In LA video, O'Keefe and Giles expose their own
dishonesty

post from Media Matters for America - Latest Items on 20 November 2009 06:18:22 PM. © Media Matters for America - Latest Items

In making public a video he withheld for more than two months, right-wing activist James O'Keefe finally acknowledged that a Los Angeles ACORN employee "would not assist us obtain a house for our illegal activities" -- an admission that directly contradicts claims by his colleague Hannah Giles that no ACORN employees refused to help them. Moreover, O'Keefe's claim in the video that the Los Angeles employee was the "only" ACORN employee who refused to help is contradicted by the fact that ACORN employees in two other cities contacted the police following their encounters with O'Keefe and Giles.

ACORN employee refused to assist inobtaining house for "illegal activities"

O'Keefe: LA worker "was the only ACORN employee ... who would notassist us obtain a house for our illegal activities." In avideo articleon the conservative website Human Events, Mike Flynn, the editor-in-chief ofBigGovernment.com, said in an exclusive interview: "It's not even just onerandom employee, it's so comprehensive, it's everywhere [O'Keefe] went. Whatshocks me is when you watch the videos, they don't even flinch."

O'Keefe dodged questions about whether ACORN employeesrefused to help

O'Keefe didn't disclose LA tape when askedwhether any ACORN employees "were not willing to cooperate." During the September 13 edition of Fox News' America's News HQ,Shawn asked, "Were there some that refused your offers,that actually did not -- were not willing to cooperate?" But rather thanacknowledge at the time what happened in Los Angeles, O'Keefe responded:

O'KEEFE:No -- in none of the facil -- [laughs] none of the facilities kicked us out. That's a lie.

O'Keefewaited more than two months after this exchange to acknowledge that Harris "would not assist us obtain a house for ourillegal activities."

In September, Fox's Chris Wallacereported that O'Keefe "says he'll release all the tapes soon toshow if any ACORN offices did the right thing." On theSeptember 27 edition of Fox News Sunday,host Chris Wallace reportedthat"O'Keefe wants to set the record straight" and aired the following:

WALLACE: O'Keefe wantsto set the record straight. He denies reports on left-wing blogs he got any moneyfrom conservative backers. And he says he'll release all the tapes soon to showif any ACORN offices did the right thing. Why not release all the tapes at thestart?
O'KEEFE: We knewthat they would lie and they would say, "Oh, you've got nothing," or,"You're dubbing your voice in." But you release a little bit at atime, and they get caught in their lie.

ACORN employees in other cities contacted the police

Philadelphia and San Diegoarea ACORN employees contacted police after O'Keefe's visits. Contrary toO'Keefe's assertion that the Los Angeles ACORN worker "wasthe only ACORN employee in our nationwide investigation who would not assist usobtain a house for our illegal activities," ACORN employees in Philadelphia and the SanDiego area contacted the police following their encounters withO'Keefe and Giles.