hannah giles o'k

=<div>frrom stockman</div><div><div>=</div><div><div>no lnx an 8 23 $</div><div>Embattled far-right 'gotcha' group Project Veritas fights for survival post-O'Keefe</div><div>James O'Keefe, formerly of Project Veritas, in Palm Beach, Florida in July 2023 (Gage Skidmore)</div><div>Alex Henderson</div><div>August 23, 2023</div><div>
</div><div>2023 has been a rough year for Project Veritas, a far-right group known for its "gotcha" tactics and campaigns against mainstream media outlets and liberal and progressive organizations.</div><div>
</div><div>Plagued by financial problems, Veritas recently laid off 25 of its employees, according to the Daily Beast. And Veritas CEO Hannah Giles isn't shy about claiming that founder James O'Keefe left the company in bad shape when he departed earlier this year.</div><div>
</div><div>In an article published on August 23, the Daily Beast's Kelly Weill details Veritas' problems and the steps it has been taking to keep from going out of business. The "cost-cutting measures" that Veritas is considering, according to Weill, include "going fully remote and bringing in an outside firm to produce its content."</div><div>
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</div><div>"By the time of his departure," Weill explains, "O'Keefe had become controversial within Project Veritas, with some employees accusing him of being 'a power-drunk tyrant' who allegedly squandered company funds on lavish personal expenses. After the layoffs — which employees previously characterized as slashing Project Veritas from 43 to 18 staffers — the company is seeking a profitable path forward, according to sources. And it won't be easy, management has suggested in a recent conversation."</div><div>
</div><div>Giles spoke candidly about Veritas' financial problems during a Tuesday, August 22 interview, although she was unclear about whether Veritas will outsource production of its content.</div><div>
</div><div>Giles told the Beast, "Project Veritas is in a tough situation. It was made tough by O'Keefe leaving, and made doubly challenging by mismanagement before I was hired. I wish we could have kept everyone on and grown the organization, but I've been put in the situation where I have to cut and refocus so we can get to growth. I'm not going to fight in the press over complaints from laid off staffers, I'm going to keep doing the work to rebuild this organization from the mess it was left in."</div><div>
</div><div>Weill notes that Veritas is suing O'Keefe for alleged financial mismanagement and for allegedly using Veritas' "donor list to solicit funds for a rival media group after his departure this year." According to Weill, Veritas has accused O'Keefe "of spending company funds on dubious personal expenses like chartered cars, helicopter flights, and musical theater productions."</div><div>
</div><div>READ MORE:Conflicting reports about James O'Keefe's termination at Project Veritas</div><div>
</div><div>Read the Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).</div><div>
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</div><div>Report typos and corrections to: feedback@alternet.org.</div><div>Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?</div><div>Read Comments - Join the Discussion</div><div>BUSTED: ‘Right-wing misinformation’ newspaper gave a GOP presidential candidate up to $5 million in salary</div><div>'I was in the eye of the storm': Inside Roger Stone's plan to help Trump overturn the 2020 election</div><div>Leading civil rights lawyer shows 20 ways Trump is copying Hitler</div><div>
</div><div>
</div></div><div>=</div>=ref activist group with ties to conservative causes is promising to unveil secretly captured video footage that one group leader claims will show Texas lawmakers behaving badly, confessing to a variety of indiscretions, engaging in inappropriate relationships with special interest lobbyists and possibly admitting to criminal behavior.That’s the claim from a man who identified himself as John Beria, spokesman for the <a href="http://americanphoenixfoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(161, 210, 223); box-shadow: rgb(161, 210, 223) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; text-decoration-line: none;">American Phoenix Foundation</a>, a group whose founders are known for deploying undercover cameras and have been tied to controversial operations that targeted the liberal group ACORN and former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. The former triggered complaints of smear tactics and selective editing. The latter sparked several arrests. Word of the group's secret recordings, first <a href="http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Group-targets-Texas-lawmakers-with-secret-videos-6243938.php?t=5b5b26e26bf683d49c&cmpid=twitter-premium" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(161, 210, 223); box-shadow: rgb(161, 210, 223) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> by the Houston Chronicle, sparked outrage among House Republicans — as well as concerns about their safety.One of the men making the recordings “appeared to be a stalker,” said state Rep. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/charlie-geren/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(161, 210, 223); box-shadow: rgb(161, 210, 223) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; text-decoration-line: none;">Charlie Geren</a>, R-Fort Worth. “There are some sleazebags in politics, and these guys are going to fall right in that bracket.” Beria said there was no ideological bias in its months-long undercover operation in Austin, and he said some of the most interesting findings center on conservative Republicans who act one way at home and quite another in the state capital. “What we’re going for is just hypocrisy. It’s liberal hypocrisy. It’s conservative hypocrisy,” Beria said. “If they’re running on God and guns and babies and then come down to Austin and act like total moral hypocrites, we want to show that, too.”Beria declined to make any of the footage available or to name names, making it impossible to know if the claims are exaggerated or accurate. “Our lawyers think there are some admissions and there are some actions that would be criminal on the legislators’ part," he said. Using a variety of devices, including hidden cameras on lapels or just iPhones, the crew captured lawmakers making a series of "odd admissions."He said the first videos should be available for release sometime this summer."It’s a whole variety of bad behavior," Beria said.The undercover operation had been sparking rumors and concern at the Capitol over several days as lawmakers began talking about being interviewed by a member of the crew. Democratic Rep. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/armando-walle/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(161, 210, 223); box-shadow: rgb(161, 210, 223) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; text-decoration-line: none;">Armando Walle</a> of Houston said he, too, was questioned — by a “gentleman wearing a leather hat” and was later told by House officials that he was part of the crew that had been “harassing” other members.Walle said the man asked him whether he supported toll roads and then quizzed him about gun rights before asking him if he paid his female staffers as much as he paid his male staffers.“Once he started being a little more aggressive, then I caught on,” Walle said. “His mannerism and his aggressiveness — I was like, okay, this is not a normal line of questioning.” Some members of the group were detained last week after lawmakers complained. Beria said state police told them they were being stopped because they were "talking to lobbyists.""Actually we have that on video as well," he said. The run-in with DPS ultimately forced the group to discuss its project before releasing it.Beria said there's so much profanity on the footage that "there may be a parental advisory needed on some of the clips."He did not describe any specific activity that would rise to a crime but said some relationships between powerful legislators and lobbyists will raise troubling questions.The American Phoenix Foundation was founded by Joe Basel and his wife, Hannah Giles, who are no strangers to controversies over secretly obtained video. Basel <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/lae/news/2010/2010_05_26_joseph_basel_etal_plea.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(161, 210, 223); box-shadow: rgb(161, 210, 223) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; text-decoration-line: none;">pleaded guilty</a> in 2010 for entering federal property under false pretenses after dressing up as a telephone repairman as part of a scheme to secretly gather video in offices of Landrieu of Louisiana, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.Giles, meanwhile, posed as a prostitute in a controversial 2009 <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/10/acorn.prostitution/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(161, 210, 223); box-shadow: rgb(161, 210, 223) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; text-decoration-line: none;">uncover video</a>that targeted the liberal group ACORN, portraying the community organizing nonprofit as being complicit in an illegal scheme to set up a prostitution ring. ACORN supporters accused the controversial lead filmmaker, James O'Keefe, of compiling a selectively edited smear. According to <a href="http://wonkette.com/505026/wonket-sexclusive-totally-blameless-crime-stopper-james-okeefe-to-pay-100000-to-acorn-criminal" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(161, 210, 223); box-shadow: rgb(161, 210, 223) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; text-decoration-line: none;">news reports</a>, O'Keefe, paid a $100,000 settlement in 2013 to one of the ACORN workers who got fired over the incident, Juan Carlos Vera, saying in the agreement that he "regrets any pain suffered by Mr. Vera or his family." O'Keefe faced similar accusations of selective editing in the Texas governor's race, when his Project Veritas <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2014/01/23/group-claims-video-shows-democrats-mocking-abbott/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(161, 210, 223); box-shadow: rgb(161, 210, 223) 0px -1px 0px 0px inset; text-decoration-line: none;">claimed </a>to have footage showing supporters of Democrat Wendy Davis laughing about his disability. But the laughter appeared to be the work of selective editing; in the raw footage of the incident, there was no laughter.Contacted Tuesday, O'Keefe, who was arrested alongside Basel in the incident in Louisiana, said he had no involvement and no knowledge of the American Phoenix Foundation's new project. He said he hasn't worked with Joe Basel since 2010 and was caught off-guard by all the phone calls he's getting.  Beria, the spokesman for Basel's group, said the plan was to release the video from Austin in vignettes, as opposed to a long documentary.“It will be small releases, and it will be more focused that way,” he said. "The concern there was it would be tough for people to sit through that much bad behavior.” *Clarification: Since publishing this story, The Texas Tribune has been unable to verify that John Beria is the real name of the person who identified himself as a spokesman for the American Phoenix Foundation. </div><div>==
defense fund:

<div class="item-summary">

                  <p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On the heels of ACORN filing a lawsuit against

conservative activists Hannah Giles, James O'Keefe, and Breitbart.com

LLC, Sean Hannity, Andrew Breitbart, HotAir.com's Allahpundit, and

NewsBusters have offered to -- in the words of Hannity -- "put out the

word" to "help" Giles and O'Keefe raise money for their legal defense.

