Patterico's Pontifications

1/28/2010

CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:17 am



As I noted last night, the Washington Post yesterday retracted its claim that the feds are charging James O’Keefe with an attempt to bug Mary Landrieu’s phones:

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.

Some other organizations owe corrections and clarifications.

CBS News (h/t Steve), here:

CBS Claims Bug Suspects 1

Close-up:

CBS Claims Bug Suspects 3

and here:

CBS Claims Bug Suspects 2

Close-up:

CBS Claims Bug Suspects 4

It’s a blatant misstatement of fact. The Post had the decency to correct their error. CBS News should follow suit.

And the L.A. Times yesterday editorialized:

James O’Keefe’s latest caper

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.

Uh, no, he doesn’t. As has now been made clear by someone in law enforcement:

A law enforcement official says 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.

That quote, while anonymous, is convincing because it is not self-serving. Plus, the affidavit said nothing about wiretapping or intercepting calls. So there is no reason at all to believe that is what was going on. None.

If you enjoy the sensation of banging your head against the wall, you can write the L.A. Times‘s new Readers’ Representative and point out that the entire premise of this editorial is (to use the Nixonian term) inoperative. That they should have known better than to compare this to Watergate, because the affidavit never mentioned wiretapping. That a man’s reputation has now been sullied by their comparison of this video stunt to the criminal act of Watergate. That they owe readers a clarification, to promote the truth.

But you won’t get a correction. They will tell you that they didn’t misstate any facts.

See, the editorial writer was clever enough not to openly say that the feds had charged O’Keefe with wiretapping. The writer merely insinuated it:

It isn’t clear what the men were after or why they targeted Landrieu, who is one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate. But the fact that they tried to access the office’s telephone closet, where the wiring for the system is located, suggests that they may have wanted to tap Landrieu’s phone network.

Actually, it isn’t a “fact” that they “tried” to access the office’s telephone closet. It’s an allegation in a government affidavit. I believe they pretended to try to access the telephone closet, to tape the reaction of officials: “Why? It’s not like there’s a problem with the phones in Sen. Landrieu’s office!”

Maybe they can be frightened into a clarification if you explain to them that they took a government allegation and called it a “fact.” That’s the kind of thing that gets papers sued.

But don’t appeal to their responsibility to disseminate the truth. They will be more concerned with their own reputation for accuracy (we technically don’t have to correct it because we technically didn’t misstate a fact) than with whether they have unfairly smeared the reputation of a young man.

Because it’s a conservative young man, you see. So his reputation doesn’t matter.

I would love to see how the new Readers’ Rep handles this. Write her and I’ll publish your exchange once you get a response — as long as you are polite to her.

Polite . . . but firm.

readersrep@latimes.com

102 Responses to “CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications”

  1. […] PATTERICO: CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications. […]

    Instapundit » Blog Archive » PATTERICO: CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications…. (fe8e62)

  2. […] PATTERICO: CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications. […]

    Instapundit » Blog Archive » PATTERICO: CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications…. (fe8e62)

  3. Correction from CBS? The same CBS who was complicit in manufacturing “fake but accurate” anti-Bush memos? As Wayne Campbell would say: “Yeah right — when monkeys fly out of my butt!”

    CaptainVictory (2efbc1)

  4. But don’t appeal to their responsibility to disseminate the truth.
    Their only responsibility in that regard lies in libel law. Mind you, I think it’s grand to notice their perfidy and to call them out as known liars of the first order, but to pretend they have a speck of a sense of responsibility is naive. Want their attention? Fire them. Turn them off, tune them out, shun them as the filth they are.

    cboldt (60ea4a)

  5. Hasn’t CBS News become the least watched of the broadcast news channels? With ever-diminishing numbers of watchers?

    Effect, meet Cause.

    jim2 (6482d8)

  6. What is really funny is that many of the readers have no idea what the O’keefe/ACORN link is all about because the classically trained professional journalists at their local paper did not see fit to cover any of that “non-story” or minimized it to the point of irrelevance.

    Huey (efe02b)

  7. And the L.A. Times yesterday editorialized:

    Wonder if that was written by the same liberal idiot of the paper’s editorial page who not too long ago compared Ronald Reagan to Joseph Stalin?

    Mark (411533)

  8. Rush this morning just slammed the WaPo for their handling of the O’Keefe mess;
    plus, his explanation of what was happening pretty much parallels what our host has theorized.
    Perhaps Rush reads PP?

    AD - RtR/OS! (bb36fd)

  9. O’Keefe should have thought about how this would be played by the left wing media (sorry for the redundancy) before he got involved in this stunt. I doubt much will come of the legal case but he has given the left much ammunition against his expose of ACORN.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  10. Funny how Hasan is an alleged shooter and the Nigerian guy is alleged to have set off an incendiary device in the reportsby ALL major NEWS organizations and media.

