Sure James, CNN is the only network that trades sex appeal for respectable journalism.

Despite literally making no sense whatever, it would have worked to drive a media narrative.

You’re THAT sure it still won’t? The First Amendment “right” of Proper White Americans never to be criticized for anything is still in force. And don’t tell me for one moment that the next video he comes out with will not be covered as the latest scoop by the “controversial journalist” who may have lied at least three times already but really really has something this time, complete with hand-wringing as to whether 22 hours of coverage a day is enough.

It really is something, though: “Hang a bunch of dildos in a room and whatever the response, we win!”

passing up more esteemed and respectable journalists who aren’t bubble-headed bleach blondes

Fox “News” anyone?

Well, Fox passes up all journalists.

I just googled Abbie Boudreau.  Holy crap.  The odds of her being seduced by O’Keefe have to be measured in Planck’s constant-type numbers.

Unless the image of the brand or (in this case) that of one of its representatives is directly attacked, your typical MSM outlet is usually happy to give sensationlist clowns their airtime. Breitbart is just smarter than O’Keefe about such things (a very low bar to clear, I’ll grant you).

Any woman who votes Republican hates herself.

Bubble-headed bleach blonde?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbie_Boudreau

Abbie Boudreau is a CNN investigative correspondent. She joined on October 15, 2007.[1] Her investigation found flaws in tires produced by Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. that caused them to recall thousands of tires.[2] She has received seven regional Emmys for investigative reporting, writing and enterprise journalism.[3]

At CNN, she has been the correspondent for two documentaries, “Campus Rage” and “Joe Biden Revealed”. She also co-hosted a one-hour special called “Fall of the Fat Cats.” In a four-month investigation, she revealed how, over two years, FEMA had stored $85 million worth of new household supplies that were meant for Katrina victims, but ended up giving them away to various government agencies, such as prisons. The investigation, “Hurricane Giveaway”, prompted the return of many of those items to Louisiana, where victims still needed basic supplies. The series was nominated for a national Emmy award.
[...]
This year, she and Senior Investigative Producer Scott Zamost won a first place National Headliner Award for “Post Office Mansion,” which revealed how the U.S. Postal Service was losing millions by buying the expensive homes of relocating employees. She also won the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for the documentary “Killings At The Canal: The Army Tapes,” which aired in November 2009.

Sounds like a respectable journalist who engages in genuine investigative reporting.

@ raenelle #4 - yeah, I almost died laughing before sobering up due to the horror of how these pieces of pigshit view women.

But I have to admit, the idea that he’d have a shot with her is hysterical.  He’s butt-ugly.  Sorry, I know it’s not considered kosher around here, but the boy. is. butt. ugly.

Some idiot con girl probably fucked him because he was on tv and he thinks he’s something now.

Like we needed more evidence that James O’Keefe knows as little about women as he does about journalism.

I like the idea that trying to sexually assault (misdemeanor, not felony) a reporter on camera for a gag rather than for real makes you somehow not a creep.

Wow, that is super creeptastic.

Gee, he sure learned his lesson from that slap on the wrist, didn’t he?!

Now it’s not like O’Keefe ever had a coherent or honest point to make, but his points seem to be getting more and more incoherent.

First it was “ACORN helps pimps sell children!” which is a complete and utter lie, but it would be horrific if it were true.

This time the argument seems to be, “Fuckin’ women… getting jobs because of… sexy affirmative action… more like affirmative ass-tion, am I right guys?”

Or something…. I don’t even know.

Am I the only one that wishes this would have happened,  because this o’keefe kid trying to be seductive is pretty much the funniest thing I can imagine. However, I do suppose that “seductive” o’keefe is something that one cannot simply un-see.

The fact that this clown gets a pass from the MSM, whereas Michael Moore is relentless attacked for everything he does…well, it’s not surprising, but it still makes me ill.

It’s an article of faith amongst anti-choice wingnuts that an unmarried woman who has sex with one man will do it with all who ask.  That’s what my column is about today, and why O’Keefe deluded himself that this would work.

BTW, the “bubble-headed-bleach-blonde” who comes on at five is from Don Henley’s song dirty laundry.  The next line “she can tell you bout the plane crash/with a gleam in her eye/its interesting when people die/give us dirty laundry.”  Ummm, yeah.

This paragraph killed me, though:

“Instead, I’ve decided to have a little fun. Instead of giving her a serious interview, I’m going to punk CNN. Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I’m going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she’ll get seduced on camera and you’ll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.”

Umm, she’s not trying to seduce you.  Sexually repressed, much?  This is the problem with people who don’t at least acknowledge their sexual desires.  They are so sex-starved, that everything is a come on.  Attractive woman speaks to them?  Clearly, she wants to bone.  Sigh.

Ah, Cris beat me to it.

Two things:
If she weren’t warned, and the plan proceeded as planned, wouldn’t that be at least sexual harassment or maybe assault (tricking a woman who’s trying to do her job into a sexually charged room, making sexually charged comments and hitting on her)? I think I’ve heard of sexual harassment trials where less than this was done.
And, “the inherent sexuality of these women”? Seriously? Sexuality exists in women as a permanent, essential, or characteristic atribute? I was so angry at that part I had to go to the dictionary to explain even to myself why I was this upset, cos all I could do was shout Fuck You at the computer.

