![\"James](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2602\/3930246562_eaabe610d6_o.jpg\")
Serial liar and video manipulator, James O’Keefe, is taking an odd approach to his his defense on charges of making unlawful, recordings. The charges were filed in California in a case involving former ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera, who was falsely portrayed in a heavily edited videotape as assisting O’Keefe’s phony prostitution ring when, in fact, Vera was skeptical from the start and notified the police immediately after O’Keefe left his office.<\/p>\n
Now O’Keefe’s lawyers are claiming that he was within his rights to surreptitiously record the conversations citing MTV’s Punk’d as a precedent. This is so stupid that I have to wonder if Ashton Kutcher is providing O’Keefe’s legal defense team.<\/p>\n
A team of four lawyers is defending O’Keefe on a pro bono basis in the suit filed by one of O’Keefe’s targets, and they’re citing everything from the writings of James Madison to Ashton Kutcher’s MTV show ‘Punk’d’ to a Woody Allen segment on ‘Candid Camera’ to claim O’Keefe’s ACORN sting is protected by the First Amendment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Do O’Keefe’s lawyers know that Punk’d was an entertainment program that deliberately misled its victims with the intent of embarrassing them for the shock value? Perhaps they do because that’s a pretty good description of what O’Keefe’s Project Veritas does.<\/p>\n
There are, however, a couple of significant differences between Punk’d and Project Veritas. For one, there was no malice or harm intended on the part of Kutcher & Co. They even included friends and family of the subjects in the ruse. Also, Punk’d always obtained signed releases from their subjects giving permission to release the videos prior to broadcasting anything. That’s a step O’Keefe conspicuously neglected.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most notable assertion in this line of defense is that it is an admission that O’Keefe is not a journalist, as he likes to portray himself. That is, not unless he thinks Ashton Kutcher is following in the footsteps of Edward R. Murrow. By aligning himself in sworn legal documents with a comedy show that features purposeful deceit, O’Keefe is undercutting any claim he may have had to First Amendment protections for the press.<\/p>\n
Nice work punk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Serial liar and video manipulator, James O’Keefe, is taking an odd approach to his his defense on charges of making unlawful, recordings. The charges were filed in California in a case involving former ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera, who was falsely portrayed in a heavily edited videotape as assisting O’Keefe’s phony prostitution ring when, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,8,16],"tags":[639],"class_list":["post-4079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-propaganda","category-wankery","tag-james-okeefe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-13N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1541,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1541","url_meta":{"origin":4079,"position":0},"title":"James O’Keefe Issues Lie-Riddled Defense For Landrieu Affair","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/29\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"James O'Keefe, the ersatz \"pimp\" famous for pestering ACORN, has published an amusing defense of his most recent criminal adventure. The statement was fittingly posted on Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment web site, as Breitbart is O'Keefe's mentor and protector, despite having disavowed himself of any connection to little Jimmy's felonious conduct.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2105,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2105","url_meta":{"origin":4079,"position":1},"title":"James O’Keefe In More Legal Hot Water Over ACORN","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/12\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Convicted criminal James O'Keefe is reportedly being sued by a former ACORN employee who was the reluctant star of one of O'Keefe's videos. Earlier this year O'Keefe was sentenced to three years probation, 100 hours of community service, and a $1,500 fine for having trespassed the offices of a United\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7104,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7104","url_meta":{"origin":4079,"position":2},"title":"James O’Keefe Produces Another Embarrassing Flop","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/15\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Borat of right-wing pseudo-journalism has just released the latest in his attempts to so thoroughly discredit himself that his mother would be ashamed to take his calls. James O'Keefe, a convicted criminal, has been trying to prove that voter fraud in America is at crisis proportions. But the only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27305,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=27305","url_meta":{"origin":4079,"position":3},"title":"James O’Keefe’s Legal Woes Continue To Mount. And It’s Mostly From Former Friends","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/7\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Not satisfied with having been convicted for unlawful activity in the office of a United States Senator, or losing $100,000 to a former ACORN employee he defamed, James O'Keefe has racked up a rap sheet that a Mafia boss would envy. O'Keefe's latest legal misadventure just ended with his meritless\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"James O'Keefe","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/okeefe-horrible-boss.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/okeefe-horrible-boss.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/okeefe-horrible-boss.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1545,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1545","url_meta":{"origin":4079,"position":4},"title":"Fox News And Breitbart Smear O’Keefe Prosecutor","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/2\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In a report that is jam-packed with falsehoods, Fox News casts sinister aspersions on the motives of the U.S. Attorney who brought the case against pimp\/journalist James O'Keefe for his alleged felonious activities in the office of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. The first paragraph of the article, titled \"U.S. Attorney\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29556,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=29556","url_meta":{"origin":4079,"position":5},"title":"Schmuckraker James O’Keefe Resurfaces With Pathetic Hillary Clinton Smear","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/1\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month Hillary Clinton's campaign busted an attempted infiltration by the scumbags at James O'Keefe's Project Veritas. The exposure of O'Keefe's scam was reported by Clinton staff to Time, complete with evidence of the would-be fraud. You might think that after having been revealed and held up to ridicule the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"James O'Keefe","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/okeefe-borat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/okeefe-borat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/okeefe-borat.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4079"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4081,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079\/revisions\/4081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}