It seems you were pretty proud of a similar stunt recently.
Yes, I was. If only because it wasn't at the hands of O'Keefe's manipulating lies. Like we didn't
know this would happen!Video here:
http://player.vimeo.com/video/20874109?color=ba0b14Last week, Media Matters documented problems with James O'Keefe's video of NPR fundraising executives and pointed out that the "sting" does nothing to undermine NPR's actual news reporting, which even conservatives acknowledge is fair.
Now, we have uncovered new evidence raising questions about whether quotes O'Keefe attributed to an NPR employee are accurate.
First, some context. Glenn Beck's Blaze website and Dave Weigel are pointing to a glaring problem with the story -- key portions of the video are ripped out of context.
O'Keefe's video (and much of the subsequent news reporting) portrayed former NPR employee Ron Schiller as blasting the Tea Parties as xenophobic. Here's how O'Keefe presents Schiller's statement:
SCHILLER: The current Republican party is not really the Republican party. It's been hijacked by this group -- that is --
"AMIR MALIK": The radical, racist, Islamophobic, tea party people?
SCHILLER: And not just Islamophobic but really xenophobic
And here's how The Daily Caller reported it when they broke the story: "The Republican Party, Schiller says, has been 'hijacked by this group.' The man posing as Malik finishes the sentence by adding, 'the radical, racist, Islamaphobic, Tea Party people.' Schiller agrees and intensifies the criticism, saying that the Tea Party people aren't 'just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people.' "
In reality, the unedited video shows Schiller was attributing that sentiment to two Republicans who he spoke with (the portion O'Keefe omitted is bolded):
SCHILLER: I won't break a confidence, but a person who was an ambassador -- so a very highly placed Republican -- another person who was one of the top donors to the Republican Party, they both told me they voted for Obama, which they never believed they could ever do in their lives. That they could ever vote for a Democrat, ever. And they did, because they believe that the current Republican Party is not really the Republican Party. It's been hijacked by this group that is
"AMIR MALIK": The radical, racist, Islamophobic, Tea Party people?
SCHILLER: Exactly. And not just Islamophobic but really xenophobic.