Just read the script/action plan for O’Keefe. In his attempt to thwart the liberal media for making him look bad, he exposes himself as a misogynist and potential rapist. High fives on that, you worthless, women-hating piece of shit.

colorlessblue: So far as I’m aware, “sexual harassment” is not a free-floating tort; it has to arise in an employment context to be actionable.

@25: “he exposes himself as a misogynist and potential rapist.”
Yes, that. The “she was trying to seduce me for her own reasons so I’m going to do this” doesn’t sound to me as much as pathetic self-delusion, but as scary rape apologia of the “she led me on” kind. Also, why a boat? I didn’t see it anywhere saying that the boat would take off from the dock, so I might be projecting because I already got scared, but it sounds like “get her alone with me in some isolated place from where she can’t escape easily”.
I’m not really not saying the plan was to go as far as raping her, but just being in that kind of situation, without any physical touch, would already be threatening/intimidating/scary enough to count as an aggression.

colorlessblue,

Yeah, as SS451 mentions, sexual harassment only happens in the employment context.  If CNN kept forcing her to interview this creepster, she might have a sexual harassment case against them, if they didn’t address his conduct, but cases where employers are punished for the actions of non-employees are rare.

Maybe she could get him on false imprisonment, or some privacy torts for the recording, depending on what he did.  And yeah, seconded on the boat, I had the same reaction.  Creeeeepy.

Amanda, that belief that having sex once means she’s saying yes to all turns into ‘she BETTER say yes to ME that hypocritical bitch’ really fast.  These guys would view it as lying and cheating to NOT have sex with them if she’s had sex with anybody else, so therefore…it’s not rape.

It just gets creepier and creepier by the moment.

Is there a countdown to the next time O’Keefe gets cited approvingly on Fox or Breitbart, with allowances made for this minor peccadillo?

“Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but it doesn’t strike me as coincidental that it was a woman working for Project Veritas that decided that this went too far and chose to reveal it to Boudreau.”

I doubt you’re reading too much into it.  The whole planned narrative (“Come alone, I just want to talk” turning into “I am secretly recording a scene designed to be as sexually charged and intimidating as possible”) is about as button-pushing as it gets without (necessarily) being illegal, and if the woman has had any frightening encounters of her own, it would be hard for her not to see the parallels of what she was expected to participate in.

It must be frosty in hell, I have to credit CNN reporters for doing the right thing twice in a week.

The fact that this clown gets a pass from the MSM, whereas Michael Moore is relentless attacked for everything he does…well, it’s not surprising, but it still makes me ill.

Since Boudreau is an investigative reporter and since she supposedly approached O’Keefe, it seems like he wasn’t getting a free pass from at least one member of the MSM.

Wasn’t he released from police custody after his little phone tampering escapade on the solemn promise that he’d be good?

He needs to be in prison, now, I think.

He pled guilty to reduced charges in the Landrieu business, and he’s been exposed as a partisan tool of the worst sort;  being cited as anything less is getting a free pass.

Also, why a boat?

He saw this and thought it was a documentary.

I’ll be over here holding my breath waiting for this guy to punk Anderson Cooper for luring viewers with his sex appeal.

Totally agree with everyone about the creepy rape vibe. Planning to get her alone on a boat, having fantasies about “seducing” her, obsessing about controlling and recording the whole thing… YEEuck. Not surprised at all that that poor (albeit incredibly foolish) Veritas woman finally pulled the plug. He was practically asking her to slip something in Boudreau’s drink by that point—even the most relentlessly clueless woman is going to feel like a shitbag (and a potential felon!) once that many layers of red flags have started piling up.

Does anyone else find this jaw droppingly insane? I can’t even imagine of what kind of mind would think that this was a good idea and even more so he could pull it off.
“I will seduce her and tape it, yess that’s the ticket.” it’s like he got the idea out of From Russia with Love with him as the head of Smersh and James Bond at the same time.
i’m just speechless.  The whole country is over run by crazy people but nobody seems to be saying “these people are crazy”.

I’ll be over here holding my breath waiting for this guy to punk Anderson Cooper for luring viewers with his sex appeal.

Dammit, snob, that kid’s only trying to lure Cooper into his sex den for the story. The story. No other reason.

Goddammit.

These people aren’t “crazy” and their plans aren’t “insane” they’re malicious schemers who want to hurt others.

Could we cut the ableist crap even if only to accurately describe who these people are?

@colorlessblue:

Also, why a boat?

In the immortal words of Ted Kennedy in the Clarence Thomas SNL sketch (http://snltranscripts.jt.org/91/91cthomas.phtml), “another good thing is to get them out on your boat for some reason, because, uh…because then it’s really hard for them to get away.”

Seriously, this was all about at the very least setting up the specter of sexual assault. If not, you know, setting up a sexual assault—which I think may well have been the real plan.

@emmett: I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought of that.

Yeah, as SS451 mentions, sexual harassment only happens in the employment context.

