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Called It: O’Keefe Edition
On February 12, I wrote what I would do if I was James O’Keefe of Acorn/Veritas fame.
But the thing is, the mission Veritas fulfills does not require incredible resources to be successful – it requires good actors, secret cameras, and a few social media accounts. It does not need to be huge, and it can be built around a single quirky personality.
Now that Veritas has thrown him out, O’Keefe can – and should – start all over, with an organization not in thrall to a board of directors that might be hostile to its mission. Worst case: Veritas folds and O’Keefe succeeds. Best case: there are two organizations doing the same thing, and well.
And that is what he’s done!
His video ROCKS.
O’Keefe Media Group is building an army of investigators and exposers along with the most elite journalists in the world. In the coming months you will see this army expanding across the country, every statehouse, every city council, every school board and everywhere people are conspiring to keep themselves in power, practice favoritism, or line their pockets with tax dollars.
James O’Keefe is a national treasure.
Published in General
Well done, James!
I don’t understand what the Project Veritas board was thinking. Sure, O’Keefe seems like he could be pain in the …neck(?) to work with, but it is that same attitude that made them successful in the first place. I look forward to seeing new stories break from O’Keefe Media Group. As for Veritas, it would be nice to see them continue as well, but what is their new direction?
next on the Hillary hit lit…
On the other hand, he’s not doing much to rebut the accusations that he spent corporate assets of a nonprofit on self promotion and indulging his own ego.
Those of us who love his work don’t mind that he has an ego.
As opposed to what, paying himself a $1 or 2 MILLION salary the way other “non-profits” seem to do it?
I’m not saying other nonprofits are not money laundering scams and should have priority in any law enforcement action. But it is well within the domain of the board of directors to keep the entity clear of such territory.
So instead of firing him, maybe just make his salary high enough to afford that ego stuff himself.
It does seem like there were other motives afoot.
This, to my mind, also speaks to Trump hatred.
Ego and self-aggrandizement in general are, to my mind, quite tolerable in people who are doing good work on my behalf.
People who are doing right should have a high opinion of themselves.
Contrast this with the credentialed class.
O’Keefe is being interviewed by Mark Levin now (5:20 PDT).
Of course the acronym for the new entity is OMG!
He’s the one that built Project Veritas.
Not sure he needs to be painted with the same brush as Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX.
I really don’t have an opinion on any of this other than to say this video seems like a HUUUUUGGGE ego trip. lol Man that guy thinks a lot of himself doesn’t he?
I’m starting to wonder if this is more about himself than about exposing corruption.
Does anyone commenting here know, without conjecture, what the Veritas breakup was about? I would love to be enlightened, because, until then, I certainly will not cast aspersions toward Mr. O’Keefe. What I will do is congratulate the young man on his previous successes and wish him well going forward. More O’Keefe and less Joy…that’s my new motto.
There were accusations of:
It may be that 1 and 2 were stewing for some time and when 3 hit the board felt it had to immediately act.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/james-okeefe-project-veritas-removed-1234683074/
Thanks, CT, but I am leary of using accusations, especially unsourced, to make value judgments. O’Keefe has produced some excellent expose journalism.
P.S.
The Rolling Stone is not exactly a source in which I have a great deal of confidence, i.e.: “some of his employees didn’t like him” or “when he was hungry he once took a sandwich from a pregnant woman”. May I say that anyone who owns a business knows that one part of an employee’s job is to dislike the owner/boss and maybe that pregnant woman was obese and already had eaten four sandwiches?
It will be interesting to see what Veritas does now that O’Keefe is no longer there. If their focus changes, we will know why he was ousted.
Edit: FWIW, Salon has a story implying that the main reason he was ousted was because of fear of losing the non-profit status due to fiscal malfeasance.
Even if he exposes corruption to get fame, isn’t it worth it?
Not if his ego ends up screwing things up.
That would be his problem though.
I’m not saying what he has done doesn’t have value, I was only commenting on how full of himself he comes off as in that video. No idea if that’s his actual personality.
I haven’t seen anyone else doing much of what he does, so maybe the ego thing is some kind of pre-requisite. It is a great benefit to the rest of us, so I don’t mind.
Yes, there are some who just wanted to see Trump humbled so badly that they didn’t care if the country failed right along with him.
As for O’Keefe, I don’t want to hang out with the guy, but I do enjoy seeing him break the stories that the mainstream media willingly ignores.
https://www.salon.com/2023/02/24/financial-misfeasance-project-veritas-fired-james-okeefe-over-fear-of-losing-nonprofit-status_partner/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/us/politics/project-veritas-james-okeefe-taxes.html
Even if O’Keefe got a ride on the King’s Elevator, it doesn’t invalidate what he did before. I don’t regret a single nickel I sent to PV over the years, but I’m done with them now, and waiting to see O’Keefe’s next move.
He was charged with paying for someone’s wedding, which I believe he denied, and for paying for a Christmas party.
Multiple instances of indulging in his narcissism with company funds:
https://www.insider.com/project-veritas-ceo-james-okeefe-stars-parody-prince-song-controversy-2023-2
He was fired directly after the Pfizer story. Why? I suspect that.is relevant. Pfizer has reach.
I’m addition, I’ve watched nonprofits fire founders before, and it usually boils down to this – people good at startups are not usually good at day to day operations, and/or the ego of the board.
James O’Keefe was the face of Veritas, he brought in the money, and lined up the big stories. Did you see the video with all of the whistleblowers standing with O’Keefe?
Conclusion? I’m guessing the cause was the ego and/or corruption of the board .
O’Keefe Media Group is a dba of Transparency 1, LLC, a Delaware LLC.