Via Atrios, James O’Keefe will be on Good Morning America tomorrow morning.
And Politico asks the important question:
James O’Keefe will probably end up a wealthy man out of this, with a Regenery book deal and a wingnut welfare sinecure. Who says crime doesn’t pay?
TenguPhule
First against the wall when the revolution comes.
Larkspur
Ooh, TenguPhule, get out of my brain!
Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix
It was wrong of the press to focus on the crimes of which these young heroes were convicted, rather than… uh…
Ummmmmm……….
Yeah, I got nuthin.
robertdsc
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. What a goddamned joke. :(
Brandon
And you were glad that he didn’t go to jail because it would make him a martyr?
El Cid
Oh, c’mon, they have ACORN on there all the time. I mean, they do, right? Otherwise, this would just be insane, right?
YellowJournalism
They really need to change the name of that program.
Rock
So, he plead guilty right? Odds that anyone asks any incisive questions about an admission of guilt? I would get the “Our Failed Media Experiment” tag ready….
Brandon
@Rock:
DougJ probably just needs to set it up as a Shortcut Key “Alt – F7”, because I think it is going to get a lot of use tomorrow. Also too, I wonder how many times they will use the word “allegedly” when referring to his admission of guilt?
The Dangerman
@YellowJournalism:
Mourning America?
ItAintEazy
@YellowJournalism:
“Morning In America”?
Edit: I see The Dangerman was quicker to the trigger. A tip of the ol’ hat to you.
Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix
@YellowJournalism: Good Morning, Chinese Protectorate?
R. Porrofatto
Is he gonna wear an outrageous phone company repairman costume?
Polish the Guillotines
@YellowJournalism:
I vote for “Go Fuck Yourself, America.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the press was unfair to him for reporting he was arrested, indicted and convicted (or did he plead guilty?), after uncritically reporting on the scam he and Breitbart ran against a group that helped poor people register to vote and find work and housing? I loves me some Politico, baby.
kay
He’s on probation.
Do we not have probation officers anymore?
Christ.
On the other hand, he’s on probation for three years, and he’ll re-offend, with Good Morning America cheering him on like this.
Next one won’t be a misdemeanor. So that’s good.
The Dangerman
Perhaps the young O’Keefe will announce that he’s now dating Bristol Palin and the Right will be too busy wanking to cause any grief for a while…
Kryptik
Once again. Nothing will ever disqualify a conservative from being painted as a serious person or at the very least worthy of a plum television appearance to bleat their ‘side’ of the story.
Violet
@YellowJournalism:
“Popcorn For Idiots”?
“Water-Carrying for Wingnuts”?
“Infotainment for Lazy People”?
“Mouth-Breathers Anonymous”?
kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He pled. He convicted himself.
Still, they feel he was wrongly convicted. There was talk of appeals for a while. It took a little while for them to get it.
fucen tarmal
i’m sure the interviewer won’t be offended at all by his horrible pimp schtick, the one straight out of a 70s blacksploitation film, understood to be over the top comedy even back then…but played as serious expose by master o’keiffe.
no, the interview will be; we are abc, the “establishment”, but we are cool with the new “journalism”, man….
so much, so wrong…
kommrade reproductive vigor
So. The press hurt their fee-fees so badly they plead guilty.
Right.
I want to put $20 on a Larry Craig Gambit before the end of June.
balconesfault
And if a brown-skinned person was prosecuted for attempting to wire-tap a US Senator’s office?
Yeah … he’d be on Good Morning America. Or at least his picture, in an orange jumpsuit.
fucen tarmal
@The Dangerman:
i was thinking its a shame the bush’s married off their ho daughter before the secret service taxi, panty finding, and walk of shame prevention went down to ex-prez family levels. the blonde, on the today show, o’keiffe, that could be some serious sexual chemistry….
Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix
Maybe Fox can give O’Keefe a talk show. Ollie North and G. Gordan Liddy could be co-hosts.
scav
What about a working up a list of other criminals we’d like to see interviewed in a similar format?
SpotWeld
The best O’Keffe can ever hope to be is the next Erik Erikson… kinda sad when you think about it.
PeakVT
@Violet:
Eat Our Tasty Bullshit, America?
Start Your Day Stupid, America?
Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix
@SpotWeld: You kid, but Erik Erikson is probably all O’Keefe ever wanted to be.
SpotWeld
@Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix: Who said I was kidding.
He’s a failed G. Gordon Liddy wannabe…. Erikson would be a step up for him
kay
Somebody needs to secretly film a staged interaction with media personalities and then edit the tape to make them look like criminals, and play it over and over again.
I think then they might get it.
Violet
@PeakVT:
“We Think You’re Stupid, America”?