Actually no it doesn’t.  A sexual harassment can be done anywhere at anytime.  We use “sexual harassment” in the workplace because it is the most common place to have it charged.  Technically any unwanted sexual advance regardless of the place can constitute sexual harassment depending on how forceful and the position they occupy inside the relationship (whether it be casual acquaintance or something more).  When we’re talking about commercial sexual harassment it becomes more complex because coworkers can’t sexually harass each other unless one has explicit power over the other. 

Ugh, that was long-winded and unnecessary but what O’Keefe did could have been placed as a sexual harassment charge because it was an unavoidable and planned incident if he had gone through with it.  Cat calls on the street are uncomfortable but largely legal, but his plan to keep her in a private area and force her to experience sexual imagery would be sexual harassment and would be charged under sexual deviant laws. 

O’Keefe is really just digging his own hole and how is he out from under the wiretapping charge?

So, James “I’m a Douche” O’Keefe III tries to lure some CNN reporter onto a boat and apply his manly charms in his sex crib.  Sickening, amusing only because it didn’t actually happen, and a great example of sleazy behavior.

So, will Jimmy Boy pay a penalty this time? (yeah right!)

James “Dick-for-Brains” O’Keefe will pay a penalty for this right after Irving “Scooter” Libby does hard time for perjury and obstructing justice, right after “Big” Dick Cheney and George “Oedipus” Bush Jr. are hung for crimes against humanity, right after BP pays to (properly) clean up the (whole) gulf, right after the displaced and dead in NOLA get justice, and right after all those criminal Wall-Streeters give back their obscene bonuses.  That is to say never...

Cat calls aren’t legal, it’s just a pain in the ass to report them to the police. You have to stay on the scene near the cat callers until the police arrive, and then file the report, and it’s a long shot you’ll get an officer who would take your complaint seriously anyway.

Xeranar: I admit, I’m not familiar with the legal usage of sexual harassment that you appear to be referring to. I take it from what you’ve said that it’s a crime in some States? Do you know which ones, specifically?

Since Boudreau is an investigative reporter and since she supposedly approached O’Keefe, it seems like he wasn’t getting a free pass from at least one member of the MSM.

True enough, but he essentially got a free pass while he was using his heavily edited videos to destroy ACORN.  And I’d be willing to bet that he loses none of his cachet in the long run after this incident.  Whereas Moore would never work in Hollywood again if he did anything approaching what O’Keefe does.  Of course, our side gets genuinely offended by this shit, no matter who pulls it.

Notice how much hatred of her attractiveness drips from this - like, how dare she be liberal, fuckable AND competent!  Have to take her down at least a notch, degrade her until she knows her place!

Support Izzy Santa!!

Any bets on if there is a case of date rape or 2 in this creeps history??

You don’t wager on near certainties, Woodrowfan.

@51: Sure you do, if you can get good odds.

MikeEss (comment # 44)—“Big” Dick Cheney?  Quotation marks totally not called for.  Have you seen this?

http://wizbangblog.com/images/dickdick1.php

Umm, here, use my brain bleach . . .

Xeranar,

I’m not aware of any u.s. jurisdiction where sexual harassment exists outside of the employment context.  Enlighten me if I’m wrong.  As a tort, it is an employment tort.

-Ismone

Okay, wait, I actually, no joke, do not understand what the plan was here.  I’m sorry.  I’m probably overthinking it.  It just seems like there’s a layer of planning or thought that I’m missing here.

Did James O’Keefe actually think he could invite an investigative reporter onto a boat filled with sex toys, successfully seduce her, and then release the sex tape?  Is there something I’m missing?  Because I don’t see how it never occurred to anyone that what she would most likely do is walk onto the boat, see the set-up, and then turn around and get the hell out of there.  That is how I imagine a reasonable woman reacting.  Is there another level to this?  Or is it just actually as stupid as it sounds, and Jesse was right when he said that it literally makes no sense whatsoever?

Older, I remember that pic all too well.  Yuck…

CeeZeeBee, I think the assumption was that requesting an interview was a come-on and the world is a frat party. Or something.

@55 - I think the logic is that any woman O’Keefe perceives as liberal and attractive is a slutty nitwit who will fall to the floor and throw her legs in the air at the sight of a dildo and a pack of lube.

“Did James O’Keefe actually think he could invite an investigative reporter onto a boat filled with sex toys, successfully seduce her, and then release the sex tape?  Is there something I’m missing?”

The plan as described seems to be more along the lines of “be really gross at her while having her in the same frame as dildos and naked lady paintings until she stomps off or completes the interview, then use the footage to make asshole jokes about her from a variety of angles depending on how she and/or CNN reacts to the whole arrangement.” Though I’m not entirely sure how well that would have worked even had it played out as they thought it would, given the reluctance of most network news stations and mainstream con-blogs to run shots with dildos and naked ladies.

The one thing I don’t understand is why would CNN want to make a documentary about young conservatives in the first place?  Don’t they understand that the conservative movement thinks they are the devil?

And why isn’t O’keefe in jail?  That’s a rhetorical question, he’s an overprivaleged punk and got off on a charge that would have sent anybody else to jail for a long time.

Except, mantis, he seems to hate her because he finds her attractive and she is competent and in control over him.

Read through the whole thing and he comes off as resentful, hating, and entirely clueless about who is giving whom a chance to show here. 