Conservative media figures -- led by Glenn Beck -- helped Breitbart

strategically release and aggressively promote the undercover videos

that sparked ACORN's lawsuit.

        </div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">

                  <h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><strong>ACORN files lawsuit against O'Keefe, Giles, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Breitbart.</span>com</strong></font></h2>

Suit filed after alleged "illegal videotaping" seeks "injunction against further distribution" of a hidden-camera tape. From a September 23 Washington Post "44" blog post:

<blockquote>The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

(ACORN) announced Thursday it had filed a lawsuit against James

O'Keefe, Hannah Giles and Breitbart.com LLC for what it alleged was

"illegal videotaping" of ACORN employees in Baltimore.

The group filed its suit in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City and

is seeking "a preliminary and permanent injunction against further

distribution" of a hidden-camera tape made by O'Keefe and Giles that

aired on BigGovernment.com, a Web project of Andrew Breitbart's <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/" title="http://www.breitbart.com/">Breitbart.com</a> company, along with compensatory and punitive damages. [WashingtonPost.com, <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/23/acorn_sues_okeefe_giles_and_br.html" title="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/23/acorn_sues_okeefe_giles_and_br.html">9/23/09</a>]

</blockquote>

<h2>Conservative media rush to launch virtual telethon for O'Keefe, Giles</h2>

Hannity: "Hannah, if you get in trouble ... we can help you. We'll put out the word."

After interviewing Giles and her attorney about the lawsuit, Sean

Hannity stated, "Well, listen, Hannah, if you get in trouble and you

need the lawyer, I'll tell you what, we can help you. We'll put out the

word. I'm sure there's a lot of people that may want to help you with a

legal defense fund. And if you get to that point, let us know, and we'll

be glad to bring you back on." [Hannity, <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2009/09/24/hannity-offers-to-fundraise-for-hannah-giles-le/155010" title="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200909240040">9/24/09</a>]

Breitbart on O'Reilly: "We will be advertising Hannah and James' legal defense fund."

After Bill O'Reilly asked, "[D]o you have lawyers helping you with it

because, you know, this is expensive," Breitbart stated, "We're -- we're

working on that right now. And I want everybody to know that we will be

advertising Hannah and James' legal defense fund at BigGovernment.com.

The amount of -- the responses so far in e-mail form are overwhelming." [The O'Reilly Factor, <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2009/09/24/breitbart-solicits-for-legal-defense-funds-atta/155013" title="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200909240044">9/24/09</a>]

HotAir's Allahpundit: "Dig deep: Hannah Giles defense fund launches."

In a September 24 HotAir.com blog post titled, "Dig deep: Hannah Giles

defense fund launches," Allahpundit wrote that Giles' father -- <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2009/09/21/father-of-filmmaker-behind-acorn-videos-has-bac/154827" title="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909210002">conservative activist</a>

Doug Giles -- "sent out a blast e-mail about it a little while ago and

I'm told the link's posted on his Facebook page, so fire away. Not that

she'll need the money: The lawsuit's weak, the jury will be on her side,

and apparently Hannity's set to beam this link out to America on

tonight's show, which means she'll be swimming in dough come morning."

Allahpundit further promised, "I'll post the info for O'Keefe's defense

fund once it's available." [HotAir.com, <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/24/dig-deep-hannah-giles-defense-fund-launches/" title="http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/24/dig-deep-hannah-giles-defense-fund-launches/">9/24/09</a>]

NewsBusters: Breitbart "Reveals Defense Fund Initiative." Promoting Breitbart's O'Reilly Factor

appearance, NewsBusters quoted Breitbart's promotion of the legal

defense fund and included a link to Breitbart's BigGovernment.com.

[NewsBusters.com, <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/09/24/breitbart-blasts-msm-acorn-coverage-reveals-defense-fund-initiative" title="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/09/24/breitbart-blasts-msm-acorn-coverage-reveals-defense-fund-initiative">9/24/09</a>]

<h2>Conservative media strategically leaked, aggressively promoted secretly recorded tapes</h2>

Breitbart, Beck distributed secretly taped ACORN videos. O'Keefe first <a href="http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/10/chaos-for-glory/#more-274" title="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fbiggovernment.com%2F2009%2F09%2F10%2Fchaos-for-glory%2F%23more-274">posted his secretly recorded video</a> on Breitbart's BigGovernment.com in an effort to engage in -- <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/21/breitbart-the-politicized-art-behind-the-acorn-pla/?page=1" title="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/21/breitbart-the-politicized-art-behind-the-acorn-pla/?page=1">in the words of Breitbart</a>

-- "a multimedia, multiplatform strategy" that included Fox News. Fox

News, led by Glenn Beck, went on to facilitate Breitbart's "<a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2009/09/22/redstates-acorn-exclusive-based-on-theft-anothe/154904#theft" title="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909220035">strategy</a>" of releasing the videos."

        </div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==<br /></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">5. GLENN BECK → NEWS CORP.: In October  2008, Fox News <a title="http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/1008/Glenn_Beck_joins_Fox_News.html" href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fblogs%2Fmichaelcalderone%2F1008%2FGlenn_Beck_joins_Fox_News.html" target="_blank">announced</a> that Beck would be joining  the network in 2009. The first episode of <em>Glenn Beck</em> aired on Fox News in January  2009.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">

6. GLENN BECK → HANNAH GILES: Beck was the <a title="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909100058" href="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909100058" target="_blank">first to air</a>

excerpts from James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles’ undercover videos, in

which the two dressed as a pimp and prostitute and attempted to solicit

advice from ACORN employees on how to operate their proposed brothel.

Giles <a title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfxWAtY1pyY" href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DpfxWAtY1pyY" target="_blank">appeared</a> on the September 10 edition of Beck’s Fox News show to discuss the videos.

7. GLENN BECK → ANDREW BREITBART: Beck has <a title="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909150028" href="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909150028" target="_blank">relied heavily</a>

upon Matt Drudge protégé Breitbart for the content of his radio and

television programs and has praised Breitbart highly, calling him a

“great journalist” and his work “instrumental.”

8. GLENN BECK → 9-12 PROJECT: Beck is the founder of the <a title="http://www.the912project.com/" href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.the912project.com%2F" target="blank">9-12 Project</a>, the creation of which he <a title="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200903130029" href="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200903130029" target="blank">tearfully announced</a> on the March 13 edition of his Fox News program.

9. GLENN BECK → MICHELE BACHMANN: On the October 14 edition of his radio program, Beck interviewed Rep. Bachmann and <a title="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200910140013" href="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200910140013" target="_blank">offered</a>

to “have a fundraiser” for her after Bachmann claimed that “Speaker

Pelosi has made me her number-one congresswoman to defeat next year.”

Bachmann herself has <a title="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/17/gop-rep-channels-mccarthy_n_135735.html" href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2008%2F10%2F17%2Fgop-rep-channels-mccarthy_n_135735.html" target="_blank">called for</a> an investigation to root out the “anti-America” members of Congress.

10. JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY → W. CLEON SKOUSEN: Though he claims to never have been a member, Skousen was a <a title="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909300024" href="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909300024" target="_blank">staunch defender</a>

of the John Birch Society. He authored a 1963 pamphlet titled “The

Communist Attack on the John Birch Society,” in which he alleged that

people who criticized the group “usually did so without realizing they

were promoting the official Communist Party line.” Salon’s Zaitchick <a title="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/09/16/beck_skousen/print.html" href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.salon.com%2Fnews%2Ffeature%2F2009%2F09%2F16%2Fbeck_skousen%2Fprint.html">wrote</a>

that Skousen “aligned himself” with John Birch Society founder Robert

Welch’s accusation that Dwight Eisenhower was a “dedicated, conscious

agent of the Communist conspiracy.”