    But something that didn’t even happen is described explicitly as fact.

    A distant resemblance to the Amiraults being convicted of something that didn’t occur.

    JAL (9f4bce)

  11. The question is, how did this “wiretapping” nonsense get picked up and repeated by every major media outlet in America? Those layers of fact-checkers and editors must have been sleeping, again.

    Subotai (bb0f92)

  12. This doesn’t look good for O’Keefe, but I’m sure it will be worse for these folks.

    Neo (7830e6)

  13. Mike K,

    No doubt he was reckless. It’s not hard, in hindsight, to see that his presence wasn’t necessary and with his situation right now, not the best idea. He could have gotten his information and news without being there.

    On the other hand, he got his ACORN story by being a bit reckless too. He dressed as a pimp and asked for help from a government affiliated agency. He could have been arrested for that, too, easily.

    And if he was, many of the same cohort would be telling us that it’s a crime to sell whores, that we can’t prove he didn’t mean to sell whores, etc etc.

    By all means, you or I could go out there and try to expose the democrat machine. But I’m not reckless enough to succeed. We are benefiting from O’Keefe’s ballsy behavior. Billions in swindles avoided, and probably many sick crimes curbed.

    So, while you’re right, dude could have had a better plan, I think it’s a bit unfair to criticize someone for doing a nearly impossible and extremely valuable chore that we are unwilling to perform ourselves.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  14. Here’s an interesting piece of info:

    Activist touted ‘project’ before phone tamper case

    IgotBupkis (79d71d)

  15. JAL — interesting point.

    IgotBupkis (79d71d)

  16. igotbupkis, reading that link, it’s amazing to me that they are so dishonest about the ACORN story.

    O’Keefe dressed as a pimp. They tell you that much because without any context it makes him look unserious and even dirty. But all they say about ACORN is that O’Keefe “exposed irregularities”. This isn’t even true! If anything, they were totally regular about helping O’Keefe fake persona set up tax havens and import kids as sex slaves. IRREGULARITIES? Why would a paper undercut the story like that?

    It’s pretty important to note that this guy stands against a huge machine with tons of money and influence in New Orleans, and proven to break laws to get what they want. That’s relevant when explaining that maybe some people are spinning and lying about what happened. It’s a motive for democrats to try to screw O’Keefe. Why leave that out?

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  17. Comment by Mark — 1/28/2010 @ 8:43 am

    Well, you can learn about the members of the editorial board at this link. It probably won’t come as a surprise to anybody that the editorial board consists of the usual collection of professional journalists, some of whom have legal training and some of whom also work in academia. Like most editorial boards of liberal newspapers, none of them appear to have any real experience in industry or small businesses. A couple of the men on the board are old enough to have lived in the draft era, but if I had to hazard a guess I would bet that none of them have military service in their backgrounds.

    JVW (b9baad)

  18. Right, ACORN central, that’s why the affiant
    account seems selfserving, the phones had already
    been down, so why would they take them down

    ian cormac (413164)

  19. Here’s a theory on what happened:

    The fake repairmen were in the office to make sure no one used the phones – so the lines were clear. The fourth guy outside was calling Landrieu’s office.

    O’Keefe was filming the whole thing because the phones were not ringing at the office, because Landrieu’s Louisiana number doesn’t actually ring at her office.

    It probably isn’t a crime to impersonate a phone repairman. It also probably isn’t a crime to ask an office to keep the phones clear for a few minutes.

    The scandal here is the speed and intensity with which the feds and the media jumped on O’Keefe.

    Obama Fail Blog (cba208)

  20. I was only pretending to rob the bank, with a pretend gun, to get a reaction, because I am a Journalist, and a film maker, of exemplary judgement.

    Don (567ec6)

  21. On the other hand, he got his ACORN story by being a bit reckless too. He dressed as a pimp and asked for help from a government affiliated agency. He could have been arrested for that, too, easily.
    And if he was, many of the same cohort would be telling us that it’s a crime to sell whores, that we can’t prove he didn’t mean to sell whores, etc etc

    Dustin at #14

    That is an interesting point that I had not seen/heard before. I guess the difference is that nobody called the police to report them at the time of their actions, and in retrospect the claim that they were running a prostitution ring would have really sounded hollow.

    Perhaps in this scenario the main difference is that they were recognized while the “sting” was in process, hence a charge against O’Keefe and co needs to be taken more seriously (along with it being in a federal building and not an ACORN office).

    Perhaps O’Keefe has made an error in principle or tactic, but I think he showed a lot of foresight in the way he did the ACORN stings many places over time, and didn’t publicize until he had a blockbuster case. And even then he was quite deliberate and thorough in how he disseminated the damaging info bit by bit, not only bringing the info into public view, but in a way that repeatedly undermined attempts by ACORN to spin the story and limit the damage.

