James O'Keefe
Encyclopedia
James E. O'Keefe III is a conservative American
activist who has produced controversial audio and video recordings of public figures and workers in a variety of organizations. He gained national attention for his release of video recordings of workers at ACORN
offices in 2009, his arrest in early 2010 at the office of Senator Mary Landrieu
, and release of videos of NPR
executives in 2011. Investigations by legal authorities and journalists have found O'Keefe has "selectively", "heavily" and "deceptively" edited secretly recorded videos to leave a false impression and present the subjects in the worst possible light.
After founding an independent conservative student paper in college, O'Keefe began to use available, inexpensive technology to make videos. His strategy has been to control distribution of his work to conservative media outlets for maximum impact. Some of O'Keefe's projects have influenced Congressional votes. Due to his videos of ACORN workers supposedly aiding a couple in criminal planning, the US Congress voted to freeze funds for the non-profit, which had aided low- and moderate-income people for 40 years. The non-profit also lost most private funding, and in March 2010 had to close most of its offices. Shortly after, the California State Attorney General and the US Government Accountability Office
released their reports: they found that O'Keefe had misrepresented the actions of ACORN workers, that workers had not committed the illegal actions he portrayed, and that the organization had managed its federal funds appropriately.
Because his work has become widely seen as deceptive, O'Keefe's success in gaining extensive media attention has caused controversy and discussions of journalistic standards. By the summer of 2011, his claims to have uncovered widespread Medicaid
fraud, purportedly documented on videos released through conservative outlets in Maine and other locations, were treated with more skepticism by media and governmental officials. Maine governor Paul Lepage
issued a statement after viewing a video of a state welfare office worker, expressing thanks to "the individual who took this video" and noting that it could help in improving staff training and customer service, but stating that, "The video in its entirety does not show a person willfully helping someone de-fraud the welfare system."
He has gained support from conservative media and interest groups. In 2009 Andrew Breitbart
paid O'Keefe, then 25, for the option to publish new videos exclusively on BigGovernment.com. In June 2010, O'Keefe formed a 501(c)(3) organization, Project Veritas, with the stated mission to "investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct."
and sculptor.
O'Keefe grew up in Westwood
in Bergen County, New Jersey
. He is single and lives with his parents. His home was politically "conservative but not rigidly so," according to his father. He graduated from Westwood High School
, where he showed an early interest in the arts, theater and journalism
. He played the leading role in his high school's 2002 production of the musical Crazy for You
. He attained the highest rank, Eagle Scout
, in the Boy Scouts of America
.
O'Keefe started at Rutgers University
in 2002 and majored in philosophy. Beginning in his sophomore year, he wrote a bi-weekly opinion column for The Daily Targum
, the university's student paper. He left the Targum and founded the Rutgers Centurion
, a conservative student paper supported by a $500 "Balance in the Media" grant from the The Leadership Institute
.
For his first video, O'Keefe and other Centurion writers met with Rutgers dining staff to demand the banning of the cereal Lucky Charms
from dining halls because of its offense to Irish American
s. O'Keefe said the leprechaun
mascot presented a stereotype. He intended to have officials lose either way: to appear insensitive to an ethnic group, or to look silly by agreeing to ban Lucky Charms. The students said they expected to be thrown out for the discussion, but the Rutgers official took notes, was courteous, and said their concerns would be considered. Rutgers staff say the cereal was never taken off the menu.
(LI), a conservative-funded organization in Arlington, Virginia. The institute sent O'Keefe to colleges to train students to start independent newspapers. After a year, officials at the institute asked O'Keefe to leave. According to Morton Blackwell
, the institute's president and founder, they had concern that O'Keefe's videos had threatened LI's tax exemption as a nonprofit by trying to influence legislation (a legal characterization of lobbyists, which do not have tax exempt status). Blackwell said O'Keefe "wanted to go out and catch leftists breaking the law."
O'Keefe uses inexpensive, available technology to produce and distribute secretly recorded videos and audio files made during staged encounters, some of which have been distributed on YouTube
. Such secret recordings are illegal in California and Maryland. He has embarrassed organizations such as Planned Parenthood
and ACORN
by presenting their low-level workers in the worst light; his videos of ACORN caused a media storm that resulted in the Congress freezing funds, two executive agencies cancelling contracts, and ACORN workers being fired. The national organization lost so much private funding that it closed most of its offices in the six months following the videos. In other cases, O'Keefe used colleagues to interview and record executives, as at NPR
shortly before its Congressional funding hearings. He selectively edited and manipulated the NPR material, distorting chronology and putting material together that happened at separate times. In the summer of 2011, he began releasing videos of colleagues' staged encounters with workers on Medicaid
applicability.
Working with advice on media strategy from his mentors Ben Wetmore and Andrew Breitbart
, O'Keefe has sought to maximize publicity by releasing the videos over several days or months, and often in relation to funding authorizations or other significant political actions related to the subject organization. His strategy has included releasing some projects only to conservative media outlets, such as Fox News Channel
and the Big Government website; he has interviewed exclusively with the same media to control the story. In the NPR case in 2011, he released the video at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
As of January 2010, O'Keefe began a column on Andrew Breitbart
's website, "BigGovernment.com". Breitbart said in an interview that he paid O'Keefe a salary for his "life rights", to gain release of his videos first on his website. In 2010 O'Keefe formed his own organization, Project Veritas (truth in Latin), whose stated mission is "to investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions in order to achieve a more ethical and transparent society."
, founder of an anti-abortion group on the UCLA campus. They secretly recorded encounters in Planned Parenthood
clinics. Rose posed as a pregnant teenager seeking advice; they made two videos and released them on YouTube
. In one, a clinic worker in Los Angeles tells Rose "that she could 'figure out a birth date that works' to avoid having PPLA notify police." By law, girls under a certain age who are pregnant have suffered statutory rape
and some states require the reporting of such cases to the police. In some states, underage girls may not get abortions without parental permission. The videos received national attention.
In 2007 O'Keefe phoned several Planned Parenthood clinics and secretly recorded the conversations. He posed as a donor, asking if his donations would be applied to needs of minority women. When told they could be, he made "race-motivated" comments. By audio recordings, workers at clinics in six other states reportedly agreed to accept his donation under similar terms.
Planned Parenthood of California filed a "cease and desist" order against Lila Rose, charging that she was violating state laws against secret recordings. The order required her to remove the videos from YouTube
and give all the recordings to the organization. She complied through her attorney.
