s minions.
That said;
1.it is NOT against the law to enter a publicly owned building.
2.It is not against the law to enter the office of a US senator.
3. it would be illegal if they “tampered” with the telephone system.
GET OVER it, this is a tempest in a teapot, just one more donk exposed for the lying frauds they are.
neocon,
Its looks more and more to me that, at worst, O’Keefe committed a technical violation – worth, say, that $500 fine. What our forker is missing is that journalists are supposed to do this sort of thing – when the powerful are hiding behind the technicalities of the law, journalists are supposed to get around those technicalities and get at the truth. They usually do it via confidential informants, but that is not the only means.
mark wrote – “…when the powerful are hiding behind the technicalities of the law, journalists are supposed to get around those technicalities and get at the truth. They usually do it via confidential informants, but that is not the only means.”
_
agreed.
the problem is the false ID & misrepresenting themselves to gain unauthorized access to a FEDERAL BLDG.
aQ would do the same then blow it up.
You do not need ID or give a reason to enter a fed bldg.
You go through a metal detector period.
I have been in several of them.
sadie, what about partisans like you that deflects away from crimes on the left?
dvin, she comes here and accuses us of partisanship, literally denying that she’s just as bad, if not worse. She’s a brain-dead cow. Ignore her.
“well tired to a partisan like you anything that deflects away from crimes on the right is good news.”
wow, sadie, can you be any more wrong?
I am just exposing lefty hypocrisy by applying the same penalties given to lefty “eavesdroppers” to those of alleged eavesdroppers on the right.
And in predictable fashion, you try to differentiate the two with your “private citizens” vs “right wing attack dog” talking points.
If O’Keefe broke the law then he should pay the piper. Also, the lefty MSM and partisan hacks such as yourself were quick to judge before facts were know. If O’Keefe had been a lefty, the excuses and justifications would be oozing from the MSM’s and your lips.
Pathetic.
You’re speaking as if he’s already been convicted, but I guess that helps in maintaining your view of a biased media.
O’Keefe has been arrested, and it is likely that he will be charged with at least one serious felony, possibly other charges as well. But that’s as far as things have got so far.
I remember when the ACORN scandal first broke, and you did EXACTLY what you are accusing the media of doing then, only more so. The entire republican echo chamber resounded with fake outrage over how criminal ACORN was and that they couldn’t be allowed to get away with it.
Well, now the boot is on the other foot. One of YOUR stars is suddenly in the spotlight in trouble with the law – so how come it was SO important that ACORN was tried and found guilty by the media (and Fox News led the way with such calls) and yet O’Keefe’s arrest generates polar opposite outrage that the media would dare to try and find him guilty before he’s had his day in court?
O’Keefe will be charged with whatever prosecutors believe they can get a conviction for, and just as the right were all over ACORN so the left will make sure this is reported too. Deal with it and stop whining.
Clinton was accused of sexual harassment, rape, selling secrets to the Chinese, accepting foreign money for his campaign, his wife’s campaigns, and his library, obstruction, federal perjury, witness tampering, and a whole laundry list of other offenses, and got away with barely a slap on the wrist.
So forgive me if I have trouble taking ANY accusations or demands for punishment from a liberal seriously.
William Teach,
I think the MSM did a very poor job with this story because they tried to make comparisons to Watergate when there was no break in. There was a crime and the crime was that O’keefe and his three accomplices used false ID and the cover of being telephone company employees to try to gain access to Senator Landrieu’s phone system. I think if the MSM had reported that the story would have had more of a factual impact.
I still think O’Keefe’s reputation as a journalist is now shot.
dvindice,
I didn’t give the phone call recorders the slap on the wrist a judge did. I think they should have gone to prison personally. A crime is a crime.
“You do not need ID or give a reason to enter a fed bldg.
You go through a metal detector period.
I have been in several of them.”
Neocon1,
Don’t ever represent yourself in court.
Every federal building in the United States that I have been in since 9/11/01 has required me to show some form of identification to gain entry to the upper floors. You are playing semantics and while that’s cool you make yourself look stupid. “Entering a federal building” is what you wanted me to seize on but O’Keefe and his group used false ID to gain entry to the Senator’s tenth floor office and that is a federal crime whether you as a churchified right wing blowhard like it or not.
Got it?
tfmo,
Clinton can sit in court and hear those charges you level on the same day that George W Bush flies to the hague and turns himself in for the war crimes trial. That’s just partisan sour grapes coming from you and I think you’re smarter than that.
