Rachel Maddow Shows How Faux Coconspired With O'Keefe & Giles To Fabricate The Acorn "Scandal"

Run time: 10:58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdp38PYzZCA   Posted on YouTube: April 07, 2010 By YouTube Member: MoxNewsDotCom Views on YouTube: 226   Posted on DU: April 07, 2010 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 6565

 
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHNgBt22_os

Related links for the 4/6 TRMS from http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/04/06/4124688-related-links-for-the-46-trms">Rachel's new blog

Tue Apr 6, 2010 9:42 PM EDT
By Will Femia

Links featured on the site and links about stuff featured on the site:

I'll have the rest of these up after the show but I just know folks are already looking for the source material on the ACORN segment so I'll get that out now:

http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/n1888_acorn_report.pdf">REPORT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL ON THE ACTIVITIES OF ACORN IN CALIFORNIA (pdf)

http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/multimedia/index.php">California Attorney General Audio/Video Library - This is the main page. If you're looking at this a long time from now, scroll down to April 2010.

ADDING: The full video of the ACORN segment can be seen http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/36204129#36204129">here.

Do we have visitors from Fox on DU?

I hope this story becomes one of the biggest stories of the year before it's over. This story alone should end Fox as a network, once the details are known to enough people.

I hope also that ACORN has excellent lawyers for their law-suit against O'Keefe, Giles and Breitbart. The discoveray phase of that case should be very interesting.

K&R although the rec has been canceled by the Fox people, or whoever they are.

there are more of us.O8)

If the story that Fox has been lying about its audience is true, there are a lot more of us. It's not hard to believe that they would lie about that, as they lie about everything else ~

Told you so, although the margin is thinner then I expected.

As you say, "This story alone should end Fox as a network, once the details are known to enough people."

Oh, that this would happen. Oh for a world without Fox News.

that it is perfectly acceptable for them to lie to their viewers... So I don't know how this is going to change anything.

appeal judge who ruled in favor them being able to lie. What an outrage that was. Otoh, the left was not on the ball when that happened. Every blog should have then taken the position that ruling confirmed that Fox was not a news organization. And we should never have let up on that.

Because that is what that ruling meant. They are not a news organization, they are for entertainment purposes only and they're not even funny.

stealth Republicans on DU. Most of them play a role and try to gently steer the discussion.

Here on the DU the other day I had one tell me how the Democratic Governor of Ohio was ineffective and should be replaced by Republican candidate Kasich. That wasn't so gentle. It might have been Kasich himself, who knows.

on certain issues that would definitely be more suitable on a rightwing board. And it's inconceivable that there would be stealth Republicans on a board like this.

I do remember when this story about ACORN first broke, there were people here 'distancing' themselves from ACORN without even bothering to look at the evidence. Fortunately enough people pushed back. I didn't understand why Fox and Giles, O'Keefe and Breitbart, the sources of the story, would be given more of the benefit of the doubt than an organization that has worked so hard for so long to ensure the rights of the poor and minorities. I considered the source first, and was unwilling to accept their version of the 'truth'.

Otoh, 172 Democrats in Congress also gave credence to some of the most vile political operatives in this country. So, sometimes, Democrats are far too worried about what the 'right will think of us', than looking for the facts.

machine started their campaign against ACORN way before the election. One September afternoon I listened to a right wing spin meister on NPR tell the host how the 2008 presidential election would be decided in the courts, as it was in 2000, because of known malfeasance by ACORN. The host did not challenge a word he said. The guy just went on and on about the horrible ACORN.

That was the most angry I have ever been at NPR. I later tried to find the program in NPR's archives but I could not. I suspect it was removed. It was like a GOP commercial.

one down, more to go

Rachel. She does an excellent job of showing how Hannah Giles outright lied about Juan Carlos Vera, the ACORN worker who actually DID call the police. He called right after they left, and then two days later, (not in this report) he called again when he did not hear from O'Keefe and Giles.

And Hannah the prostitute lied on Fox about that man. I hope he sues her too.

What really happened in that office was that Juan Carlos Vera was worried about the story he heard. He didn't quite believe them (and no, NYT, they were not dressed as a pimp and prostitute), but he wasn't sure if there really were young girls being smuggled into the country. So, he told them that he had friends in the police dept. That was ON the original edited tape.

