Conservative hidden camera sting targets NPR

Updated 5:59 p.m. Eastern Time

Conservative activist James O'Keefe, whose deceptively edited hidden camera videos* have made him a star on the right, is out with a new video targeting National Public Radio executive Ron Schiller - and by extension NPR itself.

The video purports to show Schiller speaking to a pair of men posing as representatives of a phony Muslim group seeking to give $5 million to NPR. The men tell Schiller they are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist political movement.

It shows Schiller stating that the Republican Party and the Tea Party is "fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian - and I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move."

Ron Schiller

/ NPR

Schiller goes on to say that the "xenophobic" Tea Party has hijacked the GOP and calls them "white, middle-America, gun-toting - I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people."

The video suggests that Schiller subsequently added that he wanted to "talk personally, as opposed to wearing my NPR hat," then suggesting that there is an "anti-intellectual" bent among much of the Republican Party.

"In my personal opinion, liberals today might be more educated, fair and balanced than conservatives," he says.

It's not clear whether O'Keefe, who has been shown to have manipulated his videos in the past to suit his agenda, manipulated his new video, though he has also posted what he says is the full video online.  (O'Keefe's record also includes a botched attempt to seduce a CNN reporter as part of a prank and a guilty plea for entering federal property under false pretenses.) But NPR has confirmed that Schiller is the person talking, and released a statement saying he was no longer with the organization.

James O'Keefe.

/ AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

In a statement posted on Twitter by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik, NPR said it refused the offer from the phony group for a $5 million check with no strings attached. Dana Davis Rehm, NPR's senior vice president for communications & external relations, added that Schiller said last week he would leave NPR for another job, though NPR says the decision was not related to the video release. (The organization later said that Schiller had been placed on "administrative leave" pending his planned May departure while it reviews the situation.) 

"We are appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for," Rehm said.

The comments by Schiller, who is not related to NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, have generated outrage among conservatives, who are citing them as part of their push to ensure no federal money gets to NPR. (As Hotsheet reported in October, after the last round of calls for NPR to be defunded, NPR gets up to ten percent of its budget from the federal government, mostly through dues from member stations.) Ron Schiller says in the video that "we would be better off in the long-run without federal funding," though he says that "if we lost it all together we would have a lot of stations go dark."

Schiller did not have an editorial role at NPR; he was the head of the organization's nonprofit foundation, and essentially served as a fundraiser. The release of the video showing O'Keefe's elaborate sting, which included a fake website for the fake Muslim group, is the latest example of an emerging trend: Partisans using false identities and hidden cameras to embarrass their opposition and score ideological points.

Just yesterday, the left seized on a video showing Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown asking conservative billionaire David Koch for money for his 2012 reelection campaign. "Your support during the election, it meant a ton," Brown says in the video. "It made a difference and I can certainly use it again." The video was shot surreptitiously by blogger Brad Johnson of the liberal site Think Progress at the dedication of the David H. Koch Integrative Cancer Institute at MIT.

And last month, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took a call from a left-leaning journalist pretending to be David Koch, which the journalist then released to the public.

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*NOTE: After this post went up, conservative commentator Andrew Brietbart, an O'Keefe ally, took issue with the characterization of O'Keefe's videos as deceptively edited. He argued in an instant message conversation that a finding by the California district attorney that the videos were deceptively edited was politically motivated. (A Brooklyn district attorney came to the same conclusion, though that finding did not come up in the instant message exchange.) Breitbart also said that images in the videos of O'Keefe dressed as a pimp did not imply that O'Keefe was dressed that way in his conversations with ACORN employees. Click here for the New York Times public editor's examination of the issue. 

[builder7]

Since they are now outsourcing most of the jobs to other countries and plan on more in the future, why don't we outsource them now, instead of later. We will get over it but they won't!

[builder7]

This is what you get when you get progressive people who are under the gun by the greedy who want billions for banks, stock houses, and oil companies, as well as the rich. Liberal progressives make lousy criminals as this proves. Because they are trying to be capitalists they fail at that too because that is not what they are. Why doesn't the rich right-wing Congressmen and Senators and their corporate benefactors just let em be and do their own thing, which is good for the country!

