The Hubris of Project Veritas

It's Project Veritas vs. James O'Keefe as the media org sues its founder

Over a decade ago when I first joined the new media revolution, the very creation of online conservative media created a cultural earthquake. No longer were Rush Limbaugh and Fox News the only sources for alternative news. Conservatives, led by online political and cultural pioneer Andrew Breitbart, began saturating the media space with reactions, right-wing opinion and journalistic investigations that forced the mainstream (left wing) media to cover stories they otherwise would have ignored - stories that shifted the narrative of “Democrats good, Republicans bad” they’d nurtured for so long.

Near the front lines of that movement was a young man named James O’Keefe, a Breitbart protege who rose to viral fame after he went undercover to expose Planned Parenthood’s penchant for failing to report rape and human trafficking in the name of preserving their abortion profits.

O’Keefe, dressed as the most ridiculous caricature of a 70s Blaxploitation villain pimp, recruited a teenage pro-life activist named Lila Rose to pose as his underage “working girl.” O’Keefe explained his “girlfriend” needed an abortion to keep them both out of legal trouble, the employee agreed without much hesitation and the rest is history. James O’Keefe went on to found Project Veritas, which in turn sparked a new evolution of investigative journalism. Lila Rose went on to become one of the most influential pro-life activists in the world. A new celebrity class of conservative journalism was born.

All’s well that end’s well, except in real life. Unlike its dramatic Shakespearian counterpart, real life has no real endings, only cycles that continuously provide updated versions of age old challenges. Project Veritas (PV) has broken many important stories over the years, but as with many passion projects that become commercial successes, O’Keefe and PV eventually became victims of their own success.

Now, after a very public blow-up with the organization he founded, O’Keefe stands in the enviable position of being at least one of the catalysts for not one but two earthquakes in conservative new media. He joins big shot conservative personalities like Dan Bongino and Tucker Carlson, right-wing ratings darlings who have both ditched their corporate overlords to strike out on their own and rely on the nearly unlimited online market. The media landscape is on the verge of yet another seismic shift.

Which makes it that much sadder that Project Veritas - once the vanguard of citizen journalism and a shining example of how plucky, brave, risky reporting can loosen the stranglehold of corporate left-wing media on the cultural narrative - is now starting to look more like a dinosaur of a bygone media era.

It’s hard to pin down the real reason for their split with O’Keefe. They have claimed their former Golden Boy was abusive toward employees, used company funds for personal purposes, and failed to show up for important board meetings. O’Keefe has indicated none of that is true, and there were disagreements between him and the Board of Directors about the direction of company.

Whatever the reason, the result is that O’Keefe set out to prove he is Project Veritas, and quickly set up the competing O’Keefe Media Group (OMG). It was a blow to PV, as it was clear from the beginning the fled founder had taken a significant portion of his loyal audience with him. He raised millions of dollars within days, and PV has been struggling to recapture their headline supremacy ever since.

They should have walked away from the entire affair with a lesson in branding and called it a day. PV still has enough juice to operate healthily in the space they once dominated. The split with O’Keefe was a marketing nightmare, but it could have sunk back into the churning depths of an insatiable news cycle had they chosen to simply move forward with their vision and kept it moving.