When he said that, O'Keefe said 'not good'! Not good that Vera had friends in the police dept? After they left he called his cousin who is a police officer to see what he thought he ought to do. He had O'Keefe to call him back. But they never did. So, Vera called the police again.

And on Fox, those two Rove wannabes lied about a decent man. They ruined his reputation and he lost his job. They also violated the CA. law about taping people without their knowledge. Juan Carlos Vera made a very emotional statement after the tapes were released. He said 'I have never done anything wrong in my life' and he cried. But the media frenzy was full force at the time, and no one, except a few people right here on DU, really looked at those tapes and it was obvious they were edited and that Fox, Karl Rove, Hannity, Giles, Breitbart, O'Keefe were lying ~

But neither Congress nor the Media, including CNN, bothered to do even that small amount of work. All of them should be sued. Nor have any of them set the record straight and covered the truth since it has been revealed.

Rachel was the only one back then who was actually looking at the tapes and the lies and reporting on them.

I remember she spent several nights covering the story, trying to get the truth out. She said that she didn't know why, but that the story had really affected her.

This report is excellent. Once again, only Rachel steps up to the plate and shames all of them. I hope she keeps covering it. There is so much more such as the how the Philadelphia office threw them out, despite their lies that 'no one asked us to leave'. Too bad for them, there was a police report from that office also.

No wonder Fox would try to stop people from watching this report from Rachel. I mean who other than agents from that dump would unrec the truth about this egregious crime committed with the collusion of Fox 'News'.

I would think that they libeled him and it could easily be proven. Isn't there any attorney out there who would take this case? I would contribute to expenses in a second.

Also, why weren't these two assholes indicted? They committed felonies.

I remember it well and was quite shocked that so many DUers swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Hopefully lessons have been learnt and less gullibility will be displayed in the future.

Forgot to say :hi:

And here are the links again since you mentioned it:


1A - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnSfFYTnlk4&feature=related

1B - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYyIc7Rwoxg&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1#

2A - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpxzWiZMUYI&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=2

2B - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk8pyQbI-J8&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=3

3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXlCLZ3fW4c&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=4

4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5M1BIAN74c&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=5

5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5M1BIAN74c&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=5

Its not like we have a lot of support in this society.

By simply editing it so the context is changed?

Who'da thunk it?

I mean besides anyone who has ever worked with video.

And sadly She's right. The cons will crow and gloat about this for some time.

Even though they were lied too and manipulated by people they trusted, despite the innocent people harmed. And even though the peopel they defend are screwing them too.

They'll call us sheep as they march triumphantly to the slaughterhouse to be made into lamb chops.

Blatant evidence this scam was a lie - does it mean anything? Probably not.

Its not like we poor folk matter.

Probably playing cards with Scalia, Roberts, Thomas and Alito just waiting for the case to show up
when Fox "News" gets accused of defamation or violating the truth in advertising laws.

I'll see donkeys fly before that happens.

The real injustice is that O'Keefe accomplished what he wanted--the shutdown of ACORN. And a lot of good people lost their jobs due to this scam. As far as O'Keefe, Faux Snooze and others are concerned, it doesn't matter how it happened. The end justifies the means.

Certainly, there can be leverage in suing O'Keefe for fraud, libel or something. I would love to see O'Keefe and his ho taken for so much money that they have to scrape bugs off the sidewalks and windshields for their dinner. But, being realistic, I'm afraid they'll likely not face any consequences.

It's yet another example of our lazy-ass 'news' media. They take anything and run with it without any fact checking or verification. What are they teaching in these journalism schools now? I see very rare instances in which any good journalistic practices are used anymore.

I bet Dems could turn over a similar tape and not have it inspected by Fox ...

closely examined!!

We know that Fox lies, no headline here. We know that Republican Congressmen would vote to defund ACORN at ANY OPPORTUNITY. No shock there. But what about our own people? They should be held accountable for voting to defund ACORN without letting an investigation start, let alone complete. We really should have our Democratic Congressmen answering to their decisions.

If I can make an analogy...What do you do with people that convict somebody of committing murder, have the person executed even before the police arrive at the scene of the crime to investigate and then find out that is was clearly obvious that the person you just fried could not have committed the crime that you just executed him for?

172 Democrats joined the Republicans to vote to defund ACORN. It happened so quickly. Even if they had viewed the Juan Carlos Vera video once, they would have seen there was a need to look further into the allegations. It is clear that they never bothered. Even in the edited tape, you can hear Vera saying that he works with the police, showing that he was thinking that if what they said was true, he thought they were askiing for help.

