Project Veritas: An enemy of truth?

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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. Wikipedia

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O’Keefe first found fame in the early days of the Obama administration, when he conducted a sting that caused the implosion of the community-organizing group ACORN. He appears in those videos as a 145-pound beanpole in a pimp costume that incorporated his grandmother’s chinchilla shawl. These days, O’Keefe is muscled up, preferring slim, tailored suits and styling himself like a gonzo James Bond. And Project Veritas is no longer a small punk operation. In 2020, the 501(c)(3) had around 50 employees and a budget of more than $22 million, largely funded by anonymous donations from wealthy Republicans eager to see O’Keefe torment Democrats, teachers unions, the lying media, and other objects of conservative animus. (One former employee passed me a photo of a $75,000 check to the organization enclosed in a card that was inscribed GO GET THE NYT AND RANDI WEINGARTEN.) O’Keefe draws a salary of around $400,000 a year and keeps a sailboat called Lucky Charm III at a yacht club on Long Island Sound.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/project-veritas-james-okeefe-ashley-biden-diary.html

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What is Project Veritas?

Project Veritas is a conservative media organization dedicated to secretly infiltrating progressive
organizations to produce unflattering and often selectively edited videos. Project Veritas operates under
the guise of citizen journalism, but serves a conservative political agenda without adhering to basic
journalistic ethics. The organization was founded by James O’Keefe, a protégé of Andrew Breitbart, in
2010.

Project Veritas has frequently been criticized for editing its videos to deceive its audience and
misrepresent its subjects. New York magazine described O’Keefe’s ACRON videos as having been “editedin a highly misleading way.”1 A 2010 investigation into the ACORN videos by former California Attorney General Jerry Brown, found that O’Keefe’s videos were “severely edited,” and an accompanying press release described O’Keefe as a “partisan zealot.”2 In 2016, Andrew Seaman—chair of the Society of Professional Journalists’ ethics committee—wrote that O’Keefe is “not an ethical journalist” and has a “history of distorting facts or context.”3

Project Veritas’ deceptive editing has been a source of continuing legal trouble for the group, which is
currently fighting at least two defamation lawsuits filed by individuals featured in its videos, and has
paid three settlements to individuals who brought defamation claims

Conservative funding, ties to anti-union donors:
Project Veritas had revenue of $3.7 million in 2015, the year for which its most recent public tax filings
are available. While most of its donors have not been publicly disclosed, we know that Donors Trust, the Koch-related foundation that has been called the “dark-money ATM of the conservative right,” has
contributed over $2.1 million since 2012. Donors Trust is funded by anonymous contributions from
Koch-network donors, which reportedly include Betsy DeVos and her husband. Donald Trump is also a
donor to Project Veritas, contributing $10,000 in 2015. Trump referenced O’Keefe’s videos during the
presidential debates, and Donald Trump Jr. has tweeted about Project Veritas videos.

Project Veritas also has links to groups that want to take down teachers unions. Denis Calabrese,
president of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, is a known Project Veritas donor. The Laura and
John Arnold Foundation is also a major funder of efforts to end defined-benefit pension plans for
teachers. Project Veritas board member Colin Sharkey is the executive vice president of the Association
of American Educators, a nonunion teachers organization funded by conservative nonprofits as a way of
weakening teachers unions.

https://aftmichigan.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/what-is-project-veritas12.pdf

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Above is a screenshot of the title in question from LinkedIn. Correctly spelled “mRNA,” not “Mrna.” And no, this title does not belong to a Jordon Walker. Yet anti-vaxxers are rushing to share this highly questionable story as truth. At least they advertise their stupidity.

Kyle Berkopes @kberkopes He graduated med school in 2018 and was a Vice President by 2019?

Not a chance. Not even postdocs start in positions that high up in pharma. This whole story reeks of someone lazily making stuff up.

Erik Israel @scottie1479 Or simply another Michael Yeadon.

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REUTERS

Project Veritas loses jury verdict to Democratic consulting firm

Jonathan Stempel

Sept 23 (Reuters) – A federal jury has found Project Veritas, a conservative group often accused of using deceptive tactics, liable for violating wiretapping laws and misrepresenting itself in an undercover effort to target Democratic political consultants.

Jurors in Washington on Thursday awarded $120,000 to a member of Democracy Partners, co-founded by self-described progressive strategist Robert Creamer.

Democracy Partners claimed it had been infiltrated by a Project Veritas operative who lied about her name and background to obtain an internship during the 2016 presidential campaign, and secretly recorded conversations while working there.

The firm and Creamer said Project Veritas used “heavily edited” footage in videos that falsely suggested they conspired to incite violence at then-Republican candidate Donald Trump’s rallies and schemed to promote voter fraud.

According to the complaint, the espionage cost the plaintiffs, who supported Trump’s Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, more than $500,000 of contracts.

Project Veritas said it did nothing wrong and will appeal.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/project-veritas-loses-jury-verdict-democratic-consulting-firm-2022-09-23/

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Another Project Veritas project, another lie? “Federal Govt Whistleblower Goes Public with Secret Recordings: ‘Government Doesn’t Want to Show the [COVID] Vaccine is Full of Sht’; ‘Shove’ Adverse Effect Reporting ‘Under the Mat’*”

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Project Veritas and Pfizer whistleblower Melissa Strickler, who claims that Pfizer is hiding the fact that human fetal tissue has been used in vaccine test development, receives US$170,000 and the sum is growing

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It was no confession: Project Veritas ambushed ‘Nick Karl From Pfizer’ and then they gloated at him

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