O’keefe Says He Is Doing The Job The Media Refuses To Do

Arkansas’ left leaning blogs were quick to pile on the criticism for conservative film maker James O’Keefe as he made a visit to Arkansas today.  His appearance at the Argenta Community Theater in North Little Rock was sponsored by Americans for Prosperity Arkansas. 

Speaking to about 100 conservative activists, O’Keefe played numerous clips of videos he had made where he had exposed corruption within organizations such as ACORN, NPR, and the New Jersey Teachers Union.  He also played clips of the media reaction who – much like the liberal bloggers of Arkansas – focus on O’Keefe’s tactics rather than the corruption he ends up exposing.

One of the best clips he played was the above video from Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show," which was dumbfounded over O’Keefe’s ability to expose ACORN workers helping O’Keefe who was  disguised as a pimp covering up an underage prostitution ring.

"I am showing people a lot of our work – taking them on a journey through what we’ve done at Project Veritas. I’m showing the media reaction to what we’ve done – how they have tried to cover up some of the fraud and abuse that we have exposed. And just try to enlighten people about what goes on at their institutions and some of the problems with the media and why it is important for citizens to do the work that the media won’t do," said O’Keefe in an interview before the event.

Responding to the criticism from my blogger colleague Michael Cook as well as other media criticism, O’Keefe said, "They constantly try to call me a criminal and a felon because I walked into a Senator’s office under a pretense. I posed as something I was not. My enemies — or misguided opponents as I like to call them — they think that the people who occupied the Wisconsin capitol building are absolute heroes, but I am the worst person in the world for going into a politician’s office and asking a question."

He said he has had a positive reaction from people as he was able to present his work directly to them.

As for the role of a citizen journalist, he says it is "doing the work the media refused to do because the media doesn’t do it, so we’ve got do it."