Media tries to discredit James O’Keefe, Project Veritas

So yesterday in prime time, Fox News ran some footage from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas video exposé on dirty tricks implemented by various organizations supporting the Clinton campaign. Then Fox went into overdrive to discredit James O’Keefe. The dismissive remarks of course referenced O’Keefe’s 2010 arrest when he got caught impersonating a telephone company employee (the charge was phone tampering) while working to expose then-Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who was allegedly avoiding any and all calls from her constituents who were upset about Obamacare. O’Keefe’s standards as a journalist were not at issue, yet the Fox narrative claims that he is known for phony and misleading editing.

O’Keefe has made enemies, to be sure. His exposés on Planned Parenthood and ACORN provoked all kinds of attacks on him, his ethics, his editorial bias, and his selective editing. Salon describes him as “best known for selectively editing undercover footage to get people fired.”

Let me say something about selective editing.

I was interviewed for a television documentary a few years ago. I was in front of the cameras for about 2½ hours and appeared in the final cut for maybe 3-4 minutes. Before the documentary was broadcast, somebody asked me how I thought I did. My reply was that if the producers wanted me to look good, I’d look good. If they wanted me to look bad, I’d look bad. Ah yes, was the reply. That ole cutting room floor.

Everything we see on TV or read in the news has been edited. The question is: was the edited final product faithful to the original report? You’ll decide if O’Keefe has/had his thumb on the editorial scale or not.

From where I’m sitting, O’Keefe is doing the investigative journalism that the mainstream media not only refuses to do, but works aggressively to suppress and discredit. Already, the progressives are claiming on Fox that the statements caught on the Project Veritas video were merely hypothetical ideas that were never implemented. Then how come two of the principal players in the undercover videos have been fired or have resigned? That would be Democratic consultant Robert Creamer (who visited the White House multiple times) and Scott Foval, national field director for Americans United for Change. (No doubt they will turn up wearing another hat in another room real soon.) 

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Rent-A-Mob Alert for Cleveland

art credit: noethics.net

Rent-A-Mob Alert!  And the July GOP Convention in Cleveland is on the target list. From Kevin Mooney at The Daily Signal:

Calling community activists: If you’re a committed, left-leaning activist who’d like to take part in “grassroots campaigns to protect the health, economy, environment, and livelihood of Ohio communities,” then Ohio Citizen Action has got a job for you.

And it’s one that pays reasonably well, with benefits on top. This could be an especially nice deal for recent college graduates looking to help create a little drama in Cleveland when the Republican National Convention convenes in July.

Just google Craigslist and Ohio Citizen Action, and you get an advertisement that declares: “Change the World and GET PAID … $80/day (Downtown Cleveland).”

You’ll learn the nonprofit group seeks candidates who “possess strong communication skills and a genuine commitment to the environment, progressive politics, and the empowerment of our fellow OH residents.”

The ad, specifying Cleveland, says positions are full time and pay $80 a day, with bonuses available at 20 days.

Applicants should expect to work from 2 to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. And yes, they should be committed to community organizing with an eye toward “environmental justice” and “sustainable energy.”

“Getting paid to participate in a supposedly ‘grassroots’ campaign is a contradiction in terms,” quipped Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, in an email to The Daily Signal.

The Craigslist ad explains some of what makes the 37-year-old Ohio Citizen Action tick:

Community organizing is the backbone of OCA and each year it allows us the opportunity to continue building the strength in numbers that has won so many of our campaigns. We are looking to add highly motivated individuals with good communication skills to our already effective and professional campaign staff. Also, if you are truly looking for nonprofit grassroots organizing experience, we do it all year, and not just when it gets nice out in the spring and summer!

Perks and benefits apparently are available for those willing to stick with it.

“Health insurance, paid vacations and personal days to employees that show longevity and proficiency with the organization,” the group’s ad promises. “Travel opportunities within our nationwide network of nonprofits for environmental and social justice causes.”

What the ad says is revealing, but what it doesn’t say is perhaps more so.

Donors to the nonprofit get tax deductions, skeptics note. Is Ohio Citizen Action really the employer? Is it legitimate for a tax-exempt charity to use donations to protest and engage in political activism?

Ohio Citizens Action has received $30,000 since 2006 from Tides Foundation and $20,000 since 2013 from the William B. Wiener Jr. Foundation, according to data compiled by the Capital Research Center, a Washington-based nonprofit that tracks charity and philanthropy.

In addition, the affiliated Ohio Citizens Action Education Fund has received almost $3.9 million from left-wing philanthropies since 2003. Major funders include the Joyce Foundation ($1.4 million since 2003), Rockefeller Family Fund ($595,000 since 2010), Energy Foundation ($422,000 since 2008), Winslow Foundation ($425,000 since 2007), and George Gund Foundation ($525,320 since 2003).

Read the rest, including reference to an earlier incarnation of the community activist outfit, ACORN, here.

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Obama trying to backdoor American's with his Nuts

They say an apple doesn't fall far from the tree... it looks like ACORN's don't either!

Apparently upset that ACORN isn't able to feed from the federal trough anymore, President Obama is trying to backdoor some love for his Nuts....

From Washington News Observer --

Video: Rep. Issa Asks If Decision To Continue ACORN Funding Is Obama's Payback To The Political Machine

(0:05) "While Americans were enjoying Thanksgiving holidays with their family and friends, they learned that the Obama Administration had released an opinion designed to overturn the very law Congress passed and the President signed that intended to cut off federal funding to ACORN. This decision raises obvious questions that now deserve an answer. Is this Barack Obama's payback to the political machine that helped get him elected?" –Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)

Who: Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), Congressman Steve King (R-IA), Todd Rokita (IN Secretary of State)
What: Forum on ACORN
Where: House of Representatives
When: Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Soundbite 1: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) Calls For Special Prosecutor For ACORN Investigation.

(0:59) "The President's ties to ACORN taint any conclusions the Justice Department may reach with regard to whether or not to investigate and prosecute ACORN employees. That is why I have requested that the Attorney General appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation of ACORN." -Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)

Soundbite 2: Rep. Steve King (R-IA) Says Obama Worked For ACORN.

(0:37) "We are going to find out that these roads following ACORN do lead to the White House. We know that the President has worked for ACORN and he has been part and parcel of that. He has talked about it openly, Project Vote in particular." -Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

Soundbite 3: Todd Rokita (IN Secretary of State) Says ACORN Investigations Should Not Be A Partisan Issue.

(2:44) "I'm not sure why this is a partisan issue quite honestly. When I get asked as Indiana Secretary of State about where we are with ACORN in our investigation into what is happening it's not just Republicans asking me; it's Democrats, it's everyone." - Todd Rokita , IN Secretary of State