Judge: Former ACORN worker can sue James O’Keefe

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

A federal judge last week allowed a lawsuit against conservative activists James O’Keefe and Hanna Giles to proceed, according to Courthouse News Service.

Former ACORN worker Juan Carlos Vera sued O’Keefe and Giles in 2010 for allegedly illegally taping their confidential conversation to make the now infamous “ACORN pimp” video. After the heavily-edited video was released in 2009, Vera was fired from ACORN and Congress later voted to defund the organization, which led to its bankruptcy.

California law that prohibits people from recording confidential conservations without the consent of all parties involved. The law excludes communications made in “any other circumstance in which the parties to the communication may reasonably expect that the communication may be overheard or recorded” such as in public places.

O’Keefe argued that Vera had no expectation of privacy. But U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz said that Vera “reasonably believed that the conversation was private because it was held in his office with no one else present, and he believed that no one else was listening in on his conversation.” He denied O’Keefe’s motion for a summary judgement.

Lorenz added that O’Keefe had “misled [Vera] to believe that the conversation would remain confidential by posing as a client seeking services from ACORN and asking whether their conversation was confidential.”

The video made it appear that Vera had given human-smuggling advice to O’Keefe and Giles while the two conservative activists were dressed as a pimp and prostitute.

However, it was later revealed that Vera had reported their fake child prostitution ring to the police. A California state investigation later cleared Vera and other ACORN workers of any wrongdoing.

“Even if O’Keefe and Giles had truly intended to break the law, there is no evidence that any of the ACORN employees had the intent to aid and abet such criminal conduct or agreed to join in that illegal conduct,” the California Department of Justice concluded (PDF).

The California Department of Justice agreed not to prosecute O’Keefe and Giles in exchange for providing the full, unedited videotapes. The department said their report “strongly suggests that O’Keefe and Giles’s violated state privacy laws and provides fair warning to them and others that this type of activity can be prosecuted in California.”

Inevitable: Right-Wing Media Freak Out Over Nonexistent "ACORN" Tie To Occupy Wall Street

From Media Matters

Led by Fox News, right-wing media have claimed that ACORN is playing a "behind [the] scenes role" in Occupy Wall Street, alleging that the group New York Communities for Change (NYCC) -- which is led by a former ACORN official -- is paying people to join protests and collecting money to fund OWS activities. But NYCC has flatly denied these claims, and ACORN -- which has been a right-wing media bogeyman for years -- disbanded in November 2010.

Led By Fox, Right-Wing Media Claim Nonexistent ACORN Is Paying Protesters To Join Occupy Wall Street Movement

Fox News: "ACORN Playing Behind Scenes Role in 'Occupy' Movement." An October 26 FoxNews.com article cited unnamed sources who claimed that "[w]hat people don't understand is that ACORN is behind" the Occupy Wall Street movement. The article also claimed:

The former New York office for ACORN, the disbanded community activist group, is playing a key role in the self-proclaimed "leaderless" Occupy Wall Street movement, organizing "guerrilla" protest events and hiring door-to-door canvassers to collect money under the banner of various causes while spending it on protest-related activities, sources tell FoxNews.com.

The former director of New York ACORN, Jon Kest, and his top aides are now busy working at protest events for New York Communities for Change (NYCC). That organization was created in late 2009 when some ACORN offices disbanded and reorganized under new names after undercover video exposes prompted Congress to cut off federal funds. 

[...]

Sources said NYCC has hired about 100 former ACORN-affiliated staff members from other cities -- paying some of them $100 a day -- to attend and support Occupy Wall Street. Dozens of New York homeless people recruited from shelters are also being paid to support the protests, at the rate of $10 an hour, the sources said.

At least some of those hired are being used as door-to-door canvassers to collect money that's used to support the protests.

Sources said cash donations collected by NYCC on behalf of some unions and various causes are being pooled and spent on Occupy Wall Street. The money is used to buy supplies, pay staff and cover travel expenses for the ex-ACORN members brought to New York for the protests.

Fox News claimed that NYCC ignored "repeated email and telephone requests for comment" but posted NYCC's denial of the story. However, the article went on to claim again that "[s]ources said NYCC was a key player behind a series of recent Occupy Wall Street events." [FoxNews.com, 10/26/11]

NY Post: "ACORN'S Back -- And It's Occupying Wall Street." An October 27 New York Post article cited Fox News and claimed:

ACORN'S back -- and it's occupying Wall Street.

[...]

ACORN disbanded in 2010 after the release of embarrassing videos showing the group's workers coaching conservative activists who were posing as clients how to fraudulently obtain benefits and use them to open a brothel.

Fox News reported yesterday that NYCC has been paying "dozens" of homeless people $10 an hour to sit in Zuccotti Park. The report also said NYCC canvassers go door-to-door asking for money for other causes like PCB relief in schools -- with the money funneled back to OWS.

The New York Post article included a statement from "Jonathan Westin, NYCC's organizing director and a former ACORN organizer" who "denied the reports." [New York Post, 10/27/11]

Carlson: "ACORN Is Now Operating Under A Different Name" And Is "Organizing 'Guerilla Protests.' " On the October 27 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson cited the FoxNews.com article to claim "ACORN is -- is now operating under a different name, New York Communities for Change ... and that they're organizing quote, 'guerilla protests' and hiring door-to-door canvassers to collect money under the banner of various causes... while spending it on the protests." Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. claimed that "ACORN is in it, according to FoxNews.com ... through its successor organization." Johnson acknowledged that NYCC "den[ies] any paying of the homeless or any other untoward fundraising activities." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/27/11, via Media Matters]

Hoft: "ACORN Working Behind The Scenes To Prop Up Occupy Movement." In an October 26 post on Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft wrote:

One of Barack Obama's first big "community organizer" jobs involved ACORN in 1992. He worked along side ACORN before he became an elected official. Obama also trained ACORN employees. He represented ACORN in court. Obama worked with and protested with ACORN. His campaign donated $800,000 to ACORN in 2008 for voter registration efforts.

[...]

In 2009 Congress voted to defund ACORN and its affiliates. But that didn't stop the Obama Administration from giving $560,000 to ACORN affiliates in 2010.

So it really comes as no surprise that ACORN is working behind the scenes in the Obama-endorsed Occupy movement. [Gateway Pundit, 10/26/11]

The Blaze: "ACORN Is Secretly Helping Organize & Fund The 'Occupy' Movement." An October 26 post on Glenn Beck's website The Blaze cited the Fox News report and claimed that "the former New York office for ACORN is heavily involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement." From The Blaze:

Remember ACORN? If not, try and stretch your memory back to the 2008 presidential campaign and the months that followed.