“Thinking is Hard, America”?
fucen tarmal
@scav:
mumia on the view?
manson in the morning with regis?
you know the blonde trollop would be putty in his hands by the end of the first commercial, and carving a swastika in her forhead by the third.
Violet
@kay:
I don’t think they’d get it. That idiot David Gregory’s email where he begs Mark Sanford to come on his show that showed his blatant abdication of his journalistic responsibility (“you can frame the conversation how you really want to”) did exactly zero to damage his reputation. Unless you showed them murdering someone or something, I don’t think they’d take a hit.
Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix
@SpotWeld: Say what you will about Liddy (please! rimshot), but he at least had a good reason for breaking into the Watergate. By bugging the DNC, the Watergate burglars would have provided lots of useful information for Nixon.
O’Keefe? He makes videos. He couldn’t have used his wiretap for that purpose without revealing that he had a wiretap. So what he did was silly unless he was working for a Republican pol! Oh…. wait….
Maybe GMA will ask O’Keefe about that. And maybe tomorrow I’ll crap a solid gold turd.
balconesfault
kay – that is a great idea, despite Violet’s concern.
Fact is, the Acorn workers who were slandered are just collateral damage. The media has no empathy whatsoever with the people who spend day after day in an inner city office trying to help poor and undereducated residents figure out how the system works.
Clearly, they empathasize more with this privileged white kid, ready and able to twist any fact and destroy any individual, in order to frame a story the way he wanted and boost his reputation.
Oh. Never mind.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
\
Mr Furious
@balconesfault: Yep. pretty much. I wouldn’t be surprised if some in the media were actually in awe of O’Keefe for having the balls to pull some of the shit he did—treating him as an up-and-coming investigative/undercover reporter that actually results in a twisted camaraderie.
maus
@balconesfault:
Heh, what, you want us to report on Ivory Tower liberals that spend all day sipping lattes? We cater to the “real hardworking americans” that watch our shows.
Trippin
Apparently, he has sting videos on census fraud that will be aired on ABC tomorrow or so says the promo.
Mr Furious
How long until O’Keefe is widely regarded as a (poor imitation) right-wing version of / answer to Michael Moore?
Quiddity
Rearrange the letters in “James O’Keefe” and you get
SEE JOKE FAME
handy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This.
Brian J
What sort of bum rap are they getting? They tried to bug a senator’s office, which is, as far as I understand it, illegal. If I walk into a store, put on a pair of jeans, walk right out, and get arrested, I am not getting a bum rap. I’m getting what I deserved. It’s not as if they are being persecuted. They are being prosecuted, which is what happens when you break the fucking law.
What’s so goddamn hard to understand about this?
sherifffruitfly
I’ll never forget when the ACORN lies first came out, how quickly self-proclaimed “true progressives” called for charges and for ACORN to be shut down.
It wasn’t long after the damage had been done, that they “magically” changed their tune, pretending to be oh-so offended by the right-wing lies they themselves helped to amplify.
j
He should have been sentenced to 1,000 hours of cleaning up the Gulf. No holidays off, Tuesday and Wednesday off. 8 hours a day of physical labor.
TenguPhule
Bend Over ™.
TenguPhule
That they’re being prosecuted for breaking the law. That happens to “other people”.
jp2
Drudge right now is beyond classic.
Rain interrupted Obama’s speech – the headline is:
THE GODS ARE ANGRY!
Linkmeister
The promo at the GMA website:
Are they serious? Stephanopoulous knows what happened with the ACORN thing; why on earth would he go along . . . oh, never mind.
asiangrrlMN
That does it. I’m getting on the rightwingnutters’ gravy train, and I ain’t stopping until my mug is on every goddamn morning show in America. How’s that for a good morning? Disgusting.
Yutsano
@Linkmeister: If Snuffleuphagus doesn’t rip him a new asshole I’m officially checking out of this country. This jerk does not need to be celebrated by anyone, he should just eat his wingnut welfare and shut the fuck up. No I’m not moody just tired of this bullshit.
Linkmeister
Letting an admitted criminal on the show and then promoting it in the fashion described above is bizarre.
Hopefully Stephanopoulos sees it that way too.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Do you really think that would happen? Even when you are tired of the bullshit, you are still way more optimistic than am I.
Rock
@Linkmeister:
So, O’Keefe’s hacked together video slander of ACORN is known for what it is now. He follows that up by illegally attempting to bug a senator’s office and pleads guilty. And the result is that he gets on GMA to expose the US Census as the leftist/black power grab that I’m sure it will be shown to be. Meanwhile, Michael Moore is not GMA material, what with him being a fat hippy propagandist that no one can take seriously.
At the same time, we’ll just ignore the attack on the aid flotilla and we’ll decide that the oil spill brought on by Bush’s lack of regulation is Obama’s Katrina, cause he’s acting just like Dukakis did when he didn’t get enraged about someone hypothetically raping his wife.