After O'Keefe's four audio recordings were publicized in 2008, Planned Parenthood of Ohio issued a public response, saying the worker's words were "a violation of any policy, and it's very upsetting." The CEO said, "Planned Parenthood has a long history of social justice." Other offices noted the wide variety of services the organization offers to low income communities. African-American leaders called for withdrawal of public financing of the organization. No funding was withdrawn.
and O'Keefe as her boyfriend, a law student, in an attempt to elicit damaging responses from employees of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
(ACORN), an advocacy organization for 40 years for persons of low and moderate income. A Washington Post reporter wrote the activist "said he targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does: its massive voter registration drives that turn out poor African Americans and Latinos to cast ballots against Republicans."
The videos were recorded during the summer of 2009 and appeared to show low-level ACORN employees in six cities providing advice to Giles and O'Keefe on how to avoid detection by authorities of tax evasion
, human smuggling and child prostitution. He framed the videos with a preface of him in what he called his "pimp" outfit, which he wore in TV media interviews, although he appeared at the ACORN offices in conservative street clothes (which were not shown in the videos).
By December 2009, an external investigation of ACORN was published that cleared it of any illegality, while noting that its poor management practices contributed to unprofessional actions by some low-level employees. In March 2010, ACORN announced it would dissolve due to loss of funding from government and especially private sources.
On March 1, 2010, the district attorney for Brooklyn found that there was no criminal wrongdoing by the ACORN staff in New York. In late March 2010, Clark Hoyt
, then public editor
for The New York Times, reviewed "the available public record," before the California AG released the raw videotapes the following month. Hoyt wrote, "The videos were heavily edited. The sequence of some conversations was changed. Some workers seemed concerned for Giles, one advising her to get legal help. In two cities, Acorn workers called the police. But the most damning words match the transcripts and the audio, and do not seem out of context."
During the several investigations, the California Attorney General
's Office offered O’Keefe immunity from prosecution in exchange for providing the raw videotapes related to ACORN offices in California. The AG's Report was released on April 1, 2010: it found the videos from ACORN offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino to have been "severely edited"; it found there was no evidence of criminal conduct on the part of ACORN employees, nor of any evidence that any employee intended to aid or abet criminal conduct. It found that three employees had tried to deflect the couple's plans, told them ACORN could not offer them help on the grounds they wanted, and otherwise dealt with them appropriately. Such context was not reflected in O'Keefe's edited tapes. The AG's Report noted that, because the Giles-O'Keefe criminal plans were a ruse, the ACORN workers could not be complicit in them. It found no evidence of intent by the employees to aid the couple. Attorney General Edmund G. Brown noted that the secret recordings violated California privacy laws.
The AG's report confirmed that one of the ACORN employees, shown in O'Keefe's video as apparently aiding a human smuggling proposal, had reported his encounter with the couple to a Mexican police detective at the time to thwart their plan. Following the AG's report, that employee, who had been fired by ACORN immediately after the video's release, sued O'Keefe and Giles in 2010. He alleged invasion of privacy
, and cited a California law that prohibits recordings without consent of all parties involved.
On June 14, 2010, the U.S. Government Accountability Office
(GAO) published its report: it found no evidence that ACORN, or any of its related organizations, had mishandled any of the $40 million in federal money which they had received in recent years.
. They were charged with a federal felony
for attempting to maliciously interfere with the office telephone system of the Democratic
U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu
. Dressed as telephone
repairmen, two of the activists were apprehended after they tried to gain access to the telephone equipment closet, allegedly to wiretap the line, according to the FBI's arresting affidavit. O'Keefe was present, recording the events on his cell phone. The four men were jailed and arraigned the following day; the charges carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, followed by 3 years probation, and a fine of $250,000. O'Keefe and the other men were released on $10,000 bond.
In a post-arrest interview, O'Keefe said he entered Landrieu's office to investigate complaints that she was ignoring phone calls from constituents during the debate over President Barack Obama
's health care bill. Landrieu’s spokesperson noted that the voicemail
systems had been strained from a flood of calls during the most contentious weeks of the debate. "An attorney for one of the other men said the men did not intend to interfere with her phones, but rather intended to make a film embarrassing the Senator because of her support for the healthcare bill."
In what the journalist Gordon Russell called "unusual handling", the charges in the case were reduced from a felony to a single misdemeanor
count of entering a federal building under false pretenses
. O'Keefe and the others pled guilty on May 26. Their submitted factual basis
claimed they intended "to orchestrate a conversation about phone calls to Landrieu's staff and capture the conversation on video, not to actually tamper with the phone system, or to commit any other felony."
O'Keefe was sentenced to three years' probation
, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine. The other three men received lesser sentences.
, and an associate. Raw content was secretly recorded by his partners Simon Templar
(an alias) and Shaughn Adeleye. Due to questions at the time about the video's veracity, staff of The Blaze
analyzed the released version, and compared it with the raw videotape (which O'Keefe made available after the fact.) As the journalist Scott Baker wrote, analysis of the raw videos showed that O'Keefe's released video was edited to intentionally lie or mislead, that much of the context of the conversation was changed, and that elements were transposed and chronology shifted.
On the edited, released video, it appears that the NPR executives were led to believe they would be meeting with representatives of a self-described Muslim
group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, that wished to donate money to NPR. In the video, Schiller says that he will speak personally, and not for NPR; then he appears to contrast the fiscally conservative Republican party of old that didn't get involved in people's personal and family lives with "the current Republican Party
, and in particular the Tea Party
, that is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian — I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move." Schiller said some highly-placed Republicans believed the Republican Party had been hijacked by this radical group, and the Republicans characterized them as "Islamophobic" and "seriously racist, racist people". This video was released March 8, 2011.
Later in the edited video, Schiller seems to say he believes NPR "would be better off in the long run without federal funding," explaining that removal of federal funding would allow NPR more independence, and remove the widely held misconception that NPR is significantly funded by the public. But, USA Today reports that the raw, unedited tape is substantially different. On the raw tape, Schiller says that withdrawing federal funding would cause local stations to go under and that NPR is doing "everything we can" to keep it.
In a statement released before analysis of the raw video, NPR said, "Schiller's comments are in direct conflict with NPR's official position." They also said, "The fraudulent organization represented in this video repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5 million check with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept."
, opinion writer in the Washington Post, who wrote, "O’Keefe did not merely leave a false impression; he manufactured an elaborate, alluring lie." Time magazine noted that the video "transposed remarks from a different part of the meeting", was "manipulative" and "a partisan hit-job".
On March 17, Martha T. Moore of USA Today
reported: "According to The Blaze
analysis, Ron Schiller's most inflammatory remarks, that Tea Party members are "seriously racist," were made as he was recounting the views of Republicans he has spoken with — although he does not appear to disagree. It also shows Schiller appearing to laugh about the potential spread of Islamic sharia
law, when the longer version shows he laughed in reaction to something completely different."
