It seems the left is having trouble spinning James O’Keefe again. One trial balloon reaction to the Texas media blackout of the Navigators scandal is that James O’Keefe is an unreliable source. This attempt is both weak on its face and false.
It’s weak because even if O’Keefe had released false information, which he hasn’t, he’d be no different than any number of mainstream media sources who did the same or worse and are still in the mix. Such selective application of trust and leniency by the media undermines this excuse for ignoring news that hurts their political patrons.
It’s also weak because the video speaks for itself; it is the kind of coverage that asks very little of the viewer in terms of trust for the journalist - trust O’Keefe deserves, by the way.
It’s false because it’s false. O’Keefe has never released false information – not once. He has repeatedly caught the left being shamefully corrupt. O’Keefe once gathered information illegally, but while this may be a sin against good citizenship, it does not put the accuracy of his information under a cloud.
In fact, the left is often on the other side of this conversation. An article in the American Journalism Review called “Testing the System” asks if journalists who break the law gathering information should even be prosecuted. This debate has been a big deal in the UK, and the ACLU has advocated that journalists need a federal shield law. Calls for liberalization of these laws and/or their application most commonly come from the left, but don’t hold your breath waiting for this conversation to surface when the topic of James O’Keefe is in the vicinity.
The media may think it’s flexing its muscles in a naked power play of silence concerning O’Keefe, but every time they don’t cover uber-newsworthy reporting because it hits powerful people, they lose more pull with the shrinking pool of people who still trust them.
In short, O’Keefe wins again. His investigative journalism creates opportunities for the media to do what has led to the folding of news source after news source - reveal to normal people their lack of trustworthiness. Well done, James.