James O’Keefe’s new media venture is a crowdsourced Project Veritas—equipped with cheap Amazon spy cameras
Last month, James O'Keefe was ousted from Project Veritas, the right-wing undercover journalism collective he founded. The public breakup featured claims of financial mismanagement and erratic, cruel behavior by O'Keefe, who in turn denied any wrongdoing and accused "evil" forces of conspiring against him.
Both sides vowed to continue their work without immediately providing details of their plans. In the last few days, both have revealed more about the directions they're taking. Project Veritas is going after teachers. O'Keefe is building an online "army" of spies for his new venture O'Keefe Media, which launched today.
Project Veritas is joining the ranks of conservatives attacking teachers for what they describe as grooming children, which others view as simply accepting and affirming LGBTQ kids and acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ people. Conservatives have been waging a war against the LGBTQ community, especially transgender people, for well over a year.
In an email, Project Veritas claimed that public schools are rife with "covert sexualized grooming," which it is going to expose.
"Project Veritas intends on doing everything within our power to continue exposing radical educators hell bent on brainwashing and indoctrinating your students," it said.
Project Veritas claimed that its journalists were already meeting sources and secretly recording people for its next "big story."
However, according to a report from the Gateway Pundit, Project Veritas' top journalists are fleeing the company.
It ended its email with a plea for donations. "...[T]o put it bluntly, we cannot bring you the stories we do without the immediate financial support of the Veritas Army," it wrote.
The tone of this request suggests that it may be having financial troubles. In the wake of O'Keefe's suspension, many of his outraged fans claimed that they would no longer donate to the group.
On Tuesday, Project Veritas released a video that it reports was the product of an investigation spanning several months.
"Fair warning for radical educators. Beware. We are going to expose you," it wrote on Twitter.
The nine-and-a-half-minute-long video shows teachers and administrators talking about respecting children's pronouns and preferred names and discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Conservatives have been increasingly attacking DEI policies and concepts in recent months.
"We brought in speakers who taught kids how to be anti-racist," a person identified as a principal says at one point.
The video has 850,000 views as of this writing.
While some were appalled by the footage, many others seemed less than impressed by Project Veritas' new direction.
"Good stuff, but you have to appreciate the skepticism towards your org now that you've basically stopped focusing on @pfizer?" commented one.
Several accused it of taking credit for O'Keefe's work. Given its claim that the investigation took several months, much of the video would have been recorded while he was still with Project Veritas.
As the group he founded goes after public schools, O'Keefe is also drawing on the forces of an "army."
Inspired by the recommendation of one of his Twitter followers, over the weekend, O'Keefe announced that he's recruiting volunteer spies. To join, people need only buy a hidden camera on Amazon, take a selfie with it, and email the photo.
It's not clear what they're tasked with recording.
Many people commented on O'Keefe's tweet promising to enlist. "I feel the call! I'm in!" wrote one.
On Tuesday, O'Keefe claimed that thus far 20 people have signed up for his "citizen army."
Wednesday morning he tweeted, "The Ides of March have come. We launch today."
O'Keefe's new venture is called O'Keefe Media Group and appears to have the same mandate as Project Veritas.
"Remaining by my side are a small, tight-knit group of the most elite journalists in the world."
O'Keefe pledged it will never be shut down as he will solely own it.
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