And where, pray tell, has whats-his-face “big game hunter” and state-leach-professor idiot’s daughter gone?  She was available to play the halloween ho game, but is she still part of this lovely scheme?

“Except, mantis, he seems to hate her because he finds her attractive and she is competent and in control over him.”

Well, it’s not like sexual harassment is any less about control, anger, or domination than the more extreme manifestations of the “show that bitch” sentiment.  I mean, the thought behind “If she wants access, she’s going to have to sit there and listen to me talk about having sex with her as long as I want and look at all these dildos and that’ll show her what’s what, and then I’ll show the whole world the tape of her getting hers so that everyone knows I’ve used sex to humiliate her” seems to be a difference more of degree than kind from the other hypotheses on display.

Sexual Harassment can be in an non-employment context. For example, in NYC there are signs up in subway cars alerting passangers to the fact that they don’t have to put up with groping and other sexual contact.

Or, perhaps, get enough footage to edit the video to make Boudreau look like a willing participant?

I think that’s more like it.  Rest assured, the videos would be heavily edited.  If she said, “You want me to suck your dick?  No, I don’t want to.  What kind of massively stupid person are you?” it would be edited to sound like she said “I want to suck your massive dick.” 

Sorry to be crude, but I have no doubt that O’Keefe would go there.

Why wouldn’t he? Basically, that’s his whole career.

  I wonder if he had roofies there in addition to Viagra.

And why does this story remind me of the one about the Michigan DA who’s obsessed with th gay student activist? Harassment, lies, hypocrisy….Hm, what could it be?

so, if I follow correctly, this guy is upset because CNN called him a sexist creep so he’s going to set up an elaborate scenario that make shim look like a sexist creep as a way to… prove them wrong? How’s that supposed to work again?

@43 (Xeranar): I’ve also read about the police using charges like public disturbance on cases of street harassment, but as you said, you’d have to stay there and wait and most cops will dismiss it and treat you badly for “wasting their time”.

@55(CeeZeeBee): “Did James O’Keefe actually think he could invite an investigative reporter onto a boat filled with sex toys, successfully seduce her, and then release the sex tape?  Is there something I’m missing?”
You know, woman or man, I’d think it unprofessional if a journalist slept with someone they’re investigating, but the way the emails/documents are written, it doesn’t even sound like they wanted to discredit her professionally for this reason, IF he succeeded at “seducing” her.

“The joke is that the tables have turned on CNN. Using hot blondes to seduce interviewees to get screwed on television, you are faux seducing her in order to screw her on television.”

This sounds more like he thinks she’d be discredited professionally just for having sex, OMG. It’s that idea that some men have that having sex with them spoils a woman’s value, which I think says more about them than about the woman, if they’re this polluting.
And of course, even if she did have sex with him willingly, releasing sex tapes without consent has been discussed here before, it’s wrong, shitty, bad, evil (and to me, a form of sexual assault); doesn’t say much about the woman besides the fact that she made a mistake in thinking that the man met minimal requirements of decency; and proves that the man is a bag of shit that doesn’t respect consent.

rivki,

People are talking about sexual harassment colloquially in that article.  They’re talking about sex offenses when it comes to criminal charges.  Because of free speech, a lot of things that would be actionable in the employment context aren’t on the street.  That doesn’t mean you can’t get them for something (i.e., threats) but no one is pointing me to anything saying that the kind of dirty talk that can get you nailed in the employment context can get you punished outside of it.

/derail

Or if she completely rejected the advances, it would be edited to “Boudreau the humorless bitch.” So Boudreau took the best act available to her by walking away from a situation where she might be filmed.

What O’Keefe doesn’t realize is that Boudreau is doing him the favor by setting up a meeting to discuss coverage of an event. If O’Keefe doesn’t want to talk business, Boudreau can walk away and say something like, “Project Veritas declined to be covered for this story.” Quite seriously, Boudreau has almost certainly been handling hostile sources attempting to harass her for her entire career. O’Keefe is amateur-hour on this.

@43: When we’re talking about commercial sexual harassment it becomes more complex because coworkers can’t sexually harass each other unless one has explicit power over the other.

That’s only true of quid pro quo sexual harassment and retaliation. Coworkers at the same level of authority can be liable for hostile environment harassment however. But note, that’s just employment law. Other forms of sexual harassment may be covered by other forms of law.

“This sounds more like he thinks she’d be discredited professionally just for having sex, OMG.”

I’m actually rather sure that he thinks she’d be discredited professionally just for being sexually harassed.  It sounds like he’s so invested in the sex == despoiled paradigm that the mere whiff of it should be enough to downgrade her from “investigative reporter” to “that whore” for everyone from here to breakfast.

@ Rivki #64

Pretty sure that groping and other contact is sexual assault, not harassment.

colorlessblue:

I seem to recall someone tried to do that to Lara Logan from CBS a couple years ago (also something to do with her being a happily unmarried mother). So far as I can tell it has had absolutely zero effect on her career—she’s still the best foreign correspondence CBS has (well, second best before they lost Christiane Amanpour to ABC).

I may have a new reigning metaphor here for something that would be evil except that it’s just so incomprehensibly stupid.  My go-to metaphor has been the canceling of Firefly.  But James O’Keefe thinking he could seduce Abbie Boudreau ranks right up there.