People who reviewed the raw video said that Schiller told the two men "that donors cannot expect to influence news coverage." On the longer tape, he says, "There is such a big firewall between funding and reporting: Reporters will not be swayed in any way, shape or form." The broadcast journalist Al Tompkins, who now teaches at the Poynter Institute
, noted that Ron Schiller was a fundraiser, not an official affecting the newsroom. He commented on the raw tape: "The message that he said most often — I counted six times: He told these two people that he had never met before that you cannot buy coverage," Tompkins said. "He says it over and over and over again.
Two days later, O'Keefe released a video in which Betsy Liley, the senior director of institutional giving at NPR, appeared to have checked with senior management and said MEAC was cleared to make donations anonymously and NPR could help shield donations from government audits, but added that, in order to proceed, additional background information would be required, including an IRS Form 990. Liley advised the caller that NPR executives would investigate them before accepting any large donation, examining tax records and checking out other organizations that have received donations from them. Liley raises the possibility of NPR's turning down substantial gifts and stresses the "firewall" between the revenue-generating part of NPR and its news operation.
NPR put Liley on administrative leave. In emails released following the publication of the Liley video, NPR showed that the official had consulted appropriately with top management and notified the purported donors of problems with their desired method of donation.
. After the video release, NPR put him on administrative leave
. The next day NPR's CEO Vivian Schiller
(no relation) announced she was resigning, effective immediately. Ronald Schiller made his resignation from NPR effective immediately on the evening of the video's release; the next day he ceded his new position at the Aspen Institute.
and the Maine Heritage Policy Center
said they received the video from O'Keefe. O'Keefe said that he had similar recorded videos from offices in Ohio, Virginia and South Carolina, and believed that there was a systemic problem and not just a problem with individual employees.
Maine governor Paul Lepage
issued a statement after viewing the video of a state welfare office worker, thanking the person who made the video and noting that it could help in improving staff training and customer service, but stating that, "The video in its entirety does not show a person willfully helping someone de-fraud the welfare system. It does show a need for further job knowledge and continuous and improved staff training." Lepage announced that he had directed his agency director to look into the incident and correct the problem." Lepage's agency director praised the employees portrayed in the Maine video, noting that the initial caseworker was unsure of how to react and sought guidance from her supervisor.
A similar video posted on the Project Veritas web site purported to show workers at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services assisting actors posing as drug dealers in applying for benefits. Ben Johnson of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services noted that benefits were never granted, and that the made-up story would have been caught if the application process moved forward. Johnson responded to media inquiries about the videos, stating that "Assuming (the video is) accurate, it's unacceptable... The video is incredibly troubling. I'm less concerned with the filmmakers and what their motivations might have been, and more concerned with making sure we're spending taxpayer money appropriately, that we're rooting out fraud, wherever it is, and that we're running a clean program. The end result of this is we're going to take this video and we're going to use it as a training video." Mike DeWine
, Attorney General of Ohio, described the Ohio video as "outrageous" and said that he had instructed his state's Medicaid fraud unit to look into the incident. Ohio media reported that "a Franklin County Jobs and Family Service worker was placed on administrative leave and at least one other person was out of work" as a result of the video's release.
O'Keefe's fourth Medicaid video that appeared to be filmed in Richmond, Virginia, was released in July 2011. A spokesman for Virginia governor Bob McDonnell
had asked state police to review the video and "take whatever actions are appropriate."
, like Paul Krassner
and Abbie Hoffman
."
In the same March 2011 article by Tim Kenneally and Daniel Frankel, Marty Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at University of Southern California
's Annenberg School for Communication
, said,
In reporting on O'Keefe's attempt in 2010 to hack into Senator Landrieu's office phone system, Jim Rutenberg and Campbell Roberston of the New York Times wrote that O'Keefe practiced a kind of "gonzo journalism" and his tactic is to "caricature the political and social values of his enemies by carrying them to outlandish extremes."
Jonathan Seidl of The Blaze
, in writing about the first NPR video, said, "The video, in the end, not only raises questions about NPR, but it also raises questions about undercover, gotcha journalism that can sometimes border on entrapment."
Scott Baker of The Blaze wrote in March 2011 about the NPR videos that O'Keefe was "unethical" because he calls himself an "investigative journalist" but "uses editing tactics that seem designed to intentionally lie or mislead about the material being presented." Later in March 2011 some notable journalists wrote that they regretted having given O'Keefe's NPR videos "wider circulation without scrutinizing them for themselves, given his past record and some of the objections that The Blaze first raised. They include Ben Smith
of Politico, James Poniewozik
of Time magazine and Dave Weigel of Slate
." The journalist Chris Rovzar of New York Magazine, in reporting on the NPR video, wrote that O'Keefe's videos are "edited in a highly misleading way."
In a March 2011 interview with O'Keefe, the journalist Bob Garfield
of NPR said, describing the ACORN scam:
O'Keefe responded:
In July 2011, the New York Times Magazine published, "Stinger: James O'Keefe's Greatest Hits," a profile by Zev Chafets
, the author of "Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One". Chafets interviewed the dean of the University of Missouri’s school of journalism, who said,
The media response to O'Keefe's videos released in August 2011, purportedly showing local workers aiding Medicaid
fraud, has been more cautious. Some reporters have scrutinized the staged encounters and labeled his work as another "sting".
correspondent Abbie Boudreau
, who was doing a documentary on the young conservative movement. He set up an appointment at his office in Maryland to discuss a video shoot. Izzy Santa, executive director of the Veritas Project, warned Boudreau that O'Keefe was planning to "punk" her on the boat by trying to seduce her—which he would film on hidden cameras. Boudreau did not board the boat and soon left the area.
CNN later published a 13–page plan written by O'Keefe's mentor Ben Wetmore. It listed props for the boat scheme, including pornography, sexual aids, condoms, a blindfold and "fuzzy" handcuffs. When questioned by CNN, O'Keefe denied that he was going to follow the Wetmore plan, as he found parts of it inappropriate. Boudreau commented "that does not appear to be true, according to a series of emails we obtained from Izzy Santa, who says the e-mails reveal James' true intentions."
. A second video featured a staged phone conversation by O'Keefe with Lawrence E. Everett, assistant superintendent of the Passaic
City Schools, in which Everett refused to commit to firing a teacher based on the purported parent's saying the teacher used “n-word
” with his child. The third video (October 26, 2010) featured audio of a voice, identified as NJEA Associate Director Wayne Dibofsky, who alleged voter fraud during the 1997 Jersey City mayoral election. The voice of Robert Byrne, Jersey City municipal clerk, was recorded on the same video; he noted that the election was monitored by lawyers for both candidates.