Only 75 Democrats voted against that bill and they were trashed on Fox, their names published and smeared as supporters of criminals.

A judge finally ruled that that bill was unconstitutional, but not one of those Democrats has apologized as far as I know.

There is a huge lawsuit for those workers if they want it. Especially Juan Carlos Vera who has proof he called the police twice.

And Fox should be sued off the air, as they spent night after night lying about the workers as can be seen in the clip of Hannah Giles in Rachel's report.

It would be poetic justice if ACORN ended up taking down Fox. They do have a suit filed against the pimp and the prostitute and Breitbart.

It looks like Rachel will be doing more segments on this as this video is titled 'part 1'. Good for Rachel. The rest of the media who were all over this when the lies were being spread around, have been remarkablly silent now since all the investigations so far, basically agreed with Gerry Brown.

The other 172 are spineless opportunists who will vote whichever way keeps them in office.

guys and hype them as the only goodguys out of a bunch of congressfreeloaders, who had the common sense to vote against this immoral action and keep listing them. In districts where it matters this should be a campaign issue to primary those who voted for this idiot bill.

Who voted for this clear and unadulterated libel to defund. And wtf; Who would defund an organization that gets out the vote for them; Defunding their own interests, unless they are Dino's who are dreading progressive voters voting in more progressives. Progressives in the House and Senate should be up in arms about this.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll718.xml

Progressives in the House should be up in arms about this

Only 75 Democrats voted against that bill, since found by a Federal Judge to be unconstitutional.

172 Democrats in the House voted WITH the Republicans to defund ACORN without even second's hesitation, or an investigation. Which is why it was ruled unconstitutional.

I doubt any one of the 172 are particularly outraged. I'm sure they join their Republican colleagues in the view that anyone who might be interfering with the Capitalist system, like helping the poor to buy homes eg, helping them to exercise their right to vote, to have some influence in our government, are off out of the way.

Since the ruling against them, Congress has said nothing. The Obama DOJ has not yet indicated whether or not they repeal the ruling.

ACORN needs massive support from ordinary people right now or this story will die. It is not on MSM, although the lies were all over it.

It's up to the people, as always, whether the story is allowed to die, and Fox and CNN and Congress who all participated in the lie, are going to get off the hook once again.

If we each get going on this something has got to give. I promise by tomorrow to have it all done from my local media to "my" guys in the Congress.

I just moved here and I believe I have a Repuke, but all the better to let him know the truth is out there now.

We should call CNN and definitely Fox. I will find their numbers and do so. Thanks for doing that, at least let the cowards know we are not buying their lies anymore.

Can you imagine what would have happened if the Dems had made a knee-jerk reaction like this against a gay issue, or a Jewish issue, or an African-American issue? Explosion time.

We poor folk are expendable.

From what I see, the fired workers have a pretty good libel suit against O'Keefe & Giles and Fox. The video was fraudulent, and they both suffered damage to their reputations.

If they need a fund for a lawyer, I'll gladly donate.

I'll donate. Why can't Acorn sue Fux, et al, for libel?
There has never been a clearer case for libel.

libel charges against FOX and Mr. pretend pimp. I will gladly donate to that cause. :)

to strip Acorn of its funding without so much as a hearing. That was depressing that so many Dems jumped on the bandwagon, too.

the damn liberal media making Republicans lie on video.

...is like making water flow downhill.

Can someone sue these assholes until they can't breathe anymore?

the first event - after showing him as the pimp, why not go back and zero in on a few more things and state them. She shows O'Keefe with a striped shirt with cuffs rolled up and a skinny arm showing the door being pushed outwards. The pimp outfit has him in a somewhat intense blue shirt unstriped with cuffs and cufflinks. The fur was over his shoulders and shouldn't have been referred to. Giles's outfit and color also changed.

I think it could have been a tighter presentation. The other examples also. Nearly eleven minutes is a lot of time out of a less than an hour show, but, to me, it wasn't as thorough as is needed to be for FOX lovers.

Meanwhile, bravo to Rachel, and the director at MSNBC, and Brown for what they have done up to now.

They aren't watching Rachel.

It doesn't seem to matter how incompetent Fox News is. They are out and out wrong all the time. About a myriad of little things, "D's" where "R's" should go to complete gullibility on huge issues. They have no right calling themselves "news". The National Inquirer is more trust worthy. They SHOULD be embarrassed. But Fox News is too dense and insulated for even that.

by having 2 same sex heteralsexuals married simply for the benefits?

