James O'Keefe's Deceptively Edited ACORN Videos Trigger Destruction of Voter Registration Organization

Conservative activist James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles released heavily edited hidden camera videos purporting to show ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) employees advising them on tax evasion, human smuggling, and child prostitution. O’Keefe selectively edited and manipulated the recordings, distorting the chronology of events and framing them with footage of himself in a ‘pimp’ outfit that he never actually wore when visiting ACORN offices—he dressed in conservative street clothes. Despite the deceptive editing, Congress immediately voted to freeze all federal funding to ACORN, and the Census Bureau and IRS terminated their contracts. Subsequent investigations by the California Attorney General, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, and Congressional Research Service all cleared ACORN of wrongdoing, finding no violations of federal regulations, no instances of voter fraud by people registered by ACORN, and that ACORN had managed federal funds appropriately. One California law enforcement source stated, ‘They edited the tape to meet their agenda.’ Nevertheless, ACORN announced in March 2010 it would dissolve due to loss of government and private funding. O’Keefe later paid $100,000 to settle a lawsuit from a fired ACORN worker and issued an apology. The destruction of ACORN eliminated one of the nation’s most effective voter registration organizations serving low-income and minority communities, removing hundreds of thousands of potential voters from the democratic process while establishing deceptively edited video as a powerful political weapon.