    So, maybe a mistake was made, which he will need to face the consequences of, or we will see he knew more of what he was doing than it seems.

    MD in Philly (d4668b)

  22. here’s what they should have done if they were trying to prove the public office phone line was off the hook or always busy.

    walk into office

    Hi, I’ve been calling for days, line always busy, something wrong with your phones?

    If they say no, just dial the number from your cell and if busy signal and phone isn’t ringing tell the receptionist, ask for manager etc

    all the while filming with a spy camera in your hat or shirt button.

    pretty easy and not illegal

    windansea (484e37)

  23. I was only pretending to rob the bank, with a pretend gun, to get a reaction, because I am a Journalist, and a film maker, of exemplary judgement.

    Comment by Don — 1/28/2010 @ 10:33 am

    Well…what threat to Landrieu’s staff occurred? And what got taken/tampered with/destroyed/vandalized etc? Must have missed those parts of the story. You may have a point about the rightness or wrongness of what they did but the analogy needs a bit of work IMO.

    no one you know (196ed7)

  24. […] The original media reports had this as a wire-tapping case. This is wrong. Patterico has the goods on this. I still think James O’Keefe was dumbassed and I am far from defending […]

    James O’Keefe, felon? « Don Surber (df6652)

  25. MD, well said. Mike isn’t wrong or anything. He’s totally right… this thing has obviously blown up and at least a lot of that could have been avoided with a better plan.

    But, on the other hand, it takes a special attitude and character to actually go into the lions den and expose this corruption. O’Keefe already has done something huge to that end, and that’s part of what he is. A successful and reckless journalist/activist.

    Don kinda proves my point. He compares this to robbing a bank and pretending to be a journalist to see the reaction. that’s what the narrative is. Forget that O’Keefe was already lied about relentlessly over ACORN, and O’Keefe proven completely honest (some don’t even recognize this, partially from ignorance and partially because they bought the boogeyman thing).

    No, Don, we already know O’Keefe tapes crooks in action. We already know that’s why he was there. Maybe he didn’t even catch any this time, but that’s obviously what this was about. It is not an ad hoc excuse for a crime. He did not go there to tape himself screwing up phones. that’s ridiculous.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  26. […] like or an attempt to bug the Senator’s phone system. But the facts do not support those claims. It has been suggested they wanted to prove Senator Mary Landrieu’s phones were operating […]

    Iowa Tea Party Patriots Blog » James O’Keefe busted for… What? (73d96f)

  27. […] Double standard CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications […]

    Double standard « THE BLACK KETTLE (661794)

  28. Since when does CBS or any of the mainstream media ever let a little thing like facts get in the way of their reporting. If they’d scrutinize ACORN and any of the other shady Obama dealings with the same intensity they’re going after Mr. O’Keefe it boggles the mind at the possibilities.

    Al (182e86)

  29. or we will see he knew more of what he was doing than it seems.

    Comment by MD in Philly — 1/28/2010 @ 10:34 am

    That’s the smart money, I think. Hard to believe someone who pulled off the ACORN sting all of a sudden just got stupid. Not impossible, but also not likely.

    Matador (176445)

  30. Matador, I hope you’re right and O’Keefe turns out to have fooled them all in some insane game of chess.

    But it’s not hard to see how his other successes could have backfired.

    What if ACORN was totally above the books and honest. What if every office said “You are disgusting and a criminal and we are going to place you under citizen’s arrest”. Then, the narrative would have been “why did O’Keefe, conservative, think pimps and hos when dealing with minority oriented agencies?” Or something else along those lines. Certainly, he was entering under false pretenses.

    And O’Keefe famously called Planned Parenthood to ask if he could donate money to the abortions for blacks. Several centers were thankful for the racism, but what if they hadn’t been? They could have traced the calls to O’Keefe and pointed out that some conservative is into killing blacks.

    My point is that O’Keefe has always been running the risk of people pretending they don’t understand what he was up to. They associate him with Richard Nixon today to make him into a boogeyman, but I think he’s always been one stumble away from millions of people buying into lies about his work.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  31. You’re so full of shit. “There’s no reason, none” is an idiotic statement. One of them was caught with a LISTENING DEVICE in a car outside, and they were interfering with the phone systems. So yes, there is plenty of reason to suspect they were trying to tap the phone lines.

    Pathetic. Conservatives are trying to whitewash illegal activity by one of their own. What a surprise.

    The FBI hasn’t charged it with him yet because they’re still trying to figure it out themselves. They are free to charge him with any additional crimes when they have proper evidence (i.e. confessions).

