The video sting operation that embarrassed NPR this month is just the latest in a series of efforts by conservative activists to discredit nonprofit groups by covertly recording employees who appear to be acting improperly.
The takedown of NPR, which led to the resignations of its chief executive and top fund raiser, has left many in the nonprofit world wondering who might be next, how to ensure that their employees always act completely above board, and, in some cases, how to fight back.
“We need to recognize that these are not one-off attacks but instead connected events that require a collective and connected response,” says Gara LaMarche, president of Atlantic Philanthropies, a grant maker that donates money to liberal causes.
Nonprofits 'Very Nervous’
The covert videos have so far involved groups that have long drawn hostility from the political right—NPR, Planned Parenthood, and Acorn, the now-defunct community-organizing group. That worries some nonprofit advocates who are trying to adapt to an increasingly polarized political climate in Washington.
Republicans who took over the House in January, buoyed by an influx of small-government Tea Party members, have already voted to end federal support for NPR and other public broadcasters, as well as to Planned Parenthood—and in both cases, the undercover videos gave them ammunition.
Estelle Rogers, director of advocacy at Project Vote, a group that works to persuade more poor people and minorities to go to the polls, says nonprofit advocates are worried about more than just money.
For example, Darrell Issa, a California Republican who was harshly critical of Acorn in the last Congress, has now ascended to the post of chairman of the House oversight committee and has said he intends to pursue an ambitious agenda of hearings and investigations.
“When you couple that kind of combative stance with the dirty tricks we see from time to time, it makes organizations very nervous,” Ms. Rogers says. “They can absolutely do everything right but still be nervous.”
Banding Together
James O’Keefe, the conservative activist who engineered the NPR sting, first won notoriety when he produced a series of videos in 2009 that appeared to show employees of Acorn providing advice to a fake prostitute and her boyfriend about illegal activities. Although the recordings were later found to be edited in a misleading way, they fueled a move by Congress to withdraw all federal money from the group.
Acorn, also beset by management problems, has since dissolved.
Following that controversy, some liberal advocacy organizations “banded together in loose affiliations to watch each other’s backs,” Ms. Rogers says. “The short mission is, We can’t let Acorn happen again.”
Project Vote, which worked with Acorn on voter-registration activities, was among 26 groups that jumped to the defense of Planned Parenthood last month when an antiabortion group, Live Action, released undercover videos showing clinic workers in different cities talking to someone posing as a pimp seeking services for underage immigrant sex workers.
Along with the Alliance for Justice, Common Cause, People for the American Way, the Sierra Club, and others, it immediately signed a letter to Congress charging that right-wing groups were attempting to destroy an organization offering a range of important health and reproductive services.
However, Live Action was able to claim two victories: Planned Parenthood fired an employee at a New Jersey clinic who it agreed had given inappropriate advice. It also agreed to retrain all employees who have contact with patients in proper procedures for reporting abuses of minors.
Political Importance
Nonprofits are not the only victims of “gotcha” recordings. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin took a prank call last month from someone pretending to be David Koch, a wealthy businessman who contributes to conservative causes. Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign from a position in the Agriculture Department last summer after a right-wing blogger posted misleading video excerpts of a speech she gave about race relations.
Mr. O’Keefe also released undercover videos that he took while working last spring for the U.S. Census Bureau.
But some of the most elaborate plots have involved nonprofits, which is a testament to their growing political importance, especially as recipients of federal money, says Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group.
“It’s a reflection of how much of a role nonprofits play in today’s society, as opposed to, They are the [specific] targets,” he says.
Mr. O’Keefe’s NPR videos showed Ronald Schiller, NPR’s senior vice president for development, disparaging Republicans and the Tea Party and saying NPR would be better off in the long run without federal money. He resigned as soon as the video was released, and it became clear that he had been speaking to two people posing as representatives of a fake Muslim charity that had ties to an alleged terrorist front group.
Mr. O’Keefe, who declined to be interviewed, as did Mr. Schiller, told CNN that he was inspired to take on NPR, which many conservatives accuse of liberal bias, after it fired Juan Williams for comments he made about Muslims on Fox News. The Web site for Mr. O’Keefe’s nonprofit group, Project Veritas, portrays him as a journalistic muckraker with a mission to “investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct.”
His critics decry what they consider underhanded tactics designed to undermine organizations that help low-income and minority people, who incidentally are more likely to vote Democratic—or, in NPR’s case, provide an independent media voice.
But some conservatives see Mr. O’Keefe and his associates as “folk heroes” for helping to put Acorn out of business, says Matthew Vadum, senior editor at Capital Research Center, a right-leaning philanthropy watchdog. While Acorn helped some people over the years, he says, its leaders followed a leftist philosophy of “attack the system by any means necessary,” he says. (The group often staged confrontational protests against banks and other businesses.)
Mr. O’Keefe’s video stings are “politically motivated,” he adds, “but I would still consider them to be journalism.” But Mr. O’Keefe has a decidedly mixed reputation.
In fact, he is now on probation for a misdemeanor conviction of entering a federal building under false pretenses involving an incident in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana.
He has also been accused of posting an edited version of the video of NPR’s Mr. Schiller in a way that left out important context. However, NPR said that even in the unedited version, some of Mr. Schiller’s comments “were inconsistent with our values and beliefs.”
Good Training Essential
That highlights a lesson for nonprofit groups. Even if an adversary uses questionable tactics, an organization can be damaged if its employees act inappropriately—and that means good training is essential.
Planned Parenthood, for example, escaped relatively unscathed from the Live Action videos, which some news organizations said were misleading. The House has voted to cut off all federal money for the group as part of its effort to close the budget deficit, but many lawmakers and commentators have come to its defense.
The damage from the sting attempts was contained because the organization’s employees are trained in how to handle attempts to entrap them, says Stuart Schear, Planned Parenthood’s vice president for communications.
Staff members are told that if they have a suspicious encounter with a client or visitor, they must report it to supervisors, who tell local authorities. The national office in New York called the U.S. Attorney General’s office as soon as it learned of the suspicious visits, Mr. Schear said, explaining that a visitor was either “committing federal crimes or he’s involved in a hoax and it’s got to be investigated.”
Some groups that are now in Republican cross hairs are reminding their colleagues to be scrupulous about following the rules.
For example, Save Service is a coalition of organizations that is trying to preserve federal money for AmeriCorps and other national-service programs at a time when the House has voted to end all support.
After the NPR videos emerged, the coalition sent a message to its supporters reminding them that national-service programs are nonpartisan, that they should not express their personal political views, and that nonprofits cannot use federal money that they get for national-service programs for advocacy.
AnnMaura Connolly—an executive at City Year, the youth corps, who is Save Service’s campaign manager—says national-service advocates often spread that message. But the NPR incident offered a fresh opportunity.
“Any occasion that raises this on people’s radar screens,” Ms. Connolly says, “we want to remind people that it’s important to engage in the process in appropriate ways.”
Suzanne Sataline contributed to this article.