I hope the folks left in ACORN can get some traction with this. ACORN was a great organization -- which is what pissed off Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes and the RNC. The problem is that people who watch Fox News because of its politics do not care about the truth or whom they've hurt. They only care about nurturing their own delusions . . . that will assure Fox a steady revenue stream for some time to come.

Fox News is part of News Corps....which loses money every quarter and has to be propped up by Murdock.

Good to know! Bankrupt the bastards!

sue Fox, O'keefe and friends mightily. The two ACORN workers featured in Rachel's piece were both expressly portrayed as cooperating and encouraging a scheme to funnel underage girls from Mexico to the U.S. for purposes of prostitution, which the surrounding film (and one ACORN worker's immediate call to a relative in the police dept.) prove false.

What's the latest on the O'Keefe Four? (or is it now Five?)

who voted to defund ACORN and demand an apology and some kind of compensation for them. It would be better if it was organized I suppose.

What we should do, which we usually don't bother to do, is to flood Fox with emails and phone calls demanding that they give the vindication of ACORN (there have been many investigations, all find ACORN to have done no wrong, and a Court Decision by a Federal Judge, that Congress' defunding of ACORN, was unconstitutional.

I would be up for calling and writing to Fox until they can't stand it anymore. I know they will not respond favorably, but at least they'll know their lies are not working on a majority of the people anymore. They were so arrogant, so certain that even 'liberals' couldn't defend this. And now, no surprise, it's obvious how they lied.

Edited to say, we should call the Republicans in Congress also just to let them know they are busted.

To think they introduced a bill to honor these criminals. All 35 of them should have their names in a Hall of Shame somewhere. Here's the list of those who voted for that bill. An equal number of Democrats shamefully joined Republicans.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll718.xml

for what?

Isn't Fox News going to at least apologize big time for this misrepresentation of what happened at ACORN's offices?

I hope that anyone who was harmed by this talks to a lawyer very soon.

A fabricated story by the same "news" organization (Fox) reporting the story.

It doesn't matter, really. Fox won: Acorn is gone.
If o'thief goes down or even does time, it's just the loss of a foot soldier in the war.

These are from a while ago, when all the lies were being spread about ACORN. I had collected them a couple months ago to try to inform an avid Faux watcher who claimed that ACORN got Franken elected. I never posted them since he stopped showing up to that political forum when I kept asking him for proof of that.

I haven't watched the one from this post yet. Will do so when I get home to a better connection. Hope these complement it.


1A - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnSfFYTnlk4&feature=related

1B - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYyIc7Rwoxg&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1#

2A - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpxzWiZMUYI&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=2

2B - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk8pyQbI-J8&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=3

3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXlCLZ3fW4c&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=4

4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5M1BIAN74c&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=5

5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5M1BIAN74c&feature=PlayList&p=4C776CCCA5A4A7DE&index=5

I hope Mr. Vera will take legal action.

To Whom This May Concern,

I am writing to ask that someone in the media demand that Biggovernment.com release unedited video from the supposed, independent sting operation involving ACORN. (Fox News is the only outlet with access to the full, unedited video according to biggovernment.com.)

I'll try to make the case below, using Juan Vera as an example of why I am reluctant to trust James O'Keefe and his cohorts.

My opinion, after reading the available transcripts, is that edited video tapes, a language barrier, and a desire to obtain information to provide to police, may have played a role in the ultimate conclusion drawn by ACORN involving Mr. Vera's firing? It is also my opinion that the portions of the video tapes available online, obviously do not reveal the entire story.

Some worthy considerations ...

1. Juan Vera contacted police, yet I've yet to hear about a report to this effect on Fox "news." Would Mr. Vera contact police after the incident in question, if he were intending to help smuggle under-aged prostitutes?

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/PoliceACORN-Employee-Reported-Alleged-Smuggling.html

*The call to police was also confirmed in the following news story.

Click on "ACORN Employee From San Diego Video Responds To Video"

http://www.dipity.com/timeline/Acorn-Video-San-Diego

2. Mr. Vera (who once again, appears to have a language barrier) says "yeah" several times in the available transcript, which I believe incorrectly implicates him in matters that are not clear to him? This is aptly demonstrated when he continually refers the couple in question to a housing seminar and asks them to be clear about what they want. See the example (on page 9 - part 1 of the transcripts below) where he attempts to clarify the intentions of the pair, to no avail.

