Giles & O'Keefe failed to report confession of murder by ACORN worker!

[sabrina 1]

When Congress voted to defund ACORN, their swift action was based on the claim that no ACORN worker reported the 'crime' Giles and O'Keefe claimed to be involved in. Investigations were called for with Fox 'news' leading the way.

Pretty harsh response especially since those allegations have since been proven to be false. Two of ACORN's offices have now offered proof that they did report these two GOP jokers to the police.

But another serious question has arisen from all of this, especially since at the center of the allegations was the accusation that failure to report a 'crime' was an egregious failure on the part of ACORN.

So what then was the responsibility of Giles and O'Keefe when ACORN worker, Tresa Kaelke, 'confessed' to killing her husband as they taped her (without her knowledge}?

Did they rush to report this 'confession' to the police as they claim is the right thing to do?

Apparently not as can be seen in the transcript of Hannity's Show when he asked Giles and O'Keefe if they had checked out her story. Scroll down to see Hannity questioning Giles on whether or not they had checked out this story of a possible murderer working for ACORN. And watch how these righteous crime-stoppers dismiss the notion that murder might be a crime that should have been instantly reported:

http://mediamatters.org/research/200909160023

Fox News reports fake murder story from ACORN video as fact

HANNITY: Not only does she admit to, if I heard her correctly, running a prostitution ring, "Heidi Fleiss is my idol" -- is that the right phrase?

GILES: Yeah, her hero.

HANNITY: Her hero. OK. Specifically, now she goes into this scenario about her husband and the killing of him.

GILES: Yeah.

HANNITY: Why don't you explain exactly 'cause I want to make sure people understand it.

GILES: So this is exactly what happened. She said she was abused by her husband and that she killed him. Now, if a woman's getting abused, she has a right to defend herself. And I went ahead and I asked her, "Oh, was he abusing you when you killed him?" And she goes, "No, not right that instant," which is huge.

HANNITY: All right. So she's saying she killed her husband --

GILES: Yeah.

HANNITY: -- or created the plot that killed her husband. Is that --

GILES: Right. And then after we asked -- she goes, well, that she tried to cover up for saying she didn't kill him in self-defense and said she went around to the community and let different groups know that she was being abused. And so, it's basically like she set up the murder of her husband.

HANNITY: Have you ever checked to see if in fact she had a husband that was killed?,

GILES: We've -- we're working on that.

HANNITY: You haven't gotten to the details on that.

BREITBART: There's -- well, look, there's so much stuff coming in. We have -- there are more than four cities.

Breitbart jumping in to cover up the fact that they failed to do exactly what they accused (falsely, we now know) ACORN of doing.

'We're working on that' ~ :rofl:

This was September 15th! When was this video taped? How long does it take a Republican operative to report a possible crime?

But crime was not what they were interested in. Apparently not what Hannity, Karl Rove, Greta Van Susteren or anyone at Fox 'News' was interested in. The Witch-hunt was in full swing, and nothing, not murder or facts or truth of any kind was going to get in their way!

Just for fun, let's see what Karl Rove, the mentor of the two, now thoroughly discredited, pranksters had to say about this 'confession' of murder:

Rove: ACORN must have "terrific ... human resources department to hire people like that." Karl Rove stated that Kaelke "admitted to -- or claimed to have killed her husband because she thought he was going to abuse her at some point. So, she's claimed that she shot him in the head. I mean, this is an organization that really must have a terrific human relations -- human resources department to hire people like that."

But not one of them suggested that this crime needed to be reported immediately. The hypocrisy of the GOP fully on display, once again.

What actually happened was that Tresa Kaelke knew these two were lying from the start. She decided to play along, as she said 'like Steven Colbert would', and match their outrageous story with stories of her own. She was 'having fun with them' she said. The San Bernadino Police have investigated what they saw in the videos and have backed up Kailke's statements that she was just fooling with them. Her ex-husband is alive and well.

ACORN: Kaelke said she decided to tell actors "outrageous things with a straightface." According to an ACORN press release, Kaelke stated of the actors who filmed her, "They were not believable. ... Somewhat entertaining, but they weren't even good actors. I didn't know what to make of them. They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me. Like Stephen Colbert does -- saying the most outrageous things with a straightface." The press release also stated: "When the actors approached Ms. Kaelke with their provocative costuming and outlandish scenario, she could not take them seriously. So she met their outrageousness with her own personal style of outrageousness. She matched their false scenario with her own false scenarios."

Fox was punked by Giles & O'Keefe, so was Karl Rove, Greta, Hannity and apparently even Breitbart who called O'Keefe 'one the best journalists' he has ever met.

Where are they hiding?

I searched Breitbart's blog for some indication, retraction maybe, that he realizes the material he has on his website has now been pretty well debunked. While they are not shouting from the roof-tops anymore about this story, there is no retraction, no correction of the false information they are responsible for spreading around.

