Meet Scott Prouty: Five Things We Learned About the "47 Percent" Cameraman

Last night, we discovered the identity of the man who changed the outcome of the 2012 election, vanquishing Mitt Romney once and for all. His name is Scott Prouty.

And he's from South Florida.

YES. Tally a much-needed score for America's most-maligned state.

See also:
- Mother Jones' David Corn: The 47-Percent Video Stole Romney's Most Valuable Commodity. Time.
- Who Is the 47 Percent Videographer?

Last night, Prouty, a blond bartender -- who looks like he should be ensconced in a cubicle somewhere selling insurance -- went on The Ed Show on MSNBC to spill his trove of secrets.

Here's a sampling, from the man who caught everything at Romney's Boca Raton gathering.

5. Scott Prouty Didn't Plan to Take Down Mitt Romney

"I really had no idea he would say what he did, and I had no idea it was going to be this big thing," Prouty proclaimed. He said he'd only brought his camera along with him because he thought that, perhaps, Mitt Romney would spend some time with the service staff and he didn't want to miss a thing.

He remembered that Bill Clinton had done that at a similar event he'd covered and assumed Romney would follow suit.

4. Scott Prouty Doesn't Know Much About Political Fundraising

This was rather endearing, actually. But Scott Prouty took great umbrage with the fact that a plate of food at the exclusive party cost $50,000.

"I grew up in a blue color area of Boston and no one I know can afford $50,000 for dinner," Prouty said. "There's just no way. I felt like whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent there's a lot of people who can't afford to pay $50,000 for dinner."

This is all true. But that's not exactly how presidential politics works. Both Romney and Obama (as did Clinton and Reagan) held opulent dinners across the nation to -- gasp! -- make lots more money. If you don't, you don't become president.

3. Prouty's Story Differs From James Carters'

Last November, we wrote 1,500 news piece on the 47-percent video, puzzling together just how this whole thing happened. We interviewed Prouty via e-mail -- though we didn't know his identity -- as well as James Carter, who'd linked Prouty to Mother Jones Political Editor David Corn.

James Carter told New Times he'd contacted Prouty after discovering one of Prouty's early videos.

But last night, Prouty told MSNBC's viewers that he was the first one to say he wanted to take the video nationally.

2. Prouty almost didn't release the video

It was early in the morning, nine months ago when Prouty said he'd decided to spread the video. He was stumbling around the darkness of his South Florida house, peering out the window, before heading for the bathroom.

He looked into the mirror. "I thought, 'You're a coward,' " he told Schultz. " 'You're an absolute coward.' So I thought, 'That's not going to work.' I turned a corner. I felt good about it and I never looked back."

1. Prouty is not a teenaged Chinese girl.

Prouty -- blond, blue-eyed, and thick-necked -- is most definitely not a Chinese girl.

For months, Prouty has dispatched tweet after tweet, YouTube video after video, all under the social media name of Anne Onymous. It showed a picture of a Chinese girl with some scribbling in the background.

Translated, the scrawls describe several job advertisements. One says: "Two male operatives needed, salary 650-700 yuan per month, food and accommodation included." Another says: "Female 500 per month, food and accommodation included, working 8 hours per day."

For reasons that still aren't explained, Prouty is passionate about the factory girls of China. This was the reason Prouty initially decided to send out the 47-percent video -- not to display displeasure over the inequities coursing through our nation.

The link Prouty has to this issue is still unclear.

The entire segment:

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