11. W. CLEON SKOUSEN → 9-12 PROJECT: On the March 13 <a title="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909300024" href="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909300024" target="_blank">edition</a>

of his Fox News program, which was the official launch of the 9-12

Project, Beck provided his studio audience with a selection of books,

one of which was Skousen’s The 5000 Year Leap. Beck lauded the

“fantastic” book,” telling the audience that “it is the 29 principles

that our founders put together, and how they put this genius country

together.”

12. SIMON & SCHUSTER → MARY MATALIN: Matalin, a Republican

political consultant and former Bush White House aide, is the chief

editor of Threshold Editions, Simon & Schuster’s conservative

imprint.

13. SIMON & SCHUSTER → CBS: Simon & Schuster is a <a title="http://www.cbscorporation.com/our_company/divisions/simon_schuster/index.php" href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbscorporation.com%2Four_company%2Fdivisions%2Fsimon_schuster%2Findex.php" target="_blank">division</a> of CBS Corp.

14. ANDREW BREITBART → JAMES O’KEEFE: Breitbart worked closely with

O’Keefe in promoting and distributing O’Keefe’s undercover ACORN

videos, which were first posted on Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com.

Breitbart is also one of many media conservatives who have <a title="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909250008" href="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909250008" target="_blank">offered</a> to raise money for O’Keefe and Giles’ legal defense fund after the two were sued by ACORN.

15. HANNAH GILES → JAMES O’KEEFE: Giles and O’Keefe collaborated on a

series of undercover videos shot in ACORN offices in which they would

pose as a prostitute and pimp, respectively, and solicit ACORN

employees for advice on how to run a brothel. O’Keefe later claimed that

he and Giles were not rebuffed at any of the ACORN offices they

visited — a claim that was later <a title="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909240037" href="http://mediamatters.org/research/200909240037" target="_blank">undermined</a>

by ACORN officials who produced a police report showing that ACORN had

contacted police about O’Keefe’s visit to their Philadelphia office.

16. HANNAH GILES → YOUNG AMERICA’S FOUNDATION: Giles is an <a title="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gGAuocA-mRDscWwH701sQ_IWj56AD9ATEBE00" href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fhostednews%2Fap%2Farticle%2FALeqM5gGAuocA-mRDscWwH701sQ_IWj56AD9ATEBE00" target="blank">alumnus</a> of the Young America’s Foundation’s <a title="http://www.yaf.org/NationalJournalismCenter.aspx" href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yaf.org%2FNationalJournalismCenter.aspx" target="blank">National Journalism Center</a>.==

http://sdcitybeat.com/blog-15194-fake-acorn-prostitute-hannah-giles-throws-james-o'keefe-under-the-bus.html

Hannah Giles had no problem bragging to FOX News how she posed as a

hooker to catch ACORN workers in incriminating conversations on hidden

video. <a target="blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxSh1935rlM&feature=related">Over</a> and <a target="blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AloiQ-Oy_Ds&feature=related">over</a> and <a target="blank" href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,566981,00.html">over</a> and <a target="blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0rAtuD_9U0&feature=related">over</a>....
But now that she's facing a <a target="_blank" href="http://lastblogonearth.com/2010/07/09/acorn-worker-sues-okeefe-and-collaborators/">$75,000 lawsuit</a>, she says she's not culpable  because it was  <s>her faux pimp</s> her accomplice*, conservative activist James O'Keefe, who held the video camera ---Former

National City ACORN worker Juan Carlos Vera is suing O'Keefe and Giles

in US District Court in San Diego, alleging that the pair violated the

California Privacy Act, which require all parties to consent before a

confidential conversation may be recorded. Vera lost his job after

O'Keefe and Giles went public with secret footage that ostensibly showed

the two, p<s>osing as pimp and ho </s> as prostitute and skeezy

boyfriend, asking for and receiving advice from Vera on how to smuggle

underage prostitutes into the US.
A California Department of

Justice investigation later determined the video had been intentionally

edited to be misleading and found that Vera had called law enforcement

after the meeting. 
In a motion for judgment, Giles' attorneys argue:
<blockquote>"<a target="_blank" href="http://law.onecle.com/california/penal/632.html">Section 632</a> has limited scope: it unambiguously imposes liability only on persons who carry out the recording

of a confidential communication with the consent of all parties to the

communication, and precludes liability for persons who merely assist the

recording or participate in the communication. Here, the Complaint

itself makes clear that only O'Keefe, not Giles, actually carried out

the recording of the communication. Allegations that Giles was present

during, or agreed to, the recording are legally insufficient to bring

her within the scope 632." </blockquote>So, even though Giles says, on her legal appeal website, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.defendhannah.com/">DefendHannah.com</a>, "In an undercover expose, Hannah Giles captured ACORN employees offering advice on prostitution and money-laundering,"

she's still innocent because she wasn't holding the camera. In other

words, she deserves the glory, but not the liability; that's all

O'Keefe.
Her lawyers contrast the privacy law, which does not

include an explicit conspiracy clause, to California's anti-wiretapping

law, which does. They reason that the legislature left it out

intentionally.
 They also make a First Amendment case:<blockquote>"California

is one of the few states to impose liability on a person who records a

conversation to which he or she is a party, and the provisions at issue

contain no express exception for media, journalists, or other First

Amendment-protected newsgathering activities. The lack of such

protections—and the importance and ubiquity of video media in the

Internet age—at a minimum raises serious questions whether 632 can be

reconciled with the First Amendment in a substantial number of potential

applications...Moreover, participant recording is an integral part of

modern-day newsgathering, in which there is a well-recognized First

Amendment interest, and Giles and O'Keefe were engaged in investigative

journalism."</blockquote>O'Keefe's attorneys made a similar case, as <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-8518-candid-camera.html">CityBeat</a> reported

in December, but David Blair-Loy, legal director for the local ACLU

chapter, says that argument is not going to fly. Courts already upheld

these two-party consent laws (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/PI/RHandbook01.nsf/1119bd38ae090a748525676f0053b606/dfc00ac22467b7f5852569cb004cbc2a">Shevin v. Sunbeam Television</a>), he says, because Americans also have a right to privacy.
"The

First Amendment protects the right to record events in public but does

not authorize invasion of legally protected privacy rights," Blair-Loy

writes via e-mail.  "Both free press and privacy rights are

constitutionally protected and must be balanced.  Occasionally, the

right to privacy prevails."* I have corrected this to be clear that O'Keefe portayed himself as a pimp only after the fact. To  quote from the <a href="http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/n1888_acorn_report.pdf" mce_href="http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/n1888_acorn_report.pdf" target="blank">Attorney General report</a>:<blockquote>In

each of ACORN offices they visited together, Giles posed as a

prostitute fleeing an abusive pimp, and O'Keefe posed as her boyfriend,

trying to help her, and, in some instances, attempting to benefit from

the proceeds of the prostitution trade. Although O'Keefe is dressed in

stereotypical 1970s pimp garb in the opening and closing scenes of the

videos released on the internet, when O'Keefe visited each of the ACORN

offices, ACORN employees reported that he was actually dressed in a

shirt and tie. Also, contrary to the suggestion in the edited

videos,O'Keefe never stated he was a pimp. Although their story morphed

over time, the couple requested advice from ACORN employees related to

Giles' prostitution business, including obtaining a mortgage, reporting

income and taxes from the illicit business, avoiding lawenforcement

scrutiny, smuggling young girls into the country to serve as

prostitutes, and obtaining documentation and voting privileges for them.

Woven into the narrative and conversations were tales of Giles' flight

from an abusive pimp and how the girls could be keptsafe from the pimp,

albeit employed as prostitutes. O'Keefe wore a hidden camera and

secretly recorded audio and video of the conversations.</blockquote><a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8373" target="_blank">Brad Blog</a>

took me to task for summarizing it so poorly. He was right to point it

out.  In return, I hope he will edit his blog so my name is spelled

correctly.  UPDATE: He has! Sweet.
==

[Note: SD City Beat has now corrected their story as per our criticism in this article. See the UPDATE at bottom of this article for more details.]

