26: James O’Keefe - What is (and isn't) Journalism in the 21st century

The Portal

Kast Media

Science, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 7.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2020

⏱️ 150 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

James O'Keefe is a dangerous man. He records people without their knowledge and publishes the results using the full power of our technological toolkit. He is well versed in the details of the law as to what can and cannot be legally recorded and/or published without the consent or even awareness of his targets. He is willing to risk prison to capture his stories and he has developed a policy of not settling out of court, even when it would be financially advantageous to do so. Clearly, he is willing to risk ruin and hatred for what he is doing, and is therefore not a man to be lightly trifled with.

In this episode, Eric sits down with James to try to understand the mutant future of journalism as it reckons with the power of new technology, while continuing to move away from traditional newspapers and reporting. Eric tries to discover what is truly motivating O'keefe and why he would want to come on a show that has been so openly critical of his organization.

James has many who see him as a crusading hero. He has also been accused of unethical deception, trespassing, entrapment, selective editing, and an entire litany of ethics complaints from traditional media. Oddly, however, more standard reporters working for traditional news desks openly discuss among themselves the professional need to deceive their targets in order to get the truth, or at least the story. Such strategies include using disingenuous flattery, pretending to be the source's friend, threats, the lure of fame, and a host of other edgy techniques to get people to say things that the reporter knows will likely be personally disastrous for the person being quoted.

This raises the question of just what it is that makes James O'Keefe different from a more mainstream reporter. Is it his method, more than his chosen targets? Is it that he really doctors his footage or instead that he has revived older journalistic techniques to hunt new journalists? This interview may not answer all of these questions, but we hope it may prove to be a conversation unlike any you have previously heard on this topic.

Our Sponsors:

Skillshare: Skillshare.com/portal

Blinkist: Blinkist.com/portal

Pitney Bowes: PB.com/Portal

Vincero: VinceroWatches.com - use code PORTAL

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, this is Eric, and I wanted to alert you to a small experiment I think we're going
0:09.4	to be running in the portal.
0:11.1	For a while now we've realized that many episodes have needs at the beginning of the show.
0:16.0	In the first place there's a need for some housekeeping, and in the second there's
0:19.0	often a need to give some context and a short introduction to the episode so that our listeners
0:23.1	can better understand why we're running it.
0:26.0	Well what we thought about is that maybe we should stop doing that haphazardly.
0:30.4	If instead we just decided that there would be two segments, one dedicated to housekeeping,
0:35.3	sometimes light, sometimes more extensive, and in the second we had a segment that actually
0:39.7	gives the context and an introduction to the guest or whatever the point of a monologue
0:44.1	might be.
0:45.6	I don't guarantee that it's going to work and we reserve the right to go back, but we
0:48.9	are trying to listen to you and trying to figure out what is doable.
0:52.6	The second item of business surrounds the set of rather exotic circumstances under
0:56.1	which this week's podcast is being released.
0:58.9	As of this recording I am now self-isolating at home, under essentially locked down like
1:02.8	measures, as a quarantine mentality sweeps across our planet.
1:06.7	One way of viewing this is to see it as a giant overreaction.
1:10.0	Now I don't hold this view and I don't wish to promote it, but the idea is that we have
1:13.7	learned to live with influenza, and this virus is similar in some ways to the familiar
1:17.6	flu.
1:18.6	I'm not sure you've heard this from others, I don't want to go into it and develop the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kast Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kast Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.