@71: I’m actually rather sure that he thinks she’d be discredited professionally just for being sexually harassed.

I don’t believe these guys think sexual harassment exists, much less acknowledge it as the part of the playbook. The narratives here are either that women invite sexual attention or can’t take a joke. Any video that comes out of the organization will be creatively edited to make Boudreau either the seductress or the bitch. And O’Keefe comes out as the trickster hero who just made Boudreau’s reveal her true colors on film.

It’s surprising that CNN put an excellent reporter such as Abbie Boudreau on a story about “Young Conservative Filmakers” (i.e.: Stupid Rich Brats).

Waste of talent.

His videos would have been edited to make Abbie Boudreau look like she had sex with him.

How James O’Keefe really envisioned this occurring:

“Dear Penthouse Forum,

I always knew someday it would happen to me…”

Ms Kate, she has her own fish to fry as a result of her involvement with Operation Take Down ACORN:

In an undercover expose, Hannah Giles captured ACORN

employees offering advice on prostitution and money-laundering

• Now, ACORN is suing Hannah for exposing their fraud

Her latest update mentions a ‘third’ employee suing her, so I doubt that she’s getting involved in anything more complicated than a trip to the grocery store these days…..........

And, no, I’m not linking to her, do you think I’m crazy or something?

@Kwillow

That can’t be right.  Women don’t “have sex” with men, men like O’Keefe “do sex” or “give sex” to women.  (Or, they want/plan to, which given the fact that O’Keefe planned to have a “condom jar” like the one my freshman roommate and I set up ironically, is much more likely than the actual “doing.”)

No women give up the sex in exchange for material goods. Men trick them out of it.

@snobographer

Compromise?

Women give up their sex to men who trick them out of it.  Those men then do/give it (the other it, of course, the magical awesome sexy penis it) to those easily fooled (by boats, champagne, strawberries, and fake video cameras) women.  This is then caught on the real (hidden) video cameras to prove that women are too stupid to be allowed near men and so should remain within the anti-penis field of the kitchen.  If you also take their shoes away, then you know they can’t sneak out and wander near real journalists and their “criminal” activities.

New lesson for the media: If you think there’s a chance you’re going to be talking to O’Keefe or his svengali Breitbart, take a full camera crew along.

If that guy in South Carolina can be criminally charged for showing somebody a picture of porn on a public computer, then surely there must be *something* that Mr. Junior Scumbag can be charged with.

I notice the playbook specifically talks about “push-pull” psychological tactics. Isn’t that straight out of Pick-Up-Artist Land? Wouldn’t surprise me if all those guys have forked over the cash for those surefire lessons.

Ah, the Simpson’s school of journalism.  I’m sure OKeefe could successfully convince us that Abbie just wanted a piece of that sweet, sweet can[dy]. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701109/quotes

And to keep things nice and superficial, if Abbie Boudraeu is the new bubble headed bleach blonde, I for one will take the name of her hairdresser.  That is the classiest peroxide blonde I’ve ever seen

I am also confused about the boat thing - would an investigative reporter agree to go onto an interviewee’s boat alone?  Why is there this assumption that a documentary reporter would be such easy pickings when I assume she’d come with her own camera and sound people at least?  Are you telling me she doesn’t have an assistant?  You’d think O’Keefe would be getting better, not worse at this kind of plan as his experience in what-not-to-do increases, yet that doesn’t seem to be the case.

If she weren’t warned, and the plan proceeded as planned, wouldn’t that be at least sexual harassment or maybe assault (tricking a woman who’s trying to do her job into a sexually charged room, making sexually charged comments and hitting on her)?

Not per se.  However, the assumption that he would stop if she laughed off his efforts isn’t one I’d be willing to make.

@ CBrach / 70:

Or if she completely rejected the advances, it would be edited to “Boudreau the humorless bitch.”

After thinking about this on a few different blogs today, that’s what I think the idea was—to say, “Hey, you accepted my invitation to come out here, what did you think was going to happen?”  Then when she left, to say, “Hahaha, dude, she totally believed it, she thinks all conservatives are weirdo rapists,” wait for the story to air on CNN, then release the tape of her looking uncomfortable and then leaving as proof that CNN “fell for it.”  That way it would synch up with the ACORN tapes, which were all about gullible do-gooders.  And all of Teabaggia would get a chance to laugh at the humorless bitch who believed that James O’Keefe actually had a floating sex dungeon.

Did James O’Keefe actually think he could invite an investigative reporter onto a boat filled with sex toys, successfully seduce her, and then release the sex tape?  Is there something I’m missing?

Yes - he would be the one who’d control the video.

I’d like to think that Boudreau would have scrammed at the front door to the house, even without the tip, because O’Keefe was communicating “creep” from the setup. He asked her to meet alone, in a different city, without recording devices, and then pulled a bait-and-switch on the office location.

I’d be paranoid as heck if a client I didn’t know well tried to pull that crap on me, and I’m not a woman.

Also, why a boat?

There weren’t any windowless white vans available that day.

@82 - That sounds about right. Any woman who puts on her shoes and goes someplace is asking for it. The nerve of that hussy, being female in public.