Multi-media
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
activist who has produced controversial audio and video recordings of public figures and workers in a variety of organizations. He gained national attention for his release of video recordings of workers at ACORN
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now was a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues...
offices in 2009, his arrest in early 2010 at the office of Senator Mary Landrieu
Mary Landrieu
Mary Loretta Landrieu is the senior United States Senator from the State of Louisiana and a member of the Democratic Party.Born in Arlington, Virginia, Landrieu was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana...
, and release of videos of NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
executives in 2011. Investigations by legal authorities and journalists have found O'Keefe has "selectively", "heavily" and "deceptively" edited secretly recorded videos to leave a false impression and present the subjects in the worst possible light.
After founding an independent conservative student paper in college, O'Keefe began to use available, inexpensive technology to make videos. His strategy has been to control distribution of his work to conservative media outlets for maximum impact. Some of O'Keefe's projects have influenced Congressional votes. Due to his videos of ACORN workers supposedly aiding a couple in criminal planning, the US Congress voted to freeze funds for the non-profit, which had aided low- and moderate-income people for 40 years. The non-profit also lost most private funding, and in March 2010 had to close most of its offices. Shortly after, the California State Attorney General and the US Government Accountability Office
Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
released their reports: they found that O'Keefe had misrepresented the actions of ACORN workers, that workers had not committed the illegal actions he portrayed, and that the organization had managed its federal funds appropriately.
Because his work has become widely seen as deceptive, O'Keefe's success in gaining extensive media attention has caused controversy and discussions of journalistic standards. By the summer of 2011, his claims to have uncovered widespread Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
fraud, purportedly documented on videos released through conservative outlets in Maine and other locations, were treated with more skepticism by media and governmental officials. Maine governor Paul Lepage
Paul LePage
Paul Richard LePage is an American businessman and politician who is serving as the 74th and current Governor of Maine. A Republican, he was previously mayor of Waterville from 2003 to 2011, and was a city councilor before that...
issued a statement after viewing a video of a state welfare office worker, expressing thanks to "the individual who took this video" and noting that it could help in improving staff training and customer service, but stating that, "The video in its entirety does not show a person willfully helping someone de-fraud the welfare system."
He has gained support from conservative media and interest groups. In 2009 Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart is an American publisher, commentator for the Washington Times, author, an occasional guest commentator on various news programs who has served as an editor for the Drudge Report website...
paid O'Keefe, then 25, for the option to publish new videos exclusively on BigGovernment.com. In June 2010, O'Keefe formed a 501(c)(3) organization, Project Veritas, with the stated mission to "investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct."
Early life and education
O'Keefe is the elder of two children born to James E. O'Keefe Jr., a materials engineer, and Deborah O'Keefe, a physical therapist. His younger sister became a painterPainting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and sculptor.
O'Keefe grew up in Westwood
Westwood, New Jersey
Westwood is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 10,908....
in Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...
. He is single and lives with his parents. His home was politically "conservative but not rigidly so," according to his father. He graduated from Westwood High School
Westwood Regional High School
Westwood Regional Jr./Sr. High School is a five-year comprehensive regional public high school that serves students in eighth through twelfth grade from Borough of Westwood and the Township of Washington, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Westwood Regional School...
, where he showed an early interest in the arts, theater and journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
. He played the leading role in his high school's 2002 production of the musical Crazy for You
Crazy for You
Crazy for You is a musical with a book by Ken Ludwig, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. Billed as "The New Gershwin Musical Comedy", it is largely based on the songwriting team’s 1930 musical, Girl Crazy, but interpolates songs from several other productions as well...
. He attained the highest rank, Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
, in the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
.
O'Keefe started at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
in 2002 and majored in philosophy. Beginning in his sophomore year, he wrote a bi-weekly opinion column for The Daily Targum
The Daily Targum
The Daily Targum is the official student newspaper of Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey. Founded in 1869, it is the second-oldest collegiate newspaper in the United States. The Daily Targum is student written and managed, and boasts a circulation of 18,000...
, the university's student paper. He left the Targum and founded the Rutgers Centurion
Rutgers Centurion
The Centurion is a conservative magazine focused on Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Its motto is "veritas vos liberabit," which is Latin for "the truth shall set you free." The magazine attempts to counterbalance that which its staff perceive as a predominant orthodoxy of social...
, a conservative student paper supported by a $500 "Balance in the Media" grant from the The Leadership Institute
Leadership Institute
The Leadership Institute is a 501 non-profit organization located in Arlington, Virginia that teaches "political technology.".The Institute was founded in 1979 by conservative activist Morton C. Blackwell...
.
For his first video, O'Keefe and other Centurion writers met with Rutgers dining staff to demand the banning of the cereal Lucky Charms
Lucky Charms
Lucky Charms is a brand of cereal produced by the General Mills food company of Golden Valley, Minnesota, United States. It first appeared in stores in 1964. The cereal consists of two main components: toasted oat-based pieces and multi-colored marshmallow bits in various shapes, the latter making...
from dining halls because of its offense to Irish American
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
s. O'Keefe said the leprechaun
Leprechaun
A leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, leprechauns have been linked to the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology...
mascot presented a stereotype. He intended to have officials lose either way: to appear insensitive to an ethnic group, or to look silly by agreeing to ban Lucky Charms. The students said they expected to be thrown out for the discussion, but the Rutgers official took notes, was courteous, and said their concerns would be considered. Rutgers staff say the cereal was never taken off the menu.
Career
After graduating, O'Keefe worked for a year under Ben Wetmore, a media specialist, at the Leadership InstituteLeadership Institute
The Leadership Institute is a 501 non-profit organization located in Arlington, Virginia that teaches "political technology.".The Institute was founded in 1979 by conservative activist Morton C. Blackwell...
(LI), a conservative-funded organization in Arlington, Virginia. The institute sent O'Keefe to colleges to train students to start independent newspapers. After a year, officials at the institute asked O'Keefe to leave. According to Morton Blackwell
Morton Blackwell
Morton C. Blackwell is an American Republican Party activist. He is president and founder of the Leadership Institute , a 5013 non-profit educational foundation that teaches political technology....
, the institute's president and founder, they had concern that O'Keefe's videos had threatened LI's tax exemption as a nonprofit by trying to influence legislation (a legal characterization of lobbyists, which do not have tax exempt status). Blackwell said O'Keefe "wanted to go out and catch leftists breaking the law."
O'Keefe uses inexpensive, available technology to produce and distribute secretly recorded videos and audio files made during staged encounters, some of which have been distributed on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. Such secret recordings are illegal in California and Maryland. He has embarrassed organizations such as Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
and ACORN
Acorn
The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...
by presenting their low-level workers in the worst light; his videos of ACORN caused a media storm that resulted in the Congress freezing funds, two executive agencies cancelling contracts, and ACORN workers being fired. The national organization lost so much private funding that it closed most of its offices in the six months following the videos. In other cases, O'Keefe used colleagues to interview and record executives, as at NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
shortly before its Congressional funding hearings. He selectively edited and manipulated the NPR material, distorting chronology and putting material together that happened at separate times. In the summer of 2011, he began releasing videos of colleagues' staged encounters with workers on Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
applicability.