[politicalpost]

This was no sting operation in real sense as this video does show Ron Schiller uncompromised to fairness and balanced journalistic standard. In comparison to sting operation of Ian Murphy of BuffaloBeast.com interviewing Gov.Scott Walker of Wisconsin posing as Koch brother, the governor appeared to behave like a lap dog just as Republican Sen. Scott Brown. Our nation greatly needs campaign finance laws which may raise Judge Alito's eyebrow as done on the State of Union speech by President, but it will stop making these politicians from simply being lap dogs and instead fulfill their services to the State and our Nation

[NBCMichael]

If there is one thing conservatives and liberals can agree on it is that the news is biased. They only differ on which networks they claim are guilty of the bias.

Given the above fact; why should tax dollars go to fund yet another voice that one or the other party will disagree with?

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." -- Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer

Regarding Equal Rights Under the 1st Amendment

Campaign laws are sold to the public as necessary to level the playing field and prevent powerful, moneyed special interests, like corporations, from having undue influence. The problem is media corporations are moneyed, powerful, owned by special interests and dependent on the advertising dollars of other special interests. Is it any surprise corporate media is the biggest promoter of campaign laws and have succeeded in redefining the individual rights of freedom of assembly, press and speech as the unrestricted rights of corporate media.

Conservatives and liberals agree corporate media is biased and dispute which newspapers and broadcast networks are prejudiced. But both political persuasions purchase ads with the corporate media to promote candidates and issues. Hence editorials for or against candidates and issues, by the staffs of corporate media, must have political value.

So I ask Congressmen and Senators, why are corporate media exempt from campaign laws that regulate and restrict participation by individuals and groups? I do not believe Democrats or Republicans can defend that position.

I ask politicians to demonstrate they are serious about returning to a more limited and Constitutional government by passing the proposed legislation below.

This legislation costs nothing and leaves the Federal Election Campaign Act and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in place but defanged:

Rough Draft of Proposed Legislation

Whereas 2 U.S.C. 431 (9) (B) (i), commonly referred to as the "press exemption", exempts "legal persons" newspaper businesses, broadcast stations, magazine businesses and periodic publications from federal election finance laws which restrict the speech and press "Rights" of flesh and blood "Persons"; the citizens of these United States;

Federal Election Finance laws shall be revised to include the following definitions:

(1) Press - means any citizen of the United States that engages in any form of public communication.

(2) Media - means any citizen of the United States that engages in any form of public communication.

(3) Newspaper - means any form of printed material that includes any advertisement or other information for the purpose of public distribution, including information printed on paper, billboards, signs, fliers, web pages, and other electronic print material.

[liteinthedark]

Why is it all of you think you can throw all conservatives and Republicans onto the Tea Party profile pile(which is only marginally applicable)? I am sure there are plenty of dumb and racist Democrats who are easily led. So don't go painting with such a wide and sloppy stroke, it may end up splattering back on you. Also not all filthy rich capitalists are Republicans!

[Joey301]

You can't blame Socialism for despotism, it is an illogical and unrelated connection. I bet the sky was not as blue in those genocidal environments either.

[Joey301]

I don't think NPR is biased. Its just in any conversation where both sides are presented fairly, the right always loses the argument.

[zuzu4318]

I am a conservative. I am intelligent enough to know that broad sweeping generalizations are never true. There are stereotypical examples on both sides of the fence. I am a conservative because I want less government control over my life, because I don't need federal money to survive. And the article clearly states that Schiller had resigned prior to take another job - not that he was fired over his statements. And what is he doing talking to them anyway? It just wasn't smart. You represent a national news media, and you actually take the time to discuss your political opinions with two people claiming to be from the muslim brotherhood offering you 5 mill. That's just not very smart.
I guess I need to get a life for even posting. But I just can't stand name calling from either side. The fact that anyone would say that a narrow stereotypical image describes an entire party is ridiculous.

[Joey301]

But don't you use government money every day? Do you drive on the highways, do you have any children in school? Do you take advantage of cheap food due to government subsidy of corn? If Congress would allow the government to actually shut down, rather than selectively where it would not be felt, you would see how you use government money all the time. I understand what you say as you don't want a government hand out, or that you work honestly for your income, and that is admirable and absolute essential to the economy. But, my guess is that you and your family do partake in government money.

[Joey301]

I have a great plan to end the Wisconsin problem. Outsource all of the teaching jobs to China. This would be a wonderful opportunity for children to learn a new language, and to have a unique outlook on world events and history. It could save Wisconsin's economy.

[Noval53]

Liberals have been doing ambush journalism for decades. I guess what goes around comes around; boo hoo.

[Joey301]

The above the the eternal conservative conversation. Case closed.