@86 - I’ve seen no indication that Boudreau brought any staff with her. I think she was just responding to O’Keefe’s request for a one-on-one about the parameters of the documentary she was making. If I was her I’d have gone to take notes and report on his presumably ridiculous requests.

I believe he is on probation for wiretapping, which is pretty amusing since he seems to have been wiretapping her here (you have to have both participants consent in MA and a number of other places) and probably just violated his probation.  I wonder who his probation officer is?

The phone call was recorded without Boudreau’s knowledge, but CNN obtained a copy of the recording after O’Keefe e-mailed it to friends and colleagues.

I may have a new reigning metaphor here for something that would be evil except that it’s just so incomprehensibly stupid.

I propose a new turn of phrase for all-purpose use: “Stupider than James O’Keefe”. Should come in handy where hyperbole is desired.

This whole thing about staff: reporters, even on-air reporters like Boudreau, aren’t that coddled. They still do at least some of their own work, and if a source insists on meeting them one-on-one (unless that source is a known violent criminal) they’re not going to take expensive defense-in-depth precautions. That may have just changed for networks reporting on GOP “activists”. (Talk about words that sanitize what O’Keefe and cronies do.)

Oh, and Dude: your operational security sucks. Sound like CNN didn’t even have to try hard to get all the documents and video you generated about this stunt.

Anybody who has anything to do with this little puppy needs to carry a rolled-up newspaper from now on.

Isn’t that straight out of Pick-Up-Artist Land?

The whole thing straight-up PUA.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2010/09/specials/cnn.caper/index.html

You’d think O’Keefe would be getting better, not worse at this kind of plan as his experience in what-not-to-do increases, yet that doesn’t seem to be the case.

That’s because, like other creeps/abusers, if they keep getting away with it, they start acting arrogantly about it.  He’s had very little consequence doled out to him and he’ll just keep getting worse.  Hopefully, his next “worse” will land him in prison without really hurting anyone else but him.

What’s next? Breaking into the DNC headquarters?

“Hey, brah, you know that CNN reporter who’s been nosing around?  I just thought up the greatest prank to expose her liberal lies!”

“Sweet!  Another ACORN deal?”

“You know it.  Okay, here’s the plan.  I convince her to meet with me to talk about, I dunno, investigative stuff.  You know, like journalists are into.”

“Good, good…”

“Only instead of my office, we send her to your dad’s awesome boat, where I’m waiting for her with champagne, strawberries, and a bunch of dildos.”

“Wait.  What?”

“And, like, a ton of condoms.  Like, a six-pack of condoms.”

“And then what?  How do you punk her?”

“I…um…offer her some champagne…and, um, strawberries…”

“And this is a prank because…?”

“Because I’m filming it!  Look, I just need you to get your dad to loan me the boat!”

“It doesn’t sound very funny, that’s all.”

“It’s not supposed to be—I mean, of course it’s funny!  It’s a prank!  Ha ha, funny prank!”

“Oh, I get it.  It’s funny because of how horrified she’ll be when she thinks you’re trying to have sex with her.”

“She’s not gonna be… Horrified?  Really?”

“I’m not sure how that’s a slam on her, though.  I mean, I don’t know any women who’d—”

“Shut up!  She’s totally gonna wanna to do me!”

“You think she’ll actually have sex with you?”

“No!  I mean, yes!  I mean… she would if I let her!  She’s a liberal woman, right?  They’re all bimbos.”

“I guess so.”

“You’ve seen her trying to seduce me, with all the walking around having hair and boobies and stuff.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure if that’s—”

“Stupid filthy bubble-headed bimbo whores dirtypillows dirtypillows dirtypillows—”

“Okay, okay!  The prank is that you film yourself seducing that reporter you’ve got the hots for on my dad’s boat!”

“Yes, I’ve got the boat!  ...I mean, I’m not really going to seduce her!  It’s a prank!  A punk!  I’m a… a satirist, right?  I use the medium of right-wing news-tainment to expose simple but powerful political truths.”

“And which truth is this exposing?”

“Hot chicks shouldn’t be allowed in journalism.”

“Dude, you’ve been on Fox News.”

“I mean liberal journalism.”

“That does seem unfair.”

“It’s totally unfair!  As a white Republican male, I own all bangable blonde women by birthright.  If they’re going to go around defying me, they need to be punished with strawberries and champagne and flowers and moonlit boat rides…”

“You didn’t say there’d be flowers.”

“I didn’t say there wouldn’t be flowers.  Anyway, the core message is simple: Journalists are whores.”

“What was the one for the ACORN scam?”

“Poor people are whores.”

“What about the wiretapping?”

“Democratic politicians always… shouldn’t be allowed to… whores… I would’ve thought of something.  Whores.”

“How’s parole working out, by the way?”

“Pretty good, they don’t hassle me much.  So what do you think of my prank?”

“I think it sounds like that date you had planned with Breitbart’s daughter before he chased you off with a shotgun.”

“Dude, can you get me the boat or not?”

@97 - I love how he repeatedly cites exposing CNN’s bigotry, especially “racism against whites” (of course), as his motive behind this whole thing.
If there’s anything that will eradicate bigotry, it’s sexism. Wait. What?

