In fairness, it doesn’t seem like the adults in this situation did well by these young men. Folks were so happy to capitolize on the partisan gains from their first prank, that apparently no one sought to counsel them on ethical, let alone-legal, behavior. I”m not saying that the ACORN gambit necessarily crossed the lines this one may have, but there were definitely aspects that should have raised some red flags for both politicians and journalists. There’s so much gamemanship in politics these days it almost makes pro football look genteel and civil.

i think people are running from his alledged illegal action, but not his work that he did with ACORN. Everywhere I have read people are saying breaking the law is wrong, and if he did it, he was wrong.

I for one think that there was something he was going for, obviously, and I want to know what it was.
Wasn’t one of the four guys the son of the sitting DA or something?

Speaking about journalistic ethics, maybe Tommy Christopher could give us a government cite for his claim that O’Keefe was trying to do a “wiretap on a US Senator” and that he was “allegedly trying to spy on Senator Mary Landrieu.” If you read the government documents, you’ll see the most they talk about is an attempt to “interfere” with a phone system, not “wiretap” or “bug” as Christopher and others say.

I tweeted about this 20 hours ago, and various r/w bloggers have since picked up on it. It’s got clearance! So, I’m sure that Tommy Christopher will – in the spirit of journalistic ethics – immediately post a correction.

P.S. Due to all the widgets, 104 Javascripts (!), and problems signing in w/ Facebook this site is nearly unusable.

O’Keefe & his lil friends need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Plus, they need their tough-guy lil faces rearranged manually.

@sarainitaly.: Unless you know something no one else does, one of the conspirators IS the son of the acting Fed. AG for the Western district of Louisiana.

Facebook User –

From Nola.com – “An official close to the investigation said one of the four was arrested with a listening device in a car blocks from the senator’s offices. He spoke on condition of anonymity because that information was not included in official arresting documents.”

Yeah, maybe this was just one of those telephone repairman jokes. But wiretapping a Senators office; no one is that stupid…right?

no, i was asking. i heard something about one being the son of somebody, but couldn’t remember exactly who.

LAFAYETTE — President Barack Obama has nominated Stephanie Finley as U.S. Attorney for Louisiana’s Western District. Jan 21, 2010 .

Finley was one of two people recommended in July by U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

The announcement came late Wednesday.

Finley, acting deputy chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lafayette, has worked in the Western District of Louisiana for the past 14 years.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Flanagan is serving as interim U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana.

I wonder if this had anything to do with it? I love me a good scandal! haha

I actually think it might have to do with this: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/79959137.html

“We were stunned to learn that so many phone calls to Sen. Landrieu have been unanswered and met with continuous busy signals,” Perkins said. “We asked them to call their senators. They could get through to Sen. Vitter, but not Sen. Landrieu.”

“Our lines have been jammed for weeks, and I apologize,” Landrieu said in interview after giving a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday. “But no amount of jamming is going to keep me from supporting a good work for Louisiana and the nation.”

The guy who was outside in his car had a listening device, and James was trying to film it with his phone, so I wonder if they were trying to get the office to admit there was noting wrong with the phones, they just didn’t want to talk to the people…or something along those lines.

It’s weird that with a US Attorney for a dad, they wouldn’t know of the risks…

Poor O’Keefe. He believed his own hype. Perhaps a cautionary tale for the likes of a Glenn Beck who bought lunch for months off the “Acorn” vids that O’Keefe produced.

Well Tommy, I’m sure the ‘real’ journalists of the world who also labor under the self-imposed burden of objectivity, would thank their little fans like you.

O’Keefe is simply a spoiled rotten punk. I have no sympathy for him, and I am certainly not going to make an effort to “explain around” his criminal behavior. These are serious charges. If he did what was alleged, he needs to get slammed.

As for being able to get through to Senator Vitter, of course it’s not a problem. Just call the cat house. He’s always there avec his little diaper.

Poor O’Keefe. He believed his own hype. Perhaps a cautionary tale for the likes of a Glenn Beck who bought lunch for months off the “Acorn” vids that O’Keefe produced.
————————————————————————————————————————-

Well, why wouldn’t Beck? It’s not every day that you get staffers at govt subsidized organizations giving you advice on the child slavery trade.

And it’s not everyday that you saw people dismayed over the fact that this was filmed, let alone refraining from offering up toasts to its exposure.

“As for being able to get through to Senator Vitter, of course it’s not a problem. Just call the cat house. He’s always there avec his little diaper.”

Well, thanks for info. Does he tip you pretty well?

So, if we can sum up Cecelia’s posts on this topic:

O’Keefe’s apparent felonious actions must be excused because:
1. He’s young.
2. He’s cute.
3. He provided a valuable service in exposing a failing of an organization she personally despises.

Vitter’s felonious and perverse actions must be excused because he is a rightist Republican who votes the way she wants him to.

Objectivity has no place in journalism.

Did I cover all of the bases?

“The guy who was outside in his car had a listening device, and James was trying to film it with his phone, so I wonder if they were trying to get the office to admit there was noting wrong with the phones, they just didn’t want to talk to the people…or something along those lines.”

As always sarainitaly, you never fail to provide pertinent information! That’s interesting.

I agree too, that young O’Keefe has done something so ghastly and idiotic that it’s abundantly clear that he had much acclaim but little guidance from all those supporters of yore…

“Did I cover all of the bases?”

Only to Sen. Vitter.

Schuster is having a field day tweeting about this. He claims O’Keefe “guilty” and “he will go to jail”. LOL Good old David and MSNBC — the same folks who still call the Fort Hood Terrorist “alleged” after killing 14 people, while yelling Alahu Akbar.

