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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged James O'Keefe

1. March 14, 2011 04:53 PM

   A Down Under View On Public Broadcasting

   CJR talks NPR and more with Jonathan Holmes, host of Australian TV’s Media Watch

   By Joel Meares

   Last week saw NPR CEO Vivian Schiller resign after the organization’s chief fundraiser was caught in a hidden-video sting seemingly calling the Tea Party racist, Republicans stupid, and declaring that NPR would be better off without government funding. The sting was the latest imbroglio for the broadcaster in the lead-up to what will be a tough fight in a...

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2. March 17, 2011 04:49 PM

   Bill to Defund NPR Passes House Vote

   White House needs to come out stronger

   By Joel Meares

   It’s been a busy twenty-four hours on the “defund NPR” beat. Yesterday, the House Rules Committee convened an emergency hearing to send a bill to the floor that would stop federal funding from supporting NPR programming, as well as that of its local affiliates. Anticipating today’s vote, the White House released a statement this morning strongly opposing passage of...

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3. March 15, 2011 01:55 PM

   Brooke Kroeger on James O’Keefe and Undercover Reporting: A CJR Podcast

   By The Editors

   Is James O’Keefe a “journalist”? Does it matter? Do the political goals of an undercover reporter—or activist—affect the value of the truths he or she reveals? How does a hidden camera compare to a faked identity, when there’s a story to be told? What are the “best practices for undercover” reporting—or are there any? In CJR’s latest podcast, assistant editor...

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4. April 19, 2011 11:33 AM

   James O’Keefe’s Bizarre (and brilliant?) Landrieu Dance

   By Joel Meares

   Say what you will about James O’Keefe, the videographer and self-described journalist famous for his ACORN and NPR stings, but after today, you can’t deny the man has a pretty wicked sense of humor and a moderate-to-above-average sense of rhythm. Overnight at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website a music video for the song “Landrieu Dance” appeared, posted by its...

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5. March 21, 2011 04:43 PM

   Juan Williams’ Weak Call to Defund NPR

   Ex-employee's latest attack proves toothless

   By Joel Meares

   In a disingenuous column published in The Hill today, onetime NPR news analyst Juan Williams argues that his former employer should be defunded. “Even after they fired me, called me a bigot and publicly advised me to only share my thoughts with a psychiatrist,” he writes today, “I did not call for defunding NPR. I am a journalist, and NPR...

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6. March 10, 2011 06:30 PM

   New O’Keefe Recording Shows NPR Suggesting Anonymous Donation

   By Joel Meares

   James O’Keefe continues to stick it to NPR with a second tape—this time audio—released featuring a telephone conversation between senior director of institutional giving Betsy Liley and a man posing as Ibrahim Kasaam from the fictional Muslim Education Action Center. The video is here and the Daily Caller is reporting on it here. In the video, "Kasaam" asks numerous questions...

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7. March 8, 2011 03:39 PM

   New Scandal: Approach With Caution (UPDATED)

   NPR, Schiller, O’Keefe, and the benefits of a breather

   By Joel Meares

   NPR took another hit today with the release of a video from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas showing NPR Foundation senior vice president Ron Schiller at a lunch in February describing the Tea Party as “scary” and “xenophobic” and claiming that the network would be better off without government funding. (Schiller has since left NPR.) The last point directly contradicts...

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8. March 15, 2011 03:19 PM

   O’Keefe Teaches Media A Lesson (Again)

   Edited NPR video shows why we need to slow down

   By Joel Meares

   How quickly things seem to fall apart when James O’Keefe is the person who put them together. O’Keefe’s incriminating ACORN video was shown to have been heavily edited—neither he nor Hannah Giles were actually in pimp and prostitute get-up when they spoke to ACORN employees, for example—and no criminal prosecutions of ACORN followed. While not letting ACORN off the hook...

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9. April 11, 2011 01:22 PM

   Q&A with NPR Ombudswoman Alicia Shepard (UPDATED)

   "This is really the first time in NPR's grown-up history that it's been under siege."

   By Joel Meares

   When Alicia Shepard became NPR’s ombudswoman in October 2007, she knew there would be challenges—public broadcasters are always going to draw out their share of malcontents. But she had little idea that just three years later she would become perhaps the most in-demand complaints manager in the country. In the days after NPR’s mishandled firing of Juan Williams, for...

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10. March 24, 2011 03:47 PM

    Steve Inskeep Stands Up for NPR

    Challenges notion that network is “liberal” in WSJ

    By Joel Meares

    The NPR board may have buckled under the pressure of James O’Keefe’s faux scandal, but weeks after the Schillers resigned, NPR journalists are standing up to take a swing. And not in the venue you might expect. Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep has a column in The Wall Street Journal today in which he challenges claims that NPR has...

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11. March 10, 2011 02:33 PM

    Stingers From Our Past

    James O'Keefe's predecessors, their stings, and their ethics

    By Joel Meares

    With James O’Keefe’s latest video sting taking two scalps at NPR this week, we thought it timely to revisit some infamous recent and not-so-recent journalistic stings. From The Mirage Tavern to, yes, James O’Keefe—we didn’t go back so far as Nellie Bly—we’re checking out what happened in each case, what went down after the sting went public, and then giving...

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12. March 11, 2011 05:15 PM

    UPDATED: Beck’s Blaze Comes To NPR’s Defense (Sort Of)

    By Joel Meares

    I spoke on a media roundtable today on a San Francisco public radio station about the NPR/Schiller(s) controversy. Before we began discussing that story, each of the guests on the program Your Say—myself, Slate's Salon's Justin Elliott, and NPR ombudswoman Alicia Shepard—was asked to talk about a good piece of reporting they had happened upon this week. Elliott and I...

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