Investigative journalist James O’Keefe III is a key player in exposing corrupt practices within Planned Parenthood and in the demise of the community-organizing group Acorn.
Acorn, the scandal-ridden Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, plans to close April 1. Political observers like Glenn Beck of Fox News call this move a “shell game” and charge that the same players are regrouping under new names.
In any case, Acorn’s funding dried up in September 2009 — shortly after O’Keefe’s hidden-camera videos surfaced online.
The videos show community activists advising O’Keefe, who posed as a pimp, and his 20-year-old associate Hanna Giles, who posed as a prostitute, on how to set up an international under-age prostitution scheme.
Although most major media outlets tried to ignore the 25-year-old filmmaker’s work, Acorn came under increasing public scrutiny as O’Keefe’s videos went viral on the Internet. Congress soon voted to defund the organization, which was already under investigation for voter registration fraud.
O’Keefe’s earlier undercover work also exposed apparent instances of illegal and eugenics-based racist practices within Planned Parenthood. In 2007, he and pro-life activist Lila Rose, then 18, taped interviews at two Los Angeles businesses. Rose claimed she was 15 and had been impregnated by a 23-year-old man, portrayed by O’Keefe. By law, clinic workers should have contacted authorities to report suspicion of sex between adults and minors. Instead, O’Keefe said, “they counseled Lila to figure out a birth date that would work for her.”
A Rutgers University graduate from New Jersey, O’Keefe founded its Centurion student newspaper and a dozen other campus publications nationwide while working with the Washington-based Leadership Institute.
He talked recently with Register correspondent Gail Besse.
With the exception of Fox News, the media tried to ignore and discredit your Acorn exposés. What led to its finally being publicized?
The first video from Baltimore Acorn was the No. 1 viral video on Sept. 10, 2009. That same day, CNN said it was the video “everyone was talking about,” but they wouldn’t show it. The U.S. Census Bureau cut ties with Acorn before CNN would show the video; then Congress voted to defund it by overwhelming margins before The New York Times assigned a reporter to the story.
When Census said Acorn was too toxic to be associated with, I think it really forced the media to start telling people what they were covering up. The government acted faster than the mainstream media reporting on it because they knew it had such huge liability. President Barack Obama, a former Acorn attorney, even said the content of the tapes was “inappropriate.”
The Times still chose to cover the tapes as a “political story” instead of news, writing a profile piece on me nine days after the first tapes were released, without a single quote from the video. To this day, most mainstream outlets have yet to actually discuss the outrageous content from any of the eight tapes we released.
You and Lila Rose exposed Planned Parenthood’s complicity in covering up what they were told was statutory rape. You also recorded conversations in which they accepted donations earmarked to abort unborn black children. Although these revelations haven’t led to the abortion giant’s losing any federal funding, do you think this work will eventually bear fruit?
Content is king. Planned Parenthood’s success lies in their operating in total darkness. Their friends in media and government have protected them. But soon there will be an army of Lila Roses who will shine light on unthinkable abuses behind closed doors, which will shock the consciences of most Americans.
I agree with [Denver] Archbishop [Charles] Chaput’s recent assessment: “Many of the traditional, mainline media are losing influence. But blogs, social networks and YouTube channels are thriving. They offer huge pro-life opportunities.”
And yet, has YouTube censored some of your work?
YouTube banned the Planned Parenthood racism videos after Drudge linked to them in 2008. They were taken down Aug. 31, the night of Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention. We were told it constituted a “terms of use violation” due to “inappropriate content.”
YouTube also banned from our account a video I made showing UCLA student health center employees giving me 75 condoms when I said I was going on an “orgy boat ride to Catalina Island.” Meanwhile, thousands of pornographic videos on YouTube have yet to be banned.
I’ve heard that you call G.K. Chesterton your “guiding light”?