    Thomas (b9fc22)

  32. Couple of things from the NOLA perspective:

    1. The theory du jour down here is that these guys were trying to get evidence that Landrieu had a jamming device installed on her office phones to keep those pesky constituents from voicing their opinions about anything that our betters in Washington have decided to cram down our throats. As reprehensible as that might be, it sure doesn’t sound like something that I would want to spend up to 10 years in even a minimum security federal pen for.

    2. Even though young and not trained by the CIA, does it make a wits worth of sense for someone to try to “bug” offices in a federal building in the middle of the day? Outside of fantasy movies and TV shows, that just doesn’t happen and I doubt that this group was stupid enough to think that with no special training they could get away with it.

    3. Why has there been no attention paid to the fact that these guys got in past the federal marshalls, who are charged with protecting the building, with apparently little difficulty. You would think that anyone claiming to be a telephone repairman trying to enter a government building would have to show proper ID (beyond the driver’s license that is required) and might even have to be escorted by someone from Administrative Services.

    These suggest that there is something more here, but the “bug” meme lets the MSM off the hook in reporting that side of the story.

    Jaime (88d0da)

  33. ACORN has been the subject of some 14 investigations
    into voter fraud, misappropriation of funde, therein, they tried that tactic, with regards to ACORN, He’s a prankster and one of these days he will get burned, but I don’t think today is the day

    ian cormac (413164)

  34. I think he’s always been one stumble away from millions of people buying into lies about his work.

    His “work” is a joke. Just proof that a desperate GOP would buy almost any lie to buttress is massive failure and fall from grace. The ACORN videos are a hoot. O’Keefe looks more like a muppet than a pimp and the girl obviously has never turned a trick in her life (other than getting inappropriately groped at young Republican gatherings that is), the workers aren’t so much colluding with those two idiots, as opposed to humoring them and basically getting a huge kick out of the whole ridiculous put on….O’Keefe’s questions are so stupid. It’s like he got the whole thing from an old episode of Starsky and Hutch or something….

    And he got lauded for it by fair weather idiots and parasites like Breibart and the 31 congress-critters who needed something, anything, to get a little shine going for their rather destroyed public image. So it was like: “Hey look, a white boy showing us the true face of the Acorn-types.”

    So, packed to the gill with reinforcement for completely stupid behavior and shenanigans, and with a high opinion of his acting skills, he walks into a Senators office with 3 other guys dressed as phone company repairmen. I mean heck, that’s not journalism, that’s a bad made-for-TV movie. Or a Wes Anderson film, and I’m not sure which is better or worse. I mean the whole thing is hilarious in actuality, but sadly he and his friends need to go to, and will go to jail, for a pretty long time, no matter how much spin the Right-wing blogs throw at this.

    Assclown doodyheads (f0d390)

  35. The News comes first:

    Compare MSM’s rush to report on O’Keefe’s broad daylight visit to Landrieu’s office with their lack of interest in the midnight visit of Presidential candidate John Edwards to his girlfriend’s hotel room. Consider MSM’s leap to conclusions about O’Keefe’s intentions with their month’s long refusal to even ask Edwards what he was doing.

    ropelight (f0c28e)

  36. Agreed. But, to this day, millions of people still buy into the lies and aspersions cast by Charles Rainey, HuffPo, Olbergirl and the like. Corrections, retractions and mea culpas (of which there are scant examples) notwithstanding.

    O’Keefe has always known the risk. He seems willing to take that risk once, in his mind, there is reasonable cause to do so.

    Matador (176445)

  37. Assclown, call it a joke all you like, but ACORN ain’t gonna do a census and has lost billions of bucks. They will have a harder time helping out the child sex slave business or whatever ever other criminal stuff they love to help cheat taxes with.

    They don’t seem to think it’s a joke. I admit I laugh a lot when I think about it, though.

    If they go to prison for a long time, that means the feds proved a case to a jury. I don’t think they will, but if they can, yes, criminals should pay the penalty.

    Your views on ACORN explain your paranoid delusions. You think conservatives are boogeymen. You’re scared to death of heroes exposing criminals. O’Keefe put his future on the line, not just here but also there woth ACORN, to expose horrible stuff. That must have been one scary experience for him, just as it is now, when so many people like you obviously aren’t all that interested in what he may have been trying to uncover so much as showing the little people that they better not expose any more democrat crimes.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  38. The theory du jour down here

    The theory du jour, as you call it was manufactured by the right wing interweb to assuage their own embarrassment at what an idiot O’Keefe is.

    Why has there been no attention paid to the fact that these guys got in past the federal marshalls, who are charged with protecting the building

    They weren’t wearing the tele-phonies outfits when they went through the metal detectors and as long as you have no weapons, a marshal has no beef with you, especially when you look like a bunch of frat boy retards as O’Keefe & Co, so effortlessly do.

