James O'Keefe III
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| James O'Keefe | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Organization: | Project Veritas |
| Role: | President |
| Education: | Rutgers University (2006, B.A.) |
| Website: | Official website |
James O'Keefe III is a self-described "guerrilla journalist" and community organizer who performs undercover investigations and releases the videos through two nonprofit organizations, Project Veritas and Project Veritas Action. His videos investigate and expose what he perceives to be corruption and fraud in both the public and private sectors; they target progressive and Democratic subjects.[1][2]
Career
Early career
After growing up in a New Jersey home that, according to his father, leaned conservative "but not rigidly so," O'Keefe first embarked on conservative political endeavors while he was an undergraduate student at Rutgers University. After working at the school paper, he broke away to form his own conservative publication, The Centurion. It was also during his time at Rutgers that O'Keefe began experimenting with videography.[3]
After graduating in 2006, O'Keefe took a job at the Leadership Institute, a 501(c)(3) conservative training organization in Arlington, Virginia. During his year-long tenure, O'Keefe traveled to college campuses and trained students on how to start their own conservative-minded publications. In 2007, while working for the Leadership Institute, O'Keefe shot and released a video showing a Planned Parenthood worker encouraging an undercover reporter posing as a 15-year-old girl pregnant to lie about her age in order to get an abortion. The worker was subsequently fired as a result of the video.[4][5][6] Because the Leadership Institute could not legally participate in political advocacy, the organization's president "told James to end his sting activities or leave."[4][7]
ACORN investigation
O'Keefe left the Leadership Institute to purse undercover investigative videos after a year, and he initially targeted ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Founded in 1970, the group's original purpose was to help those living in poverty obtain basic necessities. The group got into politics shortly after its inception and became a part of the social justice movement. By 2010, the organization consisted of nearly 500,000 members and existed in 75 cities across the country.[8][9][10]
O'Keefe and fellow conservative activist Hannah Giles went undercover, posing as a pimp and prostitute, and secretly filmed conversations with workers at ACORN locations across the country. Portions of the recorded conversations show ACORN workers advising O'Keefe and Giles on how to evade taxes and misrepresent their sources of income in order to operate a prostitution business. The videos aired on Fox News and on the late Andrew Breitbart's website, BigGovernment, catapulting O'Keefe into the national media spotlight. As a result of the videos, Congress voted to defund the organization, and six months later ACORN formally dissolved.[10][11]
In 2009, after an outside probe into ACORN's work, the organization was cleared of illegality in the matter.[12]
Mary Landrieu break-in
In January 2010, O'Keefe and three of his fellow undercover videographers were arrested at the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony. Police believed their intent was to tamper with the senator's phone system.[13][14] In May of 2010, O'Keefe pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of entering property belonging to the United States under false pretenses. He was sentenced to three years probation, a $1,500 fine, and 100 hours of community service.[14][15]
NPR investigation
In June 2010, he launched a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dubbed Project Veritas. The organization's 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."[16][17] Since founding Project Veritas, O'Keefe has continued his provocative work and produced a series of noteworthy exposés. In 2011, O'Keefe and the organization released a video that showed National Public Radio's (NPR) senior vice president for development, Ron Schiller, appearing to rant about Republicans and the Tea Party while claiming NPR would be "better off" without federal funding.[18] Conservative news outlet The Blaze subsequently found the videos be edited and "designed to intentionally lie or mislead about the material being presented."[19] As a result of the video, Ron Schiller and NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation) resigned, and Congress voted to defund NPR, though the effort died in the Senate.[4][20]
Investigation of voter fraud in 2016 election
| Project Veritas Action voter fraud investigation |
|---|
| Project Veritas Action |
| •Project Veritas Action •James O'Keefe III |
Individuals in videos |
| •Scott Foval •Bob Creamer •Aaron Black •Zulema Rodriguez |
Organizations in videos |
| •Democracy Partners •Americans United for Change •People For the American Way •Alliance for Retired Americans |
