forget the details, i'm going to turn the moon a blood red and sure enough, the moon turned to blood red and then he brought it back. there was more the inspiration but he may have been inspired by the clips even though he didn't see it. >> thank you. i will stick around to sign books. happy to talk one-on-one. i appreciate you coming. [applause] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

[inaudible] >> james, how did you get started? >> i got started it records university and college. i surrounded by political correctness some people trying to chat shut others down. it outraged me. it is very upsetting and it angered me that there is a lack of freedom of expression on the college campus. this is ten years ago. things have gotten worse and so the anger of injustice. and that's what coming started. >> was there specific incidents that sparked this? >> and rockers they had this

truck sets old sandwiches. they had senseless names on them, one was called the fat pitch. they put duct tape over the name censoring the names of the sandwiches. there is an outcry so in response to that we try to ban lucky charms, the breakfast cereal on the ground that it's racist against irish people. it was just a joke, satire. but the university officials took it seriously. then we secretly recorded the encounter and i went viral on campus. >> in 2010 you were in new orleans. and that so you open your book? >> guest: yes. will there's not a lot of information about that. i was arrested, i showed my real drivers license and i entered the federal building. i wasn't pretending to be something i wasn't. i showed my drivers license but i was arrested by the authority

they were going to let me go. when they found out that i was james o'keefe who did the story about acorn, involving the prostitutes these authorities conjured up a crime against me. i was just entering false pretenses it would've been one conversation but they conjured up a felony that i tamped with the phone system. the majority of the book talks about the abuse of power in the government. they all eventually resigned. they were leaking things, they were blogging anonymously about me. it's an abuse of power. in many ways i'm grateful it happened because of tommy, it's like getting a shot which prevents of further illness. by going through that experience atomic to be careful and the only thing that my adversaries have against me is that i pled

guilty to a misdemeanor been inside a federal building. it's a long story and hard to explain a few words. was abuse of power by the federal government in louisiana. >> why that? >> so much of what we do is circumventing the mainstream media. and getting the news out. and in front of people. it is very hard to break through to the mainstream media these days. we just did a big story on cnn with hidden cameras. cnn didn't mention a word about it. the notion of getting on the front page of the new york times and getting anderson cooper to talk about your getting the number one video on youtube or the number one trending thing on twitter. these are breaking through. there's a chapter were talk about a congressman talking about voting multiple times. the story is crescendo and on twitter. talked about on facebook. people are tweeting about. it only at that point the powers

to be at the new york times that we need to talk about this. says we need for the mainstream media to talk about something they don't was to talk about that's what we call a breakthrough. >> mr. o'keefe, to consider your politics to be conservative? and where did you grow up? >> guest: no. i don't. one of the things that motivates me is injustice. so this is all about exposing injustice and being a counterbalance. i've always been and i believe the people on my team have been motivated by severe injustice in our society and the lack of investigative journalism. this right-wing abuse of power and fraud and corruption and some of that spending money, you can call me names if you want that that doesn't matter what you call us. the characterization, and ended window, make criminal, convict, but doesn't really matter the

words that are used to describe us. chicago sun-times in the 1970s one pulitzer prizes for going with a hidden camera in a voting booth and exposing the switch people do voter fraud. and we resigned to the fact that were gonna win a war. were just resurrecting journalism that was some 40 or 50 years ago, the differences the technology, the means of distribution allows us to get the message to millions of people. i went say that i'm right one, were trying not to come over trying to revolutionize information. i cannot change the nature of reality. i cannot alter what i'm filming. i deal with explores in the world as it is. >> host: you have been accused of selective editing. >> yes. and if you look at the specific criticism nothing is

significant. katie couric edited her documentation. the washington post just retracted a headline about me. these are all -- there's nothing else for them to say. in every case, i have gotten print and hundreds of corrections about me. of never in my career made a mistake that rises to the level they've made mistakes. by the way, mainstream media uses anonymous sources. i don't have a problem using anonymous sources they can only use anonymous sources to make your point. you have to use them sparingly and be credible. i use the example of paul at the washington post who literally had to retract his headline about me three weeks ago. his headline was, james o'keefe selectively edited this out. in fact it did not edited out. that john was producer from atlanta. he retracted that.

