The Dark Side: O'Keefe 2 Favorite 

Trickery and disguise, usually followed by revealing the truth, are often tactics used by liberal activism, like the Yes Men for example. When used by the right, however, it can have different implications. Pretending to be a CEO or billionaire in order to expose corporate greed and corruption is clearly different then pretending to be a minority. The use of disguise can manipulate and shed light on hierarchies of power. Whether power divisions are strengthened or diminished depends on the target of the trickery and the status of the trickster.

In September of 2009 conservative activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles posed as a pimp and under aged prostitute and supposedly received advice on criminal activities, such as smuggling under aged girls into the country and evading taxes, from ACORN employees. The interaction was recorded secretly and released on Fox News and BigGovernment.com. As a result ACORN lost much of its funding. O’Keefe explained that he "targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does: its massive voter registration drives". An investigation concluded that ACORN workers had committed no criminal activities. It was later revealed that O’keefe was not actually wearing the “pimp” costume he claimed to be wearing, the videos were heavily edited, and one staff member called the police to report the illegal activities described by the “pimp”.