"I wonder if Breitbart, Fox News, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles will apologize to Juan Vera?"

[mzmolly]

I paraphrased a bit to fit the question into the subject line.

"I wonder if Andrew Breitbart, Fox News, James O’Keefe, and Hannah Giles will apologize to Juan Carlos Vera, or issue corrections to what can no longer be considered a journalistic effort. They portrayed this guy as a willing accomplice to the smuggling of underage illegal immigrant prostitutes. As it turns out, he used what little English skills he possessed to draw out their made up story, pin down contact information, and report what he found out to police soon after the twenty-somethings left his San Diego office.

In other words, Mr. Vera did the right thing. Mr. Breitbart can claim he was ignorant of that fact. But unless he publishes one hell of an apology… well, even if he does so I can’t say I’ll ever again be inclined to trust anything he publishes, so I guess now that the truth is out it’s another public test of his character. Will he persist in arguing that the means justify the end even when it involves tarnishing the reputation of an apparently innocent guy?

Sometime this week I’ll issue appropriate corrections to any factual errors I find in stories I’ve written on this subject, presuming that the California Attorney General report reveals any. In the meantime, even the fact that some ACORN employees behaved inappropriately doesn't change the fact that I missed half the story here for too long, irrespective of whether rereading my work shows it to be technically accurate or not. Initially I trusted “Big” content far more than I should have — an especially vexing realization given that the suspicions I’ve always had about the Breitbart approach to discourse. I should’ve known better, and I let the illusion of evidence (misleadingly edited video, transcripts I read too credulously) fool me. ..."

http://theamericanscene.com/2010/04/07/fool-me-once">MORE

Juan Vera was fired after O'Keefe and Giles took their falsehoods about Mr. Vera and ACORN to the mainstream media, with the help of Faux News.

[Lint Head]

1. These creeps should be in jail!

[mzmolly]

2. I agree. They destroyed lives without any regard for truth.

Absolutely disgusting.

[sakabatou]

4. +2

[mrcheerful]

3. What are you crazy they won't admit to any personal responsibility it will be blown off

as "I was fooled too" or "ACORN was doing evil things, we proved it in our fake videos so we did nothing wrong" so its all ACORNs fault at the end of the day. Look how O'Keefe was treated after pulling his illegal actions at a democratic senators office, no charge of trying to tap a senators phone was brought against him, he committed a trespass instead. Never mind that if he had managed to tap said congress person he would have edited the whole thing to make it look like said congress person or staff was breaking the law, after all you can't convict someone on their intent.

Yet the stat does convict on intent every day when it's not a republicon hack behind the crime. Your dealing with twisted people that have proven time after time that they are above the laws of the land, it started in 1980 when it was leaked that Raygun traded arms for hostages who wouldn't be released until after Raygun won the election, another words Raygun rigged the election. Bill Clinton was impeached by a guy who was also lying about sex with someone other then his wife, yet no public out cry about that, he just had a lapse of ethics. Yeah right, I'm sorry I lied about you, but that is your fault not mine.

[MrScorpio]

5. The reason that I'm not a violent person is because I'm afraid that I'd enjoy it too much

But, it would be the hardest thing in my life to do to keep from punching O'Keefe and Breitbart in their fucking faces, were I ever to run into them on the street.

[mzmolly]

8. I'll never forget watching the video tape of Mr. Vera sobbing that his life

had been destroyed by these !#$%@ liars. I asked a bilingual California reporter to cover his side of the story, sending her links and info. She agreed to do so and contacted him, shortly after the fall out. Later she told me that he was essentially too humiliated to speak, in spite of the fact that the truth was on his side.

I can relate to your sentiments MrScorpio.

[mzmolly]

6. What's additionally troubling is that the tapes were CLEARLY edited with voices

dubbed in etc. and very few in the media, in a position to shed any light, seemed to give a rip.

[mrcheerful]

14. How many people did McCarthy apologize to after destroying their lives?

McCarthy made excuses that he was only trying to keep America safe and he was a victim. That is the republicon way period.

[mzmolly]

15. Yes

it is. :(

[MattBaggins]

7. How about right here on DU?

Think any of the ACORN is evil crowd will ever apologize?

Never happen.

[mzmolly]

9. Fortunately I didn't have much

interest in communicating with such DU-ers at the time the story broke. ;) That said, they were also had and deserve an apology of sorts as well.

[unapatriciated]

10. what was amazing to me is even in the edited version, I could see the truth.

It always looked to me like Vera was trying to get more info from them.
Yet others did not view it that way.

[mzmolly]

11. Yep. I agree. I posted a thread on that very issue at the time.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6576332&mesg_id=6576332

[Luminous Animal]

16. I'd like to see a big fat apology from our congresscritters, too.

The media, congress, and liberals who jumped to damn ACORN, destroyed ACORN.

[Jim Lane]

12. Apology is pointless. Vera should sue the bunch of them (plus Hannity and others) for defamation.

Michael Vera is not a public figure so he wouldn't have to satisfy the "actual malice" standard of Times v. Sullivan. The statements were made, they were about him, they related to a matter of fact rather than opinion, they were false, they imputed dishonesty to him, he lost his job as a result. He proves all that (all of which should be a slam dunk), and he's made out his case.

Then comes the fun part: The plaintiff sits back and watches the defendants throw rocks at each other as they press their cross-claims about whose fault it was.

Fortunately, the cross-claims wouldn't affect his right to recover from the deep pockets. I'd expect him to get a judgment against Fox News. Fox might get a judgment for indemnification against O'Keefe and Giles, but that wouldn't shift to them the obligation to pay. Fox's only claim would be "whatever we have to pay to plaintiff, you have to reimburse us for." If O'Keefe and Giles are judgment-proof (i.e., have no money), that doesn't affect the validity of the judgment against Fox.

I'm guessing that Hannity, for example, made his statements from the Fox News headquarters in Manhattan, and so can be sued here. There are plenty of lawyers who would represent Mr. Vera on a contingency fee, no money up front, and he might even find someone who'd do it completely pro bono. I hope he gets over his understandable distress and acts to bring these sleazeballs to justice.

[mzmolly]

13. Juan Vera is an attorney

in Mexico. Perhaps he'll take legal action now that the unedited tapes are available.

[Jim Lane]

17. Thanks, that's good to know.

He should get a U.S. lawyer and sue here, where he can readily get jurisdiction and where the damage awards are probably higher, but at least he's not the type to be intimidated by legal process.

Also thanks for correcting my error re his name.