The story quoted below, detailing Hannah Giles' attorneys tossing Rightwing hoaxster James O'Keefe "under the bus," comes <a href="http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/print-blog-210-print.html">from San Diego City Beat</a> this week.

Please note, however, that SD City Beat's Dave Maass is still,

unfortunately, misleading readers by incorrectly reporting that O'Keefe

played Giles' "fake pimp partner" or that he ever "pos[ed] as a pimp"

in the scam video tapes featuring <a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7780">deceptively and "severely edited" secretly-recorded interviews</a> with ACORN employees.

<a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7761">O'Keefe never played or posed as a "pimp"</a> in those interviews, as we spent a good portion of 2010 <a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7715">illustrating to the world</a>, such that both the New York Times and its then-Public Editor Clark Hoyt both, eventually, were forced to admit in <a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7759">partial corrections</a> to their repeatedly inaccurate reports making the same misleading claims.

It's a shame that Maass is still inaccurately reporting that part of

the story here, as his report is otherwise good in bringing us up to

date on the latest in the <a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7940">law suit filed against O'Keefe and Giles</a>

by former ACORN worker Juan Carlos Vera, one of those targeted by the

hoax video tapes made by O'Keefe and Giles and published by <a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7699">their employer</a>, <a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7719">Rightwing con-man Andrew Breitbart</a>...

<div class="media">Hannah Giles had no problem bragging to FOX News how

she posed as a hooker to catch ACORN workers in incriminating

conversations on hidden video. <a target="blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxSh1935rlM&feature=related">Over</a> and <a target="blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AloiQ-Oy_Ds&feature=related">over</a> and <a target="blank" href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,566981,00.html">over</a> and <a target="blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0rAtuD_9U0&feature=related">over</a>....

But now that she's facing a <a target="_blank" href="http://lastblogonearth.com/2010/07/09/acorn-worker-sues-okeefe-and-collaborators/">$75,000 lawsuit</a>, she says she's not culpable  because it was her fake pimp partner, James O'Keefe, who held the video camera.

Former National City ACORN worker Juan Carlos Vera is suing O'Keefe

and Giles in US District Court in San Diego, alleging that the pair

violated the California Privacy Act, which require all parties to

consent before a confidential conversation may be recorded. Vera lost

his job after O'Keefe and Giles went public with secret footage that

ostensibly showed the two, posing as pimp and ho, asking for and

receiving advice from Vera on how to smuggle underage prostitutes into

the US.

A California Department of Justice investigation later determined the

video had been intentionally edited to be misleading and found that

Vera had called law enforcement after the meeting.

In a motion for judgment, Giles' attorneys argue:

<blockquote>"<a target="_blank" href="http://law.onecle.com/california/penal/632.html">Section 632</a> has limited scope: it unambiguously imposes liability only on persons who carry out the recording

of a confidential communication with the consent of all parties to the

communication, and precludes liability for persons who merely assist the

recording or participate in the communication. Here, the Complaint

itself makes clear that only O'Keefe, not Giles, actually carried out

the recording of the communication. Allegations that Giles was present

during, or agreed to, the recording are legally insufficient to bring

her within the scope 632." </blockquote>

So, even though Giles says, on her legal appeal website, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.defendhannah.com/">DefendHannah.com</a>, "In an undercover expose, Hannah Giles captured ACORN employees offering advice on prostitution and money-laundering,"

she's still innocent because she wasn't holding the camera. In other

words, she deserves the glory, but not the liability; that's all

O'Keefe. </div>

UPDATE 2/28/11: Our thanks to SD City Beat's Dave Maass for transparently correcting <a href="http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/blog-210-hannah-giles-throws-james-okeefe-under-the-bus.html">his report</a>

as to the inaccuracies we noted above, and for adding additional

information in his correction from the CA Attorney General's report on

the O'Keefe/Giles/Breitbart scam which, once again, confirmed what we

had reported for so many months prior about O'Keefe never having appeared as a pimp in the offices of ACORN. (See NYTimes? Was that really so hard?)

In return, we've corrected the spelling of Maass' name in the article

above where we had twice misspelled it originally. Despite our

inclination to stand by our original misspelling, given the outrageous

number of double-letters in Dave's last name, we've begrudgingly

corrected it anyway, and regret the error in the original

===
<figure class="article-image article-image--landscape"><figcaption class="caption mediabody"><div class="captiontitle">Hannah

Giles addressed the closing luncheon at the Heritage Foundation

Resource Bank, held in Colorado Springs April 26-27, 2012.</div><div class="caption__credit">Sunana Batra</div></figcaption>

<div class="view-all-slideshow"><div class="icon icon--before icon--camera"><a href="http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/hannah-giles-and-mark-stevens-of-msco-featured-speakers-at-heritage-foundation-s-resource-bank-colorado-springs-april-27-2012" class="view-all">View all 13 photos</a></div></div></figure>

    
          </font><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">I’m

guilty of being plagued with a wandering mind. I find most speakers

unsensational and my mind starts wondering about the people I am

dutifully supposed to listen to. I wonder what they had for breakfast,

what they wanted to be when they were a kid and what books sit on their

nightstand these days. When in college, oftentimes it was the

real-world adventurers, the story tellers, those that had the guts to

start businesses, invent stuff or start a crusade that succeeded in

briefly holding my interest. This phenomenon shined bright and shiny

last Thursday and Friday at the 35th Annual <a href="https://events.heritage.org/rb2012/" target="blank" rel="nofollow">Heritage Foundation Resource Bank</a>held at the stunning <a href="http://www.broadmoor.com/" target="blank" rel="nofollow">Broadmoor Resort</a>in beautiful Colorado Springs. The closing luncheon speakers echoed the conference’s theme, Strategies to lead, resoundingly and loudly. <section class="article-contentembedded"><figure class="article-image article-image--portrait"> <div class="media sticker-container">foto
</div><figcaption class="caption mediabody"><div class="caption__credit">Sunana Batra</div></figcaption>

</figure></section>

The first speaker, Hannah Giles, is the young woman who took down <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2010/feb/10/acorn-slated-get-nearly-4-billion-obamas-fiscal-20/" target="blank" rel="nofollow">ACORN</a>, who, according to the Washington Times, is the “<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/06/ag-acorn-embezzlement-totaled-m-m/" target="blank" rel="nofollow">embezzlement-prone</a>, voter-registration-<a href="http://www.rottenacorn.com/activityMap.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">fraud-plagued</a>community

organizing group.” Giles created a plan to expose the billion dollar

organization by employing some good old-fashioned hidden camera

journalism and exposed the fraud squad. The Los Angeles Times called her "a rock star of conservative activism."

Ms. Giles single-handedly brought down <a href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/acorn" class="inline_link omniture-click-processed">ACORN</a>

by exposing ACORN’s willingness to advise a prostitute and a pimp on

tax evasion and child sex trafficking. She is best known for her

portrayal as a prostitute in her series of hidden camera exposés and was

greeted with a very warm welcome.

Having only seen her work through the ACORN videos, I was pleasantly

surprised by what a thoughtful, well-spoken and sincere young woman

Giles is. She remarked on how before her adventures in investigative

journalism, she spent most days honing her surfing skills and training

in jujitsu. Giles clearly conveyed an astute point of how Obama spent

$700 million dollars winning the 2008 election, while McCain spent $300

million losing the 2008 election. She and her colleague spent a little

over $1500 bringing down the criminal organization known as ACORN, the

largest, most shifty, and insidious radical organization to ever exist

in America, which ultimately imploded under the pressure Giles shined on

their activities.

After getting married, Giles, launched the <a href="http://americanphoenixfoundation.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">American Phoenix Foundation</a>

a non-profit organization based in Austin Texas to “recruit and train

select young leaders to transcend the traditional media by becoming

independent truth-seeking journalists who relentlessly pursue truth with

courage and creativity” in an effort to “protect the American Republic

through ethical, innovative, and technologically driven journalism.”

It was refreshing to find this young woman drop seeds of wisdom and

inspiration for everyone in attendance. “We must be in the business of

changing hearts and minds." said Giles. “We need your help. Help my

generation enjoy the same liberty you all have enjoyed during your

lifetimes and use your time, talents and treasures to disrupt the

narratives that are ruining this country.”