    Assclown doodyheads (f0d390)

  39. Well, well, well… Look at how, um, excitable our little troll with the oh so-mature name has gotten!

    I wonder why he is so…intense…on this particular subject?

    LOL.

    Fact is, I love all the personal nastiness and insults he emits. It gives me, and all of you other readers, I’m sure, a pretty good image of what the inimitable Mr. Doodyheads sees in the mirror each day. When he doesn’t reek of sock lint, I mean.

    The “clown” wants be taken seriously! Now that is funny.

    By the way, Mr. Doodyheads? How are you liking those polls, nationwide? Oh, and Russ Feingold isn’t doing so well, it looks like. Hmmm.

    Hope and change, my little (in all senses of the word) progressive and populist friend.

    Change is coming, but not the way you and your seriously uneducated and smug playmates meant in 2008. Let me give you a heads up for next year: elections have consequences.

    I used to think you were irritating. Now it is a heated competition between pathetic and sadly amusing.

    Go to the office vending machine and buy another bag of Chee-tohs, would you please?

    Eric Blair (20b3a8)

  40. let’s try to keep this story in the news for as long as possible. Because ? the American people need to know that he was only attempting to RAMPER with the phones. Let’s hope that this appears in the headlibes for a longer period

    john ryan (3b76bf)

  41. let’s try to keep this story in the news for as long as possible. Because ? the American people need to know that he was only attempting to RAMPER with the phones. Let’s hope that this appears in the headlines for a longer period

    john ryan (3b76bf)

  42. john, your argument has been torn down several times. Each time some random person just asserts it again.

    That’s not very effective, but I’m sure, even 20 years from now, you guys will be saying the same shit about O’Keefe. This probably won’t be the last time his attempts to expose some liars blows up in his face, so I guess I should just get used to it.

    Repeat a lie enough and people believe it.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  43. This has been fun.
    I think I’ll go for a bike ride, and get a haircut.
    If I take my cell phone, and ride by a Federal facility, will I be in danger of arrest for having a “listening device”?

    AD - RtR/OS! (bb36fd)

  44. […] Patterico’s Pontifications, CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications: As I noted last night, the Washington Post yesterday retracted its claim that the feds are charging […]

    No Bugs, No Wiretapping Devices: Media’s LA Exposé of James O’Keefe Mired in Speculations & False Reporting (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042)

  45. So yes, there is plenty of reason to suspect they were trying to tap the phone lines.

    Thomas, were that the case, why were there no bugs or listening devices on the men inside the building? Seems a bit silly to try to tap a phone without the equipment to do so.

    john ryan – Could you cite the statute that criminalizes RAMPERing?

    JD (c15e93)

  46. I think the email address has been superseded by a form.

    http://www.latimes.com/la-feedback-email-form-rr,0,7124992.customform

    Chris (c7c0c6)

  47. RAMPER, in ALL CAPS! Because john ryan knows things that you pig-ignert racist sexist homophobic misogynistic patriarchal xenophobic jingoistic redneck hilljacks do not. That is all.

    JD (c15e93)

  48. Look, if they were practicing journalism they obviously wouldn’t be conservatives. That’s not possible.

    There’s plenty of reason to believe they were going to wiretap. they didn’t have the means to do so, but if they didn’t want to wiretap phones, why would they be conservative? They became conservatives because they are evil, and that explains everything. They probably thought they could Macgyver up a wiretap out of random office supplied, but the real point is that, as conservatives, there’s absolutely no other explanation for what they were trying to do.

    Case closed. Lock ’em up.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  49. R.epublican
    A.ctivities for
    M.eddling and
    P.eeping by
    E.vil
    R.epublicans

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  50. #48 JD: Dang me. Now I have to denounce myself for not knowing afore now that I was a “hilljack.”

    /JD, if I didn’t love you for any other reason, I’d love you for building my vocabulary!

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  51. […] But I mean, let’s be serious for a second: the current allegations against O’Keefe and his friends, originally sold as “wiretapping…. […]

    O’Keefe & the “TeaBuggers” are Probably Innocent « That Shallow Fellow (4797e5)

  52. Damn, MSNBC’s not giving this case a very fair hearing.

    I am amazed that MSNBC’s objective reporter is screaming and shouting and interrupting. It’s almost as though there’s an effort to convict this guy in the press.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  53. […] But I mean, let’s be serious for a second: the current allegations against O’Keefe and his friends, originally sold as “wiretapping…. […]

    O’Keefe & the “TeaBuggers” Do Not a Watergate Make « That Shallow Fellow (5c299c)

  54. EW1 – I do what I can. I am here to help.

    JD (c15e93)

  55. Shuster is a poofter.

    JD (c15e93)

  56. Go to the office vending machine and buy another bag of Chee-tohs, would you please?

    Comment by Eric Blair — 1/28/2010 @ 11:42 am

    Very funny. No, seriously, this is funny.