The controversial community organizing group -- which is now defunct -- came under fire for purportedly engaging in voter fraud.

Now, Fox News is reporting that the former New York office for ACORN is heavily involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement -- so much so, that former members are apparently organizing door-to-door canvassing, events, and other related activities. Considering that this is supposedly a "leaderless" movement, these allegations are curious. [The Blaze, 10/26/11]

But NYCC Has Denied The Accusation That It Is Paying Protesters ...

NYCC: "We Don't Pay Protesters ... Period." In a statement released on October 26, NYCC board member Linnette Ebanks responded to the Fox News report, noting that they "don't pay protesters." From the statement:

Fox News is trying to discredit Occupy Wall Street. New York Communities for Change is a new organization that fights for low- and moderate-income families. We don't pay protesters and any monies raised by NYCC's canvass are used in support of our ongoing issue campaigns. Period.

The reality is that Occupy Wall Street is an organic movement of the 99% outraged at the ability of the 1% to corrupt America's political and financial systems for personal gain while middle class families lose their jobs, their homes, and see their economic future devastated. We call on Fox News to stop its unseemly attacks and to respect the views of the overwhelming majority of Americans who believe that our nation needs a more equitable distribution of wealth. [NYCC, 10/26/11, emphasis added]

... And, As Fox News Admits, It's Hardly A Secret That NYCC Supports The Goals Of Occupy Wall Street

NYCC Executive Director On Sept. 30: "I'm Excited To Announce That New York Communities For Change ... Will Be Showing Our Support For #Occupywallstreet." As Fox News noted in its report, NYCC executive director Jon Kest "publicly threw his organization's support behind the movement in a Sept. 30 opinion piece on HuffingtonPost.com." Indeed, in his Huffington Post piece, Kest wrote, "I'm excited to announce that New York Communities for Change ... will be showing our support for #OccupyWallStreet." [FoxNews.com, 10/26/11; The Huffington Post, 9/30/11]

Moreover, Despite Claims That "ACORN" Is "Secretly Helping" Occupy Wall Street, ACORN No Longer Exists

CNN: "Chapter 7 Means Liquidating And Selling Off All Remaining Assets And Closing Up Shop." From a November 2, 2010, post on the CNN blog Political Ticker:

ACORN, the community group from which a mighty oak of political controversy grew, announced it is filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy by the close of business Tuesday. In March, it began bringing its national operations to a close.

"For over 40 years ACORN has fought the good fight," said CEO Bertha Lewis, today, in a statement on the group's website. "The ongoing political onslaught caused irreparable harm."

[...]

Filing for Chapter 7 means liquidating and selling off all remaining assets and closing up shop. [Political Ticker, CNN.com, 11/2/10]

ACORN Has Long Been A Right-Wing Bogeyman

Right-Wing Media Claimed Defunct ACORN Was Funded Through AHCOA. In July, right-wing media claimed that, after filing for bankruptcy, ACORN was being funded through the Affordable Housing Centers of America. [Media Matters, 7/7/11]

For the truth about AHCOA, SEE HERE.

Right-Wing Media Claimed O'Keefe Undercover Videos Showed "Illegal Activity." Following a series of undercover videos by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe, the right-wing media repeatedly claimed ACORN and its employees had engaged in "illegal activity." [Media Matters, 12/18/09]

For the truth about the actions of ACORN and its employees in O'Keefe's videos, SEE HERE.

Right-Wing Media Claimed ACORN Received Federal Funding In Financial Bailout Bill.Following the passage of the financial bailout legislation in 2008, the right-wing media repeatedly claimed the bill gave ACORN a "slush fund." [Media Matters, 10/10/08]

For the truth about ACORN and the financial bailout legislation, SEE HERE.

Right-Wing Media Claimed ACORN Received Funding From The Economic Recovery Bill. The right-wing media further claimed that provisions of the 2009 stimulus bill meant "there could be money in there for such organizations as ACORN." [Media Matters, 2/13/09]

For the truth about ACORN and the stimulus bill, SEE HERE.

Right-Wing Media Claimed "ACORN Qualifies For Funding In Senate Health Care Bill." The right-wing media also claimed that the Senate version of the 2010 health care reform bill would provide funding to ACORN. [Media Matters, 12/22/09]

For the truth about ACORN and the Senate health care bill, SEE HERE.

Fox News Claimed ACORN "May Stand To Benefit" From Obama's 2011 Budget. Fox News claimed ACORN could receive federal funding under President Obama's 2011 budget. [Media Matters,2/3/10]

For the truth about ACORN and Obama's 2011 Budget, SEE HERE.

And This Is Just The Latest Attack In The Right-Wing's Smear Campaign Against Occupy Wall Street

Right-Wing Media Have Waged A Relentless Smear Campaign Against Occupy Wall Street Movement. Right-wing media have engaged in a relentless smear campaign against the Occupy Wall Street movement, including calling the protesters socialists and Marxists, saying they represent the "fringe of the fringe of the fringe," and claiming they "sound like the Unabomber," among other attacks. [Media Matters, 10/18/11]

For a guide to the right-wing media's smear campaign against OWS, SEE HERE

Let's Indict Andrew Breitbart!

By Mike Sax/Diary of a Republican Hater


 I have just started the following petition to do just this,

    "Breitbert and his partner in slander, James O'Keefe, have single-handedly destroyed many worthy public servants and institutions, most notably Acorn which provided help and assistance to many low income Americans who desired to buy homes.

    Breitbart and O'Keefe's fraudulent video-based on entrapment, lies, and doctored footage-was the basis for Acorn's slander, defunding, and criminal prosecution.

   While it was ultimately found innocent, Acorn is now broke and its reputation is wrongly sullied.

   Mr. Breitbart needs to be held accountable and found both civilly and criminally responsible as his actions have stolen literally millions from the public in the form of the services Acorn provided.

    Mr. Breitbart and O'Keefe also continue their tireless campaign against the American people and their interests, by targeting any public individual or institution that in any way serves their interests and needs.

    Currently for instance he is attacking among many other falsely maligned targets, Media Matters, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

    A prosecution of Mr. Breitbart-and O'Keefe-will serve the multiple functions of holding him accountable, recompensing his many victims, and also will provide an "ounce of prevention" by slowing down or stopping the harm he continues to work tirelessly to visit on the American people.