The final speaker, clearly an effort by the <a href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/heritage-foundation" class="inline_link omniture-click-processed">Heritage Foundation</a> to save the best for last, was Mark Stevens, an entrepreneur, CEO of MSCO <a href="http://www.msco.com/" target="blank" rel="nofollow">marketing and business advisory firm</a>and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Marketing-Sucks-Mark-Stevens/dp/0609609831" target="blank" rel="nofollow">Your Marketing Sucks</a>.

Stevens was recently the target of harassment when the left waged a

jihad against anyone and everyone associated with radio talk-show host <a href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/rush-limbaugh" class="inline_link omniture-click-processed">Rush Limbaugh</a>.

His inspiring presentation reflected what he had learned after

thousands of domestic terrorists attacked him and his business, his

employees and clients. He emphasized that it’s about fighting fire with

fire by boycotting the boycotters....
==

tex mo
t age 19, Hannah Giles became a rock star of the conservative

movement after she and provocateur videographer and conservative

activist James O’Keefe posed as a prostitute and her pimp to run a 2009

hidden-camera sting on the Association of Community Organizations for

Reform Now, ACORN. Republicans often accused the left-leaning

organization of committing voter fraud, and the Giles/O’Keefe videos

seemed to show ACORN workers were encouraging them to set up a child

prostitution ring. Official investigations in three states found no

criminal wrongdoing by ACORN workers and reported that the videos were

heavily edited to put ACORN workers in the worst light. But the damage

was done, ACORN lost both its government and private funding and went

out of business. Giles’s husband later was arrested for attempting to

enter U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu’s office disguised as a telephone

repairman. <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/hannah-giles-no-nellie-bly" target="_blank">They have been conservative activists in the past.</a>

Giles and Basel afterward moved to Texas and set up the American

Phoenix Foundation to promote investigative journalism by young

conservative activists. Giles in speeches tells audiences that there is a

need to bypass the mainstream media with investigations that “disrupt

the narrative.” As part of that, they say they have hired 16 workers to

use hidden cameras to investigate Texas legislators, an investigation

that has angered both lawmakers and lobbyists.

</div>

</div>

Giles and her husband, Joseph Basel, sat down with me in the Texas

Monthly offices for an hour this week to discuss their project and

philosophy. My approach to the interview was to be a neutral solicitor

of information so the readers can decide for themselves the motives

behind Giles and Basel: Whether this is a pure investigation; is

intended to oust House Speaker Joe Straus’s conservative allies; is a

real scandal of lobbyists and legislators; or, whether the Texas

Capitol’s legislators, lobbyists and journalists have all just been

punked. We’ll know if the first video is released in June.

To make reading easier, I have broken the interview into topical

parts. I have tried to be as light-handed as possible in the editing for

brevity and to increase the clarity of my questions.

Continue reading this item for the first part: <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/disrupt-narrative" target="_blank">Disrupting the Narrative</a>. The other parts are:

<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/failings-flesh" target="_blank">The Failings Of The Flesh</a>

<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/hannah-giles-links-patrick-bettencourt" target="_blank">Hannah Giles Links to Dan Patrick, Bettencourt</a>

<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/apf-watchers" target="_blank">The American Phoenix Foundation Watchers</a>

<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/balance-power" target="_blank">The Balance of Power</a>

<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/disillusioned-conservatives" target="_blank">Disillusioned With Conservatives</a>

<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/faith-freedom" target="_blank">Faith And Freedom</a>

</div>

</div>

RGR: Why the name American Phoenix Foundation?

HG: We thought long and hard about our name … We

liked the concept of the Phoenix rising from the ashes, and that’s the

goal of the American Phoenix Foundation. We really wanted to reboot

honest muckraking journalism in the United States, hard core

investigative journalism that reveals hidden truths.”

RGR: What were the ashes the Phoenix had to rise from?

JB:  Media is hurting. It is struggling. When we

work with our national TV outlets, NBC, ABC, CNN, their investigative

budgets have all been gutted. The lawyers won’t even let them look into

anyone. So they end up being big fans with us, even if they sense an

ideological difference, because we’re allowed to do what journalists

used to be allowed to do: deep long dives and win awards for revealing

stubborn hidden truths.

RGR: You’ve talked about wanting to disrupt the

narrative. So what is the narrative of the Texas Legislature that you

want to disrupt?

HG: One of the biggest things I’ve personally seen

is little old ladies that organize and cheer-lead for certain

politicians and they think, “Oh they are the greatest and they’re going

to go to Texas and represent us.” And then being in Austin and having

people who’ve worked in the Capitol and keeping an ear to the ground, I

tell people, “No, that politician is just not a good person. They’re not

who you think they are.” That person is in Austin partying, and first

of all not a Christian like they think – which is fine; we don’t care –

but it is just the hypocrisy of representing themselves one way to their

constituents and then acting a totally different way, filing bills that

aren’t consistent with things they’ve said they’d do.”

JB: “The party realignment has been fascinating…I

grew up in Minnesota where JFK and FDR Democrats are still campaigning

on that, and the voters are still voting for the Democrats because FDR

saved the farm. It’s fascinating to look at Texas in that light. You

have a number of good JFK Democrats who would be aghast at what the

people they are voting for are doing up here, and you have a much larger

number of the modern Republican coalition that would be aghast to see

what their Republicans are doing once they get to office, policy wise

and otherwise.”

RGR: In a Fort Bend County speech to the Faith and

Freedom Coalition in 2012, Hannah Giles told the gathering to stop

supporting “progressive Republicans” and instead “use your time, your

talents and your treasurers to disrupt the narratives that are ruining

this country.” Who are the progressive Republicans?

HG: I don’t even know. Was that 2012 or 2010?

RGR: Is “progressive Republicans” just another way to say Republicans in Name Only, RINOs?

HG: What I was trying t explain or get people fired

up about is they are all, “Rah, rah, Republicans are doing what’s

right!” And I’m, No, not necessarily. I look at both parties as a

political class. I don’t see a lot of difference between Republicans and

Democrats now that I see what’s going on at the Capitol.”

RGR: One of the things the folks at the Capitol

worry about and one of the things that undermined the credibility of

your ACORN investigation was that it was selectively edited video with

things taken out of context, the timeline changed. Can you assure these

folks at the Texas Capitol that’s not going to happen here?

HG: That’s one of the reasons I don’t work with

James any more. James is a friend and I wish him well. That’s one thing

at Phoenix that we’ve tried to get away from. That’s why I haven’t been

in the news for a while. We’ve worked on serious investigations.

Sometimes the assumptions we’ve made or the hypothesis we’ve made about a

project don’t pan out. You don’t publish it. That’s what we’re excited

about with this project because we think we will get to go to all the

next levels. That’s why the story broke the way it did. We had basically

wrapped up our undercover section of the process and we were doing

follow ups.

(Photo: Joseph Basel, Hannah Giles and their baby, Hamish. Photo by R.G. Ratcliffe)

Tags:

<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/category/politics/" title="View all posts in Politics">Politics</a>, <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/tag/american-phoenix-foundation/" title="View all posts in American Phoenix Foundation">American Phoenix Foundation</a>, <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/tag/hannah-giles/" title="View all posts in Hannah Giles">Hannah Giles</a>, <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/tag/joseph-basel/" title="View all posts in Joseph Basel">Joseph Basel</a> ...
<h1 class="h1 entry-title">The APF Watchers</h1>

<a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/the-apf-watchers/" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date" datetime="2015-05-19T12:42:49+00:00">May 19, 2015</time></a>By <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/author/r-g-ratcliffe/" title="Posts by R.G. Ratcliffe" class="url fn" rel="author">R.G. Ratcliffe</a><a data-disqus-identifier="4308 http://www.texasmonthly.com/article/the-apf-watchers/" href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/the-apf-watchers/#disqus_thread">11 Comments</a>

<img alt="APF Watchers" class="media-image attrtypeoffoaf:Image imgfid34393 imgview_modedefault attrformatdefault attrfield_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]APF Watchers attrfield_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]APF" src="http://www.texasmonthly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2015/05/watchers.jpg" style="float: right;" title="APF Watchers" />As

the American Phoenix Foundation completed its hidden-camera

investigation of legislators, it dispatched four employees to ask

pointed questions of legislators. At times, the lawmakers claimed the

questioners were harassing them and frightening women legislators. They

also frustrated mainstream journalists by refusing to identify

themselves. Because of their demeanor, dress and close-cropped haircuts,

many in the lobby believed they were ex-military operatives. Foundation

managers Hannah Giles and Joseph Basel assured me that these men I call

The Watchers were not some sort of special forces team brought in to

intimidate lawmakers.

