Hey, James O’Keefe! Did WaPo cite you correctly on ACORN?

by Kay B. Day

ACORN is top of the fold these days because two aspiring reporters did the job journalists used to do. James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles went undercover to film ACORN employees. The rest is pretty much history, and pomp media is just now catching up. Had it not been for Fox News and Andrew Breitbart the story probably would’ve had seriously weaker legs. But a passage in a story published at The Washington Post, and that same passage memed by an Associated Press story, raise questions about how media is phrasing the storyline.

Read with me the passage from The Washington Post (Sept. 18):
‘Though O'Keefe described himself as a progressive radical, not a conservative, he said he targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does: its massive voter registration drives that turn out poor African Americans and Latinos against Republicans…"Politicians are getting elected single-handedly due to this organization," he said. "No one was holding this organization accountable. No one in the media is putting pressure on them. We wanted to do a stunt and see what we could find."’

Pay attention to the description of O’Keefe, especially this passage: ‘…he targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does…” Read O’Keefe’s actual words in the quote that follows.

Now read with me again, from the Associated Press Story run Sept. 20 in The Florida Times Union [‘Did ACORN get too influential for its own good?]’: “James O’Keefe, one of the two filmmakers, said he went after ACORN because it registers minorities likely to vote against Republicans.”

The AP then cites the WaPo story beginning with O’Keefe’s exact quote, starting with “Politicians” and ending with “organization.”

If the WaPo story cited is the source for the AP quote, note the construct in the AP’s quote compared with the all important construct in the WaPo passage. First WaPo appears to draw a conclusion that bears no relation to O’Keefe’s actual quote, at least not to the quote in the story.

This begs the question: Did O’Keefe say he targeted ACORN because they register ‘poor African Americans and Latinos?’ Did O’Keefe actually say he “went after ACORN because it registers minorities likely to vote against Republicans”? Did WaPo simply paraphrase what O’Keefe said, or did WaPo draw a specific conclusion based on a general comment?

Some context would be useful.

The WaPo reporters could offer up the interview audio file if they were asked. Or O’Keefe could take a look at the passage and see if he’s quoted properly, not in the direct quote but in the indirect quote. Because both the WaPo and the AP use the word, ‘said.’  Do tell.

So, James O’Keefe, did you really say it that way ?