You may remember James O’Keefe as the video hoaxter who fooled media into thinking ACORN gave tax advice to a man wearing a pimp costume (FAIR Action Alert, 3/11/10). Or as the miscreant whose attempts to interfere with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office phones got him arrested (Extra!, 4/10).
Now O’Keefe has a new claim to fame as the guy who tried to turn sexual harassment into reality TV.
CNN is reporting today (9/29/10) that one of its reporters, Abbie Boudreau, was the target of a bizarre, misogynistic scheme by O’Keefe’s video production team–“Project Veritas“–to lure her on to a boat where she would be videotaped as O’Keefe attempted to seduce her amidst sexual paraphernalia. Boudreau was alerted to the plan at the last minute by one of O’Keefe’s colleagues who recognized that “the idea is incredibly bad” with “the potential for unnecessary backlash.”
The whistleblower, Izzy Santa, described the harassment plan in a note to one of Veritas‘ backers:
Today, James is meeting with a CNN correspondent today on his boat. She is doing a piece on the movement of young conservative filmmakers.
She doesn’t know she is getting on a boat but rather James’ office. James has staged the boat to be a palace of pleasure with all sorts of props, wants to have a bizarre sexual conversation with her. He wants to gag CNN.
According to a written plan, the “equipment needed” for the stunt included “hidden cams on the boat,” a “tripod and overt recorder near the bed, an obvious sex tape machine,” as well as a “condom jar, dildos, posters and paintings of naked women, fuzzy handcuffs” and a blindfold.
The blueprint included a script for O’Keefe to read, apparently written by O’Keefe associate Ben Wetmore:
My name is James. I work in video activism and journalism. I’ve been approached by CNN for an interview where I know what their angle is: They want to portray me and my friends as crazies, as non-journalists, as unprofessional and likely as homophobes, racists or bigots of some sort….
Instead, I’ve decided to have a little fun. Instead of giving her a serious interview, I’m going to punk CNN. Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I’m going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she’ll get seduced on camera and you’ll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.
Please sit back and enjoy the show.
The document, labeled “CNN Caper,” tried to anticipate how the cable network would respond and planned a counterreaction:
If they pursue this as you are a creep, you should play it up with them initially only to reveal that the tape was made beforehand confirming this was a gag…. If they [CNN] admit it was a gag, you should release the footage and focus on the fact they got punked, and make sure to emphasize Abbie’s name and overall status to help burden her career with this video, incident and her bad judgment in pursuing you so aggressively….
If they go on the attack, you should point out the hypocrisy in CNN using the inherent sexuality of these women to sell viewers and for ratings, passing up more esteemed and respectable journalists who aren’t bubble-headed bleach blondes and keep the focus on CNN.
Trying to figure out what to do if O’Keefe came out of this looking like a creep was perhaps the one good idea that went into the planning of this operation.
Media Matters’ Jamison Foser (9/29/10) pointed out that when O’Keefe was running his ACORN hoax, the ombuds for both the New York Times and Washington Post wrote columns complaining that their papers weren’t taking him seriously enough. Maybe there ought to be some soul-searching at these outlets over why they gave him as much credence as they did.
Follow Jim Naureckas on Twitter @JNaureckas.
“…in a note to one of Veritas’ backers:”
Please list these backers. Thanks.
What a stud that little Jimmy is! I suppose he was going to dress up in his superpimp costume, too. Hope he had a clean pair of his lucky underwear on.
“Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me.” What a fantasy life this guy leads! They all want him so bad!
Looks to me like the tape he wanted to make of him “seducing” her would really have been evidence of attemtped sexual assault perpetrated by him against her.
From the CNN report: “The day of the meeting, she wrote to someone she described as a financial donor to Project Veritas. She would not identify the individual.”
Disgusting little perv belongs in the slammer. EEEEEEEWWWWWW!!!!!!!!
good god, this guy is such a douchebag, CNN needs to completely use this on air to discredit his already amateur un-credible “journalistic” talents. What a freak! he’s like Glenn Beck’s retarded cousin.
Uh . . . that sounds like a potential rape to me. Someone who doesn’t realize this is a bad idea probably also doesn’t know the different between rape and “seduction.”
Did he have a rape drug?
Unfortunately this guy punked America and open dialogue already. So much damage from an idiot. Multiply that by all those who believed him and caused the destruction of Acorn and you can see why we are in so much trouble as a nation.
You can go to Newt Gingrich’s latest “book” and therein find the whole ACORN/O’Keefe story told as if it wasn’t a scam and a pack of scurrilous lies . . . . OKeefe is a broke amateur compared to Gingrich. I read somewhere that O’Keefe and his mentor Breitbart are being sued by one of the persons harmed in the ACORN video. Here’s hoping those sick losers lose it all.
Media Matters’ Jamison Foser (9/29/10) pointed out that when O’Keefe was running his ACORN hoax, the ombuds for both the New York Times and Washington Post wrote columns complaining that their papers weren’t taking him seriously enough. Maybe there ought to be some soul-searching at these outlets over why they gave him as much credence as they did.
Seems to me the “ombuds” of both of those publications needs to be fired. An hire some who have more discernment and integrity. There are plenty of good people unemployed in this unnamed Depression to chose from.
I look foreward to both O’Keef and Brietbart are closed down as pissant wankers and borderline criminals.
This story sounds like national Inq crappola.It is written by Jim Naureckas who is a biggie on FAIRS magazine.He does not lean left …he falls and then crawls the rest of the way.But I will humor him and simply say ACORN was a crooked mess going back back back.I have followed their misuse of power for years.As usual what brought down a monster was one little rock in the eye from a little guy.
Couldn’t have said it better, Nightgaunt.
Carol wrote:
Unfortunately this guy punked America …….. already. So much damage from an idiot. Multiply that by all those who believed him and caused the destruction of Acorn and you can see why we are in so much trouble as a nation.
Carol Crown, You said it all. Thank You!
If he were the town fool who in some manner caused the destruction of ACORN we would still be beholden to him.