As Twitchy reported earlier Monday, James O’Keefe of Project Veritas had just teased another expose, this one involving the Washington Post, whose reporters were waiting outside his headquarters to “ambush” him.
A few hours later, Project Veritas and O’Keefe were the leading trends on Twitter, and not in a good way. It appears those Washington Post reporters had tracked down a woman who had met with a Washington Post reporter to feed her a false accusation against Alamaba Senate candidate Roy Moore. Busted.
Woman with anti-"liberal media" group reached out to me — posing as Roy Moore accuser. Instead of publishing fake story, @WashingtonPost busted her. https://t.co/y0ZmOFV6Qe
— Beth Reinhard (@bethreinhard) November 27, 2017
In a series of interviews over two weeks, the woman shared a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship with Moore in 1992 that led to an abortion when she was 15. During the interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore’s candidacy if she went public.
…
But on Monday morning, Post reporters saw her walking into the New York offices of Project Veritas, an organization that targets the mainstream news media and left-leaning groups. The organization sets up undercover “stings” that involve using false cover stories and covert video recordings meant to expose what the group says is media bias.
Oops.
We’ll hand it over to Ben Shaprio, who sums thinks up nicely, as usual.
O’Keefe did great work on ACORN. This WaPo attempt is horrible, both morally and effectively.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 27, 2017
1. He made WaPo significantly MORE credible.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 27, 2017
2. He attempted to discredit alleged sexual assault victims by planting a fake story.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 27, 2017
3. He could have attacked WaPo biased reporting by planting ANY story. This was designed to get Moore off the hook.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 27, 2017
We’ve been fans of O’Keefe’s work in the past, but this “sting” seemed off from the beginning. Had there been some credible accusation that the Washington Post had been paying women for their stories, that certainly would have been ripe for a sting operation. But trying to plant a deliberately fake story to prove it could be done? To help Roy Moore’s case? Was that the idea?
A woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore. She appears to be part of undercover sting operation. https://t.co/l1qhiViReY
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 27, 2017
A disgusting attempt to make it harder for victims to be believed winds up becoming evidence that #RoyMoore's victims should be https://t.co/AobIuQ7JEV
— Kat Timpf (@KatTimpf) November 27, 2017
Impersonating victims of sexual assault to discredit reporting about sexual assault is…really something.
— Matt Ford (@fordm) November 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/935269803002081281
Let me offer a big "gee thanks" to James O'Keeeefe XII for setting back conservative journalism a decade.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) November 27, 2017
Project Veritas as they tried to trick the Washington Post with a fake sexual harassment claim to help out (alleged) serial-pedo Roy Moore. pic.twitter.com/tg7xa0bES5
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) November 28, 2017
Who would have been hurt the most if PV’s sting had succeeded?
It’s not WaPo, but Moore’s real victims. That’s what makes this sting so deplorable.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) November 27, 2017
There are a million ways to sting WaPo with fake stories, but this was specifically targeted at their reporting about Moore. It was an attempt to discredit Moore’s real victims with a fake one. I’m glad they got caught.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) November 27, 2017
I remember a time when many of us on the right were disgusted by the attempts of certain organizations to discredit and smear victims of sexual predators (see Bill Clinton’s victims).
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) November 27, 2017
At the end of the day, Project Veritas did have a new video to show, but it wasn’t much.
BREAKING: Undercover video inside @washingtonpost shows National Security Correspondent @danlamothe and Director of Product @josephjames discussing WaPo's hidden agenda #AmericanPravda #ProjectVeritas
Full: https://t.co/2002erd3ub pic.twitter.com/o4qi8DQyAz— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/935286471610814465
So, donors to Project Veritas got:
1) a botched sting that demonstrated how careful WashPost reporting is
2) a sting video of a reporter saying the news and editorial sections are different
3) a rehash of a 10-month old story of Bezos coining the paper's slogan.— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 28, 2017
WaPo Editorial Board: We hate Trump. To demonstrate this we'll publish pieces telling you this every day.
Project Veritas: We've have undercover video proving the WaPo editorial board hates Trump.
WaPo Editorial Board: Dude, we're not hiding that. Here are some links…
— Drew McCoy (@_Drew_McCoy_) November 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/935284429269938176
https://twitter.com/Andrew_Traverse/status/935287140333899776
What a clown show. Their big reveal was a video of a WaPo reporter saying the opinion side can be too harsh on Trump, while their reporting side is fair. It actually makes WaPo look better than they actually are.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) November 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/935288186904940544
https://twitter.com/robbysoave/status/935296624296910848
O'Keefe's attempts to turn this debacle into a victory reminds me of @GeraldoRivera looking morosely at the dirt in the opened "Al Capone's vault," saying MY GOD THESE EMPTY BOTTLES ARE OF IMMENSE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
— IWantNothingHat (@Popehat) November 27, 2017
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Related:
Sad! Group scales back plan to block traffic into DC after Project Veritas releases undercover videos https://t.co/SmcVRMRvPB
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 18, 2017
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