   A true social criminal, Mr. Breitbart must be stopped in his tracks."

    Please join with me in stopping him in his tracks by signing this petition.

    To sign please either go here http://www.change.org/petitions/mike-l-sax-indict-andrew-breitbart

    Or follow the link on the front page of Diary of a Republican Hater "Let's Indict Andrew Breitbart."

Rachel Maddow Shows How Fox News Co-conspired With O'Keefe & Giles To Fabricate The Acorn "Scandal"

CA A.G. FINDS 'NO VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL LAW' IN 'SEVERELY EDITED' ACORN 'PIMP' VIDEOS; RELEASES RAW TAPES FOR FIRST TIME

By Brad Friedman Unreleased raw footage reviewed by AG Jerry Brown's investigation was obtained from Rightwing activists O'Keefe and Giles in exchange for immunity from prosecution

Contradicting MSM coverage, O'Keefe 'never claimed he was a pimp,' 'did not act as a journalist'...

Echoing the recent report of the Kings County, NY, District Attorney who completed a five-month probe finding "no criminality" seen in video tapes secretly taken of low-level ACORN and ACORN Housing workers last year in New York, California's Attorney General has now reached a similar conclusion regarding videos recorded in three different cities in the Golden State last Summer, according to a report released today which finds the workers "committed no violation of criminal law."

While describing "highly inappropriate behavior" by some of the workers caught on secret video tapes made by Rightwing activists, CA AG Jerry Brown's report finds that "the evidence does not show that the ACORN employees in California violated state criminal laws in connection with their conversations" with activists posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend.

In a press release announcing his 28-page report [PDF] (and accompanying 55 pages of attachments and exhibits [PDF] with it), the AG's office says the publicly released videos taken in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino were "severely edited."

Brown's statement in the announcement is highly critical of Rightwing activists James O'Keefe III and Hannah Giles, who posed as a prostitute and her law school boyfriend in the videos posted on Rightwing media mogul Andrew Breitbart's "Big Government" website last year and played extensively on Fox News, as well as other non-partisan media outlets.

"The evidence illustrates that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality," says Brown in the statement. "Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor."

His report notes that the office's "investigation has involved attorneys from all three legal divisions – Criminal Law, Public Rights, and Civil Law – as well as Special Agents from the Department’s Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence" and included a review of "the unedited recordings made by O’Keefe and Giles."

In exchange for "immunity from prosecution," O'Keefe and Giles provided "the full, unedited videotapes" to Brown's office who, therefore, "did not determine if they violated California's Invasion of Privacy Act" when secretly recording the ACORN workers. Those workers, he notes in his report, may still "be able to bring a private suit against O'Keefe and Giles for recording a confidential conversation without consent."

O'Keefe, Giles, and Breitbart have previously refused to release the unedited footage of their videos publicly. Brown's report details why they likely did not wish to, as important, often exculpatory details from each encounter were not included in the edited versions, released to much partisan fanfare last year.

The unedited California videos have now been posted on the CA Attorney General's website. (They are also linked at the end of this article.) The press release also notes that the AG has unedited tapes from other cities outside of California as well. The BRAD BLOG has made a request for those videos from the office of the Attorney General.

'Severely Edited'

The description of the videos as "severely edited" also echoes the Brooklyn D.A.'s office, which was quoted as describing them as a "heavily edited splice job" when his report was released several weeks ago.

Brown's report also echoes an independent investigation [PDF] released by former MA Attorney General Scott Harshbarger early last December, but unreported in the New York Times and many others. That report was commissioned by ACORN as an external review. In it, Harshbarger found serious organizational concerns with the four-decade old community organizing group, but "no pattern of criminality" as seen in any of the highly-edited, heavily-overdubbed video tape releases.

Despite repeated official investigations finding a complete lack of criminality in any of the O'Keefe/Giles/Breitbart tapes --- other than by the filmmakers themselves, who may have broken the law in at least two different states by secretly taping workers --- ACORN recently announced that the publicity from the hoax videos had succeeded in drying up their private funding, and forced them to shutter their doors as of today.

Of the four ACORN employees O'Keefe and Giles met with in three different California cities, none "committed, solicited or conspired to commit any criminal acts," says Brown in his report. "There is no evidence that any of the ACORN employees had the intent to aid and abet such criminal conduct or agreed to join in [O'Keefe and Giles purported] illegal conduct."

The Attorney General also confirms that O'Keefe never appeared in any of the offices "dressed as a 1970s Superfly pimp," as he had been edited to appear at the beginning and end of each of the videos. Neither did O' Keefe ever claim to be a pimp to any of the workers whose good natures, AG Brown says, O'Keefe and Giles preyed upon...

Misreported 'Pimp'

"In his actual taped sessions with ACORN workers, [O'Keefe] was dressed in a shirt and tie, presented himself as a law student, and said he planned to use the prostitution proceeds to run for Congress. He never claimed he was a pimp," [emphasis added] the AG's office says.

The BRAD BLOG has been covering the media's misreporting of this story since late January, and was recently successful in forcing the New York Times to issue a partial correction to multiple stories in which they repeatedly misreported O'Keefe dressed as, or "posing as," a pimp. Though it took two months --- and several long email exchanges with both the "paper of record's" Senior Editor for Standards, Greg Brock, as well as with their Public Editor (ombudsman), Clark Hoyt --- their partial correction was finally published just last week, after ACORN had already announced they were being forced to shut down.

The paper is still standing, misleadingly, by the notion that O'Keefe "clearly represented himself as a pimp" to the ACORN workers, even though in every case he represented himself instead as Giles' law school student, or sometimes banker, boyfriend, trying to help rescue her from an abusive pimp who had tried to stalk and kill her. Scores of other media outlets have followed the Times' lead in misreporting the facts.

Brown's report notes what the NYTimes and most other media outlets have failed to report:

Although O’Keefe is dressed in stereotypical 1970s pimp garb in the opening and closing scenes of the videos released on the internet, when O’Keefe visited each of the ACORN offices, ACORN employees reported that he was actually dressed in a shirt and tie. Also, contrary to the suggestion in the edited videos, O’Keefe never stated he was a pimp.

While speaking with the various ACORN workers, Brown's report notes:

Giles continued to portray herself as an abused prostitute desperate for help and pushed for any advice. She said she wanted to save the El Salvadoran girls from being preyed upon and raped. She claimed the pimp put a hit out on her and injured her by pushing her down the stairs.