Fox too appears to be silent on the issue. There is no explanation as to why they did zero checking on the stories they 'reported' on, and no headlines correcting the falsehoods they are responsible for disseminating.

Giles and O'Keefe are nowhere to be found, and O'Keefe's blog has been scrubbed. But the tapes remain online and there is no doubt they will be used in the future as the mission was accomplished.

Btw, with the success of this 'operation', Breitbart et al have moved on to their next 'liberal' target which is The National Endowment of the Arts. They want Congressional Hearings to ferret out 'corruption' in the NEA!

The Daily Mail is one of the few MSM outlets to have commented on this story:


The ACORN witch hunt: Voter-registration success spurs unfair attack

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/09/20/2009-09-20_the_acorn_witch_hunt.html#ixzz0Rrzom4fl

That is all it took. A full-scale witch hunt is underway against ACORN - and that means normal standards of proof, evidence and rationality get tossed out the window.

Biased and/or naive news producers and editors rushed one-minute excerpts of O'Keefe and Giles' heavily edited videos onto national television without a thought, even when the pair refused to release the full tapes or answer questions on the air about how they were created.

In at least one case, O'Keefe simply lied about his stunt, claiming on Fox News Channel that every ACORN office he visited played along with his purported illegal schemes.

Not so. ACORN's Philadelphia office filed a police report about the bizarre questions posed by O'Keefe and Giles (a copy of the complaint is online).

In another instance, a California ACORN worker named Tresa Kaelke filled O'Keefe's hidden camera with a wild, dramatic tale about killing her husband and getting away with it, which O'Keefe and Giles claimed as yet another example of ACORN perfidy.

In reality, Kaelke invented the story because the fake hooker and her pal "were clearly playing with me." San Bernardino police investigated the claim and concluded that Ms. Kaelke's "known former husbands" appear to be "alive and well," although perhaps unamused.

And now, on to the next. The National Endowments of the Arts. I expect their witch-hunt of this organization, already begun, to be equally successful as there will be no consequences for this egregious assault by them on everything that should matter in a democracy, truth in reporting being one of the most important.

The double stantards that are tolerated by Democrats and the media, are not only outrageous, but extremely harmful to this country. A demand needs to be made for a thorough investigation of these people. Most importantly 'who is funding them'? Because if Morton Blackwell, as alledged, did fund this political witch-hunt, he needs to have his tax-exempt status removed, as fast as ACORN's funding was removed.

[dmr]

1. O'Keefe and Giles and Fox: wasting taxpayer money

their biased actions ended up wasting law enforcement's time and resources.

[sabrina 1]

2. Yes, and I do not want to be paying for these

moron's political games. I would like to think that the press is now following them around, asking them why they did not report a confession of murder?

True, we know now that they met their match when they met Tresa, but THEY did not know it then and chose to completely ignore information that was given to them of a murder that may have occurred.

Nor did Greta, Rove or anyone else on Fox. I don't know why the media hasn't gone after Fox vehemently on this story and I really hope there will be prosecutions and civil suits for the legal violations they engaged in.

[hootinholler]

3. Is there a legal duty to report a murder?

:shrug:

Could there be charges from not reporting it?

-Hoot

[sabrina 1]

4. Good question.

I looked it up and apparently there is no legal obligation to report a crime.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_there_a_legal_duty_to_report_a_crime

Is there a legal duty to report a crime?


A. For most people, there is no duty to report.

There are exceptions. Some states require that a therapist report a dangerous patient. Many states require that people in charge of children report possible abuse. Unless there is a statute that requires a person in your position to report a crime, you have no duty to report it.

There is a moral obligation, which was the point Fox et al made about ACORN workers not reporting them , but apparently it doesn't apply to Republicans.

[sabrina 1]

5. I have read some more on whether or not it is against the law

not to report a crime. Most legal experts say 'no' although most agree there is a moral obligation.

Ironically though Sensenbrenner introduced a bill that would change the way the law works, using the drug war as a basis for the bill.

From Talkleft:

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2005/05/16/062/97281

You may remember this as the bill that provides for a five year mandatory minimum sentence for passing a joint to someone who's been through a drug treatment program. That's nothing. Read about what else this doozy of a bill will do. Like the "snitch or go to jail" provisions. If you are a college professor or student, you should be very afraid.

The more I have read about this, the more I can see the argument for not making it mandatory to report a crime. Most people can be depended on to report crimes because it's the right thing to do, but Sensenbrenner's attempt to criminalize it highlights how such a law could be abused. Looks like it did not pass.

[dmr]

7. I didn't know this. It's very chilling

Which means * anyone * could get trapped by this law. If the police or DA chooses to make an example of you - you are then doomed.