I first read his book Orthodoxy at a time when I was living on a sailboat in a quiet creek off the Potomac River right after college graduation. He seemed to view faith as a romantic adventure and the universe as a wild fairy tale. Chesterton looks at the world in the most beautiful way. He was also a journalist and philosopher who wrote an essay on “The Tyranny of Bad Journalism.” He died long before online video, but I think he would advocate new, creative methods to revolutionize the practice of journalism.
What prompts you to act to redress social wrongs?
My mother will tell you I was complaining about the media since I was 10 years old. Then there was this passion for justice, a sensitive conscience, a frustration with the media’s distortions, and a creative/performing arts inclination. Solzhenitsyn said to “not live by lies” and, as I realized a variety of truths, it became impossible to continue living amongst so many lies.
Does your faith inspire your work?
I did not grow up in a particularly religious household. It’s been the people I’ve met in my travels over the last five years that brought me closer to faith; most of these people have been Catholic. Faith gives me a concern for others and the courage to take action.
How has your family reacted to your notoriety?
My father is a man of principle; he understands. My mother is concerned I’m getting enough food and sleep. When you break a huge story, it can be very difficult for you to remember your body’s most basic needs.
And your next goal?
To change the world by the time I’m 30. I seem to have found a niche in new media, blending satire and investigative journalism, so hopefully I will be able to continue. I’m doing what I was born to do.
Gail Besse writes from Boston.
To contact O’Keefe: jokeefe@veritasvisuals.com; Facebook: JamesOKeefeIII; Twitter: JamesOKeefeIII
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I met James at a Human Life Foundation banquet. He was the star of the event. I admire him for exposing the dirty work that ACORN and other lefty groups are engaged in. Lila Rose is another courageous young woman. You Tube should be ashamed of itself for taking down the exposes on Planned Parenthood. They will show all kinds of vile material but are afraid of the truth.
O’Keefe lied to advance his own agenda at the expense of the poorest among us. Jesus would not be proud of O’keefe’s evil actions. For you to promote his agenda is evil, putting you firmly on the side of Satan. Jesus never lied and Jesus helped the poor. O’keefe is the antithesis to Christian practice.
Keep up the good work James ...
The Acorn videos have been proven to be falsified; it was a smear campaign against Acorn. This article is a disgrace. Acorn helps the poor, that is their only crime.
James exposed the evil doings of ACORN and should be hailed as a national hero.
James Stroud has not convinced anyone that James O’Keefe lied about his activities. It would appear rather he has hit a raw nerve where Stroud feels most vulnerable. I am sure O’Keefe feels, like Stoud that Jesus never lied and helped the poor. It takes courage to defy the powerful and I think a special relationship with the Holy Spirit. Courage (fortitude) and counsel are special gifts He gives to those who would fight evil. That Planned Parenthood is bent on doing the devil’s work should be apparent to all who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Blessings on those who would attempt to bring the works of darkness to light. Right on James O’Keefe!
Re: James Stroud
O’Keeefe didn’t engage in evil actions - he exposed them. ACORN was the liar and the thief. They were the ones acting on the side of “Satan”.
this guy is a liability for what you stand for.
James Stroud and Kathleen Lambert need to back their accusations with facts. As they do not they appear as wolves in sheep’s clothing…without basis for what appear to be the usual falsities of the liberal left…complete shills for the Planned Parenthood crowd. Jesus said “By their fruits you will know them”! Compare the vitriole of these two with the good works of O’Keefe. Acorn has been denied funds by Congress because their “good works” were exposed as exploitation of the poor ! The videos helped to “sink” them. However like the proverbial evil penny they are re-organizing to reappear under another name. They have powerful backing in high places that will come to their aide. This battle isn’t over!
Kathleen Lambert, I’m sick and tired of hearing about the “poor”. The “poor’ in America have it better in America than the middle class and rich in other countries. It’s about time the “poor” start paying their fair share!!
