Conservative Facebook Investor (Thiel) Funded Anti-ACORN Videographer (O'Keefe)

[Emit]

On edit, for those who are interested, you can see O'Keefe's "Taxpayers Clearing House" at the link below. There is a lot that is irritating about this guy, but the way he preys upon minorities and people in lower socioeconomic status really pisses me off.

Conservative Facebook Investor Funded Anti-ACORN Videographer

James O'Keefe, the activist filmmaker who achieved sudden fame for a series of undercover videos recording ACORN workers, has repeatedly said that he is "absolutely independent" and received no outside funding to make his films.

But the Voice has learned that O'Keefe, in fact, has had heavyweight conservative backers who funded the young filmmaker as recently as a few months before his ACORN films were made.

The ACORN videos are actually just the latest of several films O'Keefe has produced and uploaded to YouTube. An earlier film posted in February, "Taxpayers Clearing House" featured nonwhite, working class people being duped by O'Keefe, who led them to believe they had won money in a sweepstakes.

That video was produced with the help of a grant -- said to be about $30,000 (Thiel's spokesman says closer to $10,000 -- see update) -- from Peter Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook -- an investment which made him a billionaire. Thiel is one of Silicon Valley's more interesting figures: a gay man (according to Gawker's "Valleywag") who has railed against the evils of "multiculturalism." He lives in San Francisco and today runs a hedge fund.

~snip~

O'Keefe, meanwhile, has repeatedly claimed to be financially independent. In an interview with the New York Post shortly after the ACORN videos hit the Internet, O'Keefe claimed to be "absolutely independent." Giles said she had "drained my entire savings" to spend the summer making the undercover videos. O'Keefe estimated his budget at $1,300, and said that Giles had paid for her own plane ticket to California. The couple said they lived off of Power Bars and Subway sandwiches for two months.
...

In February, a video called "Taxpayers Clearing House" was posted to YouTube. In it, O'Keefe and others drive around in a van with a logo on the side that looks like the "Publishers Clearing House" vehicle known for showing up and surprising sweepstakes winners with oversized checks. In O'Keefe's video, working class Blacks are shown jumping up and down in excitement - until they learn that O'Keefe is actually delivering a bill for $28,000, their share of the federal banks bailout.

O'Keefe told a friend, Liz Farkas, that he had approached Thiel with the idea for the video, and had walked away with "approximately $30,000" to produce it.

~snip~

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/acorn_videomake.php?page=1

[Critters2]

1. That's odd. Peter Thiel is also the major funder of Imitatio

http://www.imitatio.org/mimetic-theory/account-of-mimetic-theory.html

Don't know what to make of this...just strikes me as odd that the same person would spend his money in these disparate ways.

[Emit]

3. According to Wikipedia, he endorsed Ron Paul

Politics

When asked about his political beliefs in a 2006 United Press International interview, Thiel stated, "Well, I was pretty libertarian when I started (in business). I'm *way* libertarian now."(14) In December 2007, he endorsed Ron Paul for President.(15)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel#Politics

edit typo

[Critters2]

13. "believes democracy and freedom have become incompatible."

That's crazy talkin'!

[Warpy]

4. He's a Libertarian

They don't have to make sense.

[Critters2]

11. So it seems.

:crazy:

[sabrina 1]

16. I think the article says that Thiel was unaware that his money

was used for this stunt, he didn't know about them until he saw them on Utube.

Though Thiel denies directly funding O'Keefe's latest videos, Thiel may have made them financially possible anyway. O'Keefe has, in the past, used support from one project to fuel another.

He claimed to have received a large monitor for his projects from the Leadership Foundation, although his website is now scrubbed so cannot link to it. Morton Blackwell claims he could not fund him because his work was 'questionable' as far as the LI's tax exemption status. But if O'Keefe has been moving funds not intended for his political stunts, as the article says he has done, then it's understandable that he is no longer available to talk to the press:

O'Keefe declined to be interviewed by phone for this article, and did not respond to e-mailed questions. But he has not publicly explained how the help he's received from either the Leadership Institute or from Peter Thiel has influenced his filmmaking

The despicable, arrogant little coward is in hiding. And he should not be allowed to hide, imo. I hope the press keeps hounding him until he is forced to explain all the lies and possibly the mis-use of funds, or the use of funds in the case of LI which could cause the loss of their tax exempt status.

