Controversial Facebook Bigwig Tied To ACORN Sting Videographer

[kpete]

Controversial Facebook Bigwig Tied To ACORN Sting Videographer

By Gustav Wynn (about the author) Page 1 of 1 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

For OpEdNews: Gustav Wynn - Writer

James O'Keefe, the man who dressed as a pimp to secretly videotape ACORN employees condoning illegal activities was found to have received funding from Peter Thiel, a politically controversial Conservative hedge fund baron - along with several other conservative donors. According to the Village Voice, Thiel admits paying O'Keefe approximately $10,000 for a video project despite the videographer's claims he is "absolutely independent", repeatedly stating he was not funded by outside parties.

Peter Thiel, who co-founded the online payment service PayPal and provided start-up funds for the multibillion-dollar social networking success Facebook also has been outspoken against "multiculturalism" in the US as a member of the Federalist Society alongside Robert Bork, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Thiel's controversial views came to light earlier this year when concerns grew over accusations Facebook was collecting and archiving personal information on members that could prove embarrassing to them later in life.

TownHall.com blogger Hannah Giles who dressed as a prostitute while accompanying O'Keefe to various ACORN sites also claimed she "drained my entire savings" to travel around in helping to produce the videos.

O'Keefe's previous videos, posted to YouTube featured working class African Americans being hoaxed as O'Keefe and his pals emerged from a "Taxpayers Clearing House" van to present giant-sized sweepstakes checks. After recording the ensuing celebration, the recipients become chagrined to learn the fake check instead represented a bill for each household's share of the federal banks bailout.

From the Village Voice: "Through a representative, Peter Thiel confirmed that he had funded Taxpayers Clearing House through a small-government group, but denied having any involvement with the ACORN videos. The representative says Thiel first learned of the new O'Keefe videos after they hit the Internet, and having watched them on YouTube...he shares the view that taxpayer money should not promote human trafficking."

more:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Controversial-Facebook-Big-by-Gustav-Wynn-090928-416.html

[thereismore]

1. Facebook. Wasn't there a an assassination poll on Facebook just yesterday? nt

[Nikki Stone1]

8. That was my first thought.

He should be investigated.

[rfranklin]

2. POLL: Should Peter Thiel be assassinated?

What a dirtbag.

[NoSheep]

3. I'm not at all surprised. I left Facebook after learning about this thug and Facebook's

"privacy policy". I was using Facebook primarily to call out right wing bullshit during the 2008 campaign. Then I read about Thiel. Then I deleted my account (to the best of my knowledge it is deleted....at least they aren't collecting any more evidence of my being "subversive") And I don't have to have world war 3 with my niece who was a "friend of Sarah Palin"

[fascisthunter]

4. these are the ugly cowards behind the right wing

I am glad to see any exposure of them.

[rvablue]

5. K&R! Thanks to the Village Voice for shining a light on this. Excellent work! n/t

[onenote]

6. thiel is a self-proclaimed libertarian who supported ron paul's candidacy

in other words, a selfish jerk with a lot of money.

As far as his being a Facebook "bigwig" -- his company did make an early investment of $500K in facebook and he is one of six members of the board of directors, but I doubt that in and of itself has any connection to the fact that one of the 300 million users of facebook put up an incredibly offensive poll.

[Amerigus]

7. Still and yet...

Even if Thiel isn't involved in day to day stuff at Facebook, I wouldn't put anything mildly important on it....remember, Rupert Murdoch owns Myspace too!

[onenote]

9. not sure I follow the non-sequitur reference to myspace

which is unrelated to facebook.