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.
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.
Besides, if you get hired to work on a Polanski film, free travel outside the US! Why bother working for the pedophile rapists already in LA?
> 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.
John Lennon beat his wife (and wrote songs about it!!) but I still see morons with "Imagine" t-shirts preaching peace.
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.