O'Keefe Defends Himself in First Interview Since Arrest

(Feb. 2) -- Conservative activist James O'Keefe calls his arrest after an incident at a U.S. senator's office "a huge misunderstanding."

He appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News show Monday night for his first interview since being busted along with three companions. O'Keefe -- whose hidden-camera videos embarrassed ACORN last year -- admitted they posed as telephone repairmen at Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office last week. He said they were checking out reports that the office wasn't answering calls from constituents who oppose health care reform. O'Keefe repeatedly said investigative journalists have done the same things for years in order to "expose the truth."


O'Keefe and the others are charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony. In a statement issued Friday, he denied they were trying to wiretap Landrieu's phones. Speaking to Hannity on Monday, he accused those who labeled the caper another Watergate of slandering him and committing "journalism malpractice."

As for his own practices, O'Keefe said, "I'm going to try to be a little more thoughtful about how I approach these things." But he also said he's still working to "expose corruption until it's gone."

He did not comment on conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart's claim that O'Keefe was denied access to an attorney for 28 hours in jail. Breitbart -- who financed and promoted the ACORN videos -- also accused the U.S. attorney's office in Louisiana of leaking information to make O'Keefe look bad. But on "Hannity," O'Keefe said he had no problem with the federal prosecutor and was cooperating in the investigation.

The Hannity interview drew mixed reviews. Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft thought O'Keefe came across as "smart and confident." O'Keefe "did a good job justifying himself while showing some remorse related to security issues," added Ann Althouse. But Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik called it "a sorry excuse for an interview and a lame defense." He also wondered what O'Keefe meant when he said he was practicing "sort of a new age journalism."

"I'll bet it couldn't be as screwy as thinking that misrepresenting yourself and lying are the right ways to find the 'truth.' Or that behaving in such a reckless manner makes you a journalist," Zurawik wrote.

"In an era of citizen bloggers and media fragmentation, old-fashioned standards of ethics and objectivity are breaking down. The right and left alike -- but especially conservatives -- celebrate that turn of events; resentment over a perceived bias by the 'mainstream media' has sent them flocking to partisan news outlets and turning the likes of O'Keefe into folk heroes," said a recent Los Angeles Times editorial. "Yet his latest stunt less resembles legitimate investigative journalism than the kind of illicit political dirty-tricks campaign that brought down Nixon."

Breitbart -- who blasted the coverage of the story as soon as it broke -- turned that argument upside-down with this comment about the "mainstream media" to an audience in New Hampshire over the weekend: "Watergate Jr. imploded. These are the last days of disco, baby. These decadent bastards are going down."