James O'Keefe ambushes me

If you don't recognize this guy, his best known appearance is as a pimp....11ish am today, James O'Keefe, the guy whose undercover videos did damage to ACORN and NPR, showed up at my office hours at Columbia Journalism School, camera rolling. He wanted to ask about his recent entanglements with my colleague Dale Maharidge (Google it) and to make other allegations. So halfway through, I started videotaping him on my iPhone. After he was done with me, I should have kept rolling, because they get to the exit and find they can't open it. He says, "Have they locked us in?" Turns out they were pulling the door instead of pushing it.

Last week, he had posted something on Facebook, tagging me, trying to goad me into responding. This time, he took the next step.

I wish he'd shown up in his pimp or fake Middle Easterner costumes.

- Sree Sreenivasan
Twitter: @sree
sree@sree.net

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• James O'Keefe
• Sree Sreenivasan
• Columbia Journalism School

[jcwbluedevil]

@jwrosenbury He's not a journalist. Not within driving distance of a journalist. And he tried to break into a government building and tap the phone lines while dressed as the Village People. He's a clown.

[jwrosenbury]

@jcwbluedevil Working hard to get the truth instead of relying on press releases and phoning it in. So what if he didn't get a "Yes, we will help you pander children" this time?

And filming a senator undercover shouldn't be against the law. O'Keefe may not be the best journalist, but he's not a lazy sot being paid by the people he should be investigating.

[jcwbluedevil]

@jwrosenbury Breaking laws, editing video out of context, lying, manipulating a story to fit your preconceived narrative and making a fool of yourself while exposing nothing are what journalists are supposed to do? Really? You honestly believe that?

O'Keefe is a punchline and a laughing stock, not a journalist.

[firstatheist]

Way to expose the corruption there O'keefe and uncover the naughty words people are saying.

[fightpollution]

Have you heard of the right step in the wrong direction? O'Keefe is surely taking the correct steps by attempting to disrupt the buck-passing dean of student affairs but it going in completely the wrong direction; of course journalists who are trying to get Obama reelected should be held to that account but that does not mean that a Republican should replace the president, students need to push for radical revisioning of power structures not run of the mill liberalism

[jwrosenbury]

@manoamanoamanoamano If you wish to talk about journalist's going too far, check out what the "News of the World" was doing. O'Keefe is hated because he's a good journalist. He comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.

[jwrosenbury]

Laugh all you want. But this man is doing what journalists are supposed to do.

[manoamanoamanoamano]

HIlarious. Mind you, I also want to see the pimp suit, which he didn't wear when trying to sting ACORN.

According to the terms of his probation regarding the cock-up at Senator Landrieu's office, isn't jailbird O'Keefe supposed to be restricted to New Jersey? He violated his terms of probation when he recently did a bit of stand-up at Zuccotti- and isn't he violating his probation once again?

[Everywhere2]

JimO needs to do some improv training so that he doesn't struggle so hard making up his random prattle as he goes along. Total melvin.

[tenuousatbest]

what a punk. what a delightful moment to see you absolutely OWN this amateur.