@95: I’m not saying anything about “defense-in-depth,” just that having been led on a wild goose chase, Beaudreau had every reason to turn around and walk away by the time she drove up to the house.

@89:  No, I got that he’d control the video.  But seeing as how there’s zero chance that she’d ever have sex with him, that’s not worth much.  “Hey look!  It’s a video of her taking one look and leaving!  We’ve totally ruined her career!”

Does not compute.

Hey, R.T., if you can’t deal with unpoliced language without having the vapors (is that “ableist” too?), maybe you ought to take your special snowflake self over to Feminists With Disabilities, which is just chock-full of idiots and crazies and dumbfucks as whiny as you are.

“No, I got that he’d control the video.  But seeing as how there’s zero chance that she’d ever have sex with him, that’s not worth much.  “Hey look!  It’s a video of her taking one look and leaving!  We’ve totally ruined her career!””

Our little Junior Douchebag would edit in some obviously unrelated pr0n video and try to pass it off as genuine.  He’d probably come up with some cliche ‘70s disco outfit or something and claim that was how he was dressed when he hit on her.  He’d claim she dropped her drawers immediately, when exposed to the charms of the virile Love Master.

...and after Breitbart and some of the other members of the douchebag cheering section on the right got done cowing the “Liberal Media”, CNN would be running it themselves as the truth…

That little asshole has gotten away with so much already, it’s truly sickening…

‘Kay, we can all go home now; Shaenon won this thread. :D

I admit, I’m not familiar with the legal usage of sexual harassment that you appear to be referring to. I take it from what you’ve said that it’s a crime in some States? Do you know which ones, specifically?

Xeranar,

I’m not aware of any u.s. jurisdiction where sexual harassment exists outside of the employment context.  Enlighten me if I’m wrong.  As a tort, it is an employment tort.

-Ismone

Sexual harassment as we think of it is largely a civil crime as you listed it, a tort.  He would have been charged with a sexual deviancy crime which essentially sexual harassment without wonderful name.  Nobody has the right in the 21st century to drag somebody into a private area and expose them to sexually explicit pictures or activities without their willing consent.  It’s a sexual deviancy crime and I can’t remember the exact name that replaces “harassment” because I don’t normally deal with it, I’m a labor historian, not a lawyer.

@nobody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJv5qLsLYoo

#106

Well, Alvin Green is/was being charged with a felony obscenity for doing exactly that in a non-workplace setting.

@Nobody in Particular

Disagree with R.T. if you want, but there is no need to be an asshole about it.

@R.T.

I’m sorry that Nobody in Particular was an asshole, but the demeaning nicknames of screen names is also being an asshole.  While your shortening is by no means anywhere close to the worst on Pandagon lately, it is still offensive and its offensiveness has been pointed out numerous times.

@Nobody in Particular:

I am mightily impressed by the way in which you managed to subsume your entire body into that asshole. Does it hurt to talk out of a sphincter?

Whether you feel that madness is an appropriate metaphorical construction or not (and I have mixed feelings about this issue personally), it still behooves one to be aware of howit affects allies,and perhaps avoid that language in political spaces. If there was doubt that you’re an abelist tool prior to your retort, the disdain with which you treat the concern of people with disabilities (even concerns you don’t agree with) makes it quite clear that you’ve got some serious bigotry to deal with. One hopes that you’ll deal with this by pulling up your pants to cover your suddenly-exposed ass, rather than dancing around in a further conga line of fail, but alas tis seems optomisitic.

Notes on the props list:

Alicia keys
My first thought was, getting Alicia Keys to appear in this video is going to be extremely expensive, especially if she doesn’t share her presumptive host’s politics. Then I realized that the k in “keys” isn’t capitalized, and now I’m lost. I don’t know what Alicia keys are; are they like an Arab strab? Or maybe a Code Veronica?

playboys and pornographic magazines
Again, no capitalization, so I assume he wants some wealthy socialite sons of privilege milling about in tuxedos. I suppose the pornographic magazines are to keep them occupied while they do the sound checks and stuff. Still, if one of them turns out to be the Batman, it’s going to get real ugly, real fast.

tripod and overt recorder near the bed, an obvious sex tape machine
If there isn’t a punk band called “The Obvious Sex Tape Machine” by tomorrow, I’m starting it myself.

Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I’m going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she’ll get seduced on camera and you’ll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath

Wow.  Just wow.

It’s like “Trying to persuade me to have sex with you, are you?  Well, I’m going to persuade you to have sex with me! So there! How d’ya like them apples?” 

It reveals he clearly sees sex as an asymmetrical, non-mutual thing.  For you or me, “A had sex with B” is the same thing as “B had sex with A”.  For O’Keefe’s crowd the two are polar opposites.

Well, look on the bright side - Boudreau now has some absolutely fascinating material for that documentary she’s working on. Thanks, moron!

Awwww, look, we’ve got the language police all upset!! Figures that someone from Amptoons would be blowing a gasket over this stupid, insane, dare I say retarded bullshit.

Oh, and btw, I’ve got a few psych diagnoses myself going on. I’m not an “ally.” I’m actually oppressed on that axis, to use the academic language. I can’t. fucking. stand. the nitpicky policing of language the way Feminists Who [are] Dumbfucks does it. Worst feminist site, EVER.