</div>

</div>

RGR: The people who are asking the questions,

they’ve all got similar haircuts. They all look like ex-military. Some

of them are intimidating, especially for the women members. On social

media, I’ve seen them referred to by lobbyists as stalkers, Brown shirts

and Hitler Youth. How do you find people to do that job? These are not

the kind of activist volunteers that I’m used to seeing, no matter what

group I’m paying attention to, left or right.

JB: First of all, you’re talking about two or three

out of our team of 16. So by definition, their sampling is off. Just

because those guys can’t afford a $10 haircut doesn’t mean it says

anything about their ideology. Their reasons and beliefs would be as

varied as anyone at the Capitol. They believe in sunlight, as Justice

Brandeis did.

Basel was referring to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

statement: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and

industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants;

electric light the most efficient policeman.” Basel said since every

approach to legislators was video recorded, they can prove no lawmaker

was harassed or stalked. He claims legislators are guilty of making a

“false police report.”

HG: The Texas Capitol isn’t used to journalists or

reporters going up to them and questioning them with tough questions. So

that’s throwing them off guard.

JB: They’re thinking back through the last six

months and realizing they wouldn’t appreciate all that being out there,

everything they’ve done.”

HG: There’s no stalking. Everything we’ve done has been in public places.

JB: Very purposefully within the confines of the law, and all of our team members are trained in that.

RGR: Are they trained to stand there passively while lobbyists get in their face?

JB: They’ve done pretty good at it. It wasn’t a specific part of our training.

</div>

</div>

HG: We weren’t expecting that actually.

JB: Their (lobbyists) reactions are indicative of

what they know that we have on footage. They realize their business, the

way they unduly influence elected leaders, whether it is for special

interest or themselves, that business model dies when we have full

accountability like this. They’re also worried about the things they’ve

said and done over the last six months.

RGR: A <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/what-legislators-look-hidden-cameras" target="_blank">Nashville television station</a>

used young women producers to get hidden cameras into after-hours

meetings with legislators and lobbyists. Did you use similar tactics?

JB: Little bit of everything. We approached this

using the scientific method. You propose a hypothesis and you design a

clean test. For the same reason that outfit in Nashville had results, we

had similar results.

HG: I’d like to say none of our girls have been

harassed. They’ve been harassed by members but they’re not caught up in

this right now.

JB: Our team is about half and half on this project.

These are students. This is six-month project during the school year so

a lot of them are not current college students. A lot of them are

recent grads that we’ve trained. We’ve trained just under 1,000 students

at over 70 colleges since Hannah started the project. So we have a nice

pool to pull from.

HG: I’ve realized that if I want to do good journalism, I can’t do it all by myself.

In a follow-up to our sit-down interview, I posed another question in an email and received a response from Basel.

RGR: You say the American Phoenix Foundation is

about investigative journalism, but most non-profit journalism

organizations – from ProPublica to the Texas Tribune – disclose their

donors. Why won’t you disclose your donors?

JB: Every organization has to weigh these issues.

The ones you named are publications, and aren’t doing the kind of work

we’re doing. It’s also just a stupid story: trying to divine motives

through projection with a name. If it’s Charles Koch, it’s to kill the

environment. If it’s George Soros, it’s to do left-wing whatever, if

it’s any other political funder boogeyman, it’s some other tired

narrative where we’re always killing the messenger and ignoring the

message....

On March 10, 2012, Hannah Giles was among the featured speakers at a rally of the <a href="http://faithandfreedomtexas.com" target="_blank">Faith & Freedom Coalition</a>

at the Sugar Creek Baptist Church in Sugar Land. It was described as a

kick-off event for the Texas primary “filled with great speakers and

loaded with fantastic information about getting our Conservative

Christian Candidates elected. Giles spoke to the rally about her

creation of the American Phoenix Foundation. Watch and listen above, or

read the transcript after the jump.

Speech by Hannah Giles:

We, as liberty’s advocates, we’re playing a game of chess. Our

problem is we are playing with half the pieces. We’re losing the

narrative war every day, and when we lose the narrative war, we’re

losing the culture war, we’re losing the political war, and this results

in unchecked corruption and rampant moral failure.

The media used to expose these things, but now the mainstream media

has become part of a corrupt power structure. Journalism schools are

hopeless, because in America they are trained to destroy the courage and

creativity of justice-seeking young people that come into their

programs. They replace that justice seeking behavior with a desire to

join the power structure rather than speaking truth to power.

I believe we must be in the business of changing hearts and minds.

This is very, very different than a 50-50 political battle. Luckily most

issues are not 50-50. Instead, the media creates this illusion, this

impression that there is a split right down the country and we have to

fight for that one percent to win elections. These efforts have never

ever moved the ball forward and it traps us in that 50-50 fight. We have

to go over the heads of the media. We have to jump over that imaginary

50-50 barrier in the political realm and show America the truth. We have

to disrupt false narratives.

Let’s look at my ACORN investigation as an example. Why did it work? …

We disrupted ACORN’s narrative. For too long, ACORN got away with the

story that they were helping low-income families. Never mind that

ACORN’s leaders were directly robbing those same people they pretended

to help; never mind that they had been investigated for years for fraud,

especially voter fraud.

But the moment my videos came out showing ACORN all too willing and

able to facilitate an under-age prostitution ring, the U.S. legislative

body acted immediately to defund the group, the United States Census cut

ties and ACORNS private personal investors backed out, distancing

themselves from the organization, causing them to go bankrupt.

</div>

</div>

Our videos posed a clear and undeniable evidence of 30 years of their

corrupt practices. And I’m going to ask you something: was my ACORN

investigation efficient?

Let me prove to you how much it was. Obama spent over $700 million

winning the 2008 election. McCain spent over $300 million losing the

2008 election. Between James and I, we spent less than $1,500 making our

ACORN videos. I think it is arguable that if we had done those videos

in the fall of 2008 rather than the fall of 2009, we would have an

entirely different president.

This is why I’m recruiting and training a farm team of investigative

journalists. That’s why I funded the American Phoenix Foundation, or

founded the American Phoenix Foundation. And our plan is over the next

50 years, young journalists such as myself will be breaking stories like

ACORN every week. I want you to imagine what kind of culture and what

kind of political climate that would create for us.

So is it too much to ask all of you to stop wasting your time and

money defending progressive Republicans. What I’m asking you to do is

use your time, your talents and your treasurers to disrupt the

narratives that are ruining this country. And I’m asking you to join me,

as I start my life’s work of narrative disruption, in the pursuit of

justice.endit
==

http://mediamatters.org/research/2009/09/21/father-of-filmmaker-behind-acorn-videos-has-bac/154827
sins of the fr remember:

The Washington Post recently

reported that according to Young America's Foundation director Ron

Robinson, Hannah Giles, who helped create the controversial ACORN

videos, "may have been inspired to some extent" by the work of her

father, Townhall.com columnist Doug Giles -- who has frequently uttered

extremist, radical, or ridiculous remarks while attacking the Obama

administration and progressives. Notably, Giles stated with regard to

health care reform that "thinking, unbeholden people aren't buying

Barack's crack," suggested President Obama is "treat[ing] us like Ike

Turner did Tina," and called Obama's outreach to Christians a "booty

call."

                  <h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><em>Wash. Post</em> reports on some of Giles' comments</font></h2>

Wash. Post: Giles reportedly "proclaimed that liberals 'spit on the Word of God.' " In a September 17 <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/16/AR2009091602341_pf.html" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/16/AR2009091602341_pf.html">article</a>, the Post

reported: "[Hannah] Giles is a journalism novice who has written two

columns for the conservative Web site Townhall.com. Her father, Doug

Giles, serves as minister of the ultra-conservative ClashChurch near

Miami, where he proclaimed that liberals 'spit on the Word of God,'

according to a report by the Miami New Times."

Wash. Post: Giles "complained of what he called the evils of the Obama administration and its alliance with ACORN." From a September 18 Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091704805_pf.html" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091704805_pf.html">article</a>:

<blockquote>[Hannah] Giles did not respond to phone calls and

requests through Townhall.com editor Jonathan Garthwaite for an

interview. Her father, Doug Giles of the radical Clash Church in Miami,

had complained of what he called the evils of the Obama administration

and its alliance with ACORN.

