From the “Seriously, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?!?!?” file:
The Video:
The Story via CNN:
Lusby, Maryland (CNN) — A conservative activist known for making undercover videos plotted to embarrass a CNN correspondent by recording a meeting on hidden cameras aboard a floating “palace of pleasure” and making sexually suggestive comments, e-mails and a planning document show.
James O’Keefe, best known for hitting the community organizing group ACORN with an undercover video sting, hoped to get CNN Investigative Correspondent Abbie Boudreau onto a boat filled with sexually explicit props and then record the session, those documents show.
The plan apparently was thwarted after Boudreau was warned minutes before it was supposed to happen.
“I never intended to become part of the story,” Boudreau said. “But things suddenly took a very strange turn.”
Here is another quote, and I realize that I might just catch grief for linking and quoting this; but at this point, I personally do not give two flips. Over at the liberal Media Matters for America, the following was said:
Riding a motorcycle on a wire stretched across the Grand Canyon is a “stunt.” Wearing a chicken suit to mock a political candidate for refusing to debate is a “stunt.” Unscrewing the cap on a salt shaker so your dining companion over-salts his soup is a “prank.”
Lying to a reporter in order to lure her onto a boat under false pretenses, then secretly recording her reaction to being confronted in an enclosed, unfamiliar environment by a strange man with handcuffs and sex toys, all while disparaging her as a “bubble-headed-bleach-blonde,” is not a “stunt.” It is the vicious, misogynist act of a twisted person whose 15 minutes should have expired long ago.
Let me officially go on the record saying that I agree with this one hundred percent. James O’Keefe should be chased out of the damned Conservative movement and ran out of it on a damned rail. This idiot is not doing a fucking thing for the Republican Party, for Conservatism, or any other damned thing related to it at all.
Of course, Sir-Idiot-Much, has this to say for his defense:
The document states it was written by “Ben.” According to the e-mail chain obtained by CNN, Ben Wetmore sent the document to O’Keefe and Santa. In a statement e-mailed to CNN, O’Keefe wrote: “That is not my work product. When it was sent to me, I immediately found certain elements highly objectionable and inappropriate, and did not consider them for one minute following it.”
He did not respond to follow-up questions. Wetmore did not respond to our questions about the document. Instead, he posted a YouTube video criticizing CNN’s coverage of the ACORN story.
What a lying piece of crap! This moronic tool got busted and now, he is trying to lie his way out of it. Here is hoping that CNN and this poor woman, sues the living crap out of this idiot and his so-called organization or that the Maryland Attorney General Office files charges against this moron. I mean, could you imagine the charges that this guy would faced; if he had actually went through with this and succeeded? Holy Hell! 😯
This goes well beyond your liberal versus conservative argument; this veers off into the misogynistic area. I notice that the Conservative Blogosphere is strangely silent about this too. I cannot for the life of me, understand why any conservative would even remotely defend this moron’s actions at all. There is no defense, he is a creep and ought to be blacklisted from the Conservative movement once and for all.
Please, folks, do not misunderstand me here, at all. I am all for arguing against the idea of big Government, entitlement of racial and gender type, and even protesting the Governmental take over of healthcare — hell, I even understand the liberals have basically overtaken the media and I am all for exposing their double standards. But not only do I think that this quite stupid, not to mention illegal. This is just straight up wrong and immoral, not to mention folks; it is just downright destructive to our cause. I mean, seriously, what the hell is doing something idiotic like this, going to do for our cause? Nothing! —-But make us even more stupid looking, that we already look to the left now.
In short and the bottom line: This was ill-conceived and the people behind it ought to be ostracized out of the movement…. for good.
—
Update: True to form, the Conservative media has turned out to denounce O’Keefe:
Brent Bozell III of Media Research Center:
The MRC unequivocally denounces James O’Keefe for his attempted assault on CNN. It isn’t just childish and immature; it’s ugly, dishonest and filthy. There is no place in the conservative movement for this type of behavior and that’s exactly what I warned about in a commentary piece I submitted to CNN.com just two days ago.
“Could the Citizen Journalist abuse the public trust?” I wrote in this piece that should run in the next few days. “Hypothetically, of course. Conservatives must all guard against this. Let there be scrutiny, by all means.” And I repeat: there must be scrutiny.
Bottom line: We want nothing to do with O’Keefe or his dirty antics.
If an enterprising citizen can expose media bias with a video camera and good idea, that’s a good thing. But I fail to see how luring a lone female reporter to a remote location and isolating her on a boat, surrounding her with sex toys and pornography, and trying to convince her that the virtual stranger sitting next to her is coming on to her, possibly in front of a “sex tape machine,” does that. That’s not a recipe for a gotcha video, it’s more like a step-by-step instruction on how to cause discomfort and fear. What an ugly and potentially traumatic situation to create on purpose. It’s not clever or funny, it’s sick.
There will no doubt be more details and, one assumes from the reporting, emails, that will fully establish who wrote what and whether O’Keefe was going to go through with the plan or not. Those details will probably be reported by Boudreau, an actual journalist.
So no, I don’t think “stunt” or “prank” are the right words. I think the one I would use is “despicable.”
Oh and Izzy Santa? Good for you.
What’s really sad is that, now that CNN fired him, Rick Sanchez won’t be able to re-enact the scene (playing the part of Abbie). That would have been hilarious.
But seriously, after this horrible and stupid misfire, I’m questioning even his ACORN piece. Yes, ACORN was a dem get-out-the-vote scheme that was being improperly funded by taxpayers, and they deserved to have that funding cut off. However, the ends never justify the means and those that think they do, whether liberal or conservative, is my enemy and an enemy of the United States of America and all she stands for. The ends-justifies-the-means mentality is what leads us to Stalin on the left and Hitler on the right. In the fight against going down that leftward road let us not end up going down that radical rightward road.
O’Keefe has made it plain that he will use whatever means are available to him, no matter how immoral, to achieve his goals. He has no business in a conservative movement that cares about liberty and responsibility. Conservatives should shun him and others of his ilk.