Mega kudo’s to James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles. Their work to expose the corruption in the ACORN fiasco deserves a Medal, not condemnation as we have seen from the loony left. Keep up the good work, James, we are behind you 100%! There is much work to do to clean up the blatant corruption in our government and no one has the appetite for it, except a very few exceptional citizens like yourself. Best of luck.
I’m not white. I’m not “rich,” although I do have a full-time IT job that I use to support my family. I’m not the offspring of hard-working immigrants, but instead the first of 6 kids born to a single mother that bought all that crap spoon-fed to her generation about doing whatever makes you happy. My siblings and I paid the price. We grew up on welfare in Fresno, California. We lived off of food stamps, WIC, section 8 housing assistance. At the end of every month, when resources were spent, we stood in gov’t and church food lines for cheese, flour, and something that was supposedly chicken. It was this time of my life that ingrained in me the desire to get OUT of that kind of life. I took advantage of public education, learned how to type because I knew it would help me get my first job outside of fast food. Organizations like ACORN don’t need people like me, they need people like my mom: perpetual welfare cases. Anybody who thinks this organization is for helping poor people doesn’t realize how these org’s stay in business and get more money from the gov’t (read: you). POOR PEOPLE ARE POOR FOR A REASON. All the “social justice” you can imagine wouldn’t change that fact. When you’re not poor, nobody hands you anything, and that’s scary. I admire James O’Keefe like I admire everybody who takes their destiny into their own hands. The only sympathy I feel is for people who pay taxes. (80-20 rule: not everybody’s poor because they’re lazy, but most in America are just lazy.)
For all of you lib’s that think everybody’s entitled to health care: put them on your policy—problem solved! If you think homelessness is a problem of all of our’s, then stop working for a profit and go work for your conscience, like Jesus! Want to help the poor? Take $20 out of your wallet and send it to my family and I! Otherwise, you cannot force anybody to be charitable. “You can’t save the world, but you might be able to save yourself and your family.”
Dear James
I am one of Acorn’s victims and I want to thank you and Ms Giles for what you tried to do, shut down Acorn. However this Bill has brought them back to life.
Here is a bit of information you may not have on how Acorn is connected to HUD, HANO and the city of New Orleans ie the City assessors office.
1 Acorn was donated property by the City of New Orleans just for the back taxes. No one was allowed to bid on any of these properties simply because they were being donated to Acorn, Illegal.
2 Each property was then given a $50,000 grant via HUD in which each property was to be renovated and then sold to low income families. This never happened.
3 Each House / apartment was then leased via Hano , section 8 at above market rents. Armond Miller was the Attorney for Hano and a contract attorney for ACORN.
4 Over 200 properties were stolen and the New City wide assessor is Errol Williams who just happened to be the same assessor who cherry picked the properties for Acorn.
5 Mr Millers Business Card was found in the District Attorney’s work product file in my case file when I was able to obtain the file. (Acorn set me up on phony rape charges in 1998-99)
James I would love to meet you and Ms Giles. Please know that if we do not cause a large out cry against ACORN, MEN LIKE MYSELF are likely to end up dead. Pure and simple and they will use the police departments in various cities to accomplish this task.
I completely lost all respect for the Register with this article. There have been reports that O’Keefe has been linked to white supremacist groups. Since when is this representative of Catholic teaching? Perhaps the Register should change the Catholic in its name to Extreme Right Wing! This is truly pathetic. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/02/03/james_okeefe_white_nationalists
Neil,
Your severely misinformed by the Saul Alinski defamers, the lying left and their media minions. You need a serious dose of reality on this one which can be found here: http://bigjournalism.com/?s=OKeefe. Do you really think Catholic teaching supports the left? That Nancy Pelosi praying to St. Joseph to force infanticidal Obama’s federally mandated AbortionCare? That good Joe Biden who will ram his Rosary beads down our throats and tell us AbortionCare is a ‘Big F#*#in Deal’? How about Kathleen Sebelius? She ‘Catholic’ enough for you? I’ve completely had it with you ‘Catholics’ on the left. The Catholic Church opposes Abortion, Euthanasia, Communism, Marxist Liberation Theology etc. etc. etc. And that good old New York Times trying to bring down the Pope during the year for priests and holy week. We will root you out every last one of you until Christ returns for his purified bride! Good riddance!!!
http://www.Crosshairball.com
Take notice…some defend ACORN. I wonder why they can’t see through the fog of deception and lies. Maybe some people are just incapable of rational thought or they are just plain stupid.