It’s enough to make me become a survivalist, because a society this misinformed operating with such misplaced priorities surely will implode at some point. It’s scarier than the Y2K bug ever was.
PeakVT
Someone dropped the hyphen-bomb on the Jindal thread.
YellowJournalism
@jp2: But I thought rain was Jesus tears, so isn’t this just God showing emotion at a Memorial Day service?
BTW, the GMA rename suggestions are hilarious. “Bend Over,” indeed.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: HA! Please. O’Keefe will get his dick slobbered all over and get the strange idea he’s a national hero, and he won’t get challenged on shit. It’d be nice if Snuffy would at least acknowledge that he is a convicted criminal, but I’m sure it will be a lovefest that will rival Haight and Ashbury.
@YellowJournalism: And of course Drudge’s venture into paganism won’t even get a peep out of the Christian Right crowd. He may be a big old queen, but he’s THEIR big old queen dammit!
Bill E Pilgrim
@kay: You get an award for being the last person remaining on the entire Internet who spells pled the right way.
I bet you also write “lose” instead of “loose”.
asiangrrlMN
@Bill E Pilgrim: Um, I do both. Do I win a prize?
@Yutsano: Ah, good to see your cranky side, hon. Yeah, it’ll be a deep throat for sure for O’Keefe. I am serious about out-Malkining Michelle Malkin and becoming the craziest rightwing Asian woman in America. I used to act. I can do this, right?
TuiMel
Certainly no one in the power structure for Republican politics.
Bill E Pilgrim
@asiangrrlMN: You win an award for just being you.
It’s true, I would never suspect you of being a pled misspeller, so okay two remaining people on the Internet. Three including me.
I bet you even know what begs the question really means.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: You could. Of course you’d have to take very long hot showers afterwards. And then you’d have to dump the whole bisexual thingie since that won’t go over well with the teabagger nuts. Of course if you tease JUST enough, you’ll get them thinking with the wrong head anyway. But it’s a delicate act. Granted they can be bamboozled rather easily. Plus then I could quit my job and we could vacation on FH #1’s couch. I may have to re-think this objection.
asiangrrlMN
@Bill E Pilgrim: Aw, thanks! And, yes, I did know what it meant, but I had to Google it just to make sure. How’s France this fine morn?
@Yutsano: I don’t have to dump being bi; I just have to heatedly protest against it before getting ‘caught’ with a ‘wide stance’ with Salma Hayek. Then, with the pictures properly disseminated and the stars properly burst, I will be alll about the Benjamins, baby!
MikeJ
@Yutsano:
Stephy got where he is by showing that he was brave enough to be mean to Democrats. Nothing is going to stand between him and a paycheck, and if he has to suck teabagger dick, he will.
Yutsano
@MikeJ: You do realize you’re making me seriously reconsider my anti-marriage stance. Not that I’d do that just for convenience alone, but it can sometimes be a useful means to an end, especially if repatriation becomes necessary. I’m not quite there yet as I love my home state and would love to be the fourteenth province of Canada after the US falls apart. But I am beginning to wonder if dengre is right and we’re just too stupid to continue.
@asiangrrlMN: Hmm…the plot gets thicker by the minute. I find this all very intriguing, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: P.S. I guess you haven’t heard the second part of my nefarious plan: Donate the money to Amnesty International, ACORN, and other charities which will make the rightwingers’ heads asplode! P.S. You DO remember you are already fake-married, right?
@MikeJ: So, he’s gonna get teabagged by a teabagger?
@Yutsano: You already have!
MattR
@Yutsano: At a Memorial Day BBQ I added a couple more people onto my waiting list to be my sham husband who will move with me to Canada for their health care. (I have dual citizenship and I have to admit that it is nice to know that I always have that backup plan available for the worst case scenario)
Sgt. Jrod and his Howling Commandos
While O’Keefe is being invited to vent his spleen on national television for his crimes, the guy who “hacked” (i.e. guessed the password) Palin’s Yahoo email account is facing twenty years in prison.
Fuck this country.
Yutsano
@MattR: I have an ex who’s Canadian who, if I could find him again, I could probably get re-connected with romantically again rather easily. He’s a very tough shell to crack and acts brooding and cold to a lot of people, but I got through all of that. I still do have some feelings for him as well, so it wouldn’t even be a sham if he wanted to re-consider the proposition. And I would dual citizen in a heartbeat, mostly because the US makes it so damn easy to keep yours.
@asiangrrlMN: Yes but we discussed this: you is not a citizen of Taiwan. I do wonder how difficult it would be for you to reclaim that part of your family legacy however. I know in PRC it’s based on cultural background, not sure if Taiwan works the same way. Piece of trivia: hardest country to become a citizen of: Japan. Even if you’re of Japanese ancestry they make it almost damn impossible. It’s why you almost never hear of American ex-pats in Japan going full-bore citizens.