In October 2016, O'Keefe's group, Project Veritas Action Fund, released video footage of a number of Democratic operatives appearing to describe illegal voter registration activity as well as methods for agitating then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his supporters at rallies. In an article outlining the first videos Project Veritas released on October 17 and 18, 2016, Time reported:[21]
| “ | In one video, a contractor seems to brag about sending homeless and mentally ill people to harass Republicans. Someone identified as a Democratic National Committee staffer appears to claim credit for pushing Republican contender Donald Trump’s rally in Chicago toward violence. In another, consultants look like they are describing a plan to bus voters across state lines and registering immigrants in the country illegally to vote.[22] | ” |
Other work
Since his first documented investigation, O'Keefe and Project Veritas have released videos addressing topics such as teachers unions and voter fraud. In 2014, he crossed the Mexican border into the United States dressed as Osama Bin Laden in order to show what he believed to be the border's weaknesses. In 2013, O'Keefe published his first book, Breakthrough: Our Guerrilla War to Expose Fraud and Save Democracy, which became a New York Times bestseller.[23][24][25][26]
Opposition
O'Keefe has been consistently criticized for his approach to investigative journalism as well as his editing of the final videos. Writing for The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf wrote, "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.'"[27] In October 2016, NPR noted that O'Keefe had a history of releasing edited videos in past undercover investigations, saying, "The videos are edited, and O'Keefe and Project Veritas have a history of selectively — and at times misleadingly — editing their videos. While they have previously posted raw footage, they have not done so with these latest stings."[28] Andrew Seaman, chair of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), further criticized O'Keefe's methods, telling The Washington Post, "James O’Keefe is not an ethical journalist if we look at his actions in the context of [the SPJ’s ethics code]. ... He obviously has an agenda, goes directly to surreptitious reporting methods and has a history of distorting facts or context."[29]
Recent news
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See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ YouTube, "James O'Keefe | For Action Interview with Chris Jeub," November 25, 2013
- ↑ Project Veritas, "Homepage," accessed October 13, 2015
- ↑ Nj.com, "ACORN sting 'pimp' is N.J. man who attended Rutgers University," September 17, 2009
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 New York Times, "Stinger: James O’Keefe’s Greatest Hits," July 17, 2011
- ↑ LinkedIn, "James O'Keefe," accessed October 13, 2015
- ↑ LA Times, "Anti-abortion movement gets a new-media twist," April 26, 2009
- ↑ Leadership Institute, "Form 990, 2014," accessed October 13, 2015
- ↑ ACORN, "Homepage," accessed October 14, 2015
- ↑ The Christian Science Monitor, "What is the ACORN controversy about?" September 16, 2009
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Week, "The fall of ACORN: A timeline," March 23, 2010
- ↑ Washington Post, "Duo in ACORN Videos Say Effort Was Independent," September 18, 2009
- ↑ NPR, "ACORN Workers Cleared Of Illegality By Outside Probe," December 7, 2009
- ↑ New York Times, "4 Arrested in Phone Tampering at Landrieu Office," January 26, 2010
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Hill, "ACORN filmmaker James O’Keefe sentenced in Sen. Mary Landrieu break-in," May 26, 2010
- ↑ Nola.com, "James O'Keefe and friends plead guilty in Mary Landrieu office caper," May 26, 2010
- ↑ Breaking News, "James E. O'Keefe III," accessed October 14, 2015
- ↑ Project Veritas, "About," accessed October 14, 2015
- ↑ NJ.com, "N.J. activist James O'Keefe's video shows NPR executive slamming tea party movement," March 8, 2011
- ↑ The Blaze, "Does Raw Video of NPR Expose Reveal Questionable Editing & Tactics?" March 10, 2011
- ↑ Project Veritas, "Bias at National Public Radio," accessed October 14, 2015
- ↑ Time, "Everything We Know About the Latest James O’Keefe Video Sting," October 18, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Daily Caller, "James O’Keefe Crosses The US-Mexico Border Dressed As Osama Bin Laden," August 11, 2014
- ↑ NJ.com, "Video puts NJEA in hot seat," October 27, 2010
- ↑ BBC, "US politician's son resigns over 'voter fraud' video," October 25, 2012
- ↑ Amazon, "Breakthrough: Our Guerilla War to Expose Fraud and Save Democracy," accessed October 15, 2015
- ↑ The Atlantic, "Andrew Breitbart and James O'Keefe Ruined Him, and Now He Gets $100,000," March 8, 2013
- ↑ NPR, "Sting Video Purports To Show Democrats Describing How To Commit Voter Fraud," October 19, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Is it okay for James O’Keefe’s ‘investigative reporting’ to rely on deception?" October 19, 2016
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