Update: (Most of) Fox News’ Red Eye Crew Laughs Off James O’Keefe’s ‘CNN Caper’

Aside from several segments on her own network, CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau‘s tale of attempted sexual humiliation by conservative activist James O’Keefe has gotten scant coverage on cable news. Popular Fox News late-night yuckfest Red Eye at least tried to cover the story last night, and while there was some mockery of O’Keefe, the overall effect was to deflect and trivialize what O’Keefe is alleged to have done. The segment begins with a misguided comparison to Stephen Colbert‘s congressional testimony, and ends with panelist Ann Coulter lamenting the fact that “narc” Izzy Santa prevented Boudreau from “rolling in the condoms.”

While no one would ever accuse Red Eye of gravitas, there is a way to give O’Keefe’s alleged actions their proper weight, while still being funny. To watch this clip, you would never know that the plan was to strand Abbie Boudreau aboard a sex-prop-filled boat with O’Keefe until she tearfully begged to be let off.

Several prominent conservative media figures have already denounced O’Keefe, including Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell (who called it an “attempted assault”), and leading conservative blogs Redstate and Hot Air. O’Keefe’s high-profile editor, Andrew Breitbart, has yet to weigh in on the controversy, but took steps to distance himself from this incident.

Curiously, Boudreau’s story has gotten little coverage, outside of CNN and a blogosphere that was hungry to gobble O’Keefe up. According to TV Eyes, the only other mention of the story was on MSNBC’s Hardball. A Google News search reveals little coverage by the mainstream press, either. The Washington Post’s Reliable Source blog posted an item, but most of the coverage has been on web outlets. Considering the attention O’Keefe has gotten previously, and the explosive, titillating details of this story, it’s hard to explain why it hasn’t gotten more heat from the mainstream media.

Update: Red Eye Ombudsman (and my friend) Andy Levy points out that I completely missed his commentary on Redeye’s “Halftime Report,” in which he makes many of the points that I made here. He even goes as far as saying that O’Keefe’s plan “might well be criminal.”

While the other Redeye panelists continue to argue the point with Levy, he holds his ground. I deeply regret having omitted Andy’s pitch-perfect commentary, and include it now. (also h/t Johnny Dollar)

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.