Last month, James O’Keefe addressed a standing-room-only crowd at the RightOnline 2011 conference in Minnesota, and told attendees exactly how to replicate his success as a citizen journalist.

Afterward, Pajamas Media caught up with our muckraker-in-chief to talk about why the establishment press criticizes Project Veritas instead of helping to support our investigative reporting. “They’re liars,” O’Keefe said bluntly. “They’re playing defense.”

The Awl has published a revealing conversation with James O’Keefe about prejudices in the mainstream media and their impact on the work of Project Veritas. In it O’Keefe points out that what bothers members of the establishment press most about Project Veritas is not our tactics, but our targets.

“If we were to go after targets like the National Rifle Association or the National Republican Committee or something like that, I think I'd be considered a hero…” he said.

Two years after footage of ACORN employees engaged in tax fraud and other malfeasance was released by Project Veritas, resulting in a vote by Congress to de-fund the corrupt organization, ACORN’s last appeal to reinstate federal funding has just been denied -- by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In recognition of our success, breaking stories from corruption at ACORN to the infamous NPR footage, Project Veritas was honored to host a breakout session at the 2011 RightOnline conference in Minneapolis. Founder and president James O’Keefe chaired the session titled, “Left Exposed: Where Investigative Reporting Meets Online Activism.”

When James O’Keefe launched Project Veritas with his investigation of ACORN in 2009 his hidden-camera style of citizen journalism took the mainstream media completely by surprise. When his footage of ACORN’s illegal activities resulted in the organization’s de-funding by Congress, and its subsequent bankruptcy, a revolution in political activism was born.

Enter the UK’s Guardian newspaper, which has just now noticed a surprising amount of what it calls “guerilla activism.”