If you’re going around whining about the use of “crazy” or “stupid,” either you’re a hypersensitive git, or you need to get the fuck off campus occasionally.

UHm, colorlessblue, if he’d tried to do this on a boat and not returned to shore immediately when she requested, it would also be kidnapping, said me, the armchair attorney.  either way, it is probably prosecutable and should be , so that O’Keefe has a previous record - a long one (and can’t resist, it’s probably the ONLY long thing about him) when he next crosses teh legal line.

BTW, R.T., was there a point in sending me to that video? Also, what if someone epileptic had clicked through and been subjected to the flashing strobe lights? Tsk, tsk, how ableist of you not to take that into consideration.

Xeranar - I believe you are wrong.  That’s called hostile environment, and it too is sexual harassment.  Quid pro quo is the one where one person needs to be in a position of power in order to have something (the quo) to exchange for the sex (quid).

Again, clolorlessblue @ 68.  Are you familiar with AMy Jacobsen?  Chicago investigative reporter whose career was ruined because she went over to murder (wife) suspect Craig Stebic’s home with her kids and in a bathing suit because he called her for an interview when she was on her way to the beach..

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2007/12/update-amy-jaco.html

Sorry, CBrach beat me to the hostile environment explanation.

Back in the days when I was a sex worker, most of us had a rule about boats and “boat parties”, which was: don’t. Because when you get on a boat, you can’t just leave. Doesn’t matter if you have paid bouncers with you; it’s not a hotel, or a private home, where if the guys get pushy you can just head for the door. And they’re very well aware of this.

Doesn’t surprise me at all that the little shit picked a boat for his “prank”, or that it was a factor in his colleague’s decision to tip off the CNN reporter. The whole scenario screams of a rape fantasy.

Scum sucking, woman hating, over privilaged cracker asshole. God I loath him. **The little slap he received for his failed wire tapping, the ACORN “scandel, and now this. I checked out the Fox “News” site and surprise! Nary a peep from them about the latest stunt of their intrepid reporter. **

**And he ruined one of my favorite social commentary songs.

Nobody In Particular @103 and 114,

Please read comment #110 several times. I wrote up a little something myself, replete with lots of fucks and personal anecdotes and the like, but Mandolin expresses my thoughts much more clearly.

@Atheist, A Feminist

Awww, but Nobody in Particular and I seem to have a relationship. I make a comment about ableism and xie appears as if xie were my own personal troll. We don’t need to be so formal with each other. We’re close. /snark

Actually I understand your point, and it’s an easy fix too.

@Nobody in Particular

I sent you that video because I just want your love and song is a great way to express how I feel.

Is Dead or Alive not your thing? I’ve got some Pet Shop Boys and Styx I could send your way.

BTW I know you have this thing against FWD but if you’re going to blame someone for me learning about ableism and learning to be outspoken against it, blame Renee @ womanist musings

@R.T.

Actually I understand your point, and it’s an easy fix too.

Thank you.  It really wouldn’t be that much of a big deal if it weren’t (like in all things) the total and complete jerks who spoil it for the rest of us.

I have to say I once had someone try to solicit my services for a performance on a boat cruise (I’m a videographer). He kept evading the details of the gig and laughed at me when I told him I was charging him for the full time of the boat trip—needless to say, I didn’t take the gig.

Boats are for meh..

This morning I woke up horrified at the expression “faux seducing her”. That’s all.

LOL. It’s hilarious how the blithering “ABLEISM!!!” pantloads have made it onto Pandagon… which still doesn’t know how to ban white-supremacist trolls.

And apparently y’all have missed that I actually have disabilities. Guess what? Not everybody who’s disabled agrees with the FWD crowd. They can suck it up and take it.

Oh, and R.T.? I hate Renee, too. That “Juneteenth” drama-fest was unintentionally hilarious. The only winners were the popcorn-scarfing audience.

</blockquote>LOL. It’s hilarious how the blithering “ABLEISM!!!” pantloads have made it onto Pandagon… which still doesn’t know how to ban white-supremacist trolls. </blockquote>

Yeah, made it on to Pandagon like 4 odd years ago, as in my case. This isn’t some new thing here but you seem to be.

And apparently y’all have missed that I actually have disabilities

I didn’t miss it, I just don’t care, as were in the same boat.

Guess what? Not everybody who’s disabled agrees with the FWD crowd. They can suck it up and take it.

How about instead of railing against a different blog on this one at least try to engage the topic with a higher level of discourse instead of something like “lol these idiot cripples sure are retarded!”?

If you can’t then just get out of the way and let those who are trying to improve their lives go unimpeded. You have nothing to lose.

Oh, and R.T.? I hate Renee, too. That “Juneteenth” drama-fest was unintentionally hilarious. The only winners were the popcorn-scarfing audience.

If marginalized people making their complaints known is hilarious to you then why even bother flipping out over things you can’t take seriously?

First, I’m incredibly pleased to report that if you google “james o’keefe rapist” you get 142,000 results.

Also, @ Nobody in Particular, I’ve been reading this blog for a handful of years now, including comments, and up until today I had no idea that you’re a tremendous douchebag. Way to go.