MattR
@Yutsano: Interesting tidbit about Japan. And interesting about your perspective on the US. I remember being in high school and being worried that I would be forced to give up my Candian citizenship at 18. And my mom was a bit freaked about having to renounce her Canadian citizenship when she became an American. She actually called the Canadian embassy/consulate to make sure she would still be able to return home at any time (And now she gets a retirement check from the Canadian gov’t for the massive amount of roughly $4.50 a month) The Canadians recently changed their laws so that my sister’s children (or my non-existant ones) will not have Canadian citizenship since she is married to an American and lives in the US (where we were born)
Yutsano
@MattR: It’s funny because the US doesn’t even ask you if you’re living abroad. As long as you haven’t declared you’re no longer a US citizen to a consulate official and surrendered your passport, you’re still a US citizen period. Even if you become a citizen of another country, you have to take that extra step. It’s one of the reasons why so many people are dual US-whatever citizens. And FWIW one of my co-workers is Canadian. If you ask her if she wants to become a US citizen she’ll laugh in your face. In fact, I may have to check this, but I think she had her son in Canada just so there would be no question on the matter.
MattR
@Yutsano: My mother became a citizen roughly twenty years after marrying my American father and moving to the US and the only reason she did so (became a citizen, not married my father) was because she went to work in a school district where it was (or became) a requirement.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: No can do. US does not recognize Taiwan as a country. My father was told if he wanted a certain government position, he would have to renounce his US citizenship. He said, “Um, no.”
Sgt. Jrod and his Howling Commandos
@Yutsano: My understanding is that it’s actually quite difficult to renounce your US citizenship in a way that’s recognized by the US. Simply declaring so to a consulate isn’t enough. According to this page, you also have to sign an oath, as well as jump through whatever hoops the Sec. of State wants to impose. Furthermore, renouncing your citizenship apparently doesn’t release you from the draft (what the fuck?!). Finally, if it’s judged that the renouncer does not fully comprehend what renunciation entails, it’s not legal.
I’m glad I have no intention of ever renouncing my citizenship, and just as glad that the US makes dual-citizenship simple. Though I doubt any other nation would have me.
maus
@Linkmeister:
Bizarre? Have you been paying attention to the last eight years of softballs and conservative knobslobbing? Stephanopoulos isn’t known for his great reporting.
@Rock: Terrorists should target the Real Housewife, American Idol, and Dancing with the stars sets if they really want to get the US to pay attention. Or maybe Al Qaeda should set up a twitter feed and foursquare account or some shit.
bob h
And maybe a job offer from Fox.
KCinDC
Yes, that liberal ABC News is so biased, describing the guy who made a doctored smear video that damaged an organization that helps poor people as a whistleblower.
flukebucket
Yeah. I watched it this morning. He had Breitbart sitting there with him like he was his damn lawyer or something. And I guess it goes without saying that Breitbart is obviously mentally unstable.
O’Keefe is now going to blow the lid off of the rampant corruption from the Census bureau.
I think he has a film that proves he was paid for 3 hours of work he did not do over a two day period.
A real conservative hero.
Boudica
When the workers signed up for the training, I’m sure they were told it was 8-4. And they finished at 3:30!! omg! And they took a 70 minute lunch instead of 60! If I scheduled my day to be free from 8-4, then I expect to be paid from 8-4. How many of us go to trainings/seminars and rejoice when we finish 1/2 hour early? Seems awfully nitpicky to me…
Boudica
I have to say that Stephie was extremely annoying. He kept harping on the “illegal act” and asked O’Keefe numerous times if he would be breaking the law again. O’Keefe said “no,” so why keep asking the same question over and over again?
PaulW
If doing something criminally stupid gets you on the morning talk shows and gets you a book deal and everything, then maybe *I ought to do something stupid* and get my own book deal and talk show minutes!!!
I know! I’ll drive up to the White House and offer them my resume and ask to get assigned to the team that’s hunting down Osama Bin Laden! After all, they need the manpower and I need the work! And when the Secret Service tasers me into submission… WHAMMO! Here I come, Rachel Maddow show!!!
PaulW
@flukebucket:
There was rampant corruption?! How come I didn’t get any of it?! Dammit where’s my payoffs for being a part-time Enumerator! >:-(
fucen tarmal
@Boudica:
i’ve been a corporate trainer, the longer than you would usually get lunch, the longer than is required by law breaks are done with a purpose, and the whole point of knocking off early is, you keep people focused by letting them know, the faster they demonstrate comprehension, the faster they can knock off…
the whole point is to keep folks thinking you like them, receptive…adults don’t learn so good(sic) when they think you are an egotistical dick. plus, if things get really off track, you have a built in chance to catch it, before you do more damage than good….