Yesterday, James O’ Keefe filed a lawsuit against the NJ Star Ledger for defamation. MRCTV asked James a couple of questions regarding what motivated him to file the lawsuit, if this was a ‘warning shot’ at other outlets, if he plans on filing more, how he thinks the media would treat him and his work if he were a liberal and his thoughts on truth in the media.
Here’s the interview which was conducted via e-mail:
MRCTV: What motivated you to file the lawsuit against the NJ Star-Ledger?
O’ Keefe: First, they said I bought a teacher drinks in “Teachers Unions Gone Wild” despite the fact the Teacher admitted she bought her own drink. Then they retracted their false reporting that I tried to tap a Senator’s phones — and decided to print the same lie again. Finally, they are reporting that I broke the law in New Hampshire when filming voter fraud, despite the fact there is no expectation of privacy in a public location, and I wasn’t even in New Hampshire. All these things are false and malicious — particularly calling me a convicted felon.
MRCTV: Could this be considered a ‘warning shot’ at other media outlets?
O’ Keefe: I welcome criticism and debate over our investigations. However, if you falsely report I’m a convicted felon — if media outlets choose to disregard the truth and contradict what a United States Attorney has said in court documents, then I will hold you accountable, bring you into court, and bring your newspaper to justice. Remember, many of these newspapers are not blogs, they are recipients of the Pulitzer Prize.”
MRCTV: Do you plan on filing any more lawsuits against other outlets?
O’ Keefe: If they have willfully disregarded the truth, yes.
MRCTV: How do you think the media would treat you and your work if you were a liberal?
O’ Keefe: We would have a Peabody, a Pulitzer and the screenplay about our journey over the last few years would be nominated for an Academy award.
MRCTV: Final thoughts on truth in the media.
O’ Keefe: Journalism has become so politicized that reporters can’t accept the facts we find to be true. They jump to policy ramifications that may come about in state legislatures after our fact-finding, so they take an intellectually dishonest tact; they refuse to accept the facts that we discovered to be true. The reason why we are so effective — and dangerous to the establishment — is we ask people to believe their own eyes and ears. We don’t editorialize in our videos. We don’t advance policy agendas in our videos. We expose things for what they are using raw visuals of events that have happened. The venerable Pulitzer Prize winners are forced to resort to defamation and the politics of personal destruction in order to obfuscate our findings. The game is over, starting with this lawsuit.