TPMDC James O'Keefe
Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart, 1969-2012
Andrew Breitbart, an online media innovator and one of its most controversial practitioners, died unexpectedly early Thursday morning, at UCLA Medical Center, in Los Angeles. He was 43.
Surpassed only by his friend and fellow conservative Matt Drudge, whose eponymous news aggregation website still commands outsize influence over the broader media, Breitbart recognized years ahead of his current-day peers the Internet's potential to direct the flow of information from its point of inception and thus command narrative and help shape public opinion.
His alliance with Drudge began in the mid-1990s, before the Lewinsky scandal turned Drudge Report into water cooler conversation. Until quite recently Breitbart referred to himself as "Matt Drudge's bitch." But he left his own imprimatur on the Web as well -- one that, in different ways, rivals his mentor's.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: ACORN, Andrew Breitbart, Anthony Weiner, James O'Keefe, Matt Drudge, Shirley Sherrod
NPR
Dems Fundraise Off GOP's Emergency NPR Hearing
Responding to a new attempt by House GOP lawmakers to defund NPR, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is hitting up supporters for cash to help defend the embattled public broadcaster.
"We can't let this outrage go unchallenged," a fundraising e-mail from DCCC chair Steve Israel on Wednesday read. "Republicans and their right-wing media backers are gearing up for this fight, and they're hoping grassroots Democrats like you will stay on the sidelines."
The House Rules Committee held an emergency hearing the same day on a bill that would prohibit any federal funding from going to NPR, with a vote expected in Congress on Thursday.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: 112th Congress, James O'Keefe, NPR
NPR
House GOP Declares Emergency ... Over NPR Funding
House Republicans are holding an emergency meeting of the Rules Committee on Wednesday to take up legislation that would block funding to NPR in the wake of James O'Keefe's hidden camera prank on the news organization.
The meeting will examine HR 1076, introduced by Republican congressman and NPR-nemesis Doug Lamborn of Colorado, which would bar the government from providing any funding to NPR and its affiliate stations. The House already passed an amendment to its Continuing Resolution funding the government through September that would defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports both NPR and PBS, but the Senate defeated the bill and the latest CR only cuts $50 million in scheduled increases to NPR's funding that the White House had already cut from its own budget proposal.
According to a spokeswoman for Lamborn, Catherine Mortensen, the new standalone bill would only target NPR. And unlike the CR amendment would have defunded public broadcasting through the 2011 fiscal year, HR 1076 would permanently prohibit all federal funding to NPR and affiliate stations.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: 112th Congress, James O'Keefe, NPR
James O'Keefe
Sen. Durbin Takes On James O'Keefe
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
NPR may be in a defensive crouch, but at least one Democratic lawmaker is publicly pushing back against James O'Keefe's war on public broadcasting: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).
Durbin took to the Senate floor on Monday to mount a defense of NPR and PBS and attack O'Keefe's credibility. Noting that previous O'Keefe tapes have been found to be misleadingly edited, including his footage of ACORN in which he posed as a pimp, Durbin said that the same tactics were being used to go after NPR. He cited a widely circulated analysis by Glenn Beck's website, The Blaze, as evidence.
"Mr. O'Keefe appears to be engaged in creative editing again, and this time his target is National Public Radio," he said. "That's not just my opinion. The website of none other than Fox News' own Glenn Beck -- that's right, Glenn Beck -- compares the edited and unedited versions of Mr. O'Keefe's latest video and concludes that the edited version appears to be deceptively edited in order to portray statements by one of the secretely recorded NPR execs out of context."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Dick Durbin, James O'Keefe
James O'Keefe
Tea Party Patriots Rally Against NPR After O'Keefe Video
James O'Keefe
The Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group for state and local Tea Party groups around the country, is rallying its supporters against NPR in response to hidden camera footage of an NPR executive, Ron Schiller, describing the movement's members as "seriously, seriously racist people."
The video was filmed by James O'Keefe's group, Project Veritas, and featured the group's members having lunch with Schiller while posing as a phony Muslim advocacy group interested in donating $5 million to NPR. In addition to his comments on the Tea Party, Schiller is shown in the video saying that NPR does not need federal funding, which the Patriots argue demonstrates that House Republican efforts to cut the news organization's funds are on the mark.
"Mr. Schiller himself candidly admits in the video that NPR doesn't need federal funding, and welcomes the opportunity to slant their reporting without the oversight of the taxpayer," Mark Meckler, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots wrote in an e-mail to supporters today. "At a time when the country is upside down by more than a trillion dollars, can we really afford to provide huge subsidies to entities that openly state that they don't need the money? Let's take his advice and pass legislation that would defund the clearly biased news organization that is out of touch with Americans across the country."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: James O'Keefe, Tea Party, Tea Party Patriots
James O'Keefe
James O'Keefe Punks NPR With Muslim Brotherhood Stunt?
James O'Keefe
James O'Keefe's organization has put up what they claim is hidden camera footage of NPR executives slamming the Tea Party over lunch at a Georgetown restaurant with O'Keefe's pranksters, who were posing as a phony Muslim advocacy group interested in donating to NPR.
In the video released by O'Keefe's "Project Veritas," Ron Schiller, president of the NPR foundation, delivers a laundry list of liberal complaints against the Tea Party and remains quiet as the fake donors complain about Jewish control of the media. A spokeswoman for NPR confirmed to TPM that Schiller is the person in the video but did not offer additional information at this time.
"They're seriously, seriously racist people," Schiller says of the Tea Party at one point.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: James O'Keefe, NPR
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