Crosshairball,
I’m afraid your characterization of who I am as a Catholic is quick incorrect. I embrace the catechism of the Catholic church in its entirety, and as a consequence, I find it incredibly difficult to align myself with either the political right or left - the left for its failings to protect life and the right for its failures on issues of justice. In case you have any doubt about the latter being part of the Catholic ethos, then please read Caritas in Veritate. It obviously will do you some good. What I am very concerned about is the effort afoot to link Catholicism with the political right, including in cases like this where the individual in question has been implicated with very questionable political philosophies and groups. If you, and others like you, are successful in this effort, you will only serve to diminish the moral authority of the church, which is so sorely needed in our current culture. The Register has no business as a Catholic publication to lift up people like O’Keefe. There are so many other individuals living out the faith each day which warrant more attention than this lackey of the far right wing with questionable affiliations. I have worked side by side with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in place like the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. If the Register wants to highlight defenders of life who walk in Christ’s footsteps in each and every day with the hope of inspiring others, then they should highlight the work of these blessed people, not the O’Keefe’s of the world!
Thank you, Neil. Thank you very much. I’ve come to view right-wing politics and right-wing extremism to be the proverbial elephant in the room and another potentially damning scandal. Back to the immediate subject, allow me to offer this link from a “Saul Alinsky defamer” to the discussion: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/35302_ACORN_Sting_Videos_Were_Heavily_Edited
Sorry Neil, but either you’re still seriously misinformed or your just a disingenuous shill for the left posing as a politically moderate good Catholic.
to quote you:
“including in cases like this where the individual in question has been implicated with very questionable political philosophies and groups”
What I was trying to call your attention to in my previous post with hyperlink to the facts is that your above statement is based on leftist media outlet LIES. Just because MSLSD or Salon.com or Max Blumenthal “implicate” O’Keefe with racists ties to white nationalist doesn’t make it so. That is what they do to anyone they wish to defame. It’s their favorite Alinski tactic. You’re all racists! Anyone on the conservative side of the fence is a racists. Check your facts and try an alternative media source for Christ’s sake. In my estimation you’ve been hypnotized by the left wing media machine and you’re not even aware of it.
Furthermore, I’m quite certain that today’s left has NOTHING in common with True Catholicism or the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Unless you consider the “Catholicism” of Pelosi, Biden, Sebelius and Stupak to be Catholic. In which case you’d be in need of some serious prayer.
Thank you, Neil
PULLEEEZE. Everyone in SANE circles knows that Charles Johnson of LGF has long since gone completely off the deep end.
It’s my belief that we live in an era where objective, unbiased media occupies a relatively small sliver of the full domain information churned out by the journalistic community. As a consequence, much like our legal system, the facts around what occurred in a given situation are subject to an adversarial process to hash what is fact and what is fiction. If one chooses to occupy only one corner of the media landscape characterized by inherently biased reporting (say only read commentary or publications on the left or right), then you end of seeing truth from that perspective solely. My sense is that this is where you at Crosshairball. The salon article on Mr. O’Keefe has been cited for its journalistic shortcomings; however, reviews of the story have concluded that O’Keefe’s attendance at the American Renaissance event warranted” journalistic attention” (http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/unforced_error_at_salon.php?page=2). If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, there’s a good chance it’s a duck.
Neil, you sound to me like you’re defending the Louisiana Purchase and calling everyone on the conservative side of the aisle a raaaaaacist. Check the facts and try again.
