James O’Keefe Defends David Corn’s Reporting On McConnell Tape

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James O’Keefe has come out in support of David Corn’s reporting on a secretly recorded meeting of Mitch McConnell campaign aides. In a column for The Daily Beast, he also argued that laws concerning secret recordings could discourage whistleblowers from surfacing information in the public interest. 

From O’Keefe’s column, titled “James O’Keefe in Defense of Taping Mitch McConnell, and Everyone Else”:

While the two young people who allegedly recorded McConnell, Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison, may have overstepped the line this time, conservatives need to understand that the potential punishment they face is incommensurate with the crime under the present law. Raw and unfiltered recordings are the best tools we have to expose things as they really are. Last year John Fund referred to our video showing Eric Holder’s ballot to vote offered to a stranger as “cinema verité.” Now David Corn said of his McConnell tape, “No one needs to listen to me or any commentator to know what it means … It’s all there … It’s journalism verité.” As someone who shares David Corn’s vision of bringing veritas to the vulgate, or truth to the people, I wholeheartedly agree.

O’Keefe has faced scrutiny and made plenty of headlines for his secret recordings and antics, and he recounted his experience as an activist journalist in the piece. Read the whole thing here.  

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