Acorn "pimp" gets pimp-slapped!

[bugscoe]

This is left-wing "journalism": false pretenses, ambush tactics and doctored tapes. What a surprise. Not.

Media Continue to Falsely Accuse O'Keefe of Wiretapping
By Lachlan Markay

Thu, 01/28/2010

Some in the liberal media continue to insist that James O'Keefe and his three cohorts were trying to "bug" or "tap" Sen. Mary Landrieu's phone lines when law enforcement officials have clearly said that they were not. Since the left doesn't like O'Keefe, the liberal media seems to think standard practices of journalistic integrity don't apply here.

According to MSNBC, one law enforcement official, who was not named, said "the four men arrested for attempting to tamper with the phones in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) were not trying to intercept or wiretap the calls." This statement comports with the affidavit filed in court after O'Keefe and company were arrested, which did not mention wiretapping or bugging, and only referred to the "tampering" of phone lines (h/t Patterico).

But the Boston Globe parroted this false accusation this morning in a gossip blog post about one of the alleged perpetrators, Joe Basel. The Globe--the same Globe that complained about ACORN's "trial-by-video"--called him a "political dirty trickster who was busted in a Watergate-style bugging operation earlier this week," and said again a couple paragraphs later that Basel was "bagged by the feds allegedly trying to bug the phones" in Landrieu's office. At least the Globe writers said "allegedly" the second time.

The L.A. Times also issued the false claim that the crew had tried to "bug" Landrieu's phones, and explicitly tried to tie O'Keefe and company to the perpetrators of the Watergate break-in:

Filmmaker James O’Keefe III is 25, meaning he was born about 13 years after five men were arrested for trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington. The subsequent scandal, which led to the resignation of the burglars’ boss, President Richard M. Nixon, was fodder for history books by the time O’Keefe was old enough to read them. Chances are, he didn’t.

O’Keefe, the Internet “journalist” who became an overnight sensation after his undercover reports revealed unethical behavior by the liberal activist group ACORN, now finds himself in the middle of his own bugging scandal.[/b]

Putting the word journalist in quotation marks is a nice touch, but the fact remains that O'Keefe did not try to bug anyone's phones.

CBS News also trumpeted these false charges. referring to the accused as "Phone Bug Suspects" in a headline, and "Men Accussed of Attempting to Bug La. Senator's Phone" it the sub-headline. A CBS News video title calls the incident a "Watergate Style Break-In".

A host of other smaller newspapers claimed that O'Keefe tried to "bug" the Senator's office, including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Alexandria Echo Press.

The Washington Post, unlike all of these outlets, took the facts into account and issued a correction today, saying, "Earlier versions of this story incorrectly reported that James O’Keefe faced charges in an alleged plot to bug the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu. The charges were related to an alleged plot to tamper with a phone system. The headline incorrectly referred to a plot to bug the phone and a caption incorrectly referred to an alleged wiretap scheme."

All of the sources that parroted this erroneous (if the law enforcement official and official court document are to be believed) claim should do the same: correct the record and admit that O'Keefe's arrest bears little resemblance to the Watergate scandal. There was no bugging or wiretapping going on, and claims to the contrary are irresponsible. Political disagreement is no excuse for journalistic malfeasance.

 

[bugscoe]

Crime-Tolerating Left Pounces on Apparent New Orleans Stunt
by Kyle Olson

Let me first say, if what is being reported in the media is accurate, a dumb prank was attempted in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu by James O’Keefe and his comrades.

There should be zero tolerance for crime, regardless of who does it. If O’Keefe is guilty of what the FBI is alleging, he should be held accountable. The Left believes that now, but where were they six months ago?

It’s interesting to observe, and personally experience, the hypocritical way the Left is treating this situation. Consider two unsolicited e-mails I received Monday night from a few liberal wackos with too much time on their hands. Here’s the first, which was accompanied by the subject line, “Republicans are As—-es!”:

Hey as—-e, why don’t you talk about the son of a bitch who broke into Senator Landrieu’s office in LA? Yeah, scumbags like you don’t care about the law.

The other, titled, “James O’Keefe is going to jail! YOU FAILED!”:

HAHAHAHA, apparently going to college meant nothing since you never heard of Watergate and the name Richard Nixon. I hope they throw all of you c—s [beyond crude term for a female body part] into prison where trash like you belongs.

The alleged crimes committed by ACORN employees in the O’Keefe and Giles videos were excused, and even rationalized, by the Left. But they don’t apply the same level of patience and understanding for O’Keefe and Company. Even worse, they’re jumping to conclusions about their guilt, and the nature of their alleged crime.