    Not funny ha ha…but funny, nonetheless.

    Funny like when an old guy tells you to get the hell off his lawn!!

    Awww…

    Assclown doodyheads (f0d390)

  57. Shuster is a poofter.

    Comment by JD

    You have a way with words. It’s hard to resist not writing a long dumb screed about it. He caught red handed lying about O’Keefe, in a way that taints the issue, and then says ‘but people are calling this Watergate 2! So it’s OK that I told them it was Watergate 2!’

    He is scared to death of letting Breitbat answer the questions… so why invite him on to answer questions? It made MSNBC look even worse than usual. Who cares if Maddow or Matthews spin to the left? This is the journalism that half the nuts in this thread say O’Keefe is too partisan and unserious to be doing.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  58. “Conspiracy to Lurk, with Intent to Gawk”

    mojo (8096f2)

  59. Shuster is a poofter.

    I love it. JD, you made a rhyme! NICE.

    Assclown doodyheads (f0d390)

  60. Assclown buggers goats. That doesn’t rhyme, but it is true, nonetheless.

    JD (c15e93)

  61. Updating The James O’Keefe Story…

    Patterico writes, “CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications:”
    As I noted last night, the Washington Post yesterday retracted its claim that the feds are charging James O’Keefe with an attempt to bug Mary Landri…

    Ed Driscoll (a3d746)

  62. MSNBC even says “no one thinks what ACORN was caught doing is illegal”. Right after Breitbart describes it accurately as helping set up child prostitution rings and get the kids off IRS books. Right after MSNBC admits it won’t use the term alleged to describe O’Keefe, but will use it for the underwear bomber.

    Yeah, this is heavy and unfair treatment, obviously aimed at denying O’Keefe a fair jury and undermining his reputation with the public.

    And in this video, MSNBC actually laughs at the notion that O’Keefe could be a journalist. It’s absurd to them. The Washington Post is even worse on this issue, but they will be describing O’Keefe in a vague ‘Watergate 2’ fashion for the rest of his life, no matter what the facts are.

    No matter what you think of this case, it’s been spun with lies attacking O’Keefe, meaning we have to give him more of a benefit of the doubt. MSNBC is not hiding their seething rage that a conservative is willing to break some rules* to expose corruption.

    *we’ll see

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  63. As usual, the right wing is trying to make mountains out of semantic moehills when it’s their interest to do so.

    The suspects are charged with entering a federal facility under false pretenses with the intent to commit a felony. The felony is tampering with the phone system. All indications are that they have confessed to the crime, which carries a possible 10-year sentence.

    This was done at a federal building, at the office of a sitting United States Senator. The wingnuts can yammer all they want to, but I’m betting the feds come down hard. Those youngsters have already been singing like canaries, and they’ll keep singing.

    Andrew Breitbart, Matt Drudge, Fox News, and a bunch of other Republican operatives had better hope they didn’t have even a glimmer of advance knowledge, because if they did there will be one hell of a juicy conspiracy rap here.

    Country of laws, remember? They apply to you too.

    TruIndependent (66858c)

  64. All indications are that they have confessed to the crime, which carries a possible 10-year sentence.

    Right there is where your argument has a problem.

    Without this element, maybe they aren’t guilty and the rest of your argument doesn’t mean anything.

    This could pose a problem to you if you ever run into reality some time.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  65. TruIndependent, my ass. Moby.

    JD (c15e93)

  66. Oh course he’s a damn moby. What kind of psycho would think Fox News conspired with O’Keefe’s amateurish plan. The right isn’t some vast conspiracy. Rush Limbaugh did not drop these guys off in a van with BUSH CHENEY stickers on it.

    Fox News did not provide them with CTU earpiece support of which hallways to creep down, in real time relying on Dick Cheney’s IR sat coverage.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  67. […] 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). […]

    Media Continue to Falsely Accuse O’Keefe of Wiretapping | TheWorldPolitics (197be1)

  68. You wingNazis have total and utter contempt for the Rule of Law, and that is exemplified by how you wingers are trying to excuse O’Pimp’s felonies in trying to wiretap or bug the telephone lines of a sitting US Senator.

    I AM AN INDEPENDENT (c15e93)

  69. #70. He was not really a pimp. ACORN earnestly was willing to work with the child sex slave industry, but O’Keefe was not.

    It’s sad that someone would call him a pimp when it’s the left that wanted to rape kids in that case, and O’Keefe who bravely cut the thugs off from billions of dollars.

