James O’Keefe: The ACORN Slander Artist

There are four viscous slanderers that have promoted a smear campaign on a community organization group using so-called “investigative journalism” recently.



In this age of misreported facts and ‘gotcha-journalism' those who claim to hold the truth dear and have a love for American democracy would do well to take note of these modern propagandists and spreaders of lies.

1. James O’Keefe III

2. Hannah Giles

3. Andrew Breitbart

4. Mike Flynn

James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles have both lied on the air of the FOX News show “Hannity” regarding the issue of being asked to leave from ACORN offices in the process of their film making.



Both of these slander artists have received training from the same training organization that Ann Coulter attended. They are skilled at crafting a message to be as provocative as possible, but not by any means accurate or provable.



Katherine Conway Russel, Office Director of ACORN Housing Corp. Philadelphia, explains what her group actually does and what a vital role they can serve in the community:







The Philadelphia ACORN office is on record as filing a police report against O’Keefe and Giles for misrepresenting themselves and making illegal requests.



O'KEEFE: “In none of the facilities -- none of the facilities kicked us out. That's a lie.”



BREITBART: “There's no place, as ACORN tried to state, that kicked them out based upon the premise that they were doing something nefarious.”



Both Breitbart and O’Keefe reveal in their quotes that they have no credibility behind their case. They claim ACORN is a “criminal organization” but engaged in illegal videotaping to produce these videos and have made baseless slanders against ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis even as the people in question have been fired for their actions caught on tape.



Were it the goal of these people to see quality, ethical journalism they would not misrepresent themselves nor place a blanket charge of criminality to the entire organization by value of the misdeeds of a few.



These slander artists are clearly seeking to destroy an organization based on political and possibly racial motives, and are clearly not invested in uncovering malpractice for the betterment of the community.



O’Keefe has been asked to leave the Leadership Institute after taping phone calls with Planned Parenthood representatives in which he made the proposition of a possible donation under the condition the money would go toward an abortion of a black child.



James O’Keefe has expressly chosen to target a group that helps mainly impoverished blacks living in the inner-city. He has a record of creating disgusting racial sentiments in his own mind and then imposing that racist view to any person unlucky enough to answer his phone call. There is no small amount of evidence to assume that O’Keefe harbors ill will toward African-Americans.



It is also very likely that this story has been picked up but poorly reported on by certain media figures because of a strong desire to connect President Barack Obama with ACORN’s problems.



If these same newsmedia-types were to convey that the credibility of these film makers is below even the lowest measuring bar I might not call them biased, but to me it just proves once more that bias against the truth is one of the strongest factors present in the news media today.



ACORN is currently suing Breitbart and O’Keefe for illegally videotaping their offices in Maryland.



One of the only people to speak any amount of truth on the matter has been Joe Conason of Salon.





Joe Conason quite clearly lays out that this has been exaggerated from the very beginning, that ACORN helps struggling families, and stating the fact that ACORN has never been found guilty of any voter registration fraud.



Andrew Breitbart, on the other hand, produced a piece on RealClearPolitics that touts the entire slander crusade as courageous. Breitbart is quite clear that he stands with the McCarthyist tactics involved in the Van Jones resignation.



I see the same anti-American tactics at play in this un-Christian and ungodly campaign against minorities and against all of the poor. These people care nothing for the hard facts, and only care to paint others with a brush of guilt by association.



If one person is guilty of something in an ACORN office, they all are guilty in all ACORN offices. Evidence and solid proof be damned!



There is a strong value in good investigative journalism, but no value in anti-minority slander campaigns.



The people in the videos were dismissed and this in itself was a small service to ACORN, however the purpose of the video series was never to improve ACORN but rather to destroy it. Rather than balancing the matter with facts and open disclosure of the footage, these slander artists have elected to lie about the number of times they were asked to leave. This in itself calls to question if they have any desire to cover the story or if they merely wish to present this as irrefutable case of corruption regardless of solid facts.



The American Media also failed utterly to convey this story in full.



Jon Stewart of The Daily Show jumped on board the ACORN smash-wagon.



The Washington Post has ignored the fact that O’Keefe and Giles previously claimed they were never turned away from any office.



FOX News (to my knowledge) has made no effort to obtain the police report, in the procession of CNN, to refute the on-air claim that they were never asked to leave any ACORN office.



And I won’t even get into the matter of the numerous outright lies told on the radio.



I believe this story is an excellent example of how easy it is to besmirch and publicly defame a group.



On that topic, the group Live Action that O’Keefe belongs to is a corrupt organization that uses racial entrapment to levee false claims against innocent citizens. This possibly criminal organization apparently promotes illegal videotaping, dishonest conduct when speaking with the press and engages in false advertising of it’s purposes and functions.



This group is dangerous to our country, dangerous to our communities and dangerous to our democracy. Live Action films is an agent of propaganda and an actor in baseless public defamation.



James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles, Mike Flynn and Andrew Breitbart are currently invested in actions aimed against the well being of the community and against the well being of the poor.



I cannot remain silent as this group of vile individuals wage war against the needy and seek to destroy a community-based group that lends aid to others, rather than seeking to improve it.