O’Keefe targeted CNN reporter for depraved ‘prank’
I very much believe — and hope — that nothing is going to top this story in terms of pure strangeness. But the way things are going, that hope may prove to be false.
You may remember James O’Keefe, the conservative hero and “filmmaker” made famous by his ACORN work. Apparently, young Master O’Keefe wanted to find a way to “punk” and embarrass CNN, and to do so he set in motion a plan to lure a CNN reporter, Abbie Boudreau, onto a Maryland houseboat on the pretext of doing an interview.
The boat was to be outfitted with hidden cameras and other items, as detailed in the “equipment list” later acquired by CNN and republished below. O’Keefe then intended to try to seduce Boudreau, on hidden camera, and later release the video as some sort of triumph.
As CNN itself reports:
According to the document, O’Keefe was to record a video of the following script before Boudreau arrived: “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.”
The plot was apparently foiled only at the last minute by a female colleague of O’Keefe’s, who intercepted Boudreau right before the meeting and confessed the scheme.
Go read CNN’s account. It has more details and weirdness than I can include here. I thought the Shirley Sherrod debacle was probably as low as this kind of thing could go, but clearly I had no idea.
There is something deeply sick, even depraved, about these people.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
548 comments Add your comment
RW-(the original)
September 29th, 2010
10:02 pm
Anybody seen my talking points? They must be around here somewhere.
RB from Gwinnett
September 29th, 2010
10:02 pm
Dont’ forget, FYI, I dont click on links posted by folks like you. You’re not exactly the most trustworthy crowd, you know. If you have a point you’d like to make in your own words, feel free, but leave the cut and paste crap to the professionals (Jay).
md
September 29th, 2010
10:02 pm
“You actually believe that repubs will compromise on anything while obama is president?”
Well, wonder how many said the same thing under Clinton?? Yet it happened.
md
September 29th, 2010
10:05 pm
“I think anyone who believes that in THIS election season has missed the entire point of the Tea Party movement.”
I see the the Tea party movement left of the gop agenda Dave – how bout you??
CorpVet
September 29th, 2010
10:06 pm
C O W A R D S
Dems barely get votes to adjourn House…
CorpVet
September 29th, 2010
10:09 pm
“Company that Obama said would rehire workers if stimulus passed plans to open new factory — in China…”
CorpVet
September 29th, 2010
10:10 pm
Even the French are cutting spending rather than increasing spending.
“French budget makes ‘historic’ spending cuts…”
md
September 29th, 2010
10:11 pm
And furthermore Dave, the Tea party folks are more disenfranchised with the gop than anything else. Us independents are the ones that will swing the election, just like we always do.
CorpVet
September 29th, 2010
10:15 pm
Pathetic….
“The must-pass spending bill pending in the Senate includes a little-noticed provision that would pay the family of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd for the salary he would have commanded in the next fiscal year.”
md
September 29th, 2010
10:16 pm
“Dems barely get votes to adjourn House…”
Somebody needs to fire some advisers – adjourning now looks like they are abandoning the public’s business so they can get themselves re-elected.
If one didn’t know it was all about them before, they should know now.
Kamchak
September 29th, 2010
10:17 pm
…the Tea party folks are more disenfranchised with the gop than anything else. Us independents are the ones that will swing the election…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
md
September 29th, 2010
10:23 pm
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
And which of the 2 truths is funnier?????
Jay
September 29th, 2010
10:25 pm
RB, sorry, but you don’t define “man up” for me.
Kamchak
September 29th, 2010
10:32 pm
And which of the 2 truths is funnier?????
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
CorpVet
September 29th, 2010
10:37 pm
Kamchak, try this one “take my wife…..please”.
Kamchak
September 29th, 2010
10:44 pm
…“take my wife…..please”.
Pass.
Try John Ensign if you’re really looking to unload her.
I understand he has a penchant for married women.
CorpVet
September 29th, 2010
10:46 pm
Kamchak, nah. Just doing my best (or worst) Henny Youngman impersonation. You seemed to be in such a jovial mood.
CorpVet
September 29th, 2010
10:47 pm
Brett, what he did was pathetic, but to say it’s typical of repubs is like me saying Bishop Eddie’s actions are typical of dems.
Don't Forget
September 29th, 2010
10:48 pm
RB from Gwinnett
September 29th, 2010
10:02 pm
Dont’ forget, FYI, I dont click on links posted by folks like you. You’re not exactly the most trustworthy crowd, you know. If you have a point you’d like to make in your own words, feel free, but leave the cut and paste crap to the professionals (Jay).
Nice try RB. Suffice it to say your “moronic” post was exposed for what it is.
Don't Forget
September 29th, 2010
10:50 pm
CorpVet
September 29th, 2010
10:47 pm
Brett, what he did was pathetic, but to say it’s typical of repubs is like me saying Bishop Eddie’s actions are typical of dems.