Working with advice on media strategy from his mentors Ben Wetmore and Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart is an American publisher, commentator for the Washington Times, author, an occasional guest commentator on various news programs who has served as an editor for the Drudge Report website...
, O'Keefe has sought to maximize publicity by releasing the videos over several days or months, and often in relation to funding authorizations or other significant political actions related to the subject organization. His strategy has included releasing some projects only to conservative media outlets, such as Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
and the Big Government website; he has interviewed exclusively with the same media to control the story. In the NPR case in 2011, he released the video at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
As of January 2010, O'Keefe began a column on Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart is an American publisher, commentator for the Washington Times, author, an occasional guest commentator on various news programs who has served as an editor for the Drudge Report website...
's website, "BigGovernment.com". Breitbart said in an interview that he paid O'Keefe a salary for his "life rights", to gain release of his videos first on his website. In 2010 O'Keefe formed his own organization, Project Veritas (truth in Latin), whose stated mission is "to investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions in order to achieve a more ethical and transparent society."
Planned Parenthood recordings (2008)
In 2006, O'Keefe met Lila RoseLila Rose
Lila Grace Rose is an American pro-life activist and the founder of the pro-life group Live Action. She is known for a series of campaigns against affiliated facilities of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.-Biography:...
, founder of an anti-abortion group on the UCLA campus. They secretly recorded encounters in Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
clinics. Rose posed as a pregnant teenager seeking advice; they made two videos and released them on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. In one, a clinic worker in Los Angeles tells Rose "that she could 'figure out a birth date that works' to avoid having PPLA notify police." By law, girls under a certain age who are pregnant have suffered statutory rape
Statutory rape
The phrase statutory rape is a term used in some legal jurisdictions to describe sexual activities where one participant is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior...
and some states require the reporting of such cases to the police. In some states, underage girls may not get abortions without parental permission. The videos received national attention.
In 2007 O'Keefe phoned several Planned Parenthood clinics and secretly recorded the conversations. He posed as a donor, asking if his donations would be applied to needs of minority women. When told they could be, he made "race-motivated" comments. By audio recordings, workers at clinics in six other states reportedly agreed to accept his donation under similar terms.
Planned Parenthood of California filed a "cease and desist" order against Lila Rose, charging that she was violating state laws against secret recordings. The order required her to remove the videos from YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and give all the recordings to the organization. She complied through her attorney.
After O'Keefe's four audio recordings were publicized in 2008, Planned Parenthood of Ohio issued a public response, saying the worker's words were "a violation of any policy, and it's very upsetting." The CEO said, "Planned Parenthood has a long history of social justice." Other offices noted the wide variety of services the organization offers to low income communities. African-American leaders called for withdrawal of public financing of the organization. No funding was withdrawn.
ACORN videos (2009)
In September 2009, O'Keefe and his associate, Hannah Giles, published edited hidden camera recordings in which Giles posed as a prostituteProstitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
and O'Keefe as her boyfriend, a law student, in an attempt to elicit damaging responses from employees of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now was a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues...
(ACORN), an advocacy organization for 40 years for persons of low and moderate income. A Washington Post reporter wrote the activist "said he targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does: its massive voter registration drives that turn out poor African Americans and Latinos to cast ballots against Republicans."
The videos were recorded during the summer of 2009 and appeared to show low-level ACORN employees in six cities providing advice to Giles and O'Keefe on how to avoid detection by authorities of tax evasion
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...
, human smuggling and child prostitution. He framed the videos with a preface of him in what he called his "pimp" outfit, which he wore in TV media interviews, although he appeared at the ACORN offices in conservative street clothes (which were not shown in the videos).
Reception
After the videos were released through the fall of 2009, the U.S. Congress voted to freeze federal funding to ACORN. The Census Bureau and the IRS terminated their contract relationships with ACORN.By December 2009, an external investigation of ACORN was published that cleared it of any illegality, while noting that its poor management practices contributed to unprofessional actions by some low-level employees. In March 2010, ACORN announced it would dissolve due to loss of funding from government and especially private sources.
On March 1, 2010, the district attorney for Brooklyn found that there was no criminal wrongdoing by the ACORN staff in New York. In late March 2010, Clark Hoyt
Clark Hoyt
- Personal life and Professional career :Clark Hoyt is an American journalist who was the public editor of the New York Times, serving as the "readers' representative." He was the newspaper's third public editor, or ombudsman, after Daniel Okrent and Byron Calame...
, then public editor
Public Editor
The job of the public editor is to supervise the implementation of proper journalism ethics at a newspaper, and to identify and examine critical errors or omissions, and to act as a liaison to the public. They do this primarily through a regular feature on a newspaper's editorial page. The position...
for The New York Times, reviewed "the available public record," before the California AG released the raw videotapes the following month. Hoyt wrote, "The videos were heavily edited. The sequence of some conversations was changed. Some workers seemed concerned for Giles, one advising her to get legal help. In two cities, Acorn workers called the police. But the most damning words match the transcripts and the audio, and do not seem out of context."
During the several investigations, the California Attorney General
California Attorney General
The California Attorney General is the State Attorney General of California. The officer's duty is to ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" The Attorney General carries out the responsibilities of the office through the California Department of Justice.The...
's Office offered O’Keefe immunity from prosecution in exchange for providing the raw videotapes related to ACORN offices in California. The AG's Report was released on April 1, 2010: it found the videos from ACORN offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino to have been "severely edited"; it found there was no evidence of criminal conduct on the part of ACORN employees, nor of any evidence that any employee intended to aid or abet criminal conduct. It found that three employees had tried to deflect the couple's plans, told them ACORN could not offer them help on the grounds they wanted, and otherwise dealt with them appropriately. Such context was not reflected in O'Keefe's edited tapes. The AG's Report noted that, because the Giles-O'Keefe criminal plans were a ruse, the ACORN workers could not be complicit in them. It found no evidence of intent by the employees to aid the couple. Attorney General Edmund G. Brown noted that the secret recordings violated California privacy laws.
The AG's report confirmed that one of the ACORN employees, shown in O'Keefe's video as apparently aiding a human smuggling proposal, had reported his encounter with the couple to a Mexican police detective at the time to thwart their plan. Following the AG's report, that employee, who had been fired by ACORN immediately after the video's release, sued O'Keefe and Giles in 2010. He alleged invasion of privacy
Invasion of privacy
United States privacy law embodies several different legal concepts. One is the invasion of privacy, a tort based in common law allowing an aggrieved party to bring a lawsuit against an individual who unlawfully intrudes into his or her private affairs, discloses his or her private information,...
