Wait, What? James O’Keefe Tries and Fails to Smear Mediaite With Video That Proves Its Point

By Justin BaragonaDec 22nd, 2017, 2:00 pm
 

Following Mediaite’s publication of an exclusive piece on conservative provocateur James O’Keefe, the Project Veritas founder released a video of the entire video and asserted that reporter Caleb Ecarma had “run a fake intent” in the article “that contradicts” what he told Ecarma.

Yet, based on what was shown in O’Keefe’s video of the conversation, and what Ecarma wrote, one would be hard-pressed to find exactly what was contradictory in the article.

In the 15-minute video, you can see Ecarma asking O’Keefe about his infamous failed sting of the Washington Post in which Project Veritas had one of their operatives was caught trying to sell a fake story about Roy Moore. As you may recall, the Post published a story about Jamie Phillips pretending she had been raped and impregnated by Roy Moore when she was only 15, a pregnancy that she said Moore asked her to abort. WaPo exposing the stunt ended up adding further credibility to the accusers of Moore while essentially proving how real journalism works.

As O’Keefe’s video shows, Ecarma and the Project Veritas leader went round and round for the first few minutes regarding the intent of his attempted sting operation on the Post, something that Ecarma highlighted in his piece. The Mediaite reporter asked O’Keefe about his opinion on the credibility of the women who alleged Moore had sexually abused them when they were teenagers. And, as the video shows, he gave the exact same answer Ecarma posted in his article:

“Yes [I believe them], but it’s not my subject matter,” said O’Keefe. “That’s not what my investigation was about. It wasn’t about the victims, it was about the bias in the media.”

That quote, spoken directly by O’Keefe within the context of an interview about his botched WaPo hit job, was the centerpiece of Ecarma’s piece. So, again, what appears to be the issue here?

If O’Keefe feels like Ecarma didn’t address his other points in the interview, perhaps he didn’t read past the first few paragraphs, as he would have seen that the reporter devoted quite a bit of copy to O’Keefe’s defense of his WaPo sting attempt. Yet, we know for a fact that O’Keefe and those at Project Veritas read the whole thing because they immediately asked us for a correction about O’Keefe’s previous conviction.

O’Keefe has a reputation for being a shallow and craven attention whore, who often parades his own ignorance under the false guise of “media bias.” But there is a reason he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge to avoid larger felony charges and has been accused of media and sexual malfeasance (though some charges were dismissed) — he consistently shows questionable judgment under the guise of his outlet Project Veritas.

When asked for comment, Ecarma said that he stands behind his reporting. “I also refuse to engage with unverified Twitter accounts that could be parody or fan accounts for all I know,” he added, presumably in response to the numerous tweets O’Keefe has fired off today about the piece.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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