ACORN protitute lady called the cops?

[somatichypermutation]

Who knew and why didnt that make the news?

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/james-okeefe-agrees-to-pay-100000-settlement-88620.html?hp=r16

[Yorkshire pud]

Who knew and why didnt that make the news?

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/james-okeefe-agrees-to-pay-100000-settlement-88620.html?hp=r16

Plea bargaining isn't something we have in the UK (not in an official capacity). It gives me a wry smile when I read of someone just capitulates like this and his misdemeanors are forgotten. Equally I wonder how many people are wrongly convicted for offences they haven't committed because of plea bargaining. Be interesting to know the figures.


As for why it didn't make the news? I guess it's the liberal left wing socialist media who knew they wouldn't make political capital from it.

[PB the Deplorable]

Who knew and why didnt that make the news?

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/james-okeefe-agrees-to-pay-100000-settlement-88620.html?hp=r16

This did make the news, at least on the Conservative websites

James O'Keefe and a colleague went into various ACORN offices with a hidden video recorder.  They proceeded to ask ACORN employees how they could game the system and get a bunch of government handouts they weren't entitled to receive.  The ACORN employees were eager to help. 


These people are real journalists.  How else does an organization like ACORN get exposed?  Once again the Left can't handle it when the other side uses their tactics same against them.  He takes down the incredibly corrupt of Left Wing ACORN organization and pays what he calls a 'nuisance settlement' to avoid further legal action.  Sounds like a great transaction to me.  It is technically illegal to record a private conversation without consent.  Had the Left been the ones to do so, they would have argued speaking with someone at an organization like ACORN wasn't a 'private' conversation, and would have had the ACLU judge shop and tie the case up for years.

[onan]

It is technically illegal to record a private conversation without consent. 

I think that may have changed with the patriot act.


edited for not wanting any grief

[Juan]

Wrong on a couple of counts.
This is not a plea bargain.  Plea bargains are deals made to enter a plea in a criminal matter.  This was not a criminal case, but a civil one.  In fact, the article specifically says all potential criminal charges were waived in return for giving the State a copy of the video.

This is not a federal matter (Patriot Act) but a State of California matter.  All states require permission to record a conversation, but some states require both parties to consent, while others require only one party.

Reading between the lines, it would seem that California requires both parties to consent, and O'Keefe didn't get Mr. Vera's.  I don't know what Mr. Vera calling the police had to do with the lawsuit - that seems like a gratuitous throw-in by the reporter.  If the lawsuit had been about libel, it might apply.  It is interesting, though, and I had not heard that part reported.

It had been reported that O'Keefe may have violated several state statutes by recording without permission in two-party states.  The answer given by Breitbart at the time was that mainstream news organizations do it all the time, and they certainly used to.  60 Minutes was notorious for it.

I find it interesting that O'Keefe's lawyer called it a "nuisance settlement."  $100,000 is not a nuisance settlement to me.

[onan]

I was doing nothing with the patriot act comment but pointing out the erosion of privacy. What is federal is also local and what is local is often federal.


To me, ACORN did much more good than the over blown actions of a few. That doesn't excuse anything, just saying. I haven't researched ACORN, but I don't believe the agency itself has been proven to have done anything wrong. But like all mudslinging at some point the facts are no longer relevant.

[somatichypermutation]

Noone has answered my real query.

When ACRON became a core issue in the 2008 election it was because of, or at least this was part of, the reason.  This illegal video taping.  OK, no charges brought on the criminal side, no big deal.

My point is that the lady who was "promoting prostitution" and worked for ACRON on the video, actually called the cops on OKeefe for his want to participate in prostitution.   This fact puts a whole different spin on the video, and shows she was not promoting illegal activity, which was the conservative mantra about the video.

So, our press failed us again...

OKeefe is not a journalist, a journo would have reported the police report as it puts a different spin on the case.

60 Minutes ambushes people in public, where the right to privacy is greatly limited and they generally doing it while carrying large TV cameras so the notice factor is present.