, and cited a California law that prohibits recordings without consent of all parties involved.
On June 14, 2010, the U.S. Government Accountability Office
Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
(GAO) published its report: it found no evidence that ACORN, or any of its related organizations, had mishandled any of the $40 million in federal money which they had received in recent years.
Recording and arrest at US Senator Landrieu's office (2010)
On January 25, 2010, O'Keefe and three conservative activists, including Robert Flanagan, the son of William Flanagan, acting U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Louisiana, were arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. They were charged with a federal felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
for attempting to maliciously interfere with the office telephone system of the Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu
Mary Landrieu
Mary Loretta Landrieu is the senior United States Senator from the State of Louisiana and a member of the Democratic Party.Born in Arlington, Virginia, Landrieu was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana...
. Dressed as telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
repairmen, two of the activists were apprehended after they tried to gain access to the telephone equipment closet, allegedly to wiretap the line, according to the FBI's arresting affidavit. O'Keefe was present, recording the events on his cell phone. The four men were jailed and arraigned the following day; the charges carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, followed by 3 years probation, and a fine of $250,000. O'Keefe and the other men were released on $10,000 bond.
In a post-arrest interview, O'Keefe said he entered Landrieu's office to investigate complaints that she was ignoring phone calls from constituents during the debate over President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's health care bill. Landrieu’s spokesperson noted that the voicemail
Voicemail
Voicemail is a computer based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products and services, using an ordinary telephone...
systems had been strained from a flood of calls during the most contentious weeks of the debate. "An attorney for one of the other men said the men did not intend to interfere with her phones, but rather intended to make a film embarrassing the Senator because of her support for the healthcare bill."
In what the journalist Gordon Russell called "unusual handling", the charges in the case were reduced from a felony to a single misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
count of entering a federal building under false pretenses
False pretenses
Obtaining property by false pretenses is when a person obtains property by intentionally misrepresenting a past or existing fact.-Elements:The elements of false pretenses are: a false representation of a material past or existing fact...
. O'Keefe and the others pled guilty on May 26. Their submitted factual basis
Factual basis
In criminal law, a factual basis is a statement of the facts detailing an individual crime and its particulars, stipulated to by the prosecution and the defense, which forms a basis by which a judge can accept a guilty plea from the defendant.-United States:...
claimed they intended "to orchestrate a conversation about phone calls to Landrieu's staff and capture the conversation on video, not to actually tamper with the phone system, or to commit any other felony."
O'Keefe was sentenced to three years' probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine. The other three men received lesser sentences.
NPR video (Spring 2011)
In March 2011, shortly before the US Congress was to vote on funding for NPR, O'Keefe released a video of a discussion with Ronald Schiller, National Public Radio's then-senior vice president for fundraisingFundraising
Fundraising or fund raising is the process of soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions as money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies...
, and an associate. Raw content was secretly recorded by his partners Simon Templar
Simon Templar
Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris’s...
(an alias) and Shaughn Adeleye. Due to questions at the time about the video's veracity, staff of The Blaze
The Blaze
- News websites :*The Blaze , a conservative news and opinion website founded by Glenn Beck- Persons :*Carol Blazejowski, professional basketball executive and retired star player nicknamed "The Blaze"- Radio stations :...
analyzed the released version, and compared it with the raw videotape (which O'Keefe made available after the fact.) As the journalist Scott Baker wrote, analysis of the raw videos showed that O'Keefe's released video was edited to intentionally lie or mislead, that much of the context of the conversation was changed, and that elements were transposed and chronology shifted.
On the edited, released video, it appears that the NPR executives were led to believe they would be meeting with representatives of a self-described Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, that wished to donate money to NPR. In the video, Schiller says that he will speak personally, and not for NPR; then he appears to contrast the fiscally conservative Republican party of old that didn't get involved in people's personal and family lives with "the current Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, and in particular the Tea Party
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...
, that is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian — I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move." Schiller said some highly-placed Republicans believed the Republican Party had been hijacked by this radical group, and the Republicans characterized them as "Islamophobic" and "seriously racist, racist people". This video was released March 8, 2011.
Later in the edited video, Schiller seems to say he believes NPR "would be better off in the long run without federal funding," explaining that removal of federal funding would allow NPR more independence, and remove the widely held misconception that NPR is significantly funded by the public. But, USA Today reports that the raw, unedited tape is substantially different. On the raw tape, Schiller says that withdrawing federal funding would cause local stations to go under and that NPR is doing "everything we can" to keep it.
In a statement released before analysis of the raw video, NPR said, "Schiller's comments are in direct conflict with NPR's official position." They also said, "The fraudulent organization represented in this video repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5 million check with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept."
Reception
Comparison of the raw video with the released one revealed editing that was characterized as "selective" and "deceptive" by Michael GersonMichael Gerson
Michael John Gerson is an op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, a Policy Fellow with the ONE Campaign, and a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as President George W...
, opinion writer in the Washington Post, who wrote, "O’Keefe did not merely leave a false impression; he manufactured an elaborate, alluring lie." Time magazine noted that the video "transposed remarks from a different part of the meeting", was "manipulative" and "a partisan hit-job".
On March 17, Martha T. Moore of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
reported: "According to The Blaze
The Blaze
- News websites :*The Blaze , a conservative news and opinion website founded by Glenn Beck- Persons :*Carol Blazejowski, professional basketball executive and retired star player nicknamed "The Blaze"- Radio stations :...
analysis, Ron Schiller's most inflammatory remarks, that Tea Party members are "seriously racist," were made as he was recounting the views of Republicans he has spoken with — although he does not appear to disagree. It also shows Schiller appearing to laugh about the potential spread of Islamic sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law, when the longer version shows he laughed in reaction to something completely different."
People who reviewed the raw video said that Schiller told the two men "that donors cannot expect to influence news coverage." On the longer tape, he says, "There is such a big firewall between funding and reporting: Reporters will not be swayed in any way, shape or form." The broadcast journalist Al Tompkins, who now teaches at the Poynter Institute
Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a non-profit school for journalism located in St. Petersburg, Florida. The school's mission statement says that "The Poynter Institute is a school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders. It promotes excellence and integrity in the practice of...
, noted that Ron Schiller was a fundraiser, not an official affecting the newsroom. He commented on the raw tape: "The message that he said most often — I counted six times: He told these two people that he had never met before that you cannot buy coverage," Tompkins said. "He says it over and over and over again.
