James Edward O'Keefe III (mugshot:
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/File:JamesOKeefeMugUSDeptJust.jpg)

(1984�) describes himself as an investigative journalist and filmmaker,
having founded Project Veritas.[2][note 1] He specializes in "sting"
operations, where he or his associates secretly videotape the subjects of
his investigations and bait the victims into saying something
incriminating or embarrassing. His investigations have thus far been
exclusively focused on doing heavily-slanted attack pieces against
organizations or individuals considered to be liberal, and these efforts
have made him a conservative media favorite.
Stings

Most of O'Keefe's videos feature a young man or woman posing as a
stereotype demonized by the American right-wing, such as a welfare queen
seeking more money, an illegal immigrant inexplicably eager to vote, or a
student obsessed with political correctness. The organization in question
then gets into trouble to the extent they are willing to help the
undercover operative achieve these goals. Unfortunately, simple politeness
often appears incriminating in such a context, as many innocents have
discovered.
Lucky Charms

O'Keefe began his career as a hidden camera provocateur while studying at
Rutgers University in 2004.[3] In his first-ever recorded "sting", O'Keefe
and several other students met with Rutgers dining staff to demand the
removal of Lucky Charms cereal from campus cafeterias, arguing that its
leprechaun mascot represents an offensive stereotype of Irish-Americans.
[3] His intent in carrying out this glorified prank was to "illustrate the
absurdity that is political correctness"[4] and place school officials in
a no-win situation where they would either have to appear insensitive to
an ethnic group or willing to cave in to trivial complaints.[3] The
students claim they succeeded in getting the cereal removed for a time,[4]
but a Rutgers spokesman stated it was never taken off the menu.[5]
Planned Parenthood

In 2006 and 2007, O'Keefe teamed up with pro-life activist Lila Rose to
help her plan and produce two sting operations against reproductive
healthcare provider Planned Parenthood. For the first clandestine
operation, O'Keefe and Rose went to two Planned Parenthood clinics in
greater Los Angeles in March 2007 and another in Santa Monica in May 2007,
secretly taping counseling sessions in which Rose, then 18 years old,
posed as a pregnant 15-year-old girl seeking an abortion, and O'Keefe
posed as her 23-year-old boyfriend.[6][7][8] The goal was to catch (or
some might say entrap) employees saying things that made it look like they
were willing to let statutory rape go unreported.

The second sting operation Rose and O'Keefe collaborated on involved the
latter phoning regional Planned Parenthood offices in Idaho, Ohio, New
Mexico, and Oklahoma in the summer of 2007, posing as a racist interested
in making a donation "specifically for the abortions of African-American
babies".[9][10][11] The intent was to prove that the provider was founded
by Margaret Sanger (true), an advocate of eugenics (true), with the intent
of wiping out the black race (false), a claim commonly propagated by pro-
life activists. When Rose's anti-abortion group Live Action (which O'Keefe
served as an advisor to) released the calls in early 2008, it resulted in
Autumn Kersey, a Planned Parenthood representative who answered the call
to the Idaho office, being suspended from her job.[12] Rose admitted that
her group deliberately targeted Planned Parenthood offices in states where
it was legal to record a phone conversation without the other party's
consent.[12]
Taxpayer's Prize Patrol

O'Keefe was also involved in a brief series of videos in 2009 called the
"Taxpayer's Prize Patrol". The videos consisted of him and other young
white people visiting minority homes in a van labeled "Taxpayer's Prize
Patrol", in the style of the long-running "Publisher's Clearinghouse Prize
Patrol". After the homeowners' initial confusion and excitement, O'Keefe
would tell them they'd "won" an invoice for a portion of the financial
industry bail-out being administered at the time and ask them to sign the
giant check he handed them.[13] This series has not been very well-
publicized, possibly because afterwards they realized the awkwardness
involved in having a group of white people visit the homes of Hispanic or
black families, raise their hopes, and then taunt them.
ACORN
Keefe2.png

O'Keefe first rose to prominence on the strength of his investigation of
ACORN (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now), whose stated
purpose had been to advocate for low-income families; it sought to do this
through a wide range of activities, such as economic advising, lobbying,
and voter-registration drives. The latter had long earned the organization
the enmity of some right-wing figures (such as 2008 presidential candidate
John McCain[14]), who believed that ACORN was regularly involved in fraud
to steal elections away from the rightful victors (Republicans). The
kernel of truth in this is that the poor tend to overwhelmingly vote
Democratic, so any efforts to encourage the poor to vote will inevitably
be to the detriment of Republican candidates. Even though ACORN had never
been convicted or even charged with anything like voter fraud, there was a
great deal of resentment, making the situation ripe for someone like
O'Keefe.

During the summer of 2009, O'Keefe and an associate visited ACORN offices
in eight cities and recorded their interviews with financial counselors
there who were offering them help. They posed as a prostitute and a pimp
seeking advice about free medical care and tax evasion on behalf of
illegal immigrant prostitutes, and several ACORN counselors gave the pair
advice on their "activities".

O'Keefe used a great deal of editing in the resulting videos; his
questions tended to be vague or leading and frequently received only
appropriate responses from the counselors. The segments of the videos that
seemed to be the most damaging were edited together, and included such
items as the counselors advising them not to tell the police what they did
for a living, how to open multiple bank accounts to avoid suspicion, and
where to get medical care for the prostitutes.[15] Furthermore, O'Keefe
edited in a segment at the beginning showing him wearing a large fur coat
and feathered hat and carrying a cane ("dressed like a pimp"), whereas in
reality, he visited the offices in fairly conservative attire. The overall
idea, of course, was that ACORN was enthusiastically and knowingly helping
a pimp oppress prostitutes and break the law.

The videos exploded into the media, championed first by Andrew Breitbart
on his website Big Government. ACORN fired the employees involved, but
this wasn't enough to curtail the gleeful pouncing of the right wing.
Congress stripped away ACORN funding[16] and despite a later investigation
that ruled there had been no wrongdoing by the organization,[17] it filed
for bankruptcy and closed in November 2010;[18] it was the first scalp on
O'Keefe's belt. Such victory was not without cost, however; in filming the
videos, O'Keefe and his female cohort Hannah Giles broke a California
state law prohibiting the recording of someone else's voice or image
without their knowledge or consent. Facing these charges, they acquired
immunity from criminal prosecution by releasing the complete unedited
recordings.

Several years later, despite the evasion of criminal charges, O'Keefe was
forced to settle a privacy lawsuit from an ACORN employee who had been
fired, paying Juan Carlos Vera $100,000.[19] O'Keefe called the lawsuit
"meritless" and the "cost of exposing the truth".[20]
Misfires
Landrieu

Following the massive success of the ACORN videos, O'Keefe was arrested
and charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the
purposes of committing a felony[21] when he and three associates dressed
up as phone company employees and lied their way into the New Orleans
offices of Democratic Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu and began "manipulat
[ing]" the telephone system. O'Keefe stated he hadn't intended to tap
Landrieu's phone lines, but rather that he was investigating whether or
not they were broken:
��I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu�s
constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her
that they didn�t want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange
for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator
Landrieu�s explanation was that, �Our lines have been jammed for weeks.� I
decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of
touch with her constituents for �weeks� because her phones were broken. In
investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu�s district
office � the people�s office � to ask the staff if their phones were
working.[22]