Brown goes on to explain that O'Keefe's edited video tapes from the Los Angeles ACORN office, "did not include all Giles statements regarding the abusive pimp, her tragic life, and fear for the underage girls, or [ACORN worker Lavelle] Stewart's statements that ACORN could not help."

According to the AG's review of the unedited videos, of the 4 ACORN workers O'Keefe and Giles spoke to in three different California cities:

• One instructed them that "no bank would fund the couple based on an illegitimate prostitution business and ACORN would not get involved with an illegitimate prostitution business."
• One, after being told that Giles had been "sold by a pimp in Miami to a pimp in Los Angeles" who was "extremely abusive" brought Giles to an office door marked "Program for Torture Victims" and told Giles "she should speak with the people working there."
• One, after realizing she was being hoaxed, told O'Keefe and Giles "that ACORN would not approve of their business or of her giving them advice, but that she personally supported legalizing prostitution." She then went on to explain how she had murdered her husband, though both of her ex-husbands, as the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office would later report, are still very much alive. She also "told O'Keefe he resembled Princess Diana."
• One, who "speaks limited English ... went along with the conversation in hopes of getting information from the couple that he could provide to law enforcement in the event they were telling the truth." After the couple left the office, the worker immediately telephoned his cousin who is a detective at the National City Police Department to report the matter. He later reported the incident to a fellow employee and to an ACORN board member. The matter was then reported to the San Diego Police Department's human smuggling division.

That's it. That's all. And in every case, O'Keefe withheld important details from the edited versions of the video tapes he released, and reprehensibly titled as "ACORN Child Prostitution Investigation."

Immunity from prosecution

In regard to immunity given to the Rightwing scammers, Brown states that following a request to investigate the matter by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was determined that his office "needed the complete, unedited video and audio recordings made by O’Keefe and Giles." The pair sought, and received, a deal for immunity from criminal prosecution before they would turn over the tapes, according to the AG's report:

O’Keefe and Giles agreed to produce the full recordings if the Attorney General agreed not to prosecute them for violations of California’s privacy laws. This Office determined that the fastest and most efficient means to comply with the Governor’s request was to agree not to prosecute.

He goes on to note that "the facts presented" in this case "strongly suggests that O’Keefe and Giles’s violated state privacy laws and provides fair warning to them and others that this type of activity can be prosecuted in California."

'O'Keefe did not act as a journalist'

In conclusion, the AG's report highlights the hit job pulled off by the three partisan activists, and takes pains to note that despite the adament claims of O'Keefe, Breitbart and other Rightwing media outlets' absurd suggestions to the contrary, O'Keefe "did not act as a journalist objectively reporting a story":

The edited O’Keefe videos released on the BigGovernment.com website portrayed ACORN as an organization infested with employees committing crimes. However, the impression of rampant illegal conduct created by the recordings at the various ACORN offices around the country is not supported by the evidence related to the videos in California. Our investigation revealed facts which were not reflected in the recordings. The San Diego employee’s answers were influenced by his limited English and intent to contact the police. The San Bernardino ACORN receptionist knew it to be a prank and made outrageous and false statements.

O’Keefe stated he was out to make a point and to damage ACORN and therefore did not act as a journalist objectively reporting a story. The video releases were heavily edited to feature only the worst or most inappropriate statements of the various ACORN employees, and to omit some of the most salient statements by O’Keefe and Giles. Each of the ACORN employees recorded in California was a low level employee whose job was to help the needy individuals who walked in the door seeking assistance. Giles and O’Keefe lied to engender compassion, but then edited their statements from the released videos. Would it have been best had each ACORN employee simply refused to deal with the couple and shown them the door when their story came out? Of course.

ACORN was not the criminal enterprise described by O’Keefe in his “Chaos for Glory” statement – it did not receive billions in federal funds and did not control elections.

In fact, ACORN had received an average of just $3.5 million in federal tax dollars over each of the last 15 years. Moreover, there is no evidence that any vote was ever cast illegally, in any election, following an improper registration by an ACORN worker. In most cases, such improper registrations were discovered by ACORN themselves and reported to authorities.

Nonetheless, the anti-poverty organization of 400,000 low- and middle-income member families in 75 cities was successfully targeted and put out of business by Republicans; the long, concerted smear campaigns intended to do little more than undercut ACORN's successful voter registration drives. Those drives had succeeded in legally registering hundreds of thousands of low- and middle-income voters, many of whom tend to vote Democratic. For that, for enfranchising Americans to participate in their own democracy, the GOP had to put them out of business.

Mission accomplished.

M.C.L Comment: While they maybe protected from legal prosecution, if I was ACORN I would sue the holy hell out of O'Keefe, Giles, Breitbart and Andrew Breitbart's corporate/right wing think tank masters. Whatever money I have left I would take them to court and make them pay with their pound of flesh.

The Yes Men call O’Keefe, Breitbart ’sad and pathetic’ for targeting ACORN

By Sahil Kapur The ends justify the means, say The Yes Men, but only as long as you're going after the right people.

The duo's latest movie The Yes Men Fix The World, out on DVD April 1, chronicles the real-life efforts of anti-globalization activists Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum to expose corporate malfeasance in unorthodox ways.

"What we do is pass ourselves off as representatives of big corporations we don’t like," Bonanno explains in the film. "We make fake websites, then wait for people to accidentally invite us to conferences."

They've shined a spotlight on controversial practices of powerful companies like Exxon-Mobil and Halliburton. One of their most prominent hoaxes occurred in 2004, when Bichlbaum posed as a spokesman for Dow Chemical on BBC News television and -- under false pretenses -- accepted "full responsibility" for a disaster its subsidiary created in Bhopal, India.

Such tactics have now been emulated by conservatives such as James O'Keefe, who famously went undercover and unveiled the dodgy dealings of some ACORN employees last year, the video clips of which were vigorously promoted by writer and publisher Andrew Breitbart.

"For O'Keefe and Breitbart to be targeting ACORN is incredibly sad and pathetic," Bonanno told Raw Story. "Most of its members are lower-income home owners, so these are model Americans -- pull themselves up by their bootstraps type of people -- people who are often very poor."

In a videotaped conversation with blogger Mike Stark at last month's CPAC convention, Breitbart, probed about the morality of O'Keefe's actions, pointed to The Yes Men as an example of progressive activists using similarly questionable means to attain their goals.

But it's not his and O'Keefe's tactics that The Yes Men take issue with; it's who they're taking aim at, and the now-extinct community group didn't deserve the treatment, Bonanno alleged.

