Conservative Activist Claims 'Countdown' Defamed Him

Image via WikipediaProvocateur/self-professed journalist James O'Keefe III, whose "gotcha" video attacks on ACORN, NPR and Planned Parenthood have endeared him to conservative tv viewers, has sued Al Gore-owned Current Media for defamation.

In James O'Keefe III v. Current Media LLC, Keith Olbermann & David Shuster, filed this week in Bergen County (N.J.) Superior Court, O'Keefe alleges he was defamed by David Shuster, who was guest-hosting the February 24, 2012, episode of Keith Olbermann's Countdown. The six-page Complaint claims Shuster falsely stated that O'Keefe was facing a rape charge, according to a post by the The Wrap.com Web site.

Additionally, O'Keefe alleges Olbermann falsely stated during the December 22, 2011, edition of Countdown that O'Keefe was a "convicted felon" on "federal parole after he was charged with [a] felony for attempting to maliciously interfere with Senator [Mary] Landrieu's office telephone system in New Orleans."

According to O'Keefe's lawsuit, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the Landrieu imbroglio, not a felony. Further, O'Keefe claims he was never accused of rape, but rather, was the target of a civil sexual harassment suit brought by an associate that purportedly was dismissed last December.

Besides the present defamation action against the San Francisco-based Current Media, O'Keefe also has an ongoing libel suit against the New Jersey Star-Ledger daily newspaper based on a story alleging O'Keefe committed a felony by allegedly obtaining a ballot using another individual's name.