The circus of hate and lies otherwise known as BigGovernment.com, Glenn Beck, right-wing nuts Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe and just about every conservative blog and pundit are guilty of libeling and slandering ACORN based on videos edited to leave out important facts,
What the Transcripts Show About the Doctored ACORN Video TapesSorry about the formatting the text was copied directly from the pdf report available at the link above.
The following is an analysis of the heavily edited videotapes and partial transcripts posted on
biggovernment.com by O’Keefe and Giles based in their undercover visits to ACORN and ACORN Housing
offices. Below the analysis, an Appendix provides key excerpts from the posted transcripts.
1. Transcripts reveal that O’Keefe and Giles said they needed ACORN’s help to protect Giles from a
violent pimp—but they carefully edited this out of their videos1. O’Keefe and Giles used clever editing and
voiceovers to hide a key fact that the transcripts show to be true in each case: In each office, the duo claimed
that 20-year old Hannah was being threatened by a violent abusive pimp. They pleaded for ACORN to help
protect the prostitute (and in some cases underage girls as well) from the pimp by helping her get a place to live.
O’Keefe and Giles edited this out of the video given the news media and the public, but neglected to remove it
from the transcripts.
Remember, for example, the tape of the NY ACORN worker advising the prostitute to hide money in a tin can,
presumably to evade taxes? The transcript shows it was so the pimp “can’t get it from you if he wants to come
and rip up the place.” And the prostitute told the loan counselor that her pimp had “ all these 13, 14,15 year old
girls from El Salvador and that’s what—I need to protect them like I know what its like and I have to protect
them and like give them somewhere to live.” 2
2. While their press releases claim they were posing as a “prostitute and a pimp,” the transcripts show
that O’Keefe consistently introduced himself as Giles’ boyfriend trying to protect her.3 While we have seen
videos of O’Keefe’s ridiculous “pimp” get-up, with Chinchilla cape, hat, and walking cane, these are all outdoor
visuals. In the actual videos in the offices, every view of O’Keefe shows him dressed in normal casual business
attire.
3. In each of the cases, the ACORN staff advised the prostitute to pay taxes, not to evade them. They
correctly advised, as any tax lawyer or properly trained tax preparer would have, that the IRS requires taxes to
be paid even on income from illegal activities, but does not require disclosure of the illegal activity itself. 4 For
over half a century, this is the way the courts and the IRS have reconciled the right not to incriminate oneself
with the obligation to pay tax on illegal activities. Indeed, among the IRS codes from which filers must select,
there is none for prostitution, and the closest codes are for entertainment or personal services.
4. The San Diego office reported the duo to the police. In the San Diego office, where O’Keefe/Giles raised
the topic of smuggling underage prostitutes across the border, the ACORN worker called the police,5as did
Acorn workers in Philadelphia
5. The San Bernardino video was a scam on the duo. In the San Bernardino office, the ACORN worker,
finding their stories ridiculous, met them with her own outrageous tales. The ACORN worker spins tales of a
sordid past, including murdering her husband. While Giles and O’Keefe had the tapes for a month before
releasing them, they never conducted any kind of check of the claims. Within 24 hours of the videos’ release,
the police had confirmed that no such murder had taken place, and that the worker’s two ex-husbands were
alive and well. San Bernardino resident Jim Miller, who lives near ACORN's office and is also featured in the
video giving business advice, said he thought the "whole thing was a preposterous production.