"It's why you're lying and who's gaining and who's losing as a result," he said. "There are liars and there are assholes. What James O'Keefe is doing is making a lot of lower-income people lose, unfortunately. And it's supported by a bunch of very nasty, mean-spirited people."

"A lie itself isn't necessarily bad," Bonanno continued, drawing out the difference between The Yes Men and individuals like O'Keefe. "We lie in order to criticize people who are abusing their power. They lie in order to humiliate and take out people who are at the receiving end of power."

The Yes Men have been chastised as "world-renowned troublemakers" as well as "sick, twisted and cruel" beings by mainstream news organizations. In their latest of two films, the duo deplores the "free-market cult" they claim is centered around "letting greed solve the problem."

They seek to comfort the afflicted by actively afflicting the comforted. And that's the opposite of what anti-ACORN activists are doing, Bonanno purported. "By targeting ACORN, they're targeting people who are victims of a very nasty power dynamic. So, I think it's a mean thing to do."

Bonanno found it "amazing" how Congress insists on taking aim at groups like ACORN over "a few bad apples" when large defense contractors, for instance, have committed far worse transgressions on a broader and more damaging level and walked away unscathed.

Ultimately, Bonanno concluded that lies and trickery are helpful to fight the establishment in an age where corporations wield unprecedented power and where "the political middle is being pushed further and further and further to the right. M.C.L. Comment: In right wing world trying to break an organization that help lower income people and signing up people to vote is very similar to exposing corporate corruption.. Let's be real here if ACORN was on the right and were doing the things the right accuses ACORN of doing O'Keefe, Breitbart and his corporate masters wouldn't care. ACORN real sins were getting middle class, working poor and inner city people to vote and those people tend to vote Democratic that's one and two ACORN were giving voice to those who wanted to stop the corporate exploitation. The sad thing is that we had some Democrats who didn't want for facts and jump on the strip ACORN of its funding fever created by O'Keefe, O'Keefe three dollar dumpster trash sidekick Hannah Giles and their bank roller Andrew Bretibart. ACORN is gone and the right wing isn't happy because they stop some evil group, they're happy because if people can't sign up to vote there's going to be less people voting against Republicans.

NY Times admits being played for fools on ACORN

By John Amato

It's too bad ACORN had to suffer at the hands of fools.

New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt said in a column published online yesterday that it was "easy to see" why the Times described conservative merry prankster James O'Keefe going into the offices of ACORN "dressed so outlandishly that he might have been playing in a risqué high school play" -- after all, "a host" on Fox said that pimp-styling O'Keefe was "dressed exactly in the same outfit he wore to these Acorn offices" and O'Keefe "did not argue."

Now that ACORN faces bankruptcy, O'Keefe faces federal charges in another attempted sting, and Hoyt faces e-mails he attributes to "liberal groups," Hoyt has revisited the situation, reviewed the publicly available material, and far below the fold, concludes that the Times was wrong.

As you know, ACORN is screwed because of this. Here's what Clark Hoyt says:

Here is what I found: O’Keefe almost certainly did not go into the Acorn offices in the outlandish costume — fur coat, goggle-like sunglasses, walking stick and broad-brimmed hat — in which he appeared at the beginning and end of most of his videos. It is easy to see why The Times and other news organizations got a different impression. At one point, as the videos were being released, O’Keefe wore the get-up on Fox News, and a host said he was “dressed exactly in the same outfit he wore to these Acorn offices.” He did not argue.

But Breitbart told me that, after doing his own examination, “I am under the impression that at no time was he ever dressed as an elaborate pimp” in the offices. Because O’Keefe was apparently carrying the hidden camera, he is generally not visible in the videos, but he is seen briefly entering the Baltimore office wearing a blue shirt and chinos.

I could not reach O’Keefe — who is facing federal criminal charges of tampering with a Democratic senator’s phone in a different attempted sting — or Giles. But I am satisfied that The Times was wrong on this point, and I have been wrong in defending the paper’s phrasing. Editors say they are considering a correction.

The reason the story took off was because O'Keefe dressed up like a pimp and presented himself to FOX and to the world as if that's how he went into ACORN's offices. He doctored the film footage to make it look that way. But, that doesn't change Hoyt's mind on the merits of the story.

Acorn’s supporters appear to hope that the whole story will fall apart over the issue of what O’Keefe wore: if that was wrong, everything else must be wrong. The record does not support them...read on.

Anyway he wants to slice it, the NY Times were made to look fools as did much of the MSM and ACORN suffered for their lack of professionalism. The hoax O'Keefe perpetrated on ACORN caused Congress to cut funding and now they are in financial trouble. Sick bastards like Breitbart rejoice that many ACORN employees will now lose their jobs because of the BUSH economy and this hoax. That's really a shame. But remember, conservatives can do NO wrong.

M.C.L Comment: I have an idea for ACORN to get that money back, sue James O'Keefe, sue Hannah Giles and sue Andrew Breitbart along with his corporate masters.. Come on now you think Andrew Breitbart cooked this stuff up by himself? Right wingers can't even take a piss without someone telling them how to and why would this be any different.

Granted the right wing has legal funds for James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles but with the evidence that O'Keefe made things up and Giles took part knowing what they were doing were bogus the right wing legal fund can hire freakin Perry Mason for them and they're still be screwed.

The outcome I predict if ACORN pushes hard for legal payback is that Andrew Breitbart to save his own ass or at least his masters' collective asses he would sell both O'Keefe and Giles down the river because young right wingers like O'Keefe and Giles are a dime a dozen. Or Giles out of the fear of being some server at Denny's for the rest of her life to pay off the settlement she's going to owe to ACORN she would flip on Breitbart and O'Keefe.

O'Keefe, Giles, and Breitbart 'Buried the Truth' About Their ACORN 'Pimp' Hoax Video Tapes And the New York Times is STILL helping them do so...

By Brad Friedman It's not particularly worth my time, or anybody's time (unless they are involved in suing or pressing charges against the GOP hoaxsters), to get into the detailed weeds on how the ACORN "pimp" hoax videos were doctored to show something other than what they really were, in comparison to what the text transcripts (which may or may not be accurate) actually show, since:

• the entire scam was a political hit job and a scam from the jump, and;
• since accused felon James O'Keefe and his employer and publisher Andrew Breitbart have refused to release the unedited video tapes, and;
• since three investigations (one from the Congressional Research Service, one from MA's former Attorney General, and the latest, just this week from the Brooklyn, NY District Attorney) have all found no criminal wrongdoing by the low-level ACORN employees caught on secret video, and;
• since nobody but low-level workers and volunteers are even seen on the tapes, and;
• since ACORN immediately fired those who violated the organization's own written protocols.

