How Sting Artist James O’Keefe Tried to Set His Latest Trap – And Got Stung Himself

[Political Junky]

Poor O'Keefe caught again.

Inside a Hollywood Hit Job: How Sting Artist James O?Keefe Tried to Set His Latest Trap ? And Got Stung Himself - The Daily Beast

Sting artist James O’Keefe says anti-fracking filmmaker Josh Fox is one of his latest victims. But Fox says his own secret tape reveals O’Keefe’s true methods.
On Wednesday, conservative activist and controversial video sting artist James O’Keefe made an appearance in Cannes during the Film Festival with a new, secretly recorded 20-minute video that he said exposes the hypocrisy of two environmentalist documentarians and two Hollywood actors. At the end of the clip, after Josh and Rebecca Tickell, Mariel Hemingway, and Ed Begley Jr. appear to have unwittingly agreed to accept financing for an anti-fracking film from Middle East oil interests, O’Keefe claims he’s caught other allegedly altruistic actors and filmmakers in his trap, teasing a clip of a phone conversation with filmmaker Josh Fox.

But this time, O’Keefe wasn’t the only one making secret recordings. Left more than a little suspicious by years of vicious—and often surreptitious—attacks from the natural gas industry and its supporters following the premiere of his 2010 Oscar-nominated anti-fracking documentary, Gasland, and its 2012 sequel, Gasland II, Fox taped his interaction with one of O’Keefe’s minions and documented the elaborate lengths they went to entrap him.

It all started last December, when Fox began receiving emails from an unfamiliar group called Beacon International, claiming to represent overseas donors interested in funding his next anti-fracking film. Naturally, he was dubious. After scouring the Internet for information on the company and finding only a bare-bones website that “basically looked like a joke site put up overnight,” Fox concluded that the emails were a scam and decided to ignore them. But they kept coming. In early March, Fox returned to his Brooklyn apartment from out of town to discover about a dozen Beacon International business cards plastered to his front door and shoved in his mailbox. After much deliberation with fellow filmmakers Steven Tabakin and Margaret Whitton over whether to respond to these mysterious financiers, Fox decided to make a call. He asked Tabakin to be in the room with him, and he turned on his recorder.
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[CrusaderFrank]

Isn't Josh the guy who used that fake faucet fire?

 

[bodecea]

Hey! My family is making money off of fracking in Texas....they can frack there all they want.....in Texas.

 

[Stephanie]

this is why this administration is able to steamroll over us

Remember a time when a two Journalist Woodward and Bernstein bought down a President and they were hailed as hero's

but today it's called laying a trap when showing corruption, lying, etc of this government and Hollyweird

pathetic citizens in this country is allowing all this to happen right under our noses

 

[Disir]

It couldn't happen to a better guy!

 

[bodecea]

this is why this administration is able to steamroll over us

Remember a time when a two Journalist Woodward and Bernstein bought down a President and they were hailed as hero's

but today it's called laying a trap when showing corruption, lying, etc of this government and Hollyweird

pathetic citizens in this country is allowing all this to happen right under our noses

What trap did Woodward and Bernstein lay?

 

[rightwinger]

He should have dressed as a Pimp

 

[Zander]

O'Keefe is using the same techniques and tactics that Michael Moore uses.

But he's not advancing leftist causes, so he needs to be attacked.

Good stuff!

 

[Ringel05]

Ahh yes, good ol James O&#8217;Keefe, the rightwings' Michael Moore.......

 

[Plasmaball]

this is why this administration is able to steamroll over us

Remember a time when a two Journalist Woodward and Bernstein bought down a President and they were hailed as hero's

but today it's called laying a trap when showing corruption, lying, etc of this government and Hollyweird

pathetic citizens in this country is allowing all this to happen right under our noses

what..?

 

[mamooth]

Don't worry about O'Keefe. To conservatives, a rap sheet is considered a resume-builder.

 

[EriktheRed]

this is why this administration is able to steamroll over us

Remember a time when a two Journalist Woodward and Bernstein bought down a President and they were hailed as hero's

but today it's called laying a trap when showing corruption, lying, etc of this government and Hollyweird

pathetic citizens in this country is allowing all this to happen right under our noses

Except, you little moron, theses dickheads didn't actually "show" anything. Dumbass O' Keefe stepped on his tiny little wingnut dick before that was even possible.

Also, I'm gonna guess that Woodward and Bernstein were a bit more professional in how they went about researching thier story and weren't actively trying to bring down anyone.

 

[Syriusly]

this is why this administration is able to steamroll over us

Remember a time when a two Journalist Woodward and Bernstein bought down a President and they were hailed as hero's

but today it's called laying a trap when showing corruption, lying, etc of this government and Hollyweird

pathetic citizens in this country is allowing all this to happen right under our noses

I don't remember Woodward and Bernstein deliberately editing a recording to leave out the parts the refute what they were saying.

Here is from the article:

After several minutes of back and forth, in which Turner attempts to convince Fox that his clients are earnest environmentalists, Fox says that “obviously there are projects that we are working on ahead of time, that we’re working on now, that do sound like they would be interesting to your clients.” He immediately follows that comment up with a stipulation. “However, I really feel like I would need a more formal approach than just ‘Come meet me for coffee, this is the company we work for,’” Fox is heard saying. “We don’t know much about your company...I would need to have more transparency than you’re giving me right now to feel comfortable with doing that.”

Fox ends the conversation by reiterating that Turner’s clients will have to reveal themselves if they want to fund one of his projects. Reassured in his belief that Beacon International was just a scam, Fox all but forgot the entire ordeal, he told The Daily Beast. That is, until this week, when O’Keefe unveiled his latest undercover sting operation during the Cannes Film Festival.

At the end of O’Keefe’s video, Fox is heard saying, “Obviously there are projects that we are working on ahead of time, that we’re working on now, that do sound like they would be interesting to your clients.” But his stipulations have been cut.

“We have them caught in total deception,” Fox says. “This phone call reveals exactly how they work. They willfully portray it in the wrong light. They edit it so it sounds like you said something that you didn’t. Luckily I had the full tape.”

But don't worry Stephanie- no one expects you to actually care what happened- you will support O'Keefe regardless of how much it is shown he is lying.