"O’Keefe was busted last week and charged with attempting to bug U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phone in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans."and further described:
"O’Keefe’s attempted phone tapping."Reader Fred Gregory shared with me some emails he exchanged with the article's author, Mark Binker, about the accuracy of those statements and, according to Binker, several people had complained that O'Keefe was not charged with "bugging." But Binker is standing by what he described as his "shorthand" reporting.
O'Keefe is the guy who recently gained notoriety when he dressed as a pimp and entered an ACORN office (video) to solicit advice for avoiding taxes for his fantasy criminal enterprise--advice he received. Reader complaints that O'Keefe was not charged with bugging seem, to me, to be an effort to get the media to make room for O'Keefe's explanation that he and his entourage only used phone employee disguises and a phony telephone repair excuse as a means to gain access to Landrau's office for observation and that they intended to maybe go as far as disabling the phone equipment for the purpose of surreptitiously recording Landrau's office staff's reaction on video, but that they did not intend to wiretap or bug the phones.
I cannot find a copy of the formal charges against O'Keefe. There is the original criminal complaint from the FBI in which the agent attests there is probable cause to believe that O'Keefe coordinated the scheme "for the purpose of willfully and maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated and controlled by the United States of America." This closely reflects what other news outlets reported: that O'Keefe and his posse were charged with entering the senator's office "under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony."
While I cannot determine what legal distinction may exist between attempting to "interfere" with a telephone system and attempting to wiretap, other media outlets who originally also used "bugging" and "wiretapping," including the Washington Post find the difference significant enough to have issued clarifications to their original stories, correcting their original misreporting of O'Keefe having been charged with "bugging" and "wiretapping."
Binker's shorthand use of "attempting to bug," is inaccurate. His "attempted phone tapping," is unfounded. The mistake was common and not partisan. While I do not think the distinctions between bugging and tampering are going to lessen the effects on O'Keefe's credibility, that is really not a reporter's concern. Accuracy is, and this is no Watergate; so, for the sake of accuracy, if nothing else, the News & Record should follow the lead of other media and correct their reporting on this one.
Retracto, the Correction Alpaca, was on this earlier. Have you seen any response from the N&R yet?
ReplyDeleteNo worries, Roch. I know that John Robinson, the finest editor of any American newspaper, will have his crack staff of expert reporters fix that error in no time.
ReplyDeleteExpect that to happen right around the time Hell opens up a hockey rink.
I once heard Donald Rumsfeld say during a press conference, when asked to comment on the validity of a late breaking story, "The press is more interested in getting it first than in getting it right."
ReplyDeleteThat statement accurately portrays the N&R coverage of many stories.