As The BRAD BLOG has been detailing over the last several weeks, the highly-edited, heavily-overdubbed, secretly (and likely illegally) taped videos, and those who published them, have already proven to have discredited themselves.

Now that O'Keefe's ACORN "pimp" hoax has been acknowledged, even by Andrew Breitbart, as a deceptive fraud --- where he once called it Pulitzer Prize-worthy "journalism" he now compares it to Borat --- it doesn't seem to matter to the same rightwing bloggers who trumpeted it in the first place that O'Keefe lied about playing his now-infamous 70's-era blaxploitation "pimp" character in ACORN offices. What's important, those foolish enough to keep backing O'Keefe and Breitbart now claim, is not that the purveyor of the information has been shown to be a fraud himself, but what he purports to have caught ACORN workers saying and doing on his highly-edited video productions.

But even those charges don't hold up to even the quickest scrutiny...

One of the few foolish enough to stay on the Breitbart/O'Keefe fraud train, rightwing blogger "Patterico" (who, as Los Angeles Deputy D.A. Patrick Frey, should know better) was initially shown to have been massively and embarrassingly wrong. But after having been played for a chump by Breitbart, he has been busy doubling down ever since, in one silly article after another, in hopes of saving face, apparently.

All of that, even after the Brooklyn D.A. on Monday found "no criminality" in the Brooklyn videos, and a law enforcement source was quoted as confirming what any intellectually honest person already understands by the now: "They edited the tape to meet their agenda."

[Update: Even Rupert Murdoch's NYPost confirms DA source that the video was a "'Highly edited' splice job ... with seemingly crime-encouraging answers...taken out of context so as to appear more sinister"]

Nonetheless, it seems Patterico has determined to make his own private industry out of continuing to misrepresent the now-discredited ACORN tapes and the independently verified and verifiable information that myself and others, like Media Matters' Eric Boehlert, emptywheel's Marcy Wheeler, Digby at Hullabaloo and Dave Johnson at Campaign for America's Future have been presenting over the last several weeks. His strategy, like O'Keefe's, seems simply to be to mislead his gullible wingnut readers with tons of smoke, mirrors, out-of-context quotes, and demonstrably inaccurate claims, on the fairly safe bet that they won't be bothered to look too closely at the actual facts.

You'd only know much of Patty's nonsense was demonstrably inaccurate if you had the time, inclination, or interest to lower yourself far enough down into the dirty weeds to notice.

This won't take long, and I don't plan on spending much time doing it, given the discredited nature of the entire affiar, as I've mentioned above, but allow me to give just one very quick example of just how deceptively and dishonestly the Breitbart/O'Keefe ACORN "pimp" hoax tapes have been presented to the public, and as they are still supported, incredibly enough, by wingnut bloggers like Patrick "Patterico" Frey, Deputy D.A..

'Bury the Money?' --- Bury the Truth...

Hannah Giles, who played the "prostitute" in the tapes to O'Keefe's law school student boyfriend trying to save her from an abusive pimp (as we now know, he never actually posed as his infamous 70's-era "pimp" character in those offices, though the NYTimes has yet to correct its repeated misreporting on that), had this to say on Sean Hannity's show on September 14th last year, the same day Breitbart and O'Keefe published their Brooklyn ACORN tape, deceptively titled as "ACORN NYC Child Prostitution Investigation":

GILES: Yes. Imagine that. Everyone is suffering and looking for a loan and they tell us and you know, we're going through all this financial problems, and they're telling me to bury funds in the back yard so that the government or my pimp can't come steal the money.

The Brooklyn videos --- both parts 1 and 2 --- open with the seemingly startling, but out of context, comments , and a graphic suggesting the ACORN Housing workers (ACORN Housing is a separate organization from ACORN itself) were instructing Giles on ACORN's non-existent "Rule #8": bury the prostitution money in a tin in the backyard to "hide the money from government," as Giles lied on Fox "News".

That moment is often alluded to when the Rightwing propagandists and fellow defenders of the videos try to claim (inaccurately) that the workers advised them to evade taxes.

Here's the very damning, if entirely misleading (and misspelled) graphic O'Keefe uses at the beginning of Part II of the "ACORN NYC Child Prostitution Investigation" video:

Trouble is, the entire thing --- including Giles' comments to Hannity --- is a deceptive hoax.

A very quick review of just a few lines of O'Keefe/Breitbart's own unauthenticated text transcript [PDF] on that point, reveal immediately how the tapes "were edited to meet their agenda", as noted after the Brooklyn D.A. concluded his investigation on Monday.

As you'll see in the quick transcript snippet below --- the one from which, presumably, the "BURRY [sic] THE CASH-MONEY IN THE BACKYARD" comments were taken out of context for use in the doctored video --- the low-level ACORN Housing tax/mortgage adviser did not advise hiding money "from the federal government" as both Giles and O'Keefe claimed publicly, and as the gullible wingnuts and their enablers in the irresponsibly uncritical media have portrayed.

Instead, the worker was advising Giles on how she could keep the money from her fictional psychotic pimp --- who O'Keefe represented himself as trying to help rescue her from --- after that pimp had beaten her up, threated to kill her, stalked her, etc.

Here's the actual comments (at least as seen in O'Keefe and Breitbart's own unauthenticated transcripts):

Volda (loan counselor): Not only that but if you gonna do that type of work you got to start thinking quickly or else you are going to be abused

Hannah (Eden): which I have been

Volda (loan counselor): you have to start thinking faster than even the person who put you over there. Quick, quick, quick, you know that

Hannah (Eden): I mean I do think fast but this whole thing

Volda (loan counselor): when you buy, let me tell you something when you buy the house with a back yard. You get a tin if Jo [* see ed note below -BF] is going to come beat you and want money you get a tin and bury it down in there and you put the money right in and you put grass over it and you don't tell a single soul but yourself where it is

Hannah (Eden): so a tin I put the money in a tin

Volda (loan counselor): in a tin and put it in there

Milagros (counselor) and put the grass

Volda (loan counselor): and put the grass over it

Hannah (Eden): I saw a movie one time where he put all the money underneath the dog house

Volda (loan counselor): you don't put it under no dog house

Hannah (Eden): but I don't have a dog

Volda (loan counselor): good so you put it where you can get it and he cant get it from you if he wants to come and rip up the place and all the like

Hannah (Eden): okay

* The reference to "Jo" in the transcript section above is actually heard as "Tom Jones" in the edited video. According to the Urban Dictionary, "Tom Jones" is defined as the "First man to bring prostitution to the US". Elsewhere in the transcripts, Hannah (Eden)'s abusive pimp is referred to as "Sonny". But it's clear that the ACORN worker was not referring to "the government" as Giles had asserted to Sean Hannity.

