ACORN Investigation - James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles - Project Veritas

Description

James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles posed as a pimp and a prostitute for an undercover camera investigation. Some low-level employees of the organization provided earnest answers to the pair's questions about avoiding detection and tax evasion, among other things. Fox News and Andrew Breitbart's Biggovernment.com (which was launched with these videos) helped to push the story beyond conservative media outlets and draw attention to the pair's findings. As a result, and after considerable media attention, ACORN was defunded by Congress.

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Effects and Outcomes

The undercover videos were released within the context of extant allegations of voter fraud and mishandling of funds against the organization. After the considerable negative attention brought upon ACORN by O'Keefe and Hannah Giles's hidden camera recordings, the organization was defunded by congress, and filed for bankruptsy and ceased operations. In 2010, the US Government Accountability Office released a preliminary report that found no evidence of mishandled funds. As a result of these videos, multiple ACORN offices were investigated at the state level, resulting in the obtaining of the unedited versions of the videos. The unedited tapes paint a much more ambiguous picture of possible ACORN employee misconduct than the versions released by O'Keefe do.

Media History

The reporting was intended for these media types: Magazine, Newspaper, Radio, Television, Internet

II-"ACORN Exposed" - Project Veritas - James O'Keefe

2009-09-10

On September 10, 2009, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles released their explosive video on Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a community-organizing group better known for their embezzlement controversies and scandals of voter registration fraud. During the summer of 2009, O’Keefe and Giles visited eight ACORN offices as a pimp and prostitute, seeking advice getting a home loan to run a brothel. What the pair found next was shocking, ACORN employees repeatedly gave the couple guidance on tax evasion, child prostitution and human smuggling.

Undercover Reporting