Updating The James O'Keefe Story

Patterico writes, “CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications:”

As I noted last night, the Washington Post yesterday retracted its claim that the feds are charging James O’Keefe with an attempt to bug Mary Landrieu’s phones:

Earlier versions of this story incorrectly reported that James O’Keefe faced charges in an alleged plot to bug the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu. The charges were related to an alleged plot to tamper with a phone system. The headline incorrectly referred to a plot to bug the phone and a caption incorrectly referred to an alleged wiretap scheme.

Click over for screen caps of CBS calling O’Keefe’s actions a “Watergate-Style Break-in”, as did the L.A. Times (bolding below via Patterico):

James O’Keefe’s latest caper

Filmmaker James O’Keefe III is 25, meaning he was born about 13 years after five men were arrested for trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington. The subsequent scandal, which led to the resignation of the burglars’ boss, President Richard M. Nixon, was fodder for history books by the time O’Keefe was old enough to read them. Chances are, he didn’t.

O’Keefe, the Internet “journalist” who became an overnight sensation after his undercover reports revealed unethical behavior by the liberal activist group ACORN, now finds himself in the middle of his own bugging scandal.

Patterico responds “Uh, no, he doesn’t. As has now been made clear by someone in law enforcement:”

A law enforcement official says the four men arrested for attempting to tamper with the phones in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) were not trying to intercept or wiretap the calls.

Today, Andrew Breitbart was “interviewed” by David Shuster on MSNBC. If you’d like to watch the two them yelling at each other for eight minutes, click here. But as Ace writes, why is an “objective” journalist getting into a shouting matching with a declared partisan?

Breitbart goes right after him. There seems to be more to this clip, but we begin with Breitbart, as usual, going after a liberal like Michael Moore after a Krispy Kreme donut-tasting class.

Again: How is it that a supposed objective journalist so easily finds himself arguing with partisans?

Doesn’t it sort of take a partisan to get into a shouting fight with a partisan?

On Twitter, I just observed that David Shuster is the real sin at MSNBC. Olbermann and Maddow and Matthews are jokes, but they are commentators, and all commentators have an agenda.

Shuster, however, continues posing as a “reporter.” A reporter? The ass**** who grinned his stupid ass off as he made 30 rude references in a row regarding the word “tea bagger”?

Olbermann and Matthews are entitled to their opinions — this is the paradigm of cable news.

But what the hell is this “reporter” doing airing them all of the time?

He’s not a reporter. He’s a small-market shock jock they send to cover hurricanes and car-chases.

He should be taken off the reporter beat immediately and made a guest commentator. Lord knows he could never carry his own show.

But Shuster sure can carry a Twitter feed, can’t he*? At Big Journalism, Breitbart compares and contrasts Shuster’s tweets with the email he sent Andrew inviting him on for their warm and cordial conversation: “How David Shuster Lied to Get Me to Appear on MSNBC.”

Allahpundit notes the guest that Shuster had on immediately after his “interview” with Breitbart:

Needless to say, this is the stuff cable news dreams are made of. Oh, almost forgot: Right after Breitbart was cut off and this segment ended, Shuster brought in Eric Boehlert of Media Matters to play a few minutes of softball about what a shady guy Breitbart is. If you follow AB’s Twitter feed, you know that he regularly taunts Media Matters — and Boehlert particularly — for propagandizing for the left. I’m sure having him on here and giving Breitbart no chance to respond to him was pure coincidence.

* Even Shuster’s bosses at MSNBC have called him on his Tweet first, presume the suspect is innocent later style. But then, he’s not the only “objective” journalist at MSNBC to let it all hang out on Twitter, of course.

And Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), has a little fun with MSNBC as well: “What an absurd statement to make. And what a dishonest statement to make….You’ve got to have some integrity on your side of this camera, too.”

Update: “Correction Request: New Orleans Times-Picayune”; “Correction Request: Newsweek.”

Update: From Patterico: “Lawyer: O’Keefe & Co. Trying to Embarrass Landrieu Over Ignoring Calls Re Health Care.”