Two days later, O'Keefe released a video in which Betsy Liley, the senior director of institutional giving at NPR, appeared to have checked with senior management and said MEAC was cleared to make donations anonymously and NPR could help shield donations from government audits, but added that, in order to proceed, additional background information would be required, including an IRS Form 990. Liley advised the caller that NPR executives would investigate them before accepting any large donation, examining tax records and checking out other organizations that have received donations from them. Liley raises the possibility of NPR's turning down substantial gifts and stresses the "firewall" between the revenue-generating part of NPR and its news operation.
NPR put Liley on administrative leave. In emails released following the publication of the Liley video, NPR showed that the official had consulted appropriately with top management and notified the purported donors of problems with their desired method of donation.
Results
Schiller had submitted his resignation on January 24, and had announced in early March that he was leaving NPR for the Aspen InstituteAspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues." The...
. After the video release, NPR put him on administrative leave
Administrative leave
Administrative leave is a temporary leave from a job assignment, with pay and benefits intact. Generally, the term is reserved for employees of non-business institutions such as schools, police, and hospitals....
. The next day NPR's CEO Vivian Schiller
Vivian Schiller
Vivian Luisa Schiller is the former president and CEO of National Public Radio.-Biography:Schiller is the daughter of Ronald Schiller, a former editor at Reader's Digest, and Lillian Schiller of Larchmont, New York...
(no relation) announced she was resigning, effective immediately. Ronald Schiller made his resignation from NPR effective immediately on the evening of the video's release; the next day he ceded his new position at the Aspen Institute.
Medicaid videos (Summer 2011)
In July 2011, two conservative groups released secretly recorded video purporting to show Medicaid fraud in Maine's Department of Health and Human Services. In the video, an actor attempts to apply for benefits while broadly hinting that he is a drug smuggler without a legitimate income. Americans for ProsperityAmericans for Prosperity
Americans for Prosperity is a Washington, D.C.–based political advocacy group. According to their literature, they promote economic policy that supports business, and restrains regulation by government...
and the Maine Heritage Policy Center
Maine Heritage Policy Center
Maine Heritage Policy Center is a conservative think tank located in Portland, Maine. According to its mission statement, the MHPC is "a research and educational organization whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise; limited,...
said they received the video from O'Keefe. O'Keefe said that he had similar recorded videos from offices in Ohio, Virginia and South Carolina, and believed that there was a systemic problem and not just a problem with individual employees.
Maine governor Paul Lepage
Paul LePage
Paul Richard LePage is an American businessman and politician who is serving as the 74th and current Governor of Maine. A Republican, he was previously mayor of Waterville from 2003 to 2011, and was a city councilor before that...
issued a statement after viewing the video of a state welfare office worker, thanking the person who made the video and noting that it could help in improving staff training and customer service, but stating that, "The video in its entirety does not show a person willfully helping someone de-fraud the welfare system. It does show a need for further job knowledge and continuous and improved staff training." Lepage announced that he had directed his agency director to look into the incident and correct the problem." Lepage's agency director praised the employees portrayed in the Maine video, noting that the initial caseworker was unsure of how to react and sought guidance from her supervisor.
A similar video posted on the Project Veritas web site purported to show workers at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services assisting actors posing as drug dealers in applying for benefits. Ben Johnson of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services noted that benefits were never granted, and that the made-up story would have been caught if the application process moved forward. Johnson responded to media inquiries about the videos, stating that "Assuming (the video is) accurate, it's unacceptable... The video is incredibly troubling. I'm less concerned with the filmmakers and what their motivations might have been, and more concerned with making sure we're spending taxpayer money appropriately, that we're rooting out fraud, wherever it is, and that we're running a clean program. The end result of this is we're going to take this video and we're going to use it as a training video." Mike DeWine
Mike DeWine
Richard Michael "Mike" DeWine is the Attorney General for the state of Ohio. He has held numerous offices on the state and federal level, including Ohio State Senator, four terms as a U.S. Congressman, Ohio Lt. Governor, and was a two-term U.S. Senator, serving from 1995 to 2007.- Biography :Born...
, Attorney General of Ohio, described the Ohio video as "outrageous" and said that he had instructed his state's Medicaid fraud unit to look into the incident. Ohio media reported that "a Franklin County Jobs and Family Service worker was placed on administrative leave and at least one other person was out of work" as a result of the video's release.
O'Keefe's fourth Medicaid video that appeared to be filmed in Richmond, Virginia, was released in July 2011. A spokesman for Virginia governor Bob McDonnell
Bob McDonnell
Robert Francis "Bob" McDonnell is an American politician who has been the 71st Governor of Virginia since January 2010. A former lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, McDonnell served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1993 to 2006 and served as Attorney General of Virginia from 2006...
had asked state police to review the video and "take whatever actions are appropriate."
Political and personal beliefs
O'Keefe described his politics as "progressive radical", though media coverage consistently describes him as a conservative. He expresses admiration for the philosophy of British writer G.K. Chesterton. He refers to himself as a muckraker.Praise and criticism
O'Keefe's actions have stirred a public debate on what it means to be a journalist and on what constitutes good journalistic practice when false pretenses are used. Andrew Breitbart and other supporters say that O'Keefe is the right wing's answer to a long line of left-leaning "hybrid troublemakers who get put on the cover of Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, like Paul Krassner
Paul Krassner
Paul Krassner is an author, journalist, stand-up comedian, and the founder, editor and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine The Realist, first published in 1958...
and Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
."
In the same March 2011 article by Tim Kenneally and Daniel Frankel, Marty Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
's Annenberg School for Communication
Annenberg School for Communication
There are two schools named Annenberg School for Communication.*University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism*Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania...
, said,
"What [O'Keefe] does isn't journalism. It's agitpop, politi-punking, entrapment-entertainment. There is no responsible definition of journalism that includes what he does or how he does it. His success at luring his prey into harming themselves is a measure of how fallible and foolish anyone, including good people, can sometimes be."
In reporting on O'Keefe's attempt in 2010 to hack into Senator Landrieu's office phone system, Jim Rutenberg and Campbell Roberston of the New York Times wrote that O'Keefe practiced a kind of "gonzo journalism" and his tactic is to "caricature the political and social values of his enemies by carrying them to outlandish extremes."
Jonathan Seidl of The Blaze
The Blaze
- News websites :*The Blaze , a conservative news and opinion website founded by Glenn Beck- Persons :*Carol Blazejowski, professional basketball executive and retired star player nicknamed "The Blaze"- Radio stations :...
, in writing about the first NPR video, said, "The video, in the end, not only raises questions about NPR, but it also raises questions about undercover, gotcha journalism that can sometimes border on entrapment."