[onan]

OKeefe is not a journalist, a journo would have reported the police report as it puts a different spin on the case.

This says it all. But that wasn't the story anyone was interested in, and probably still isn't.

[Juan]

I wish you were right about real journalists, but when I worked in one-party consent states, the "real" journalists at my TV stations were just as happy to record people and spin stories as O'Keefe seems to have been.

60 Minutes used to do the secret taping - not just the ambush interviews.  I haven't seen them do it in awhile.  I don't think the ambush interviews are OK because they are out in public - I think the reason they're OK is that if you can see a camera and microphone and still talk, consent to be recorded is implied.

In the instant case, the person who was the plaintiff seems to have been a man.  At least his name is Juan Carlos Vera, so I assume that is a man.  This is not the same case as the woman you seem to be thinking of.  I think that case was in the east somewhere.

The Politico story is reported strangely.  It seems to be relying only on a court-required statement from O'Keefe, and says "O’Keefe also admitted in the settlement he didn’t know Vera had contracted police after their conversation when he distributed the video."

That's still a strange statement - even allowing for the probable mistyping of "contracted" for "contacted."  Does it mean that Vera had alleged in his complaint that O'Keefe knew he had contacted police before distributing the video? If so, is this simply O'Keefe refuting that claim?  There's nothing in the report that cites evidence that Vera did contact the police.  Like you, I think this is important.

This Politico report is an example of shoddy reporting.  I would never have let it on the air when I was a newsroom manager.  I would have told the reporter to get back to work and do better reporting.  But then no newsroom will hire me anymore because I cause too much trouble of this type.

[Sardondi]

I just noticed this quote in the politico story: "An attorney for O’Keefe said the payment was a 'nuisance settlement.' O’Keefe 'has a full career ahead as a talented investigative journalist,' Michael Madigan told the paper."

"Nuisance suit", my ass. $100,000 is no nuisance settlement. And O'Keefe is no more a journalist than Michael Moore: he's a political activist. So why not say it?

[onan]

because I cause too much trouble of this type.

Well we can't have sticklers for the truth, now can we?
Sorry man... not that this helps, but it isn't much different in my business. If a person needs medical treatment, with a good insurance plan treatment can take 10-14 days, if they have less than insurance then treatment can be completed in 36-48 hours.
I know I am really derailing this thread, but the news in the US is a joke and we all know it.

[PB the Deplorable]

...  And O'Keefe is no more a journalist than Michael Moore: he's a political activist. So why not say it?

Let's say he is a journalist as the term is currently used.  Or that there are no more than a handful of true journalists left.  They are (nearly) all political activists at this point, so why not just say that.

I'm tired of the Ds the Libs and the Left being measured by on standard, and the rest of us measured by a different one.

[onan]

I just noticed this quote in the politico story: "An attorney for O’Keefe said the payment was a 'nuisance settlement.' O’Keefe 'has a full career ahead as a talented investigative journalist,' Michael Madigan told the paper."

"Nuisance suit", my ass. $100,000 is no nuisance settlement. And O'Keefe is no more a journalist than Michael Moore: he's a political activist. So why not say it?

Did Michael Moore ever call himself a journalist? I know he played one as a cameo in a movie. Maybe it is splitting hairs, to make documentaries and not use the term... I would rather have reporters than journalists although that may be shaving a hair awfully thin as well.
Michael Moore and I do like him, to me is a hired gun, brought in to state a position and make the other side look less than. Sometimes I agree with him. yeah imma derailing again.

[Sardondi]

Let's say he is a journalist as the term is currently used.  Or that there are no more than a handful of true journalists left.  They are (nearly) all political activists at this point, so why not just say that.

I think that's accurate; viz. the execrable Exra Klein and the infamous "JournoList 400".

Did Michael Moore ever call himself a journalist?...

