O'Keefe Oversteps – Again

As you may have surmised, I'm not a fan of Glenn Beck.  So when his website The Blaze conducted a comprehensive analysis of the latest hit job from James O'Keefe – and found it "questionable"  – you can count me among the surprised.

O'Keefe released an edited version of a  lunch conversation between National Public Radio executives and two of his "investigators" pretending to be fundamentalist Muslims looking to contribute $5 million to NPR. One of the executives was heard to be saying terrible things about the Tea Party and the GOP – heaven forbid! The honchos at NPR promptly asked him to resign.

Because the group (ironically called Project Veritas) had been accused of manipulative editing in the past (see ACORN.) O'Keefe had the full uncut tape posted to the site as well.  Most media outlets, including The Blaze, initially posted the edited version of the materials.  However, the Beck team followed up and compared the source material to the more widely circulated tape and found several instances of "unethical" conduct by the O'Keefe editor(s). 

So, hats off to the team at The Blaze!  And Bronx cheers to any other legitimate media outlet that takes O'Keefe videos and airs them without reviewing them for accuracy. 

What's that old adage?  "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

Of course, there are the Republican variations: 

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you."  Rep. Virginia Foxx, NC-5, 2009

"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." President George W. Bush, TX, 2002.

Update:  NPR's "On the Media" subsequently interviewed O'Keefe.  I encourage you to listen to the edited version first (about 12 minutes) in which they play a bit with the tape (near the end) to demonstrate how false impressions can be created when truth is left on the cutting room floor.  The full 45+ minute interview is also available. At the same site.


James Poniewozik at Time.com has a wonderful piece on this topic:

"To the James O'Keefes of the world, the news is a war in which mainstream journalists must cautiously wield X-Acto knives and he gets to bring an axe."