WEBCommentary Contributor

Author: Michael J. Gaynor
Date:  September 19, 2009

Topic category:  Government/Politics

Let's Have The Facts of the O'Keefe/Giles Visits to ACORN Offices


A liar should be exposed as a liar and an exposer should provide a complete report.

ACORN exposers James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles have released video of their visits to five ACORN offices, three on the East Coast (Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and New York) and two on the West Coast (San Bernardino and San Diego).

Were those the only such visits?

If not, how many were there and where and when were they?

Out of how many ACORN offices were ACORN exposers James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles thrown?

Hundreds?

Dozens?

A few?

Two?

One?

None?

Jim Holt, reporting on a seemingly absurd charge by Marc Lamont Hill, in "Far Left Mouthpiece Marc Lamont Hill Smears O’Keefe and Giles on O’Reilly… Big Government Responds":

"Far Left mouthpiece Marc Lamont Hill told Bill O’Reilly that Big Government investigative reporters James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles went to 'hundreds of ACORN offices' before they were able to catch 'low level' ACORN workers for their damning reports on the scandal-plagued organization. When asked how he knew this Hill told O’Reilly that, 'They admitted it.'

"This is not true.

"James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles did not go to 'hundreds of ACORN offices' to acquire material for this project. They went to the four offices that were shown in the series of videos. Also, at no time did O’Keefe, Giles or any representative of Big Government give such a statement to the press or to anyone.

"The accusations by Marc Lamont Hill are completely false."

Bertha Lewis, ACORN Chief Organizer, on CNN: "...as the CEO I took swift and immediate action, terminated those employees, because regardless as to what we know or… edited, doctored tapes and where you don’t see everything where finally people were thrown out in dozens of our offices, it is inexcusable, and indefensible, to sort of, have such poor judgment. That’s not our professional standards. That’s why those folks were terminated because all of my other employees, of course they did the right thing. They saw this ridiculous couple, who by the way were very aggressive and refused to leave some of our offices, but our other employees did the right thing. And so I wanted to make sure that people understood this is not who we are, we will not tolerate even two minutes of that kind of conversation, our standards are much higher, and in fact, these folks got thrown out of a lot of offices. So, this handful of employees, it’s unfortunate, but you know what, you can’t work for me if you don’t have common sense.”

If O'Keefe and Giles were thrown out of any ACORN offices, Ms. Lewis should provide specifics: location of office, date and time, police involvement or not.

If O'Keefe and Giles were not thrown out of any ACORN offices, they should provide the specifics of their ACORN office visits, including the location of each ACORN office they visited and the date they visited.

A liar should be exposed as a liar and an exposer should provide a complete report.

Michael J. Gaynor


Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.


Copyright © 2009 by Michael J. Gaynor
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