PERSON: James O'Keefe

Journalist

James E. O'Keefe III (born June 28, 1984) is a conservative American activist who has produced audio and video recordings of staged encounters with public figures and workers in a variety of organizations, purportedly showing abusive or illegal behavior by representatives of those organizations. He gained national attention for his release of video recordings of workers at ACORN offices in 2009, his arrest in early 2010 at the office of Senator Mary Landrieu in a failed attempt to record staff conversations, and release of videos of NPR executives in 2011. Investigations by both legal authorities and journalists have found O'Keefe has "selectively," "heavily," or "deceptively" edited secretly recorded videos to leave a false impression and present the subjects in the worst possible light.

After founding an independent conservative student paper in college, O'Keefe began to use available, inexpensive technology to make videos. His strategy has been to control distribution of his work to conservative media outlets for maximum impact. Some of O'Keefe's projects have influenced Congressional votes. Due to his videos of ACORN workers supposedly aiding a couple in criminal planning, the U.S. Congress voted to freeze funds for the non-profit, which had aided low- and moderate-income people for 40 years. The non-profit also lost most private funding, and in March 2010 had to close most of its offices. Shortly after, the California State attorney general's office and the U.S. Government Accountability Office released their related investigative reports. The attorney general's office found that O'Keefe had misrepresented the actions of ACORN workers and that the workers had not committed illegal actions. The GAO found that ACORN had managed its federal funds appropriately.

Because of the deceptive nature of his work, O'Keefe's initial success in gaining extensive media attention caused controversy and discussions of journalistic standards. By the summer of 2011, his claims to have uncovered widespread Medicaid fraud, purportedly documented on videos released in Maine and other locations, were treated with more skepticism by the media and governmental officials. For instance, the Maine governor Paul Lepage said that the video could help improve staff training, but it did not show evidence of a worker trying to defraud the welfare system.

O'Keefe has gained support from conservative media and interest groups. In 2009 Andrew Breitbart paid the activist, then 25, for the option to publish new videos exclusively on BigGovernment.com. In June 2010, O'Keefe formed a 501(c)(3) organization, Project Veritas, with the stated mission to "investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct."

-- Wikipedia