[sabrina 1]

8. I didn't know about it either. That was from 2005 so I'm assuming

it didn't pass. But it made me realize why there never has been a law to force people to report a crime and to depend on people's better nature.

In the ACORN case, two of their workers did file a report. But as I said in the OP, neither Giles nor O'Keefe did and I'm surprised no reporter asked them why they did not.

Hannity came close as you can see from the transcript, but he didn't want to ruin the fun and decided not to pursue it. These people have no principles whatsoever, hypocrisy doesn't even begin to describe them.

[mzmolly]

6. Gosh, and some are being scrutinzied for waiting two days?

;)

[sabrina 1]

9. Yes, that's kind of amazing, mzmolly

I think Juan Carlos wanted to wait and see if his suspicions were right, unlike so many in our Congress who rushed to judgement about him.

These two otoh, blatantly did nothing about a murder confession and Hannity, who when he asked the question probably thought they would answer 'yes' (I doubt he'd have asked otherwise) should have jumped all over them. Instead it was so hypocritical to see him 'you just want to work out the details' or whatever.

In a sane world, that entire network would go out of business based on the reporting on this story alone.

[mzmolly]

12. I love this talking point.

I really do. In fact, I'm off to insert it into a discussion I'm having. :hi:

[sabrina 1]

13. It should have been a headline, somewhere, imo.

Someone should have asked 'but why did you not report this confession'? The truth is Tresa punked them and Rove et al and the ended up reporting that a murderer was working for ACORN without even checking their facts.

They should all be the laughing stock of the internet. Wish someone like The Onion would do a number on them.

What's interesting is that Hannity DID ask, probably because he was told how 'brilliant' these 'rising young stars' were. I think he was sorry he asked, but then acted like it was acceptable for them to try to 'work out the details'.

And don't forget Giles' response ~ 'we're working on that'! Omg, can you imagine of an ACORN worker had responded that way?

I really hope the press covers this story now the way it ought to have been from the beginning, but my fear is they will all just drop it now. O'Keefe, big talker that he is, won't talk to anyone now.

They've already moved on, as I said in the OP, to the NEA. I really hope we've learned something and start the push-back NOW, rather than later.

Good luck in your discussion. :-)

I've been tempted to go argue with a few wingnuts who still think these guys are 'brilliant patriots of the caliber of Thomas Jefferson'! :rofl: But I need more stamina before taking on that kind of delusional thinking.

[mzmolly]

14. Stamina indeed. It really sucks the energy out of a person to debate the delusional.

"I really hope we've learned something and start the push-back NOW, rather than later."

Exactly! It will be too late to undo the damage, if we don't fight back now. It will go something like this.

ACORN = bad - ACORN is associated with X Democrat who now = bad - the President said good things about ACORN in his book and he worked as an attorney for ACORN so the President = bad.

ACORN will become the boogieman in 2010 and 2012. This is a set up for the debate on coming elections, plain and simple.

[sabrina 1]

16. So true, they accomplished their goal, the impression has been

created and now they are basically silent not responding to any criticism as that would ruin the 'work' they've done.

On Brietbart's site, John (woman abuser) Fund had an article on ACORN yesterday, but nothing from Breitbart other than, as you predicted, just mentioning ACORN in a negative way.

I agree totally with your last sentence, unless Democrats go after them relentlessly to the point where they are afraid to mention ACORN.

And as was obvious from my visit to Breitbart's site, the NEA is getting the same treatment as ACORN got. Dems have got to start fighting these morons. Caving as Congress did only encourages to choose more and more targets. They need to be burned badly by their dirty tricks and there is enough to do that in this story for a long time.

Thanks for all your great work and Turborama, Emit et al. They should not be allowed to hide now, imho.

[L. Coyote]

10. not BRIGHT BART: "There's -- well, look, there's so much stuff coming in."

What's a little pre-meditated murder when there's so much STUFF! :rofl:

STUFF is just so much worst than killing people, NOT? :rofl: MORANS!!

[mzmolly]

11. LOL

OMG. :rofl:

[sabrina 1]

15. Rotfl, that's what I was thinking reading the transcript

But look how understanding Hannity was. 'You all had to work on the details'! If it didn't have the consequences it has had, it would really make a great SL comedy skit.

'Bright Bart' ~ :rofl:, I love that name and if you don't mind, I'll refer to him that way from now (with attribution of course) anyhow, he's a protege of Drudge, 'a rising star in the Republican Party' lol, I was I had the ability to write this story with humor as that is the best way to completely discredit them, and they've almost written the script themselves, from the ridiculous costumes to the 'forgetting to look into charges of murder' etc.

However, they cannot be dismissed as long as the media is willing to take them seriously and Bright Bart (h/t to L.Coyote) is rabidly going after the NEA right now and the rest of the 'noise machine' is beginning to pick up his ramblings and spread them around. Why can't we pre-empt them this time?