    You claim to be independent, but it doesn’t seem that way. Seems like you are trying to defend the most dishonorable things imaginable, and that’s why you have a vendetta against O’Keefe and want him tarnished no matter what the facts are.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  70. If you’re independent, it’s because Obama is too conservative for you. You might vote for the greens or the socialists or the dems, so you think you’re independent. You aren’t seriously considering the GOP in elections, and we all know it. When you lie like that, no one takes you seriously.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  71. […] media outlets have retractions to issue. The Washington Post has issued its retraction already. CBS and the LA Times have yet to do […]

    Rush to judgement « Internet Scofflaw (9c6bf8)

  72. […] media outlets have retractions to issue. The Washington Post has issued its retraction already. CBS and the LA Times have yet to do […]

    Rush to judgement « Internet Scofflaw (5c39d8)

  73. If you actually read the coverage, it’s pretty clear what has happened. The right-wing sites are doing their best to brazen it out, but here’s the reality:

    The FBI caught these youngsters in flagrante delicto, violating a tough felony statute, in a federal office building, against a U.S. senator. They have already squeezed a great deal out of them, and there is little question that they are sitting right smack in front of a steamroller.

    This is a federal steamroller, and while the feds don’t win all their cases they also don’t screw around. O’Keefe’s dad, whose basement he is now living in by order of the federal court, is a U.S. attorney, and because of the relationship he is recused from the case. He can do little, if anything, to help the lads.

    In fact, because of that relationship, the U.S. attorney’s office is likely to go very much by the book, and the book in a case like this will call for the prosecutors to use the threat of a long sentence to squeeze every last bit of information from these lads.

    At the very least, the feds will want to know the precise nature of any conversations held among them, and with people outside of their clique. Given that Breitbart, Drudge, Fox, a think tank,” and some Republican organizations have been O’Keefe’s promoters in the recent past, and given that he mentioned big plans in a public speech given in December, the feds will be drilling for names, dates, and specifics.

    Now, if you’re a 25-year-old wannabe looking at hard time and a ruined life because you committed a federal felony in a federal office building against a U.S. Senator, I think you’re gonna want to sing louder and sweeter than anyone who ever harmonized in the Vienna Boys Choir.

    If Breitbart, Fox, Drudge, et al had even tangential knowledge of any of this before it happened, then all the king’s websites and all the king’s men, won’t be able to put them back together again.

    If any of you thinks this is going to go away, you are truly out there in the ozone. Remember: federal felony, in a federal office building, against a sitting United States Senator. It makes me wonder if one or more of those boys has a prison fetish.

    TruIndependent (66858c)

  74. #58: for a long time, I thought that “Mr. Doodyhead” was a sociology major with a paper hat job (or a snooty trustifarian, living off his parents in school, bong in hand). The tone, the style, the air of self-entitlement. Most of all, the juvenile sense of humor.

    So I thought I would try what I wrote, to see if he would respond as he did. Nice. Revealed to be in his twenties.

    Very predictable. To be fair, I teach his age group. As a general rule, these folks believe they are much more slick than they are. This one is no different.

    Now, of course “Mr. Doodyheads” will insist he is a fifty five year old stockbroker.

    But I suspect he will be manning the fry machine down at the Student Union a bit later.

    Being all tough and nasty here—where it is safe—makes him feel all powerful. Especially while he looks at the all the progressive stickers on his mom’s car in the campus parking lot…and worries about next year.

    All you have to worry about, little trolly, is tuition hikes. Or paying off your social justice degree.

    Like I wrote before: a race between pathetic and boring, is our friend Mr. Doodyhead. He get so mad about those political polls!

    Naturally, JD’s comment is much more concise.

    Eric Blair (20b3a8)

  75. What is it that Rush says?

    Long-haired, maggot-infested, FM-type!
    aka, TruIndependent – the last surviving member of the FreeSpeechMovement.

    AD - RtR/OS! (bb36fd)

  76. Oddly enough, Michelle Malkin is the only wingnut who seems to grasp the reality here. She immediately dropped O’Keefe. Trust me, I am surprised. Of all the psychos to have a lucid thought, she is the last one I would have expected it from.

    TruIndependent (66858c)

  77. F*cking lying Moby.

    JD (769f99)

  78. It’s because they are worried about the polls and 2010, JD.

    Eric Blair (20b3a8)

  79. TruIndependent: If Breitbart, Fox, Drudge, et al had even tangential knowledge of any of this before it happened, then all the king’s websites and all the king’s men, won’t be able to put them back together again.

    I don’t have anything to add to this. I just love that sentence. Direct, clear concise. Good grammer, nice punctuation. Nice bit of whimsy, 3 pointer (Swish!) with aplomb.

    Well, done TruIndependent.