[Critters2]

18. You're right. That makes more sense. Thanks! nt

[blogslut]

2. kick

Stay in the limelight, Mr. O'Keefe. Eventually, all will clearly see your exoskeleton.

[drm604]

5. What an absolute prick.

In O'Keefe's video, working class Blacks are shown jumping up and down in excitement - until they learn that O'Keefe is actually delivering a bill for $28,000, their share of the federal banks bailout.

This guy made working class people believe, incorrectly, that they had won money. Many of those people were probably struggling financially.

What an evil little snot. Maybe some of those people in his "Taxpayers Clearing House" videos should sue for emotional distress.

[Emit]

6. Isn't he a disgusting snot?

I found this disgusting. He's disgusting.

[drm604]

7. What he did to people like ACORN employee Veras was horrible.

Now we learn that he pulled this shit. This just demonstrates his complete lack of morals and ethics and makes it even easier to believe that those ACORN tapes were complete editing fabrications.

People can try to claim that the ACORN tapes were justified because they uncovered wrongdoing by ACORN. I don't buy it for one second but people have claimed it and some people believe it. But how can ANYONE say that this "Taxpayers Clearing House" thing was justified in any way? There's no way to defend it that's the least bit credible unless you believe that picking on minorities is "wholesome fun for the whole family" or something.

This guy needs to be publicly shown for what he is.

[mzmolly]

10. Nauseating to say the least. I thought I sensed an arrogant classism and racism

about the privileged little twit.

:puke:

[dem mba]

8. here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlWKm01cauc


good lord that guy is such an ass. i think it's extreme to say he only targeted black working families though. the video posted at least shows him with people of various races. however, it did look like a working class neighborhood.

wonder if they realize Bush started the whole bailout procedure.

[drm604]

9. Whoever he targeted it was still wrong.

Going after the banks was fine, but misleading those working class families was low whatever their race.

[dem mba]

20. right

but my issue was with how the Village Voice author was being disingenuous.

O'Keefe is a putz, regardless.

[mzmolly]

12. Classism is often a R/W trait. If Republicans are poor, they hope to be

rich one day so they can complain about paying taxes. Think Joe the fantasy plumber! ;)

I can't bear to watch the video, but thanks for sharing.

[mzmolly]

14. Oh my, look at this little gem here! INCOMPLETE TRANSCRIPTS ARE PART OF HIS M.O.!

"Farkas told the New York Times this week that she and O'Keefe, who met at Rutgers University, clashed over publishing incomplete transcripts from another sting involving an abortion provider."

No wonder Faux "news" is the only organization with complete unedited video!

[drm604]

15. Do you have a link for that?

Maybe you should start a new thread. I think this deserves it.

[mzmolly]

17. It's on the

first page of the story linked in the OP, second paragraph from the end. On edit, fits in nicely with the reason Fox is the only media outlet allowed the original videos huh?

[MinM]

19. Paypal CEO Peter Thiel is also on the board of radical conservative group VanguardPAC...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10456534&ref=emailfriend

Facebook's first round of venture capital funding ($US500,000) came from former Paypal CEO Peter Thiel. Author of anti-multicultural tome 'The Diversity Myth', he is also on the board of radical conservative group VanguardPAC.

The second round of funding into Facebook ($US12.7 million) came from venture capital firm Accel Partners. Its manager James Breyer was formerly chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, and served on the board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. One of the company's key areas of expertise are in "data mining technologies".

Breyer also served on the board of R&D firm BBN Technologies, which was one of those companies responsible for the rise of the internet.

Dr Anita Jones joined the firm, which included Gilman Louie. She had also served on the In-Q-Tel's board, and had been director of Defence Research and Engineering for the US Department of Defence...