Or saying the response of one ACORN representative is typical of all of ACORN.
CorpVet
September 29th, 2010
10:53 pm
Don’t Forget, so you’re saying just one ACORN facility registered dead, non-existent, or fictional characters.
md
September 29th, 2010
10:58 pm
As usual, Kam is unable to debate – figures……
Don't Forget
September 29th, 2010
11:22 pm
Corpvet, weren’t most of those false registrations caught by ACORN themselves?
Scout
September 29th, 2010
11:33 pm
A Few Parting Thoughts for Jay:
1) Here’s the main reason I volunteered to fight in V.N.
Vietnam Magazine (2010)
“In late December, a 60 year-old former lieutenant colonel and proponent of democratic reforms in Vietnam, Tran Anh Kim, was convicted of subversion and sentenced to five years in prison. According to press reports, Kim’s trial was the first of a series of upcoming prosecutions of pro-democracy and human-rights activists. Kim, who faced a potential death sentence, stood accused of joining an organization promoting multiparty democracy, of posting pro-democracy articles on the Internet and being a member of an outlawed party.”
2) The second reason I volunteered for Vietnam is that “my country” (who betrayed me) called on a naive 18 year old kid to help enforce its foreign policy (since polticians, dipolmats and armchair warriors are not into that part of the messes they make).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AqESKOaeGk (Jim Reeves – “Distant Drums)
3) Our casualties during our War for Independence were probably per capita as much as Vietnam. In any case, thank goodness the French troops were not under control of an organization like the U.S. Congress or the British would have kicked our a** and General Washington, et al would have been hung as traitors.
4) “If there was immorality in the war in Vietnam, it was that a democratic nation called her citizens to war, had them killed by the tens of thousands, and then, like a faithless lover, turned and scorned the survivors.” David Donovan
5) Your words ……….. “Get over it.”
Let me just say, that anyone who has carried dead Americans from the field of battle never gets over it. It’s a lifetime price we pay for serving and protecting the ungrateful.
6) To all Marines out there ……….. we know don’t we !
Don't Forget
September 29th, 2010
11:34 pm
O’Keefe has described himself as an “investigative journalist without formal training” who follows Saul Alinsky’s rule of making “the enemy live up to its own book of rules”.
Hmmm, now where have I heard that name before………
RW-(the original)
September 30th, 2010
12:05 am
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.”
And the plot thickens
Hillbilly Deluxe
September 30th, 2010
12:08 am
From the “If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough” file………
http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/The-bill-comes-due-for-Dez-Bryant-54-896-for-d?urn=nfl-273085
RW-(the original)
September 30th, 2010
12:11 am
Hillbilly D,
You buried the lead.
Monday night at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Bryant took the offensive players out, then Williams invited the defensive players and when the night was over the bill came: $54,896.
“They got the young fella,” said Bryant’s adviser David Wells. “What could he say? He had to pay it unless he wanted to wash dishes for a month.”
I’m getting down to Pappas Bros and getting one of those dish washing jobs for a few months.
RW-(the original)
September 30th, 2010
12:13 am
$658,752.00 a year. Why are Obama and the Democrats hell-bent on raising taxes on our dish washers?
Hillbilly Deluxe
September 30th, 2010
12:14 am
RW
In my world (probably yours too), that would be washing dishing for 3-5 years. And even if there were 100 people there, I just can’t comprehend a bill that size. Most expensive meal I ever had was $35 and that was Canadian dollars to boot. And it really wasn’t all that good.
Nite.
RW-(the original)
September 30th, 2010
12:25 am
And even if there were 100 people there, I just can’t comprehend a bill that size.
That’s where they really got him. All the veterans had probably been running tabs for a while.
Goodnight
stands,
If you check in here in the morning I went downstairs to see if there was any fallout from that snark Jay B took at me. All I found was our regular brown noser, but I scrolled up and realized the snark came in response to a comment you made. I think you might be reading those charts for effective tax rates wrong. The people who say X% don’t pay federal income tax is borne out, but you have to scroll to the second chart to see just income tax. When you do you’ll see that many not only don’t pay they have a negative effective rate meaning they get a “refund” of money they never paid in.
buck@gon
September 30th, 2010
2:06 am
“There is something deeply sick, even depraved, about these people.”
There is something correspondingly sick about making the above statement with little to back it up. In fact, the backhanded comment is the modern stock-and-trade of liberal empty-heads. for all intents and purposes, it offers dismissal to understanding, as the way forward–similar to the way Obama “sold” healthcare to the nation.
The punk was jettisoned and no one was harmed or embarrassed, except perhaps O’Keefe, and then only slightly.
Maybe you could tell us all JAY, Who are “these people?” Would you lump O’Keefe in with say, Michael Moore? Or does Moore’s accolades–like your pullitzer or whatever you won–innoculate him against such gauche characterizations of his “serious work?”
