It’s typical of an amazing double standard in America that James O’Keefe is not on parole after having spent years in prison. It is certainly the case that he has done far more harm to individuals throughout the nation than any drug possession convict rotting in a federal prison right now. His totally deceitful ACORN “sting” ended with hundreds of honest people losing their jobs. Rather than doing due diligence, the mainstream media just followed the conservative media without doing any, I don’t know, journalism. And despite being scammed over that, the mainstream media have continued to follow his exploits as though they are something more than just a conservative hack using any technique at all to provide a false narrative of anything that conservatives currently don’t like.

This most recent case was O’Keefe’s hit on Cornell and then Barry University shows that he’s become a pathetic shadow of his former self. I’ll admit, it must be hard. After gaining the kind of attention that he has, people are understandably reticent to say anything that might get them into trouble. This newest video involves a student trying to start a club to help the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.” But clearly, doing that alone would raise red flags. For one thing: it is illegal to solicit funds for terrorist groups. But that hardly matters.

At Barry, the “undercover agent” never makes much sense. But the one thing that came across to me the first time I heard it was that she was clearly not talking about supporting the group. As Gary Legum at Wonkette noted, it is all phrased as humanitarian work for the purpose of stopping terrorist activity. Of course, in their conservative minds, the idea that terrorism has anything to do with social factors and not just “evil people” is risible. But this is how the “agent” starts talking about what she wants to do:

Much later in her rambling discussion, she mentions providing flashlights to fighters — but that is the extent of the whole thing. And given that she mutters, has nothing to say, and the poor administer is used to listening to students prattle on, I don’t think there is anything to see her. But that gets to the heart of what is wrong with the current state of the James O’Keefe “sting.” They can’t even manage a clear — if libelous — statement of bad behavior by a “liberal.” What was done in this case was something like this:

Except that it would have a lot of “like” mixed in there. But the point is that in the entire video — which is highly edited — they never were able to show that this administrator understands what the student is up to. The “agent” was clearly trying to make it clear to the viewer what she meant but most distinctly not to the administrator. Legum noted what O’Keefe and company is trying to show:

And so there you have it. These bozos aren’t even aiming at the mainstream media anymore. O’Keefe has a great gig, doing the equivalent of comedy videos for the conservative movement. In this case, the “joke” is that all liberals believe that terrorism has social roots. And they know the truth that all that can be done is to bomb everyone back to the stone age. Because that’s worked so brilliantly up to now.

See Also

Are we Surprised by James O’Keefe?
Death as Public Good
O’Keefe Loses Lawsuit But Sadly Not Credibility
James O’Keefe’s Tired Cons