I’ve notice3d in the past there was a lot of support for Givernor jindal of Louisiana among the blog owners here. Well that same guy has thrown the “O’keefe 4″ under the bus. From NoLa.com:
“That office represents the United States senator who was elected by the people of Louisiana,” Jindal said. “I don’t care what your politics are … we need to respect the law.”
War crimes? And exactly what is it you think Bush did that was criminal?
tfmo,
The invasion of Iraq and the hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths that resulted from that needless war. Go ahead and defend it all you want because Obama is just as guilty as a co-conspirator now that he’s dragging his feet on getting the American occupation concluded. As far as I’m concerned Obama and Bush are war criminals.
Boo frickin’ hoo.
Saddam had been threatening our country for YEARS, Sadie. We received intel from reliable sources that he was working with terrorist organizations, and seeking better weapon technology. Saddam had ignored and violated no less than FOURTEEN UN resolutions, refused to allow weapons inspectors and when he finally did allow them, he’d had more than enough time to hide the evidence.
Or do you think our country does NOT have the sovereign right to deal with our enemies?
Rhetorical question, of course.
People die in wars. Wait, I think I already made this post. And I’m reasonably sure I’ve already suggested that you learn to read, put down the porn, stop playing with post it notes, etc, etc, etc.
100K innocents dead? You imply that none of these were caused by our enemies. Allow me to remind you that NO MILITARY IN THE WORLD does more to avoid civilian casualties than ours, Giftwrap. Our current enemies have no problem using civilians as human shields precisely because of that. They use children, women, the mentally disabled, as suicide bombers because of that. They hide in mosques and hospitals and civilian homes because of that.
Our previous enemies, the communists, were responsible for MILLIONS of innocent deaths, from the starvings in the Ukraine to the killing fields of Cambodia.
We had good reason to invade Iraq. We had good reason to end Saddam’s regime. But I don’t expect a whiny liberal peacenik to understand that the freedom and safety of our country is dependent on our ability to defend ourselves against any enemy.
Okay Mr fake patriot Cartoonist how many of those people would have died if Bush had sent those troops to Afghanistan where America’s enemy actually was?
Boo hoo? Really? The “good reason” you are looking for is so difficult to define you cannot explain it. That’s the problem with you southern white middle aged conservatives if you don’t have a good talking point you just say, “Well libnrul you just wouldn’t get it if i splained it to yah.” What bullshit!
OF COURSE the resident trolls are going to try to blow this kerfluffle up into the Crime of the Century. It’s what they do, as they engage in the tactics of diversion and distraction.
But what they simply do not get is that, regarding ACORN, this doesn’t mean a thing. O’Keefe could have been caught with a bomb and it would not diminish in the slightest the very real proof he produced of the very real corruption within ACORN, corruption that is part and parcel of the very identity of the group.
If O’Keefe had worked for a large news organization, with a managing editor and a legal advisor, he would have been told that what he was doing was illegal. But no large news organization in this country does investigative journalism any more, so amateurs like O’Keefe have to wing it on their own, and are likely to make missteps.
So he has given the mouthbreathing RRL footsoldiers something to gloat about, and something they think/hope they can use to diminish the impact of the unveiling of the ugly truth about an RRL icon, their (and Barry’s) beloved ACORN.
And BTW, acknowledging that a crime has been committed is hardly the same as throwing someone under the bus. In fact, it is completely consistent with conservative reaction to the news of a crime being committed by a conservative, quite the opposite of the reaction of the RRL when faced with a crime committed by a Liberal. It is what it is. So far it seems like a very minor example of a crime, but it is against the law so there you are—-a crime.
But hey, let’s cut the trolls some slack here. It’s not as if they have had anything to cheer them up lately, so if they need to inflate a minor thing into the illusion of a serious infraction, just to have something that lets them pretend they are not circling the bowl, I say let them have it. It’s pretty much all they’ve got.
That sadie’s really a pistol, ain’t s/he? Gets a bone in those pointy little teeth and just won’t let go! (And get your mind out of the gutter—-)
Doncha just love what passes for intellectual political discourse from the rabidly radical left? Wow. Just invent some goofball cockamamie question and launch it out there as if it is not really pure nonsense. Gee. How many people would have been killed if this had happened instead of that? It just doesn’t get much stupider than that. But simplemindedness is the hallmark of the RRL lemming.
Clearly war consultant sadie would have found much merit in fighting a war in Afghanistan with an untouched Iraq at our backs. Interesting. It does make one wonder how and why anyone would find it preferable to attack the weaker country first, with the stronger country—-an army, chemical and bacterial weapons, rockets, and possibly some form of radioactive if not nuclear weaponry—on our flank. Quite the little tactician is our sadie.