In an online opinion piece last month, titled "What Obama's Town Hall

Charade and Pam Anderson's Breasts Have in Common," Doug Giles

complained of Obama's "rent-a-mobs" at a health care town hall in New

Hampshire. He claimed Obama could "summon a cabal at the drop of a red

fez," including "ACORN lug nuts ready to register Mickey Mouse" to vote.

Ron Robinson, director of Young America's Foundation, where Hannah

Giles spent the summer learning about how to be a journalist from

conservative media experts, said Doug Giles has reason to be proud of

how he has raised his daughter.

"She deserves all the credit here," Robinson said. "Certainly, she

may have been inspired to some extent by her father, but this was her

doing."

</blockquote>

<h2>Giles' Townhall.com columns include controversial remarks about race, gender, and sexuality</h2>

Giles said Obama, other "TOP LEADERS on the Left" are peddling "crack," "Obama Oganja." In his September 5 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/09/05/hey_aholes%21_obama_wants_to_talk_to_your_kids?page=full" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/09/05/hey_aholes!_obama_wants_to_talk_to_your_kids?page=full">column</a>,

Giles declared: "Yep, America, you may now add that derogatory label

["Ahole"] to the litany of other slurs the TOP LEADERS on the Left

have been leveling at constituents who do not smoke their political

crack." In an August 8 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/08/my_fishy_letter_of_encouragement_for_the_town_hall_rebels?page=full&comments=true" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/08/my_fishy_letter_of_encouragement_for_the_town_hall_rebels?page=full&comments=true">column</a>,

Giles similarly wrote: "As you know by now, the Obamanoid's town hall

sale of Obamacare ain't going that well for Dems because thinking,

unbeholden people aren't buying Barack's crack." Additionally, in his

October 25, 2008, <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2008/10/25/pennsylvanian_voters_you_might_be_a_redneck_if?page=full&comments=true" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2008/10/25/pennsylvanian_voters_you_might_be_a_redneck_if?page=full&comments=true">column</a>,

Giles wrote that Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) "besmirched Pennsylvanian

voters this past week calling them 'racists' and 'rednecks' because

they're refusing to smoke the Obama Oganja."

Giles described Obama's outreach to Christians as a "booty call." Giles' August 22 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/22/obama_makes_a_political_booty_call_to_the_church?page=full&comments=true" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/22/obama_makes_a_political_booty_call_to_the_church?page=full&comments=true">column</a> was titled "Obama Makes a Political Booty Call to the Church." Giles explained:

<blockquote>Barack's call to believers this past week is the

political equivalent of the phenomenon randy kiddos in our culture refer

to as a "booty call."

For those not familiar with the term "booty call," it's the anxious,

last minute, late in the game, last ditch, frantic and insincere

BS-laden personal gratification phone call made by a manipulative,

narcissistic man to a gullible and needy girl who has been, heretofore,

summarily blown off by said guy for other girls.

Yep, in his pursuit of "better things," the dude, unsuccessful in his

new venture, will once again return to the girl he knows is easy and

still hopeful that the load of crap he's about to spew, in his desperate

call to gratify his lusts, will finally come true. Fueled on false hope

and therefore open to lies, the gullible girl easily caves to the

caller's wishes -- only to be left in the dust after the guy gets what

he wants, leaving the booty callee feeling very used and deceived. This

is exactly what Obama be doin'. True dat.

[...]

Church, understand this: What Obama did this past week in giving us a

buzz was a booty call. Nothing more and nothing less than a call for

relief from someone who is not getting what he wants to those he thinks

are stupid and thus easy.

</blockquote>

Giles referred to Gates as "Henry 'Yo Mama' Gates." Discussing Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates in his August 1 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/01/how_obama_and_henry%E2%80%9Cyo_mama%E2%80%9D_gates_can_woo_back_the%E2%80%9Cwhite_devils%E2%80%9D" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/01/how_obama_and_henry%E2%80%9Cyo_mama%E2%80%9D_gates_can_woo_back_the%E2%80%9Cwhite_devils%E2%80%9D">column</a>, Giles stated:

<blockquote>If Rodney King's dream of us "all just gettin' along" is

going to come to pass then Obama and Henry "Yo Mama" Gates, Jr. had

better dial down on the insults, faux remorse and racial rhetoric aimed

at us white devils.

Yep, the generational wounds of discrimination will not heal with

Obama calling one of our nation's best and brightest fair-skinned cops

"stupid."

FYI to BHO: That kind of talk, thoughtlessly slurring one of our

finer whiteys' intelligence, will leave a negative mark on our Caucasian

consciousness. You can say we can't jump, or we can't dance, but you

cannot call one of our tribe stupid when, in reality, the guy was just

doing his job in an excellent manner while apprehending one of your

belligerent, bigoted buddies.

</blockquote>

Giles suggests Obama "treat[ing] us like Ike Turner did Tina." Addressing Obama, Giles asserted in his September 5 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/09/05/hey_aholes%21_obama_wants_to_talk_to_your_kids?page=full" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/09/05/hey_aholes!_obama_wants_to_talk_to_your_kids?page=full">column</a>:

"You can't treat us like Ike Turner did Tina and expect us to sing,

make you some curly fries, get all giddy about voting for you, or take a

shining to you addressing our kids in their classrooms."

Giles says White House calling Glenn Beck to complain "sounds, pretty gay to me. No offense to gay people, of course." From Giles' August 29 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/29/glenn_beck_has_brass_gonads?page=full&comments=true" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/29/glenn_beck_has_brass_gonads?page=full&comments=true">column</a>:

<blockquote>Glenn said this past week that Barack's minions were

actually calling his show while he was on air because he was being a

meany. When I heard this I was sitting there eating pretzels and

drinking a martini thinking: Are you kidding me? Is Perez Hilton running

the White House? The White House is actually calling Beck during his

program in an attempt to get him to cease and desist his digs? Wow ...

sounds, pretty gay to me. No offense to gay people, of course.

</blockquote>

Giles called Americans United for Separation of Church and State's <a href="http://www.au.org/about/inside-au/barry-lynn.html" title="http://www.au.org/about/inside-au/barry-lynn.html">Barry Lynn</a> a "little Nancy Boy" and "gutless girlfriend." Discussing Obama's outreach to Christians in his August 22 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/22/obama_makes_a_political_booty_call_to_the_church?page=full&comments=true" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/22/obama_makes_a_political_booty_call_to_the_church?page=full&comments=true">column</a>, Giles stated:

<blockquote>Are these Christians the very ones whom the darling

liberal organization, the ACLU, regularly threatens to sue when they

pray over a meal at school or say something remotely conservative from

the pulpit, or on TV, or on the radio? Shouldn't Barry Lynn be on TV

right now moaning and groaning about the separation of church and state?

Where are you Barry, you little Nancy boy? C'mon Lynn, condemn the

president, you gutless girlfriend. Sorry, I got in the flesh there. Let

me resume my query.

</blockquote>

Giles: "I don't mind fake when it comes to breasts," but I hate Obama's "artificially stacked" town hall. Giles' August 16 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/16/what_obama%E2%80%99s_town_hall_charade_and_pam_anderson%E2%80%99s_breasts_have_in_common?page=full" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/16/what_obama%E2%80%99s_town_hall_charade_and_pam_anderson%E2%80%99s_breasts_have_in_common?page=full">column</a> was about "What Obama's Town Hall Charade and Pam Anderson's Breasts Have in Common." Giles concluded:

<blockquote>The only problem with the Portsmouth town hall is that it

was more artificially stacked with Obama lap dogs than Pam Anderson's

ta-tas are with boat caulk. Of course the meeting was upbeat and

thumping ... it was contrived. A Cyclops could see that. Look, as a

knuckle-dragging heterosexual who lives in a God-blessed testosterone

fog, I don't mind fake when it comes to breasts. But when it comes to

being conned by a Boob and his stacked crowd, well ... I gotta admit ...

that makes me want to spit.

</blockquote>

Giles complained about "pursed-lip chick" in Obama health care video. In his August 8 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/08/my_fishy_letter_of_encouragement_for_the_town_hall_rebels?page=full&comments=true" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/08/my_fishy_letter_of_encouragement_for_the_town_hall_rebels?page=full&comments=true">column</a>,

Giles stated: "[T]he White House, in the spirit of tolerance, hope and

change officially dispatched some pursed-lip chick to video warn the

serfs of Obamaland that if we disagree with His Highness' health scare

bill in a 'fishy' email or casual conversation then the White House

wants to know about it -- and we could very well be deep weeds."