TaxPayer
September 30th, 2010
7:35 am
There is something correspondingly sick about making the above statement with little to back it up.
That’s right! It’s not like you presented any sort of evidence or anything like documents or anything like e-mails or anything like that.
carlosgvv
September 30th, 2010
7:39 am
Sick, depraved and coarse is a pretty good discription of the state of American politics in general. Don’t look for this to get any better with time. This is just another part of the overall dumbing down of America.
jt
September 30th, 2010
8:51 am
On rotten sardines and the feds. A similar smell————–
And liberty,,,,like a rose——————–
From the AP———————–Brushfires————————–
“Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage told a group of fishermen at a GOP forum that he won’t be afraid to tell President Barack Obama to “go to hell.”
LePage said it at a fisheries forum in Brooksville as during a discussion of federal regulations that critics say are driving Maine fishermen to poverty. The remark was caught on video by a Democratic Party aide.”
Remember this——————
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands …………………………………………………………………….
Russ555
September 30th, 2010
9:10 am
To say this is strange and weird is to understate greatly.
stands for decibels
September 30th, 2010
9:36 am
see also:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-09-29/news/white-america-has-lost-its-mind/2/
throughout the 2008 election season, there was a concerted campaign to whip up hysteria about ACORN, and by November 2009, Public Policy Polling found that more than a quarter of Americans (and an outright majority of Republican voters) believed that ACORN had stolen the election for Obama.
This was, of course, after the classic bit of Nixonian “rat-f—ing” pulled off by a prankster named James O’Keefe.
O’Keefe, a veteran at creating videos to make blacks look greedy and stupid (look for “Taxpayers Clearing House” on YouTube), spent the summer driving around the country with his accomplice, Hannah Giles, making videos in ACORN offices asking for advice about avoiding tax troubles with prostitution money. You’ve no doubt seen the images of O’Keefe dressed as a ’70s pimp. But O’Keefe had carefully edited his tapes and left out, for example, that he was decked out in college preppie clothes, not pimp-wear. At least one ACORN office threw him out, and at least two knowingly played along with his ruse. (The San Diego office called the cops after he left, and the Philadelphia office filed a police report.)
stands for decibels
September 30th, 2010
9:39 am
Another useful bit of news in that article I linked above: White America has Lost Its Mind.
In case you hadn’t noticed.
jm
September 30th, 2010
9:41 am
sfd – this dude has lost his mind. “white america has lost its mind” – I don’t think so…. although they are seriously hacked about the growth of government and the budget deficit
jm
September 30th, 2010
9:42 am
sfd – caveat – I didn’t read the article. the headline was enough…
That headline is about as legitimate as if someone had written “Black America is on a Crime Spree”
stands for decibels
September 30th, 2010
9:49 am
That headline is about as legitimate as if someone had written “Black America is on a Crime Spree”
it’s spot on.
So we’d accumulated thirteen trillion or so worth of debt, but white America all of a sudden is, as you delicately put it, “hacked off” as of January 2009, because… um… about half a trillion borrowed to keep states fiscally afloat?
Such behavior is irrational, and honest people will admit as much.
(for crap’s sake, just read jt’s bit @ 8.51 and tell me that’s somehow sane.)
Kamchak
September 30th, 2010
9:57 am
…I didn’t read the article.
There’s your sign.
Midori
September 30th, 2010
10:00 am
Stands,
you’ll never win against someone who is so obviously and blissfully ignorant and is determined to stay that way.
jm
September 30th, 2010
10:01 am
sfd – I know, a lot of people have lost their minds. Some are just really pissed. But I’m not the biggest fan of generalizations. There is often a nugget of truth buried in the generalization (ie, there are a lot of royally hacked off people, and most of them are white), but the tea party folks as a percentage of white americans is pretty small.
So, there is a core truth in the generalization, but the generalization itself is false.
Maybe would’ve been better to just write the headline “There are a lot of really angry white folks out there”, but it wouldn’t have been as catchy probably.
Kamchak
September 30th, 2010
10:02 am
Hiya Midori!
stands for decibels
September 30th, 2010
10:05 am
But I’m not the biggest fan of generalizations.
And you’re also not in the business of selling newsweeklies… might want to go beyond the headline a bit.
Although, again, I think generally speaking, the headline is accurate.
stands for decibels
September 30th, 2010
10:06 am
And Midori, while I find some of what Mr. m says to be somewhat irksome, I think “obviously and blissfully ignorant” is inack-rat.
headin’ upstairs for a bit…
Let’s do some ‘light the candles and lock the doors’ music | Jay Bookman
October 1st, 2010
3:47 pm
[...] honor of those two star-crossed lovers, James O’Keefe and Abbie Boudreau, I thought we’d make seductive love songs our opening theme for tonight’s Friday Night [...]