Truth Has A Liberal Bias According to Scott Baker at The Blaze, the raw footage, compared with O'Keefe's heavily edited video, tells a different story. Take, for example, Schiller's comment that has most incensed Republicans-that the Tea Party people are "seriously, seriously racist."
[T]he clip in the edited video implies Schiller is giving simply his own analysis of the Tea Party. He does do that in part, but the raw video reveals that he is largely recounting the views expressed to him by two top Republicans, one a former ambassador, who admitted to him that they voted for Obama.
But, of course, this is too late to change anything. The lie is all over the MSM and it will never be dislodged. It has gone from fiction to historical fact without ever being properly examined.
And in answer to Maddow's final question, here is a full list of O'Keefe's little "exposes":
The NPR prankster's 5 biggest controversies 1. Catching an NPR executive bashing Tea Partiers
O'Keefe orchestrated this week's video ambush of NPR executive Ron Schiller, who was caught on tape lambasting Tea Party conservatives as "seriously racist" people. Two "undercover O'Keefe lackeys" posed as representatives of a Muslim education charity, and reportedly offered to give NPR a $5 million donation. The dust still hasn't settled, but NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller (no relation) has already resigned from her post. O'Keefe's "fraternity-like tactics" went too far this time, says Leslie Marshall at U.S. News & World Report. "Taping anyone without their consent is illegal," and I think Ron Schiller should sue "big brother O'Keefe."
2. Getting ACORN to help "ladies of the night"
O'Keefe first came to prominence in September 2009 with a sting operation on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The young prankster and a colleague, dressed as a pimp and a prostitute, visited ACORN offices in several cities seeking advice on securing a housing loan. The damaging responses - "honesty is not going to get you the house," one ACORN official was recorded saying - led to the end of federal funding for the community organization, and it filed for bankruptcy the following year. "That 20-minute video ruined 40 years of good work," said an ACORN official. An investigation into the tapes later found they had been selectively edited "to the point of dishonesty."
3. Trying to tamper with a Democratic senator's phone
Not all of O'Keefe's pranks have been successful. The activist was arrested in January 2010 after breaking into the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), in an apparent attempt to interfere with the building's telephone lines. O'Keefe and three accomplices were later given three years probation and a fine for entering federal property under false pretenses. Some of O'Keefe's former fans expressed distaste at his tactics. Glenn Beck said he had entered "Watergate territory."
4. Attempting to humiliate CNN
Undeterred by his arrest in Louisiana, O'Keefe continued to try to embarrass those whom he sees as shills for the left. In September 2010, CNN revealed O'Keefe was plotting to embarrass CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau by luring her onto a boat filled with "sexually explicit props" and filming her reaction. CNN smelled a rat, and reported O'Keefe's involvement with the failed stunt. This time, even the conservative blogosphere reacted with disdain. Exposing media bias with a video camera is one thing, said Caleb Howe at RedState, but "luring a lone female reporter to a remote location" in an attempt to cause her "discomfort and fear"? That's just "despicable."
5. Exposing teachers unions in New Jersey
O'Keefe returned at the end of 2010 with a secret video filmed in New Jersey, which purported to show unionized teachers admitting how hard it was to fire a tenured teacher. In one of the tapes, teacher Alissa Ploshnick says one of her colleagues called a pupil a "nigger" without being canned. Still, the video, said Bob Braun at the New Jersey Star-Ledger, was a "phony expose of nothing but the cynicism of ideologically driven pseudo-journalists."
It is still of passing interest that it WAS CRAZY GLEN BECK WHO FINALLY EXAMINED THE RAW FOOTAGE and revealed on his blog the distortions and deceptions on the NPR tape. I think that fact says it all. Glen Bat**** Crazy Beck did a more "professional" job on this story than the New York Times, Wallstreet Journal and the Washington Post combined. And it wan't even close!
And we wonder why our Democracy is in such deep trouble, why Tea Partiers are so misinformed when they are not simply uninformed....
UPDATE:
From Poynter, a journalism blog/site, this insightful analysis :
What James O'Keefe knows about media (and you should too) All these surreptitiously recorded comments, whether uttered by a low-level office employee or a high-level executive, are portrayed as if they represent official policy of these organizations.
"We've just exposed the true hearts and minds of NPR and their executives," O'Keefe's website generalizes in describing the video and asking for money to support similar efforts.
NPR has said that Ron Schiller's comments don't reflect its policy and opinions. But after watching that edited video, whom will most people believe?
The best investigative journalists try to disprove their hypothesis. They try to verify and confirm, even when they're tempted by the sexy quote. They know that while journalism is iterative, the truth is rarely singular or simplistic. In the process of forming the whole picture, they make their stories stronger.
"The evidence illustrates," California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said in a news release about the ACORN videos, "that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality. Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor."
The entire posting is well worth the read...
Another outtake:
On the demand side, some conservatives - not all - are tired of having a few liberal media outlets drive coverage. They want media that reflects their beliefs.
"The left no longer controls the flow of information and therefore no longer can control the narrative," wrote L. Brent Bozell III, founder of the Media Research Center and CNSNews.com.
Like Matt Drudge, O'Keefe has news judgment: He knows what his audience wants and he tries to deliver it.