I don't know if he's ever called himself a journalist. But that's cutting it pretty thin, since he founded The Flint Voice/Michigan Voice, and was the editor of Mother Jones. I suspect it's likely he considers himself a muckraker. There are people, in media, who have called MM a journalist. But of course he is first, last and always a political activist, to which all his other endeavors take a back seat.

[West of the Rockies]

I just noticed this quote in the politico story: "An attorney for O’Keefe said the payment was a 'nuisance settlement.' O’Keefe 'has a full career ahead as a talented investigative journalist,' Michael Madigan told the paper."

"Nuisance suit", my ass. $100,000 is no nuisance settlement. And O'Keefe is no more a journalist than Michael Moore: he's a political activist. So why not say it?

I will say this:  everytime I see O'Keefe's face, I want to see someone either punch it or smoosh a pie into it.  He looks like an obnoxious punk.  He looks like a high school kid who thinks he is the smartest, hippest cat on the block.  In the interests of fairness though, I think it would do Michael Moore cosmic good, too, to get a pie to the kisser.  He looked like a real jerk when he was bullying a clearly run-down Charleton Heston in that documentary.

Isn't it curious how some of we Coasters can see all of the crap "the other side" does, but just can't quite admit that "our side" has its major Adam Henry's as well.  "Adam Henry" was a code way of announcing (at least in the police department I worked for) that a member of the public is an asshole. 

[West of the Rockies]

Well we can't have sticklers for the truth, now can we?
Sorry man... not that this helps, but it isn't much different in my business. If a person needs medical treatment, with a good insurance plan treatment can take 10-14 days, if they have less than insurance then treatment can be completed in 36-48 hours.
I know I am really derailing this thread, but the news in the US is a joke and we all know it.

That last line in your post really caught my attention, Onan.  Somebody posted a bit with Jeff Daniels' character in some movie or show (was it the "The Newsroom"?) discussing America's greatness.  His character pointed out the ways in which America has become diminished.  It's practically blasphemy in some circles to suggest that America is not the greatest country in the world.  "Love it or leave it!" the refrain goes.  But maybe we're (collectively) like a drunk who has to admit he has a problem before we can get better. 

Anyway, for what little it's worth, I quite agree with your assessment. 

[analog kid]

Noone has answered my real query.

When ACRON became a core issue in the 2008 election it was because of, or at least this was part of, the reason.  This illegal video taping.  OK, no charges brought on the criminal side, no big deal.

ACORN actually became an issue in '04, when Carl Rove began using it as one of his misdirection scapegoats. He tried to get the DOJ to go after them after the GOP's "caging" memos and tactics became well known. Breitbart and Okeefe were later players in that scheme. They probably genuinely believe(d) ACORN was the scourge of the free world, but surely there are better ways to expose wrongs they perceive besides the pimp hat. And Okeefe clearly had a preconceived agenda, like he had with Mary Landrieu. Those two are/were nothing but shit stirrers.

[Pragmier]

http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/daily-show-john-oliver-only-fictional-newsrooms-hire-investigative-reporters-video-73081


I found this relevant. CNN cuts investigative journalist job (all those gimicky wiz-bang special effects are costly!) and he winds up working for HBO's Newsroom, a fake news organization where he pitches fake investigative stories.

[onan]

http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/daily-show-john-oliver-only-fictional-newsrooms-hire-investigative-reporters-video-73081


I found this relevant. CNN cuts investigative journalist job (all those gimicky wiz-bang special effects are costly!) and he winds up working for HBO's Newsroom, a fake news organization where he pitches fake investigative stories.

I saw that the day it aired... I laughed and cried at the same time.

[PB the Deplorable]

... I found this relevant. CNN cuts investigative journalist job (all those gimicky wiz-bang special effects are costly!) and he winds up working for HBO's Newsroom, a fake news organization where he pitches fake investigative stories.

Interesting.  Typically they wind up working for the White House, some cabinet department or agency, or one of our 'representatives'  as a spokesman, pitching false information.  Then at some point go back to being 'journalists'.