In a league of their own

But while some conservatives think O’Keefe and Giles were doing journalists’ jobs, “most news organizations consider such tactics unethical.”

Call the secret ACORN videotapes by Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe what you like, said Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post. Just don’t call it journalism.

(Entire column here.)

I’ll leave the debating up to the “real” journalists as to whether Giles and O’Keefe are “real” journalists: those guys who sat on their hands and did nothing while everyday a new video was released; those guys who tried to turn a blind eye to the ingenious work of 2 kids who blew the top off of arguably the most corrupt organization in the country. Now those “real” journalists are suffering bruised egos and bloodied reputations. If the public didn’t respect them before, their opinions of reporters now are in the dumper.

It’s ludicrous to be denouncing these 2 young people for doing the job that so-called professionals should have been doing all along and worse yet, when the videos started trickling out, they still did nothing. Now they want to jump up and complain that “hey, they aren’t in our league!” With that I have to agree. Indeed, Giles and O’Keefe aren’t in those “professional journalist’s” league. They are in a league of their own, far surpassing anything that the pros are doing or should have been doing.

What those 2 kids did was show deep respect and regard for the First Amendment and shine a spotlight on a far-reaching abuse of power that the “real” press has been desperately trying to ignore. The last thing the press wants to do is make the president look bad and they will protect him even to the tune of billions of tax dollars being thrown in the ACORN treasure chest and worse, the (thankfully hypothetical) trafficking in child sexual abuse and slavery.

So, the press can debate their legitimacy and criticize and demean these 2 young adults but the bulk of the American people owe them a debt of gratitude and a great deal of respect: something the press will continue to be without.