Hey Neil,
Try reading the comments, they’re quite often more truthful than the ‘articles’.
Also, Rachel Maddow has recently aired unedited videos. If you saw the “Alinsky tactic” on her program, you’d see how the videos have been edited. http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rachel-maddow-calls-bull-pucky-fake-republ Also, I still stand with Neil.
Oops. I posted the wrong page. Here is is. And yes, this page does come “Alinsky defamers” and the video does come from one of their “media minions”, but please consider taking a look. http://www.newshounds.us/2010/04/08/wheres_fox_news_corrections_about_the_california_acorn_videos.php
I’m sorry but I just can’t take anyone who takes Rachel Maddow seriously seriously. Seriously, you really ought to try and get yourself off of the MSLSD. You must be one of the very small and ever dwindling segment of the population who still hasn’t come out of that bad trip. If you do manage to get your mind back try and read this.
I’m beginning to think you and Neil are part of the legion of government paid Obama trolls.
I did not vote for Obama. I took the bishops’ guidelines seriously. I briefly considered voting for no one in 2008. Against my better judgment, I voted for Palin and McCain. In 2010 and 2012, I just might cast protest vote for video-game characters.
I tried to contribute to this discussion. I tried supporting Niel in asking tough questions about the Right. Clearly, we merely ended up with another shouting-match. I will bow out of this thread.
Incidentally, I don’t have a job right now—my position at the clinical office was terminated—much less one with the “Marxist” government.
Look Brian, facts are facts and the left with it’s government run media are evil. That’s my take on it. Many of the Repubs are in on the destruction of America too so they must be called out as well whenever it’s apparent they are on the wrong side of We the People. Anyway, I commend you for not voting Obama, even though McCain was a bitter choice. I’m sorry you’re out of work. This is what Socialism looks like. Best wishes finding work and surviving the Obama administration. Sincerely.
You should read this report from the Attorney General in California that clearly shows that O’Keefe edited the videos to make the Acorn employees look particularly bad.
http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/n1888_acorn_report.pdf
One employee played along to get information to give to the police (not shown in the video O’Keefe released). Another employee tried to get the supposed abuse prostitute help by bringing her to an organization for torture victims.
How is what O’Keefe done of manipulating the situation praise worthy?
Perhaps the left in this country, who so loves to trample the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence; who embraces socialism, even communism and uses and illegal immigration as a way towards those means, should all pack up and move to the EU where their values would be more in line with the system of government there. I don’t see that the left any longer has a stake in America. They’ve been given many miles of rope in which to hang us with and it just isn’t flying. If they keep it up, they will be forcing a civil war upon the American people not by our own desire but of necessity of preserving our Republic. Perhaps the left should just start making plans to pack up and move before they force themselves to face more dire consequences. What? You think we’re not aware that this communist coup of an administration is a war being waged upon us? If the EU is not to your liking maybe Russia or China would be more appealing. My prediction, best get packing before it’s too late. (Comments edited.)
Why was my comment edited above? I didn’t anything inappropriate. All I said in the comment above was that the left uses <em>racism<em> as a way towards their means to socialism and communism. There could be nothing further from the Truth. They do it through their welfare programs, their non-enforcement of immigration law and most prominently through their education system and media outlets. Most especially through MSNBC.
To correct my previous statement, as this comment tool does not have a preview feature:
Why was my comment edited above? I didn’t say anything inappropriate. All I said in the comment above was that the left uses <b>racism<b> as a way towards their means to socialism and communism. <strike>There could be nothing further from the Truth.</strike> They do it through their welfare programs, their non-enforcement of immigration law and most prominently through their education system and media outlets. Most especially through MSNBC.
James Stroud’s comment - anti-christian is O’Keefe. James the last will be first and the first will be last. What are you doing to save lives of aborted children? To expose Acorn corruption? I’m not saying you aren’t doing great things to advance the glory of God. But remember Christ’s parable about stone throwing, eh mate? Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.
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