I know they thought a whore and pimp costume was appropriate to lure 'black people' into committing crimes, another indication of O'Keefe's racism. But how will they fool members of the NEA I wonder?

[L. Coyote]

24. Ask not "How to fool the NEA?" Put on a bad tie and fool the Frikkin' Racist Freepers!

Yeah, with a secret video camera, get them to talk to one of their would-be Fellow Freeper Morans (you behind that bad tie)
about how they relate to President Obama, then send the tapes to the cops after they say what they really think!!

Let 'em do time for speaking their little minds.

Of course, keep your ID a secret, so there are no repercussions about illegal spying--like Bush did! :rofl:

[mzmolly]

18. Well you know how "stuff" is? I mean c'mon!

:rofl: that IS too funny!

[bobbolink]

27. This is all so depressing it's hard to find anything amusing in it.

But you accomplished that--well done!

:toast:

[drm604]

17. Excellent point sabrina 1!

Why didn't anyone realize this before? Neither O'Keefe nor Giles nor the people at Faux bothered to report a suspected murder!

Even though the murder never actually happened they apparently believed that it had. So the question is - is not reporting a suspected murder a crime, especially if someone has openly confessed to you?

[sabrina 1]

20. Well, I looked up the law on reporting a crime drm604 as someone

else asked the question above. It is not mandatory, although it is morally wrong to do so. See my two posts above.

If you read the transcript of the Hannity Show when he asked if they had investigated, they clearly weren't expecting that question, and he realized he wasn't supposed to ask it and let it go.

Hyocritical yes, but it is way beyond that. They simply didn't care that there may have been a crime of murder at all. Which makes their claims of being just 'outraged' that people might not have reported THEIR fake crime. Along with Rove, Hannity, Greta Van Susteren and of course, Breitbart.

All of them feigned outrage that a 'murderer' was working for ACORN, but not one vilified O'Keefe for not reporting it.

And yes, it was a 'fake' murder, but they cannot use that as a defense since their 'selling under-age girls for prostitution' story was fake also. Caught in their own propaganda if the story was handled properly by the press.

Tresa didn't know she was being taped, but she inadvertently made fools out of Fox, Rove et al and imo, HER story, which makes them appear to be bumbling moronms drooling at the prospect of 'getting' someone, needs a lot more coverage. I would love to see Jon Stewart or the Onion do a story on this part of the whole mess.

[drm604]

21. I saw the above posts after I posted.

So I guess they didn't break any laws by not reporting it.

It appears that they either didn't believe her and lied about it, or they did believe her and failed to immediately report it. Either scenario makes them look bad, but then we already know what amoral idiots they are so I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

[sabrina 1]

22. True, they did nothing illegal by not reporting a 'murder'.

But how can they use that as a defense when when this is exactly what they accused ACORN workers of doing, not reporting a crime? ACORN workers DID report them, at least two, others just laughed at them and didn't believe them. But if the reporting was fair, ACORN comes out of this looking a lot better than these two, according to their own rules.

Which is why this is a beautiful trap they have created for themselves and should be asked of them over and over again. But they are hiding from the media now. I will keep asking rightwingnuts I run into though :-)

[drm604]

23. What we want is the media asking this question.

Just because they're hiding doesn't mean the question can't be asked. A media person can ask the question then publicly invite them to come on the show and answer it. Completely fair.

[sabrina 1]

26. Yes, I agree but I have noticed that this story was all over the

media when the news about ACORN was negative. As soon as it began to turn against the pranksters, it seems to have disappeared.

Worse, I heard on the radio on my way home from work, that the IRS is now dropping ACORN as a credible assistant to people who need help with their taxes.

It's the fault of the left. We give up too easily while they never give up. They never get tired of repeating the same old propaganda or talking points, and as mzmolly said above, they will use ACORN in the next election unless this whole story and the orchestrators of it, are completely debunked.

[bobbolink]

28. This is all about sauce. Of the goose and gander variety.

If there is any justice, these two will roast for this!

[sabrina 1]

29. Yes, it is bobbolink, I agree.

I'm beginning to feel that it might happen, at least that they will have to answer questions in a place where they cannot lie anymore.

If you haven't seen it, check out my OP http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6622136 today. A criminal complaint is going to be filed against them now, by the two workers in MD.

[drm604]

19. I wonder if Tresa Kaelke could bring a defamation lawsuit against them.

It would seem like they have two choices here:

1. They publicly declared her a murderer even though they knew she was joking. IANAL but it strikes me that that opens them to a defamation lawsuit.
   
2. They actually did believe her and failed to report a murder. At the very least that makes them appear hypocritical.

[Eric J in MN]

25. kick

kick