With progressives demoralized by November's election and Obama's retreat on the Bush tax cuts, a group of activists are fighting back against the Glenn Becks, Andrew Breitbarts and the rest of the Fox News propaganda machine. Last week a new watchdog group, IndictBreitbart.org, launched a campaign to encourage Baltimore's new State's Attorney to prosecute right wing activists Andrew Breitbart, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles for violating a Maryland law, which prohibits surreptitious recordings and disclosure of those recordings.
If the group is successful, it will be a step toward stopping the conservative media's modus operandi of using lies, half truths, and video deception to attack everyone from George Soros to ACORN to unions, to civic organizations and their innocent members. It might also help discourage the mainstream media from repeating their false accusations, as they did in the case of ACORN.
IndictBreitbart.org claims that when O'Keefe and Giles secretly recorded Maryland ACORN's employees after entering their office, during the summer of 2009, and then published their highly edited videotapes online at Breitbart's BigGovernment.com in order to harm ACORN, they broke Maryland's Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act. The tapes helped to destroy ACORN, which at the time was the largest and arguably the most successful anti-poverty group in the country.
ACORN, which had registered millions of poor, minority and young voters, had been under siege by the Republican Party and Fox News, which falsely accused the group of widespread voter registration fraud. After several misleading and doctored videos recorded by O'Keefe were released on Breitbart's website, and played round the clock by Fox News, and then reported in the New York Times, CNN and other media outlets, the tapes caused such a sensation that a decades-old campaign by conservatives to destroy ACORN finally succeeded. The campaign led by conservative Republican and their business allies, who opposed ACORN's fight to increase worker's wages, forced the group into bankruptcy. ACORN closed its doors on November 2, 2010.
According to IndictBreitbart group spokesperson and attorney Kevin Zeese, the campaign is a grassroots effort to let law enforcement officials in Maryland know that ordinary citizens want Breitbart, O'Keefe and Giles held accountable for violating Maryland's law. If convicted Breitbart, O'Keefe and Giles could face a prison sentence of up to five years and a $10,000 fine. IndictBreitbart organizers include Democrats.com, Progressive Democrats of America and Mark Crispin Miller, a Professor of Culture and Communication at NYU.
Action
They are asking citizens to sign a letter to Gregg Bernstein, the new Baltimore State's Attorney, which will be hand delivered the week he is sworn in January, 2011. Bernstein, 55, defeated the city's longtime prosecutor, Patricia C. Jessamy, to win the Democratic nomination by a margin of just under 1,200 votes and ran unopposed in the general election.
Since the Maryland ACORN taping, O'Keefe has been arrested and convicted of entering federal property under false pretenses when he attempted to embarrass Senator Mary Landrieu because of her support for the health care legislation. He is also under investigation for attempting to lure a female CNN reporter onto a boat in Maryland to seduce and embarrass her.
In addition to helping bring down ACORN, Breitbart became famous for posting an edited recording of Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod, which led the Obama administration to fire her and then rehire her when the tape turned out to be doctored.
Last month, James O'Keefe released a set of YouTube videos titled "Teachers Union Gone Wild featuring various New Jersey teachers giving their opinions about Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ), using crude language, and criticizing the state's teachers unions.
One of the teachers heard on the video, Alissa Ploshnick, known for her teaching skills and commitment to her students, was secretly recorded saying she saw another teacher refer to a student using the n-word, and that the teacher was demoted, but allowed to continue to teach.
Following the release of the video, she was suspended for seven days and denied a pay raise for being recorded using the n-word. Ploshnick, whose strong interpersonal skills and dedication made her especially adept at helping youngsters overcome dyslexia, had to hire an attorney to resurrect her reputation, which she felt was recklessly damaged by the conservative activist O'Keefe.
In each of these incidents, the main stream media quickly published the false accusations by the conservative activists resulting in harm to those they attacked. The organizers of the IndictBreitbart campaign believe that the enforcement of Maryland's law will help prevent secret taping and the smearing of innocent groups and citizens who can easily fall prey to the antics of smear artists parading as journalists.
"It appears that these zealots are engaged in a nationwide pattern of criminal activity for purely political reasons," said campaign spokesperson Zeese. "But, in Maryland, we don't take kindly to outsiders coming here to commit crimes that harm our citizens and community organizations. And so, with a new prosecutor in Baltimore who has campaigned on the rule of law, we are urging him to move quickly and decisively to bring these criminals to justice."
This new campaign will face an uphill battle since State's Attorney Bernstein promised that his top priority would be on boosting the conviction rate for those charged with murder and other violent crimes. But by going after some of the worst right wing media deceivers, just the threat may help. And according to the new group, over 2000 people have already signed the letter to Bernstein since the launch of this campaign.
To learn more, go to www.IndictBreitbart.org.
John Atlas is the author of the new book SEEDS OF CHANGE, The Story of Acorn, America's Most Controversial Anti-Poverty Community Organizing Group available at The Progressive Book Club and Amazon.com
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1. Wouldn't any decent person approve of Brietbart's actions since the intended targets were engaged in criminal wrongdoing? Much like a person issued a speeding ticket in the process of pursuing another car getting away from a bank robbery?
I know you guys REALLY hate Andrew, but really, if someone broke a law (minor) to expose a rightie doing bad things that would be ok wouldn't it?
In fact, the tactic of trying to silence us will only grow attendence to our cause. Its the 60s all over again, thanks to immoral baby boomers. Please please don't force gay marriage on me over obtaining bread for my family...
They seem to like to propagate misinformation.
This is not a right/left issue, it is an issue of getting relevant, truthful information out there in the media so we can inform our opinions. It does no one any goood when "one side" purposefully & fraudulantly discredits a person or situation.
Notice that ACORN didn't sue breitbart or fox news...
I mean, let's move beyond the talking points. Shall we?
One thing is clear... the U.S. no longer has a justice system when crimes like these go unpunished. Just because the majority of Americans are duped into believing that the end results are in their best interest doesn't mean that the justice system (hello attorneys, judges, politicians?) should allow these crimes to occur. Though I'm glad to know that somebody is trying to stop these 'what-should-we-call-thems' ('social terrorists?), this article only further confirms my suspicions that American society is hopelessly corrupt.
ACORN recievded public funds, making it's offices public places.
What a wast of time and money. Notice how nobody is refuting the actual material.
The federal wiretap law, passed in 1968, permits surreptitious recording of conversations when one party consents, "unless such communication is intercepted for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States or of any State." Amendments signed into law in 1986 and 1994 expand the prohibitions to unauthorized interception of most forms of electronic communications, including satellite transmissions, cellular phone conversations, computer data transmissions and cordless phone conversations.
Read more: What is the law regarding recording someone (audio, video, camera) without their consent? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/29004#ixzz181nA5VYJ
Twelve states forbid the recording of private conversations without the consent of all parties. Those states are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington
The federal wiretap law, passed in 1968, permits surreptitious recording of conversations when one party consents, "unless such communication is intercepted for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States or of any State." Amendments signed into law in 1986 and 1994 expand the prohibitions to unauthorized interception of most forms of electronic communications, including satellite transmissions, cellular phone conversations, computer data transmissions and cordless phone conversations.
Read more: What is the law regarding recording someone (audio, video, camera) without their consent? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/29004#ixzz181nA5VYJ
Let's see, oh yeah, the ACA aka health care "reform". I read the bills AND the CBO/CMMS analyses and EVERY TIME I HEARD A DEM TALK about the subject it was nothing but lies.
And in other news, POLITICIANS LIE ALL THE TIME!