Pavlich: O’Keefe a true journalist

Two weeks ago, Project Veritas, run by longtime investigative journalist James O’Keefe, released a series of undercover videos showing Democrat operative Scott Foval admitting to organizing the incitement of violence at Trump rallies. At the time, Foval worked for veteran operative Robert Creamer. Creamer runs Americans United for Change, an organization contracted by the DNC and Clinton campaigns.

“It’s a matter of showing up, to want to get into their rally, in a Planned Parenthood T-shirt. Or ‘Trump is a Nazi,’ you know. You can message to draw them out, and draw them out to punch you,” Foval is seen saying in the video, crediting Creamer with being the mastermind behind the action. “We’re starting anarchy here.”

{mosads}Another video investigation conducted by the group exposes Foval strategizing about how to bring buses and carloads of people from one state to another in order to vote for Democrats illegally.

“We’ve been bussing people in to deal with you f—ing assholes for 50 years and we’re not going to stop now. We’re just going to find a different way to do it,” Foval said. 

Soon after being published, the investigations resulted in swift firing of Creamer and Foval, severing ties to the Clinton campaign and DNC while confirming the credibility of the video content.

“I am unwilling to become a distraction to the important task of electing Hillary Clinton, and defeating Donald Trump in the upcoming election. As a result I have indicated to the Democratic National Committee that I am stepping back from my responsibilities working with the campaign,” Creamer said in a statement. “Contrary to the outrageous claims of the notorious right wing blogger James O’Keefe, we have always adhered to the highest standards of transparency and legality in our work for the DNC.”

After Democrats and Creamer took their swings at O’Keefe, in came the attacks from progressive friends and allies in the media. Despite clear evidence of wrongdoing, unethical and possibly illegal behavior, Clinton backers immediately jumped to discredit the story.

Mainstream outlets ignored the story until a barrage of social media pressure made avoidance of coverage impossible. MSNBC Anchor Joy Reid, who said during the Democratic National Convention in July that O’Keefe isn’t a “real” journalist, repeatedly attacked the footage as doctored propaganda.

When the firings of Creamer and Foval rolled in, the narrative was changed to the tapes “being edited,” implying somehow editing isn’t a standard practice in newsrooms across the country and therefore is disqualifying as real journalism.

To be clear, every single segment or investigative package on television is edited. Every story published online or in remaining newspapers is edited. Conscious decisions are made by producers and editors in newsrooms across the country every single day about what to cut or keep in a story. What Project Veritas produces is no different despite the desperate narrative to make it seem so.

When the editing argument fell flat, because O’Keefe is situated on the right side of the political spectrum, the narrative changed again:  He’s not a real journalist and therefore shouldn’t be taken seriously.

And finally, when establishment media couldn’t discredit O’Keefe’s work, they attacked his character.

CNN anchor Erin Burnett went out of her way during a recent broadcast to tell the audience about O’Keefe’s criminal history, which amounts to a 2010 misdemeanor conviction for illegally tampering with a phone in former Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office. This criminal action, were it to be conducted by a liberal activist against a Republican, would have been praised as a courageous act of journalism, proving the individual was willing to go to great lengths to get to the bottom of an important story.

These are the same tired arguments we’ve heard from journalism gatekeepers before and we’ll certainly hear them again. 

Journalism is supposed to be about truth, which O’Keefe’s work over the years has uncovered in some of the darkest and protected corners of the progressive movement.  

As a reminder, O’Keefe is responsible for the undercover ACORN tapes that led to bipartisan votes in Congress stripping all federal funding for the group, which shut down shortly after.

James O’Keefe is a journalist, doing the work “real” journalists don’t dare, and has been conducting undercover investigations for years with dozens of scalps collected along the way. The more the “true” journalists who back the Democrat machine attack him, the more emboldened he becomes to pursue his next project.

Pavlich is editor for Townhall.com and a Fox News contributor.