    Assclown doodyheads (f0d390)

  80. Hmmm. You don’t suppose, JD?

    Eric Blair (20b3a8)

  81. Ahhhhhhh, douchebag luv. Ain’t it precious?

    JD (51ec96)

  82. The defense will be that it was all just a harmless prank, and that they never intended to interfere with the phones.

    You never know, maybe that defense will fly. But I doubt it. They put a great deal of effort into their prank; the Village People costumes must have cost a lot of dough, for starters. O’Keefe alluded to it in a public speech, and in addition to videotaping on a cellphone they requested actual access to the phone closet.

    I don’t think this will go away. Here’s one bit of delicious irony: The one person who probably could make it go away is Sen. Landrieu. If she waved off the feds, I bet they’d let bygones be bygones. Now — just what incentive does she have to do that?

    I think there is on old saying that covers this one pretty well: Better be careful how you treat people on the way up, because you will meet them on the way down.

    TruIndependent (66858c)

  83. “…delicious irony…”

    Another “twee” troll…

    JD, the choice is simple: play the tune of “Muskrat Love,” or do you suspect more sockage?

    Eric Blair (20b3a8)

  84. It’s a good thing they weren’t Muslim Democrats, huh?

    TruIndependent (66858c)

  85. Troll bait strikes again.

    So yes, there is plenty of reason to suspect they were trying to tap the phone lines.

    Pathetic. Conservatives are trying to whitewash illegal activity by one of their own. What a surprise.

    These people are so dumb that it sucks the intelligence right out of anyone who responds to them.

    Better be careful how you treat people on the way up, because you will meet them on the way down.

    Comment by TruIndependent

    That assumes that you get above the bottom, troll. Not a good assumption on your part.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  86. You lying warmongering warforoil wingnazi just cannot handle the truth. Watch your reich-wing paranoia propoganda arm come crashing down when Drudge, Faux News, and Breitbart get implicated in this domestic terrorism attempt against the Senator from Louisiana. TruIndpendent has pwn3d you racist troglodytes.

    I AM AN INDEPENDENT (c15e93)

  87. Eric – I think it is more of a Moronic Convergence.

    JD (c15e93)

  88. Maybe they should go play some raquetball together or something.

    Eric Blair (20b3a8)

  89. Maybe they could join IMP playing soccer at some US embassy.

    JD (c15e93)

  90. Did Mikey and LT ever stop back in to admit how wrong wrong wrong they were?

    JD (c15e93)

  91. Oh, people like Mikey and LT are never wrong, they’re just a little short of being right.

    AD - RtR/OS! (bb36fd)

  92. Thanks for the tip of the hat, Patterico.

    When I put up the comment to call out CBS last night, I did not expect it to be your first post today, or to be given credit for it.

    Just goes to show what a class act you are. Nice to know there are still real professional journalists in this age of Shusters (even if journalism isn’t even your full time gig).

    -Steve

    Steve (6bd10f)

  93. #87 Mike K:

    These people are so dumb that it sucks the intelligence right out of anyone who responds to them.

    Now there’s a donkey with its tail pinned on right!

    Excellent description, Mike.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  94. #94 Steve:

    (even if journalism isn’t even your full time gig).

    Wouldn’t it be nice if some of teh “full timers” put in such an effort?

    Let me get an early start on my comment for this year’s year in review post: Kudos, Patterico!

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  95. […] According to Patterico, the affidavit filed said nothing about bugging, intercepting or wire tapping.  It did talk about an allegation that they attempted to access the phone equipment closet. […]

    No Runny Eggs » Blog Archive » Pure Speculation (e9984a)

  96. But what the heck was he doing? This is a strange story, but does not deserve the national attention it is getting.

    Charles Collins (89ac7f)

  97. […] which properly chastised Shuster over his dumb ass and illconceived tweets. For a good wrap-up go read Patterico, but the two takeaways that should be noted are this Washington Post retraction: Earlier versions […]

    This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here » Blog Archive » Gordon Duff: Sky diving off the cliffs of insanity (46eae5)

  98. […] official… The mainstream media is a complete joke and James O’Keefe has released a statement about what he was doing in the Senator’s […]

    ACORN Corruption Filmmaker Arrested For Trying To Interfere With Sen. Landrieu’s Phones « FRISK A LIBERAL (ea1fd5)

  99. […] numerous errors in their coverage of James O’Keefe’s latest investigation.  Before: here.  After: here and here.  Still, CBS has thus far failed to correct a link alledging O’Keefe […]

    » Correction Request: CBS News - Big Journalism (4556c3)

  100. […] morning I noted that CBS News (and the L.A. Times) owed corrections to James O’Keefe, for saying that he was […]

    Patterico's Pontifications » CBS Issues O’Keefe Correction — There’s Just One, Er, Two Problems . . . (e4ab32)


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