{"id":6363,"date":"2012-02-09T02:56:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T10:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6363"},"modified":"2012-02-09T02:56:59","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T10:56:59","slug":"james-o%e2%80%99keefe-reaches-new-heights-of-stupidity-%e2%80%93-and-irrelevance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6363","title":{"rendered":"James O\u2019Keefe Reaches New Heights Of Stupidity \u2013 And Irrelevance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JamesThe biggest joke in the modern era of pseudo-reality television has struck again. Crockumentary videographer James O’Keefe<\/a> posted a new video purporting to reveal the potential for voter fraud in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to waste much space refuting the inane premise of his video. That has already been done quite well by Brad Friedman at the Brad Blog<\/a> and Tommy Christopher at Mediaite<\/a>. Suffice to say that O’Keefe’s escapade proved absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n

The short story is that he entered a few Minnesota county offices and misrepresented himself as a “third party”<\/em> who was interested in helping other citizens to register who were unable to do so themselves. All that this amounted to was collecting an application for an absentee ballot, which anybody can do. However, filling out and submitting the application must be done by the actual voter and requires identification or a verified witness. And voters who register this way must present ID when voting for the first time at a polling place. But, O’Keefe never went that far, nor mentioned those facts. He simply implied that picking up the application form was evidence of potential for fraud.<\/p>\n

The only crime that may have occurred here is the videotaping that O’Keefe did without the permission of the subjects. O’Keefe, a convicted criminal himself, is already under investigation for that crime in other states. He is also being sued for having slandered people through the dishonest and deceptive editing of his video stings.<\/p>\n

The whole gambit, like most of O’Keefe’s charades, was a pointless exercise that proved nothing. His intent was to validate the manufactured right-wing hysteria over voter fraud that is being used to promote the passage of voter ID laws that make it more difficult for seniors, students, the poor, and the disabled to vote. It is part of a coordinated campaign to suppress the vote<\/a> of predominantly Democratic constituencies. It should also be noted that none of these voter ID laws would have prevented what O’Keefe is attempting to do in his video.<\/p>\n

So it isn’t news that O’Keefe is distributing yet another fraudulent video that serves no purpose other than maligning the innocent and alleging non-existent atrocities. What’s news is that even fewer people actually care about any of the fakery he is spewing. His first phony (and thoroughly debunked) videos about ACORN were featured on Andrew Breitbarts’s BigJournalism blog and Fox News. More recently O’Keefe was only able to interest Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller. But this new video is going nowhere fast. The usual right-wing propagandists are steering clear. Perhaps even they are finally too embarrassed to be associated with this hoaxter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biggest joke in the modern era of pseudo-reality television has struck again. Crockumentary videographer James O’Keefe posted a new video purporting to reveal the potential for voter fraud in Minnesota. I’m not going to waste much space refuting the inane premise of his video. That has already been done quite well by Brad Friedman […]<\/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],"tags":[639],"class_list":["post-6363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-james-okeefe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1ED","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2105,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2105","url_meta":{"origin":6363,"position":0},"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":9254,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9254","url_meta":{"origin":6363,"position":1},"title":"James O’Keefe Agrees To Pay $100,000 To Former ACORN Employee [Update w\/O’Keefe Statement]","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/8\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Having already been convicted of criminal activity in Louisiana, recidivist law-breaker James O'Keefe is now shelling out a hundred grand to one of his victims in the notorious ACORN affair. ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera was surreptitiously videotaped (for which criminal charges are still pending) and falsely portrayed as offering\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":4079,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4079","url_meta":{"origin":6363,"position":2},"title":"James O’Keefe Invokes The Punk’d Defense","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/17\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":6363,"position":3},"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":7618,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7618","url_meta":{"origin":6363,"position":4},"title":"Video Mangler James O’Keefe Strikes (Out) Again","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/18\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"On some level you have to admire the spunk of crocumentary maker James O'Keefe. It seems that no matter how many times he releases a video project that is quickly debunked, making him the object of ridicule, he bounces back and releases another unphased. In the latest episode, O'Keefe sought\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":6680,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6680","url_meta":{"origin":6363,"position":5},"title":"Delusional Bravado: James O’Keefe Dodges Imaginary Bullets","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/17\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"If there is a more pathetic representative of the cartoon-brained right than video con artist James O'Keefe, I cannot think of who it might be. Despite the fact that he is a convicted criminal who is best known for producing deliberately falsified videos and a sleazy attempt to seduce a\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363","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=6363"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6365,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363\/revisions\/6365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}