Scott Baker of The Blaze wrote in March 2011 about the NPR videos that O'Keefe was "unethical" because he calls himself an "investigative journalist" but "uses editing tactics that seem designed to intentionally lie or mislead about the material being presented." Later in March 2011 some notable journalists wrote that they regretted having given O'Keefe's NPR videos "wider circulation without scrutinizing them for themselves, given his past record and some of the objections that The Blaze first raised. They include Ben Smith
Ben Smith
Benjamin Francis Smith is an English cricketer: a right-handed batsman and occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler.-Leicestershire:...
of Politico, James Poniewozik
James Poniewozik
James Poniewozik is an American journalist and television critic. He writes Times Tuned In column and has a blog with the same name.Originally from Monroe, MI, Poniewozik attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, graduating with a BA in English. He subsequently attended the graduate program...
of Time magazine and Dave Weigel of Slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
." The journalist Chris Rovzar of New York Magazine, in reporting on the NPR video, wrote that O'Keefe's videos are "edited in a highly misleading way."
In a March 2011 interview with O'Keefe, the journalist Bob Garfield
Bob Garfield
Bob Garfield writes the "Ad Review" TV-commercial criticism feature in Advertising Age. He is also the co-host of the On the Media show on National Public Radio. Before that, he was a frequent contributor to All Things Considered. He is the advertising analyst for ABC News...
of NPR said, describing the ACORN scam:
"So let's just recap for a moment the ACORN scenario. You lie to get into – the offices. You lie, subsequently, about the lie you told to get into the offices. You edit the pimp shot into the trailer to create the illusion that you were somehow wearing it during your sting. You go on television wearing the same pimp outfit and let interviewers observe, uncorrected, that that’s what you were wearing when you confronted the ACORN employees. If your journalistic technique is the lie, why should we believe anything you have to say?"
O'Keefe responded:
Investigative reporters have used, you know, quote, unquote, "false pretenses" like To Catch a Predator, ABC’s Primetime Live. Even Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes went undercover. You go undercover in order to get to the truth. Now, is it lying? It’s a form of guerrilla theater. You’re posing as something you’re not, in order to capture candid conversations from your subject. But I wouldn't characterize it as, as lying.
In July 2011, the New York Times Magazine published, "Stinger: James O'Keefe's Greatest Hits," a profile by Zev Chafets
Zev Chafets
Zev Chafets is an American-Israeli author and columnist who was born and raised in Pontiac, Michigan.-Early life and Israel:After graduating from the University of Michigan, he moved to Israel. He spent a decade in the army, government service and politics...
, the author of "Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One". Chafets interviewed the dean of the University of Missouri’s school of journalism, who said,
"I put James O’Keefe in the same category as Michael Moore. Some ethicists say it is never right for a journalist to deceive for any reason, but there are wrongs in the world that will never be exposed without some kind of subterfuge."The New York Times profile of O'Keefe was sharply criticized in The Atlantic as "woefully incomplete, leaving readers unaware of the most damning critiques of O'Keefe's work and unable to render an informed judgment ... Through the quote he chooses, Chafets leads the reader to conclude that the core controversy is whether it's ever okay for a journalist to mislead his subject. But the mortal sin that O'Keefe commits in the ACORN videos is misleading the audience. His videos are presented to the public in less than honest ways that go far beyond normal "selectivity." "
The media response to O'Keefe's videos released in August 2011, purportedly showing local workers aiding Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
fraud, has been more cautious. Some reporters have scrutinized the staged encounters and labeled his work as another "sting".
Plan for Abbie Boudreau (2010)
In August 2010, O'Keefe planned a staged encounter with the CNNCNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
correspondent Abbie Boudreau
Abbie Boudreau
Abbie Boudreau is an ABC correspondent in Los Angeles. She joined on November 10, 2010. She was formerly with CNN. She has received seven regional Emmys for investigative reporting, writing and enterprise journalism.-Early career:...
, who was doing a documentary on the young conservative movement. He set up an appointment at his office in Maryland to discuss a video shoot. Izzy Santa, executive director of the Veritas Project, warned Boudreau that O'Keefe was planning to "punk" her on the boat by trying to seduce her—which he would film on hidden cameras. Boudreau did not board the boat and soon left the area.
CNN later published a 13–page plan written by O'Keefe's mentor Ben Wetmore. It listed props for the boat scheme, including pornography, sexual aids, condoms, a blindfold and "fuzzy" handcuffs. When questioned by CNN, O'Keefe denied that he was going to follow the Wetmore plan, as he found parts of it inappropriate. Boudreau commented "that does not appear to be true, according to a series of emails we obtained from Izzy Santa, who says the e-mails reveal James' true intentions."
New Jersey Teachers' Union video (2010)
Starting October 25, 2010, O’Keefe posted a series of videos on the Internet entitled Teachers Unions Gone Wild. At the time, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) was in negotiations with Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, over teacher pay benefits and tenure. O'Keefe derived one video from recordings made by “citizen journalists,” whom he recruited to attend the NJEA’s leadership conference. They secretly recorded meetings and conversations with teacher participants. It featured teachers discussing the difficulty of firing a tenured teacherTenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
. A second video featured a staged phone conversation by O'Keefe with Lawrence E. Everett, assistant superintendent of the Passaic
Passaic, New Jersey
Passaic is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 69,781, maintaining its status as the 15th largest municipality in New Jersey with an increase of 1,920 residents from the 2000 Census population of 67,861...
City Schools, in which Everett refused to commit to firing a teacher based on the purported parent's saying the teacher used “n-word
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
” with his child. The third video (October 26, 2010) featured audio of a voice, identified as NJEA Associate Director Wayne Dibofsky, who alleged voter fraud during the 1997 Jersey City mayoral election. The voice of Robert Byrne, Jersey City municipal clerk, was recorded on the same video; he noted that the election was monitored by lawyers for both candidates.
Reception
Governor Christie said nothing on the videos surprised him. NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer called O'Keefe's videos a "complete fabrication" and "a calculated attack on [the NJEA] organization and its members". Wollmer called O'Keefe "flat-out sleazy".External links
- Scott Baker, "Does Raw Video of NPR Exposé Reveal Questionable Editing and Tactics?", The BlazeThe Blaze (blog)The Blaze is a conservative news and opinion website launched on August 31, 2010, by American media personality and former Fox News host Glenn Beck's Mercury Radio Arts, three days after Beck's widely publicized Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C...
, 10 March 2011 - "James O'Keefe", bio and articles, BigGovernment.com
- Project Veritas
Multi-media
- Interview of O'Keefe by NPR's On the MediaOn the MediaOn the Media is an hour-long weekly radio program, hosted by Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone, covering journalism, technology, and First Amendment issues. It is produced by WNYC in New York City...
(audio with transcript)