The liberal media is openly theorizing that O’Keefe and his friends were trying to bug telephones in the senator’s office. The Louisiana Democratic Party is already calling it the “Louisiana Watergate.” As Andrew Breitbart said:

MSNBC and other “news organizations” are even billing this developing story as “Watergate”. What do Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow know? And when did they know it?

Surely James O’Keefe is not dumb enough to think he could actually bug the phones of a sitting U.S. Senator. Only the “A-Team” could do that, and they disbanded well over a decade ago.

The Left, despite video evidence, was silent about ACORN’s gross shenanigans. But when scant details emerge from a stunt in New Orleans, it’s the next Watergate. It shows what their real agenda is. It’s not truth, it’s not justice and it’s certainly not the American way. It’s maintaining power and access to taxpayer dollars by any means necessary.

 

[Hello]

It was on both Brett Baier, and Sheppard Smith as well as Greta, on Tuesday, and O'Reilly covered it on wednesday before the SOTU when no other station was doing anything but talking about the annointed one, nice try though.

Did the thought ever occur to you that they tape these opinion shows during the day, and that they are not always up to date.

Nevermind I already know my answer, I just asked if a thought ever occured to you, obviously the answer is no.

Quote from kut2k2:

LOL

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/fox-news-response-okeefe-arrest-hand

"[Tuesday] on Fox's prime-time opinion shows, its big ratings drivers, the shows that had most avidly promoted O'Keefe and his brand of 'investigative journalism' -- Glenn Beck, The O'Reilly Factor, and Hannity -- there was nothing.

"Not. A. Single. Word."

 

[kut2k2]

Quote from Hello:

It was on both Brett Baier, and Sheppard Smith as well as Greta, on Tuesday, and O'Reilly covered it on wednesday before the SOTU when no other station was doing anything but talking about the annointed one, nice try though.

Did the thought ever occur to you that they tape these shows during the day?

Nevermind I already know my answer, I just asked if a thought ever occured to you, obviously the answer is no.

Yo, dipshit, it was already stated in the article I posted that Fox "News" casters briefly mentioned the story on Tuesday. The fact remains that Fox's Big 3 talkshow hosts ignored the story on Tuesday, while CNN and MSNBC did not.

Did the thought ever occur to you that the story broke on Monday and was available to everybody for coverage on Tuesday? Obviously no.

Fox talking heads have egg all over their faces for lionizing that felon. No take-backs or do-overs for this clusterfuck.

 

[drjekyllus]

Quote from kut2k2:

Yo, dipshit, it was already stated in the article I posted that Fox "News" casters briefly mentioned the story on Tuesday. The fact remains that Fox's Big 3 talkshow hosts ignored the story on Tuesday, while CNN and MSNBC did not.

Did the thought ever occur to you that the story broke on Monday and was available to everybody for coverage on Tuesday? Obviously no.

Fox talking heads have egg all over their faces for lionizing that felon. No take-backs or do-overs for this clusterfuck.

And yet you supported John Edwards for VP. What a great guy.

 

[kut2k2]

Quote from drjekyllus:

And yet you supported John Edwards for VP. What a great guy.

I'll take John Edwards over Dick Cheney anytime.

Seriously, dude, try to stay on topic. I know it's a novel experience for you, not talking about anything and everything but the thread topic, but it will help disguise your intellectual shortcomings if nothing else. Assuming you actually have something to contribute to the topic, of course. I may be dangerously out on a limb with that assumption.

 

[bugscoe]

Quote from kut2k2:

The fact remains that Fox's Big 3 talkshow hosts ignored the story on Tuesday, while CNN and MSNBC did not.

Considering that you're implying the eagerness to so quickly jump on the this new story as a measure of journalistic integrity, let us review:


Media Ignore ACORN Giving Business Advice to Pimp and Prostitute
By Noel Sheppard
Sat, 09/12/2009

You would think videos exposing representatives of the controversial organization ACORN giving advice on how a couple can get a loan to set up a brothel would be BIG NEWS.

Such would seem especially the case if the proposed house of ill repute would be employing minors illegally smuggled across the border from Central America.

Yet, when Andrew Breitbart's new website Big Government published such videos Thursday morning, media normally fascinated with sex stories almost completely ignored it.

The boycott continued even after several ACORNers were fired as a result (sting videos embedded below the fold):

• ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC have not aired one television report concerning this matter
• The New York Times has not published one article concerning this matter
• USA Today has not published one article concerning this matter
• The Boston Globe has not published one article concerning this matter
• The Los Angeles Times has not published one article concerning this matter
• The Chicago Tribune has not published one article concerning this matter

Bucking the boycott trend were the Washington Post, the Associated Press, CNN, and Fox News. ABC's Jake Tapper also wrote about this at his Political Punch blog (h/t Paul Chesser).