Giles called Van Jones a "Muslim terrorist sympathizer" and Pelosi "bat crap crazy." In Giles' September 5 Townhall <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/09/05/hey_aholes%21_obama_wants_to_talk_to_your_kids" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/09/05/hey_aholes!_obama_wants_to_talk_to_your_kids">column</a>, "Hey Aholes! Obama Wants to Talk to Your Kids":

<blockquote>First off, I'm not calling you, my patriotic readers,

aholios; that dishonor goes to Van Jones, Obama's self-avowed communist

Green Czar, Barack's sweetheart, 9/11 Truther, and Muslim terrorist

sympathizer.

[...]

If you [Obama] want us to buy your socialistic propaganda, you must

reel in the commie czars, the unhinged liberal congressmen and women,

and the bat crap crazy madam Speaker's insulting invectives aimed at the

actual people you are trying to hoodwink into okaying your

America-unraveling desires.

</blockquote>

Giles: Either Pelosi is lying about CIA, "or one of the side

effects of a high dollar Botox habit includes severe short-term memory

loss." As a May 18 Salon.com article <a href="http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/05/18/pelosi_traister/" title="http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/05/18/pelosi_traister/">noted</a>, Giles declared in his May 17 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/05/17/what_oj_simpson_and_george_costanza_could_teach_nancy_pelosi?page=full&comments=true" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/05/17/what_oj_simpson_and_george_costanza_could_teach_nancy_pelosi?page=full&comments=true">column</a>:

"Either Nancy Pelosi is lying her backside off regarding her knowledge

of the CIA's irrigation for information techniques, or one of the side

effects of a high dollar Botox habit includes severe short-term memory

loss."

Giles: Obama is the"Socialist-in-Chief." In his August 8 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/08/my_fishy_letter_of_encouragement_for_the_town_hall_rebels?page=full&comments=true" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/08/my_fishy_letter_of_encouragement_for_the_town_hall_rebels?page=full&comments=true">column</a>,

Giles said of Obama, "Yep, ever since the Socialist-in-Chief floated

his government-bloating, freedom-strangulating 1,100 page unread health

care stool I have been smacking it like Rosie would a piñata full of

Twinkies."

Giles: Obama supports "granny-slaying." In his August 16 <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/16/what_obama%E2%80%99s_town_hall_charade_and_pam_anderson%E2%80%99s_breasts_have_in_common?page=full" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/08/16/what_obama%E2%80%99s_town_hall_charade_and_pam_anderson%E2%80%99s_breasts_have_in_common?page=full">column</a>

on Obama's Portsmouth town hall, Giles declared: "Now, thanks to

Obama's Rent-a-Mob, thoughtless people watching this past week's Clown

Hall were left thinking after Tuesday's tête-à-tête that everyone is

cool with his granny-slaying, obfuscated to the hundredth power, 1,100

page bill."

Giles suggests "there's nothing about San Francisco that a rise in the ocean level could not cure." In his October 25, 2008, <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2008/10/25/pennsylvanian_voters_you_might_be_a_redneck_if?page=full&comments=true" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2008/10/25/pennsylvanian_voters_you_might_be_a_redneck_if?page=full&comments=true">column</a>,

Giles stated: "Look, if not buying Barack's gobbledygook makes one a

redneck then all I have to say is ... Yee-frickin'-haw!" He then

provided a guide to figuring out whether you're a "redneck," which

included the following: "If you think there's nothing about San

Francisco that a rise in the ocean level could not cure, then you might

be a redneck."

<h2>Miami Herald, Miami New Times, and News Hounds also compiled some of Giles' remarks</h2>

Miami Herald: Giles' columns "tear into liberals, feminists, [and] President Barack Obama." In a September 17 <a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/state/epaper/2009/09/17/0917gilesprofile.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=0" title="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/state/epaper/2009/09/17/0917gilesprofile.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=0">article</a>, the Miami Herald reported that Giles, a minister, is "hardly a conventional preacher":

<blockquote>Pictured in hip sunglasses and a GQ haircut, he hosts <a href="http://clashchurch.com/" title="http://clashchurch.com/">ClashChurch.com</a>,

where he sneers at insufficiently masculine Christian "wussies," and

exhorts the faithful to dress well and "put on a little cologne."

Decrying gays and pornography, the Texas Tech graduate once told a

Christian publication that "the church has to get up off its wrinkly

glutes and preach the truth about God's Word. If we don't, it'll only be

another 10 years before America is Amsterdam."

[...]

Giles writes for the conservative website Townhall.com. His columns

tear into liberals, feminists, President Barack Obama, in broadsides

like "Hey Aholes, Obama Wants to Talk to Your Kids."

</blockquote>

Miami New Times: Doug Giles "Is a Bit of an Anti-Obama Nut." In a September 18 <a href="http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2009/09/acorn_smasher_hannah_giles_dad.php" title="http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2009/09/acorn_smasher_hannah_giles_dad.php">blog post</a>, the Miami New Times' Kyle Munzenrieder wrote:

[T]he rumpus has introduced us to [Hannah] Giles's father, Doug

Giles. He's the senior pastor of Clash Church in Aventura, which "is

working at the heart of Miami." From an initial glance of his website,

you might get the idea that the church is one of those hip, young, cool

churches that strives to be inclusive and leaves politics off the

pulpit.

Well, a trip to its online store would prove you wrong. There you can buy Doug Giles-penned books such as, Raising Boys Feminists Will Hate

(summary: If metrosexual pop culture, feminized public schools, and the

effeminate branches of evanjellycalism lay their sissy hands on him,

you can kiss his masculinity goodbye -- because they will morph him into

a dandy) or A Time to Clash, a culture warmongering tome that

promises Doug's take on everything from "radical homosexuals" and

"stupid sluts" to "sexless wives" and "Rosie O'Donnell."

Then you might want to check out his TownHall.com column. In "WWJT:

Who Would Jesus Torture?" he comes out full force for waterboarding:

"Jesus and the balance of Scripture seem to be okay with dunking Achmed

if said butt munch has the 411 regarding the 10/20 of the next mass

slaughter of innocent Americans."

In "America's Not a Christian Nation -- and I'm a Fat Black Lesbian

Who Hates Hunting," Giles tries to prove that, contrary to Obama,

America is indeed a Christian nation by quoting Presidents John Adams

and John Q. Adams. Hate to break it to him, but Adams and son were

Unitarians who rejected the divinity of Christ, and certainly the kind

of religious dogma Giles espouses. Theirs was the "sissy" type of

Christianity he dogs in many of his other columns.

</blockquote>

News Hounds: "Giles is a manly man who ... is fighting that evil gay agenda." In a September 14 <a href="http://www.newshounds.us/2009/09/14/hannah_giles_whos_her_daddy.php" title="http://www.newshounds.us/2009/09/14/hannah_giles_whos_her_daddy.php">post</a>, News Hounds documented several of Giles' more <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/01/25/obama%E2%80%99s_evangelicals_the_liberals%E2%80%99_new_useful_idiots" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/01/25/obama%E2%80%99s_evangelicals_the_liberals%E2%80%99_new_useful_idiots">controversial</a> <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2005/04/16/metrosexual_or_medieval" title="http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2005/04/16/metrosexual_or_medieval">statements</a>:

<blockquote>Giles is a man's man who fights the manly fight against

teh [sic] gay -- a fight which includes Obama's "gay agenda." In a Town

Hall article in which he castigates evangelicals who voted for Obama and

demonstrated that he knows at least one word in a foreign language he

said this: "In less than a week after Obama's swearing in, our nuevo

POTUS unfurled his radically liberal abortion and family plans together

with his juicy pro-homosexual agenda." (Juicy?? Hmmm...) His next

sentence was quite amusing seeing how his chaste daughter is playing a

prostitute: "Good job, all evangelicals who voted for Obama, as these

aforementioned ditties -- from a biblical perspective -- are about as

sanctified as the Antichrist French kissing a crack whore in Bret

Michaels' hot tub." (WTF?? And ditties???)

[...]

Giles is a manly man who, as noted above, is fighting that evil gay

agenda. He touts the fact that one of his favorite "whipping posts" is

the "metrosexual male." (Hmm, whipping post, hmmm).

</blockquote>

        </div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /><em>he Washington Post</em> recently