My take on this here:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6576332&mesg_id=6592690

The supposed transcript (part 1) can be viewed below.

http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/19/full-transcript-acorn-prostitution-scandal-san-diego-part-i/

Part 2:

http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/19/full-transcript-acorn-prostitution-scandal-san-diego-part-ii/

3. Giles and O'Keefe express concern that Vera may be gathering info to contact police according to the second transcript above. For your convenience, you may view my analysis once again below:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6576332&mesg_id=6592690

I expect (that if the transcripts are indeed correct) the intent to report the incident to police may be why he tried to obtain information on the specifics involving the girls in question, who were supposedly coming to the US in containers? Either that, or they were talking about shipping cookies, we don't really know without unedited video tapes.

4. According to Biggovernment.com, the unedited video tapes have not been provided to any media outlet other than Fox News. Yet supposedly, in the interest of transparency we can listen to the audio tapes and view a transcript? Why would the original videos be kept from impartial sources, while audio and transcripts remain available to all?

See below as this has been confirmed by biggovernment.com

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6597719&mesg_id=6597719

http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/20/planting-the-seeds-the-politicized-art-behind-the-acorn-plan/


5. Mr. Vera contends that the tapes are not an accurate depiction of the full story. And, according to "friends," Mr. O'Keefe has a history of cherry picking info to make a shoddy case.

See the snip below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/us/19sting.html?_r=1

"...Liz Farkas, a Rutgers student who called Mr. O’Keefe “a nice guy and a loyal friend,” said she grew disillusioned after he asked her to help edit the script of a Planned Parenthood sting.

“It was snippets to make the Planned Parenthood nurse look bad,” Ms. Farkas said. “I said: ‘It has no context. You’re just cherry-picking the nurse’s answers.’ He said, ‘Okay’ — and then he just ran it.”

6. The online videos are again oddly edited, see here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6576332&mesg_id=6590429

In fact, Mr. Vera's face/mouth is not visible, or is blurred in various portions of the first tape. In spite of that, one can clearly make out the street behind him. This may be due to sun exposure on the film, or it may be a deliberate alteration. Perhaps of greater concern, O'Keefe and Giles are not visable when speaking throughout most of the edited video. Do we know what they're really saying to Mr. Vera?


For the record, I'm not drawing any conclusions about the innocence, or guilt of Mr. Vera. I simply suggest that his version of the story be given serious consideration. And, I hope that Juan Vera will be offered a voice equal to that of his accusers (who show his face daily, online, as a person supporting child prostitution!) I also feel that some have been too quick to believe filmmaker/satirists (who have an obvious political agenda.)

Lastly, I maintain that Mr. O'Keefe should answer questions for those in the media, who are beyond the admittedly protective layer of Fox News.

Thank you so much for your interest,

XXXXXXXXXX

PS

Below, I provide you with a few more leads for possible research:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6587421&mesg_id=6587421

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/20/784620/-OKeefe-said-he-went-after-ACORN-because-it-registers-minorities-likely-to-vote-against-Republicans

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6595141

*Posting for the record because I've collected info that may be of interest to others.*

If we can, I think we should.

Rachel and our entire community of progressives, who could take out a full page in the N.Y. Times , the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, saying "we the people" are fed up with the constant, dangerous lies and meddling in our government by Fux. Listing the myriad lies and the incredible damage done to this country and to "We the People", from those lies. To begin with, the lies that facilitated the illegal war on the innocent folks in Iraq to the criminal Acorn take down. Fux news is destroying our country and is the root of all the evil that has befallen this country in the last 12 years; Taking us from a rich well respected country to nothing but a crooked, (as perceived by the world) debtor 3rd world country of hypocrites.

will do my part

is that although some ACORN employees gave less than ethical answers, most did so because Mr. O'Keefe was very persuasive, claimed to be a law student and dressed the part. He convinced them that he was attempting to help these women get out from under their pimps, and start a new life. I may be wrong, but it seems that he preyed on their humanism, and their willingness to see moral shades of gray when a person's quality of life is at issue.

Do any "journalists" double check the facts before re-airing a story? I thought they had "fact-checkers." Even the Daily Show, that usually has a better fact checking team than the MSM, got had.

WTF was Congress thinking? What happened to justice?