So after reading the above, read again how Giles lied about it on Fox "News" on the same day the tape was released, and on the same day O'Keefe also appeared on Fox in his "pimp" get up, representing that it was the same one he "wore in these ACORN offices up and down the Eastern Seaboard":

GILES: Yes. Imagine that. Everyone is suffering and looking for a loan and they tell us and you know, we're going through all this financial problems, and they're telling me to bury funds in the back yard so that the government or my pimp can't come steal the money.

Other than that, O'Keefe, Giles and Breitbart --- who all knowingly lied about the ACORN videos --- are completely legitimate, the tapes and transcripts are to be trusted, but Dan Rather had to go.

'He who knowingly enables and facilitates the fraud is as guilty as he who originated it'

Remember when the modern day wingnut blogosphere scored their first great political take-down with Rather? Never mind that there is no evidence that he ever believed he was using fraudulent documents questioning George W. Bush's National Guard service, or that conclusive evidence exists to prove that the documents were actually fraudulent, or that, to this day, nobody from the Dubya White House ever directly challenged the substance of Rather's report itself. Because the wingnuts believed the documents were fraudulent, Rather's entire report was labeled as "a fraud" to be discredited, and Rather and everyone involved in the report needed to be fired immediately.

For example, Texas attorney and rightwing blogger William J. Dyer, who blogs as "Beldar" screamed (in all bold) about Rather and his CBS employers back in 2004: "He who knowingly enables and facilitates the fraud is as guilty as he who originated it."

That same blogger has yet to call for the firing of James O'Keefe by his employer Andrew Breitbart, despite Breitbart's own latest claims that even he was duped by O'Keefe's pimp hoax. In fact, none of the rightwing bloggers have called for O'Keefe to be fired by Breitbart as far as I know, even after all that we now know, and even as he's facing federal felony charges for his alleged scheme to tamper with the phone system of a Democratic U.S. Senator.

We'll have more on the deceptive nature of the entire ACORN "pimp" hoax in the coming days. But it's necessary to remind that the real point of all of this is not how the partisan liars and operatives lied --- we expect them to do that --- but, rather, how the non-wingnut, purportedly-legitimate mainstream media fell for the entire scam, hook, line and uncorrected sinker, and how they still refuse to cop to their serious and damaging failure, even now that the hoax has been demonstrated to them in no uncertain terms.

"He who knowingly enables and facilitates the fraud is as guilty as he who originated it."

If the mainstream corporate media won't acknowledge they were hoodwinked now --- and it wasn't just the NYTimes, it was also Baltimore Sun, CNN, New York Post, Washington City Paper, Philadelphia Daily News, NPR, Dallas Morning News and many more --- then they are enabling the fraud, and will fall for the same scams again in the future. In fact, they already have.

Despite the NYTimes' Public Editor Clark Hoyt telling me, via email just two weeks ago, that he was "recommending to Times editors that they avoid language that says or suggests that O'Keefe was dressed as a pimp when he captured the ACORN employees on camera," the paper has already done so again.

Reporting Monday night, on the wrap-up of the Brooklyn D.A.'s five-month probe finding "no criminality" in the O'Keefe/Giles/Breitbart Brooklyn ACORN tapes, the Times' Andy Newman wrote:

The Acorn employees in Brooklyn who were captured on a hidden camera seeming to offer conservative activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute creative advice on how to get a mortgage have been cleared of wrongdoing by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.

District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said in a statement on Monday that “no criminality has been found” in his investigation of the three employees, who had appeared to advise the woman, who was scantily dressed and identified herself as an “outcall” specialist, not to tell prospective lenders that she was a prostitute and to funnel her earnings to her “pimp” through a third party so that he would not be tied to her.

Newman also used the exact same misleading rhetoric earlier in the day, in a shorter article for the Times' "City Room Blog".

No context or clarity was given for accuracy to the reader, or to adhere to Hoyt's recommendation. Never mind that the only references to a "pimp" in O'Keefe's own Brooklyn transcript is to the one that O'Keefe represented to workers that he was trying to save Giles from:

James: well the reason why we are rushing is because she was working for this pimp and he was very abusive ... James: and that is why we were in a rush you know why I am excited and I know nothing about her business I am just trying to be here to be professional because ya know she walks in and but now we have this pimp discriminating against us ... James: I know I have to worry about the pimp but he is illegal anyway he is not going to do anything to me who what do I have to be careful of? ... James: Sonny is the pimp

The BRAD BLOG is doing its best to hold the media accountable for their seeming inability to report credibly and critically on the Rightwing propaganda that they so eagerly pass on to the public. Unless they can be held accountable, as the 2010 general election nears, you can look forward to more spoon-fed phony wingnut stories about non-existent "ACORN voter fraud", and much much more such horseshit, from all of these previously-legitimate media outlets.

Breitbart confirms he was duped by O'Keefe and the ACORN pimp hoax

By Eric Boehlert

It turns out that Andrew Breitbart didn't actually know what was on the ACORN tapes when he helped launch them on his website last year, and used the videos to fuel his oddly personal crusade against the low-income advocacy organization.

That's right -- Breitbart didn't know what was on the tapes. Take a few seconds to let the implications of that confession sink in, and what it means to Breitbart's already dented credibility.

Recall that for months Breitbart personally vouched for the ACORN videos, braying loudly that they could not be ignored and that they represented the unvarnished truth. Breitbart claimed he had told "the truth" every step of the way about the controversial ACORN clips and bragged that "[t]hroughout the ACORN story I applied my conscience to the material."

But now it turns out that Breitbart was fooled by the ACORN pimp hoax and mistakenly assumed, after watching deceptively edited clips from his protégé James O'Keefe, that O'Keefe strolled into ACORN offices wearing the outlandish pimp outfit.

Now Breitbart, the chief promoter of the ACORN sting, claims he "didn't know" the truth about the tapes. Although he's quick to insist it doesn't really matter anyway.