Not surprisingly, one of the people to report this on Thursday was Fox News's Glenn Beck who opened his program that day:

BECK: Tonight -- these are the things that you have to ask yourself. I have other things going on in the chalkboard. But you have to ask yourself these three questions -- one, how does the media sleep at night? When you see the story that broke this morning, and can you tell me how many hits has this story received on CNN, MSNBC or any other network?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zero.

BECK: Zero. Zero. How do you sleep at night, media?

How do they sleep, indeed.

Later in the program, Beck marvelously said the following:

You know, our Founding Fathers never intended on the media doing all of the work. They intended on us doing all of the work. And I just -- I mean, I -- the America I thought we had -- I mean, I always thought the media was by biased one way or another. But this isn't biased. This is complicit. This is criminal.

This is criminal what the media is doing right now. And all of you in the media, every single one of you, you should be ashamed of yourself -- ashamed.

When people are risking their life -- you are going to meet somebody who is risking their life to do this.

And you just -- what, you're driving home in your Mercedes, you're driving home in your big car, you got your nice office looking at Central Park, hey, have a good time, don't worry about it. Hey, as long as we sell more windmills, huh? What the hell is wrong with you people?

This story broke early this morning. FOX News has been on it all day. The other networks, the other journalists -- zero. In fact, I have the only ones that are on it, the "National Review Online," "The Wall Street Journal," WBAL Radio, and FOX. Whoa! It's not like there's a big -- it's not like your tax dollars are going to fund ACORN. No, why cover that?

Why indeed?

After all, in the summer and fall of 2006, America's media on a daily basis harped on the word "macaca" as well as electronic messages sent to male pages by a little known Florida Congressman.

Now, three years later, an organization with close ties to the President of the United States had to fire several of its representatives for giving business advice to a couple looking to import under-aged girls to be used as prostitutes, and these same news outlets couldn't care less!

How DO YOU sleep at night, MEDIA?

 

[hapaboy]

Pretty stupid. Highlighting the pathetic joke that is ACORN is one thing; entering under false pretenses into a Senator's office another entirely (no matter which Senator, even Stuart Smiley, er, Al Franken...).

Question: Did he commit a felony? I thought he was charged with entering federal property under false pretenses. Is that itself a felony?

 

[kut2k2]

Quote from hapaboy:

Pretty stupid. Highlighting the pathetic joke that is ACORN is one thing; entering under false pretenses into a Senator's office another entirely (no matter which Senator, even Stuart Smiley, er, Al Franken...).

Question: Did he commit a felony? I thought he was charged with entering federal property under false pretenses. Is that itself a felony?

Felonies were definitely committed. The two sidekicks were impersonating telephone repairmen. That's false pretenses. O'Keefe was there, which subjects him to aiding and abetting, and once a conspiracy is established, he'll be charged with that as well. A conspiracy exists whenever two or more people plan a crime, even if only one of them actually commits the crime. The main crime is telephone tampering. Even attempting to tamper with a phone operated by the federal government is a felony.

These cocky punks are all felony stupid, and if there's any justice, they'll be labeled felons for life.

 

[Hello]

Did the thought ever occur to you that they have their programs planned, and even shot sometimes days in advance? They squeeze it in their show when they have time on their show, sorry if it is not priority number 1 for conservative opinion shows, just as Acorn was not for your buddy Keith Olbermann and Rachel Madcow. What is much more scary is when All of the actual supposed news services bugscoe listed above decided not to even mention anything about the Acorn story.

Sherlock Holmes over here just figured out that Hannity and Beck might be conservative, please tell me what great mystery you plan to solve next inspector gadget. What was your first clue? Hannity only says that he is a conservative twenty five times a night on his show.


News Flash buddy, Hannity and Beck are opinion guys as are Madcow, Olbermann, and Chris Matthews, none of them are news sources, you would be hard pressed to find anyone as irrational as yourself who can not discern the difference. The fact of the matter is Fox News covered it, with their news guys, and you sir are an idiot. (I use the term "Sir" rather loosely, with you.)

Quote from kut2k2:

Yo, dipshit, it was already stated in the article I posted that Fox "News" casters briefly mentioned the story on Tuesday. The fact remains that Fox's Big 3 talkshow hosts ignored the story on Tuesday, while CNN and MSNBC did not.

Did the thought ever occur to you that the story broke on Monday and was available to everybody for coverage on Tuesday? Obviously no.

Fox talking heads have egg all over their faces for lionizing that felon. No take-backs or do-overs for this clusterfuck.