Conservative Provocateur James O’Keefe: Where’s My Polk Award?

NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND — During a panel on voter fraud at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, conservative provocateur James O’Keefe suggested that his reporting on the issue should have won him a Polk Award, but that such awards are instead granted to liberal publications.

O’Keefe first described his own work trying to prove that voter ID laws actually prevent widespread voter fraud. Then, in response to a question about attacks on his work, O’Keefe said that there’s a double standard toward reporting in favor of the left. In particular, O’Keefe cited Mother Jones’ reporting of Mitt Romney’s 47 percent comments, which ultimately won Mothers Jones’ bureau chief, David Corn, what O’Keefe said was an undeserved award.

“David Corn is the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones. David Corn won a Polk award for not even doing undercover reporting,” O’Keefe said. (Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington, D.C. bureau chief, not the editor-in-chief.)

O’Keefe tussled with Mother Jones, and Corn in particular, last year when O’Keefe claimed he had exposed voter fraud in Colorado. Mother Jones published a piece ahead of the publication of O’Keefe’s reporting, debunking his claims.

“He won a Polk award because somebody emailed him the undercover reporting and he published it,” O’Keefe said. “That’s pretty amazing. But I think over time you’re going to see things change. Independent media will be able to do stuff like this. I think you’re going to see that things come around. I think the attacks have subsided a little bit, but it’s up to us to break news and force our way into the conversation.”