And yes, that sound you hear is Breitbart throwing O'Keefe under the bus. Because it's O'Keefe who Breitbart now blames for the "discrepancy" regarding the pimp hoax. It's O'Keefe, who Breitbart once touted as a should-be Pulitzer Prize winner, who created the false impression that he walked into ACORN offices last summer dressed as a garish pimp.

In a video interview posted Monday at Crooks and Liars, Stark Reports, as well as The Brad Blog, Breitbart, filmed by blogger Mike Stark at the recent CPAC convention, claims he did not know the facts about O'Keefe's pimp outfit. (See video below.)

Essentially, Breitbart claims he was duped like everyone else who saw the ACORN clips created by O'Keefe. He was duped because at the outset, the misleading clips contain cut-away shots filmed outdoors, which feature O'Keefe decked out in the cane-fur-sunglasses pimp costume. (Breitbart deceptively refers to the dressed-as-pimp section as the "title sequence" of the videos, but it's really much more than that.)

It appears that many viewers just assumed O'Keefe wore the get-up while he surreptitiously filmed the ACORN workers who ignited a scandal when they gave O'Keefe and his pretend prostitute girlfriend, Hannah Giles, tax advice on how to run a brothel.

The dressed-as-a-pimp storyline was one Breitbart, O'Keefe, and others eagerly pushed last fall. And it was one the press quickly embraced. (In truth, O'Keefe was often dressed rather conservatively -- slacks and dress shirt -- when he talked to ACORN staffers, and he often presented himself as a law school student and an aspiring politician trying to rescue his prostitute girlfriend from her abusive pimp.) The outlandish costume was used as a prop to both mislead viewers, and to make ACORN staffers look like idiots for not being able to spot the obvious ruse.

But it was all a hoax. And for weeks now, ever since the trick was highlighted by blogger Brad Friedman, Breitbart has been wrestling with the glaring contradiction and struggling to explain his own role in the hoax. He's been straining to explain why, for instance, in a September 21 column in The Washington Times, Breitbart specifically claimed O'Keefe had been "dressed as a pimp" while receiving tax advice from ACORN workers.

That claim was categorically false.

He's been laboring to explain why he never sought a single correction last year when an avalanche of news outlets erroneously reported O'Keefe was dressed as a pimp inside ACORN offices.

And he's been struggling to explain why, in light of the pimp hoax, he refuses to release all of the unedited ACORN tapes so we can see what other discrepancies might pop up.

At least now, thanks to Stark, we finally have Breitbart's unequivocal admission: It was all O'Keefe's fault.

From the Stark interview [emphasis added; full transcript here]:

Hello to anyone that thinks that I was misleading. I did not know that there was a discrepancy between the title sequence -- I didn't think it was significant. I saw the videos. I read the transcripts to make sure that there was continuity, and my only mistake -- and I've admitted it to Brad, I've admitted it, now that I now know about it -- is that there is a title sequence and it doesn't reflect what he was wearing when he was in there. But he still represented himself as a pimp.

In the interview, Breitbart also stressed that because O'Keefe is an "independent film producer," Breitbart couldn't "tell him what to put on these things." And to make his point clear, when Stark pressed further about the hoax, Breitbart responded, "Your problem is with James."

Breitbart may have tried to shift the blame, but the admission was a devastating one. After all, he's the guy who won't stop bragging about how he's going to reinvent online journalism, and how he and his conservative activists are going to shame the liberal media with relentless fact-checking. Yet it turns out that for the biggest story of his career, Breitbart didn't even know what was on the ACORN tapes.

Not only did Breitbart clearly fail Journalism 101 in this case, but the way he's refused to publicly accept responsibility for the blunder represents another body blow to his credibility. To date, Breitbart has made no effort to correct the record on his site, which helped launch the ACORN sting. Which means that, to date, Breitbart's sycophantic readers have not been told that, oh, by the way, that whole dressed-as-a-pimp thing was bogus.

With that in mind, what journalist would take seriously the next undercover video sting Breitbart might sponsor, when we find out that for the all-important ACORN caper he didn't even know what was on the tapes until observers pointed out a glaring discrepancy?

Meanwhile, should we believe Breitbart's pimp spin? Tough to say. It probably represents his only way out of this mess. If Breitbart actually confessed that he knew the pimp costume story was a fake, and that not only did he do nothing to try to stop the misinformation last year but actively helped to spread the hoax, then I think his credibility would be permanently demolished. At that point even mainstream journalists, who tend to turn a blind eye to Breitbart's mendacity, would have to acknowledge he is nothing more than a partisan propagandist.

So, searching for a face-saving move, it appears Breitbart has opted for Plan B: Blame the young "independent film producer" O'Keefe, who brought the videos to Breitbart, complete with the misleading pimp costumes shots already embedded. (Does Breitbart really expect people to believe that he never had a single conversation with O'Keefe about the pimp outfit prior to the release of the videos?)

The problem with Breitbart's alibi (i.e. it's O'Keefe's fault!) is that it means Breitbart has copped to the fact that he didn't know what was on the tapes that he relentlessly hyped and used as a weapon in his oddly unhinged attack on ACORN, an underfunded and somewhat adrift nonprofit that advocates for poor people. (In one disturbed dispatch from a pro-ACORN rally last year, Breitbart attacked the attendees as "common street thugs, the dregs of society.")

His new song and dance (literally -- see the 6:40 mark in the video below) is that none of this matters because it's irrelevant whether O'Keefe was dressed flamboyantly inside the ACORN offices. It's true, as I've stated many times, that the costume question does not negate what was captured on the ACORN videos. But the hoax certainly does matter in terms of the larger ACORN attack and how the press embraced it. Breitbart knows it, and that's why he's been so slow to clear up the confusion. (And it's why he seemed so eager last year to spread the confusion.)

As the blogger Digby recently explained:

But the less than obvious reason this is a big deal is that the pimp and ho costumes were a send-up of over-the-top racial stereotypes that both reinforced some very ugly notions about the African American community, but more importantly, made these ACORN workers look as though they were so dumb they shouldn't be allowed to cross the street, much less handle tax dollars. And this was done for a reason.

The pimp hoax is not some footnote that can just be dismissed. The glaring blunder goes to the heart of Breitbart's credibility as a wannabe journalist. The lie was absolutely central to the rollout of last year's ACORN attack campaign. And now, six months later, Breitbart claims he didn't know the first thing about the hoax because, truth be told, he didn't even know what was on the ACORN tapes. Quick comment: One trend I noticed among right wing males is that they act like Billy Badass when they're in a room filled with other sackless right wonders yet when it's one on one they want no part of a debate of ideas.