College Republicans: Irresponsible Again

This article is written by Michael Billotti, Bridget Brennan, Joseph O’Brien, Emily Tanner, Thomas Palumbo and Chloe Potsklan.

We are sorry to inform the Fordham community that the College Republicans have once again displayed an enormous amount of irresponsibility by inviting James O’Keefe to speak on campus.  O’Keefe is a criminal, a provocateur and nothing more.

He has shown this time and time again through his actions at ACORN offices, his entering the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D–La.) under false pretenses and his use of racially-charged language used to entrap employees of Planned Parenthood.

Our campus political clubs were created decades ago with the goal of fostering open dialogue between adherents of two different ideologies and involving the student body in current affairs.  We believe that the College Republicans have delegitimized that important dialogue by inviting a speaker who relies on dishonest, predatory, criminal and racially-charged tactics. We stand strongly with the principles of free speech; however, we find this invitation unconscionable and completely contrary to the ethics and values we hold dear at the university.

Last year, the Executive Board of the College Republicans decided to invite pundit Ann Coulter to speak on campus.

Upon hearing of her invitation, the College Democrats voted not to petition or protest Coulter’s appearance in the name of free speech and academic discussion.  The College Democrats stood shoulder to shoulder with the College Republicans last year because we believed that Coulter, however wrong she may be, would foster vigorous political debate on campus. However, we cannot stand by this year while the College Republicans display a remarkable lack of financial responsibility and moral integrity in choosing James O’Keefe to speak at our campus.

O’Keefe is best known for unveiling supposedly illegal activities at ACORN through a series of undercover videos in 2009.  O’Keefe’s actions led to a federal vote that suspended all funding for ACORN, effectively killing the organization.

However, various government entities, including the Government Accountability Office, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and the Office of the California Attorney General have cleared ACORN of all claims leveled against it by O’Keefe. A report by the California attorney general stated, “The video releases were heavily edited to feature only the worst or most inappropriate statements of the various ACORN employees and to omit some of the most salient statements by O’Keefe and Giles.”

We can condemn the activities of low-level employees within ACORN; however, the means through which O’Keefe gathered such information is deplorable, unethical by journalistic standards and illegal in certain states.

In 2010, O’Keefe pled guilty and received three years of probation, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine for entering Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office under false pretenses. O’Keefe stated that his goal in entering the building dressed as a telephone repairman was to wiretap the phone lines. When George Stephanopoulos asked about the incident in an interview, O’Keefe acknowledged that his actions were illegal and claimed he would not do it again.  He was legally barred from leaving the state of New Jersey for three years under the terms of his plea bargain, and the College Republicans have decided that one of the first stops on his climb back to right-wing-extremist glory should be Fordham University.

In 2007, O’Keefe offered a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ohio a donation on the condition that it would be earmarked to pay for aborting African-American fetuses.“ Because there’s definitely way too many black people in Ohio,” he later said.

This situation shows that O’Keefe’s journalism tactics are unethical by any stretch of the imagination. O’Keefe treats the answers to outlandish situations in a few particular cases by base-level employees as indicative of the national organization at large.

Our goal is not to disenfranchise students from going to the speaking engagement; however, we believe the student body has a right to know the facts about ethically questionable individuals invited to campus.

As Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J. president of the university, eloquently stated, “the answer to bad speech is more speech.”

We hope to uphold the original purpose of our political clubs and revive the academic dialogue that is so vital to this campus.

Our clubs are privileged to receive funding in order to invite speakers who promote the values of truth and justice that we hold dear at Fordham University.

Despite what we believe to be a decision made with a lack of good judgment by the College Republicans, we hope that through this unfortunate situation the political dialogue on campus will not be delegitimized.

All writers are members of the College Democrats.