Ah, yes, the abject silliness and dedication to hatred of all that is conservative has again raised its remarkably ugly head.
Fake patriot. Uh huh. Exactly how am I a “fake patriot”?
You seem to think the terrorists in Afghanistan were the ONLY people in the world looking to kill us, and that Afghanistan is the ONLY country in the world where our enemies were hiding.
It is exactly this kind of naivete that caused this problem to begin with, Giftwrap. So if Bush is guilty of war crimes, then you and every other Dem and person putting such idiots into office are just as guilty.
I will remind you, idiot child, that WE didn’t declare war on the Islamonazis. THEY declared war on US.
And do please note, just from the little bit of your lifestyle you have chosen to reveal on this site, in an Islamic-led society, you would have already been executed.
Oh, and stupid? That “good reason” you claim I avoided? Yeah, it was at the BEGINNING OF THE POST.
Reading Is Fundamental. Liberals? Just Mental.
Okay Mr fake patriot Cartoonist how many of those people would have died if Bush had sent those troops to Afghanistan where America’s enemy actually was?
No one knows for sure because we’re still uncovering mass graves, but most estimates put the number of people who died at the hand of Saddam’s regime over a 25 -year period at around 500,000, or an average of around 20,000 a year. So from 2003 through 2009 he would have likely killed around 140,000 of his own people. Plus there’s no telling what WMD’s he would have in his arsenal by now.
Well, Spook, I’m sure that’s Bush’s fault too. Or the Church’s. Or Rush Limbaugh’s. Or Palin’s.
And I still wonder why you Fork-faces seem to have a problem with me drawing cartoons. You call me Cartoonist like it’s supposed to be an insult or something.
Suddenly, lefties have a problem with artist? A crucifix dunked in urine, a Virgin Mary collage using pictures of vaginas, guys with bullwhips up their rectums, and you have a problem with my cartoons?
I’d draw a cartoon about this, but the reality is far funnier than anything I could come up with.
Thank you, mo and spook, for your excellent responses. sadie has always been a brainless kneepadder, but evidently her(?) recent hiatus was to have her(?) remaining brain cell shrunk.
I have noticed the increasing dependence on tired old rebutted talking points, and a return to Bush-bashing. Evidently there isn’t anything they can say that is positive so they have to retreat to the old whines.
Amazona,
I think that’s about all they have left. All but the really far, far Left whackos are beginning to realize that they bought a pig in a poke with BHOzo. I don’t think you’ll find too many Lefties, at least ones who post on political blogs, who are willing to stick their neck out at this point and say what Obama is doing that they approve of and what the positive results of his actions are like to be down the road. Deep down, most of them know that there will be NO positive results of his actions down the road.
Other than the Soros trolls, of course.
I’m going to go back to the point I always make—-that while there are some dedicated ideologues out there, the trolls who infest this site have no clue. They know nothing of political history, they know nothing of the actual tenets of socialism or fascism or progressivism or liberalism or Liberalism, and what’s worse, they don’t care. They just like bashing conservatives.
They don’t even know what conservatives are, depending on goofy cartoony stereotypes fed to them by Lefty talking heads.
This is not political discourse, but instead just a hate-based irrational venting of various personality disorders, in the thin and unconvincing guise of political commentary.
sadie/bloch
That’s the problem with you southern white middle aged conservatives if you don’t have a good talking point you just say,
Ah Ah Ah blochie, your racism is showing, it isnt bad enough you work for a filth laden, land of make believe full of idiots, retards, sodomites, and communists, you have to spew your B.S. here.
GO AWAY TROLL!!
Yeah, the forkers (or forker, as this may very well be a multiple personality fantasy thing..) are decidedly racist and ageist as well. They can’t be sexist, as they can’t decide what sex they are anyway.
(Have you noticed that “they” are all half-black, all are sexually ambiguous or at least indiscriminate, all are “writers”, all pretend to some degree of economic intelligence (though not convincingly) and in general are all the same persona? Oh, one identity pretends to be a sexually skilled male homosexual, one is brittle lesbian, a couple are self-described pretty girls with a child—it’s all juvenile role playing and gaming, without a hint of actual character or content among all the imaginary folk.)
And the funniest thing of all is, the forker mentality is pretty much the best the Left has to offer. Narcissistic, snotty, superficial, historically illiterate, politically ignorant, free-floating hostility temporarily anchored on the illusions of a Leftist Utopia. Only a very infantile persona can believe that snotty comments about age or race are the least bit meaningful.