The media jumping to conclusions on this story is typical; had O’Keefe been a liberal they would be covering his butt, but since he is considered “conservative” they declare him guilty.

Typical liberal way: Guilty until proven innocent if you are a republican; Innocent even if you are proven guilty if you are a democrat.

All of this talk about “wire-tapping” is way over the top and not substantiated by the affidavit. Let the facts come out; if he is guilty he will pay the price but until then, it is innocent until proven guilty.

Hey, Tommy….evidently “real” journalists twitter their conclusions before they’ve even investigated and covered the story.

http://twitter.com/DavidShuster/status/8265042783

MSNBC’s David Shuster tweets on O’Keefe:

a) you are not a journalist b) the truth is you intended to tap her phones c) it’s a felony d) you will go to prison.”

It’s so impressive! David Shuster is on his way to New Orleans to cover the O’Keefe story for MSNBC and he’s so prescient that he knows all the facts before he has even landed on the ground!

Now THAT is REAL journalist…

James O’Keefe’s acne covered face aside, about his wiretapping a senator’s office telephone: The question is appropriate: What did Andrew Breitbart know and when did he know it?

lets not forget the time it took for the MSM to stop ignoring the tapes compared to their damning judgement here

So how many times did sleazy Fox News mention O’Keefe last night?

same2u says:
January 27, 2010 at 5:38 pm

So how many times did sleazy Fox News mention O’Keefe last night?

—

Not many. Maybe they should send Griff Jenkins down to cover it all up.

If you were watching Hardball you will have noticed he had on an AP reporter reporting from the area.

He said:

CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION — there is NO EVIDENCE OF WIRETAPPING here.

BIG TIME WALK BACK from yesterda’s over-the-top-over-reaction-because-OKeefe-is-a-conservative.

Seems some years ago I heard about someone tapping into a Republican senator’s cell phone (allegedly a couple of “retirees”), down in Florida. How come no one advocated putting them so far back in a dungeon they would have to be fed with a slingshot, or “manually rearranging” their faces? As TfT remarks, there is NO eveidence of wiretapping here–too bad the FBI hasn’t done so already, I’m reasonably more than certain that charges could be brought agains Ms. Landrieu–a serial crook.

What really irks me most about the capturing of video on some ACORN criminals is that they are STILL receiving Federal funding–that’s yours and my tax dollars.

“CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION — there is NO EVIDENCE OF WIRETAPPING here.”

But David Shuster says that there is evidence! He says O’Keefe is no REAL journalist who “labors under the cruel yoke of responsibility” as Shuster himself does, and that O’Keefe WILL go to jail.

Keith Olbermann calls a Republican candidate “irresponsible” and more, and then hosts his election coverage.

Shuster has flow down to the Big Easy to cover the O’Keefe’s debacle for MSNBC, all the while tweeting about O’Keefe’s guilt.

There’s no doubt that this full of himself 24-year-old, flouted the law and commonsense to a degree that may rightly land him in an air conditioned video game equipped country club cum house of correction, but there’s no doubt too that within the field of journalism nowadays, the definition of “responsibility” is damn fungible.

Ah yes Cecilia….the “great journalist David Shuster” (HA) has been right so frequently! (NOT).

Let us recall David was CERTAIN and had it on the best of authorities that “ROVE WAS GOING TO BE INDICTED” in the Val Plame game. ALl the while Schuster and MSNBC crew KNEW that Richard Armitage was the leaker, but they hid that information (still do in fact) from their viewing “audience”. (Have you seen their ratings lately???)

Schuster should be fired for his irresponsibility on twitter….but I guess KO will excuse him so Griffin will have no choice but to keep David on board, since we all know KO runs the place (into the ground) over there.

Very true, TfT.

At MSNBC, Olbermann could accuse Scot Brown of abetting violence against women, and STILL host his campaign coverage.

At MSNBC, David Shuster can tweet that O’Keefe is not a journalist, while he also tweets conclusions on a story before he’s even investigated it.

But when poor Joe Scarborough tweets a line questioning brash bias, Phil Griffin runs to Olbermann to see if Joe should be flogged with Karl Rove’s suspenders.

The imperatives of responsible journalism sure are meted out selectively.

same2u says:
January 27, 2010 at 5:38 pm

The Real Royal King says:
January 27, 2010 at 5:46 pm

It was reported all day yesterday, and reported again today… and (although I have yet to see it) I believe O’Reilly did a segment about it tonight. Oh, and Beck talked about it for a while on his radio program.

Isn’t it fun to make stuff up?! Too bad when the stuff you guys make up, turns out not to be true… or provably false. Sorry! (Not really sorry.)

Why tamper with Landrieu’s phones? From msnbc First Read:

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.

Instead, the official says, the men, led by conservative videomaker James O’Keefe, wanted to see how her local office staff would respond if the phones were inoperative. They were apparently motivated, the official says, by criticism that when Sen. Landrieu became a big player in the health care debate, people in Louisiana were having a hard time getting through on the phones to register their views.

That is, the official says, what led the four men to pull this stunt — to see how the local staffers would react if the phones went out. Would the staff just laugh it off, or would they express great concern that local folks couldn’t get through?

If I may, please direct your attention to my above post:
sarainitaly says:
January 27, 2010 at 3:44 pm

I’m sure that Olbermann and the rest at MSNBC will be fair, and will assume that O’Keefe is innocent until proven guilty. Whew!! Hard to keep a straight face when I wrote that.

You have got to be kidding. the attorney general of CA has clearly demonstrated that the ACORN pimp stunt in San Diego was a fraud by releasing the unedited tapes. O”Keefe and Fixed news conspired to help to de-fund ACORN by using edited tapes. All of you who believed it were duped and a basically good organization has now had to close it’s doors. Shame on all of you.