James O'Keefe's minor infractions seem out of place on this list. It sounds to me like Forbes might be disappointed in him for other, more philosophical reasons.
This is certainly a topic of debate (obviously) and not settled within, as far as I can tell, any "section" of society.
Anyway, even assume you buy into that, it's usually unidirectional: a person's personal infractions don't necessarily have to destroy one's appreciation for their artwork.
The O'Keefe case (not that I necessarily do or do not agree with it) is the reverse: his work reflects poorly on his character. This directional flow, as far as I can tell, is not really hotly debated. People don't really debate "does engaging in bad behavior make you a bad person?" they just debate whether specific behavior is bad or not. Totally different from the art/artist debate.
Do you think it makes a difference if the person is bad person but their work contributes meaningfully to their field vs if the person is affable but their work is geared towards reducing the signal to noise ratio of other channels of communication?
> Project Veritas is an American far-right activist group founded by James O'Keefe in 2010. The group produces deceptively edited videos of its undercover operations, which use secret recordings in an effort to discredit mainstream media organizations and progressive groups.Project Veritas also uses entrapment to generate bad publicity for its targets, and has propagated disinformation and conspiracy theories in its videos and operations.
> In 2009, Project Veritas associates published misleading videos that depicted ACORN employees providing advice on concealing illegal activity, causing ACORN to shut down after losing funding; the Attorney General of California cleared ACORN of wrongdoing in 2010, and the associates paid a total of $150,000 in settlements to an ACORN employee who sued for defamation. NPR CEO Vivian Schiller resigned in 2013 after Project Veritas released a deceptively edited video portraying another NPR executive making controversial comments about the Tea Party movement and NPR's federal funding. Project Veritas unsuccessfully attempted to mislead The Washington Post into publishing false information about the Roy Moore sexual misconduct allegations in 2017; the Post won a Pulitzer Prize after uncovering the operation.
> The organization's board fired O'Keefe in February 2023 for what it said was financial malfeasance with donor money.
To be frank, what has Project Veritas done that is objectively right? All of their explosive "revelations" turned out to be fake, and when they tried their scam on an investigative journalist, said journalist instead pulled the thread and thoroughly outclassed Project Veritas. Only then did they have the temerity to proclaim that their goal all along was in trying to keep media honest.
I only know him from his Project Veritas work, so I went to his personal Wikipedia page to see what redeeming activities he’s performed but it looks like just a lot more of the same - lies, attempted entrapment, attempted sexual assault, attempted voter fraud, etc.
So I must ask, what has he done that’s “objectively right?”
O'Keefe's content isn't much more egregious than Maddow's Russiagate coverage or any of the insane content pushed by politics streamers with huge reach (to children, no less) like Hasan Piker...but yet they're media darlings for being on the correct side along the overton window.