why is everyone saying that? he did retracted. so, if you look closely at the facts, i've never actually specifically given any specific edits. they're just using that term is a characterization against me. this is how they work. that's one of the things i'm fighting. >> you mentioned saul lewinsky, were his tactics, do they work? >> they were enormously effective. i just moderated a panel between dave lewinsky who is the son of saul linsky. he appealed to people self-interest. he was antagonistic. he did not appeal to people sense of virtue. the christian ethic. he appealed to self-interest. how are we going to get power to these people? in many of the things he wrote

about taking power away from the house and given up to the have-nots. >> i view our mission it's very similar, and so far as the mainstream media does not give you information. george stephanopoulos says voter fraud does not exist. it's not even possible to commit voter fraud. our mission is to say, it is possible and it is true. in many ways i have to mobilize power to get the information out. so i think he was appealing to an antagonistic what's in your self-interest pitting groups against one another, you could say that's left or right, i don't think it's left or right or dogmatic. i think it's just except in the world as it is in the way that human beings operate. in fact recruited people in the churches and organize in the churches. i think saul linsky was a major contributing reason why these

churches are democratic voting blocs because it's my read on the situation. i think he was effective but not dogmatic. >> host: is there any concern about filming people when they are not aware of it? is there an unfairness there? >> i don't believe so. i believe it's necessary. i think the information is of extreme public interest. because our last big story, which i think was earthshaking. we cut cnn's supervisor saying that the ceo of cnn one have to drop the investigative and only focus on russia. you know when people are courted in elevators, probably not. but in some cases it's of extreme public interest to show

this. i will know going to someone's private bedroom. we did do a story work i was in a hotel room. he was supposed to be at taxpayer conference. i tried to avoid the personal sexual nature people's lives. more talk about matters of extreme public interests, the hidden camera is -- days when pulitzer prizes in chicago for doing things, they rented a bar in chicago for year called the mirage. they put hidden cameras for one year at this bar in 1975 or 76 and they recorded all these conversations. and they wrote about them. they got bribes and kickbacks. i think it's a powerful tool and it's great responsibility. we have to use it sparingly. but if you want talk about despite the fact deception. looks no further than these anonymous sources. we don't even know what they're saying to the new york times. we can't read their intuition. we don't know, we have to trust

the reliability of institution and that has become corrupted in my opinion. >> how many projects do you have? >> guest: i can't say that. >> host: more than one? >> yes. our main target is the media. whenever i've made a promise i've always deliver. i told the inaugural ball in january that i was going to expose the mainstream media and we did. there's can be more cases coming. i think they're going to be significant in the media is not doing its duty. they need to come to terms with what they have told us undercover. it's about money and profits. it's laziness, it's greed. selective courage. these are the type of things will be exposing and it will be significant. >> who do you write about who is nadia who you're right about? >> guest: this is an individual

who is working in some type of political operation to sabotage me in a personal way. i'm a marked man. people have tried to set me up, target me. the differences, nadia, there's a whole chapter about her she tried to create this false accusation in court and create evidence. the judge third up. it was bogus. this is why people don't do it i do. because you falsely accuse. the difference is that we filmed the world as it is. yes, we use hidden cameras and we pose as something were not but we don't manufacture. we don't create false evidence. i wish that nadia's film happen that night because it would show that nothing happened. but that's not how these people work. they're very -- and andrew breitbart, my mentor told me that they have an interest in

not humanizing thing they do want to have this conversation because to do so would be to d human eyes. which show that i care about justice. they don't to do that they would make me seem like a criminal and evil person. these are some of the battles i've learned in my life being arrested. i've been targeted. death threats. it's a deterrent to other people. and when i go to conferences and speak to people to try to give them hope and say listen, a string together and let's look at bringing more journalists on board, they can't shut me down. they won't shut us down in that message. >> host: how is it funded? >> guest: we are nonprofit. half of our donations, more than half the donations come from five, ten, hundred dollar donations. we crowd source. nobody has control of me.

we just pursue stories with public interest. many of our stories link to the right. i challenge that you skinny thinkers why their stories lean so heavily to the left. they call us conservative activists. what you call -- unlike her, don't take a political position. if you look closely at don't say anything overtly political. so that's our funded and what we stand for. >> one would think, given what you do with the death threats, et cetera they might be parano paranoid. >> guest: certainly i used to be really glib about it. i did not get into this worrying about safety. anytime you do this work safety is your number one concern than you need a different occupation. we taken certain precautions and

i can't get into what they are. but they are significant serious. there are some people out there who want to shut me down and shut us down. they don't like what we are exposing. it's that simple. i take it very seriously. i can't tell you what were doing the percussion. >> host: you have another book coming out. >> guest: yes, can't get into the details but it will be the end of this year and there's some extraordinary information about things we have coming out next probably after labor day is the next big bombshell on the mainstream media. we have the tapes already. were getting more tapes and the thing about this next is the series is called american progress. it talks about all the networks that we have embargoed the material on the stories. they spike