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ACORN Sting Duo Says Nobody Put Them Up to It
Call themselves 'concerned citizens'
By Kevin Spak
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Posted Sep 18, 09 8:05 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles say there's no conservative conspiracy behind their decision to dress up as a pimp and prostitute and walk into ACORN offices with a hidden camera. They’re just a pair of concerned citizens, who’ve managed to wound the mighty activist group on a budget of just $1,300, they tell the Washington Post. But they do have major conservative connections. Giles’ father runs the Clash Church in Miami, and the pair were advised by columnist Andrew Breitbart.
O’Keefe says he brought Breitbart in after filming the DC and Baltimore stings. “When I saw these videos, I couldn’t help thinking, this is the Abu Ghraib of the Great Society,” says Breitbart, who advised releasing the videos slowly, a strategy that’s worked well. ACORN has launched an internal investigation, though supporters note that some of the video’s claims are inaccurate, and that the stunt didn’t work everywhere; the Philadelphia office threw O’Keefe and Giles out.