February 13, 2023 - 1:00pm
Though the circumstances are distinct, Tim Pool of Timcast podcast fame and Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe have found themselves in similar positions of late. While Project Veritas’s board determines his future role, O’Keefe has been placed on paid leave by the Right-wing nonprofit — “a few weeks of well-deserved” time off, as an internal message put it. Meanwhile, Pool took to Twitter to publicly complain about the exhausting nature of politics, attacks on his studio, frequent “swattings” (pranks that have summoned large numbers of armed police to his address), and creative fatigue from years of building his own online media fiefdom.
Project Veritas’s latest exclusive — a video that appears to show a Pfizer executive discussing the controlled mutation of Covid but may in fact show a man lying through his teeth in order to have sex — has certainly drawn attention. So much attention, in fact, that many believe an alleged Project Veritas staff mutiny against O’Keefe was “engineered” by Pfizer and other interests of the regime.
Reporting elsewhere indicates that O’Keefe alienated donors, board members, and staffers with “outright cruel” management practices. Lending some credence to these claims was Claremont Institute fellow Dave Reaboi, who addressed various far-Right conspiracy theories by calling those who promote them “morons” and stating that “to think the board would take this step unless they felt they had to is silly.” In any event, it appears that the Project Veritas team — racked by dissension — is “so tired”, to borrow a popular cliché of the extremely online Left.
Tim Pool, who has worked more or less nonstop in the public eye since gaining notoriety for his DroneStream coverage of Occupy Wall Street in 2011, used Twitter last week to publicly declare that he was indeed tired, or “over it now”. In a long and revealing thread, Pool tweeted that “there is a radical misalignment between my values and many of the largest culture warriors” and remarked on the Ozymandian nature of his great works, such as paying for a Times Square billboard to shame Taylor Lorenz for doxxing “Libs of TikTok” account operator Chaya Raichik.
Pool then conducted a Twitter poll asking whether he should shut down his signature podcast. When users voted for him to step back, Pool said that he’d shift his operations to the other YouTube channels that he oversees. Not exactly a retirement, but certainly a cry for help or attention after a decade of differentiating his brand and spreading his influence within an ever-changing audience.
The challenges faced by these two operations are not unique to independent media operators on the Right. Nathan Robinson, founder of the magazine Current Affairs, faced a mutiny from his Left-wing staffers not dissimilar from what O’Keefe is now experiencing — yet the publication is still, as of this month, in operation. Chapo Trap House, which still rakes in $180,000 a month, has seen producers and on-air talent come and go during its seven-year history, as have other successful Leftist podcasts. Less established podcasts, which saw success during lockdown, will not have the same longevity.
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Subscribe“Project Veritas has a funding base of millions of dollars, so it should survive the departure of O’Keefe, if that happens.”
I have to disagree with this. O’Keefe is the face of PV. Without O’Keefe there won’t be a PV for long. There is already a lawsuit from donors who only donated because of O’Keefe and want their money back if he is gone. Even if that lawsuit is unsuccessful, then they will never get those donations again.
“Project Veritas has a funding base of millions of dollars, so it should survive the departure of O’Keefe, if that happens.”
I have to disagree with this. O’Keefe is the face of PV. Without O’Keefe there won’t be a PV for long. There is already a lawsuit from donors who only donated because of O’Keefe and want their money back if he is gone. Even if that lawsuit is unsuccessful, then they will never get those donations again.
I do not follow Project Veritas, although I did see the recent footage that went viral. Why would the guy have lied in such a detailed manner – in order to get laid? That seems like nonsense to me. Why is it so hard to believe that Pfizer, a corporation with not the cleanest of track records, would be above manipulating the situation in order to maintain record profits? There is plenty of evidence out there.
I must admit that I have been grateful for several of the alternative reporting organisations – Unherd is one – that gained greater momentum during the appalling period of Covid and associated lockdowns, draconian censorship and gaslighting of senior doctors and scientists who dared to venture inconvenient opinions, psy-ops etc.
2020 made it crystal clear to a great many shocked people that they could no longer continue lend their trust to the MSM.
I had a colleague start with the ‘he was exaggerating on a date …” excuse to which I replied “why are you defending Pfizer?” He had the good grace to acknowledge that I had a point. Since when is the left defending ‘Big Pharma’? Strange days. I tend to think that the most likely explanation is that some serious pressure was put on Project Veritas’s Board because their reporting shed light on what may be the biggest story of our lives – that we were forced to take a dangerous vaccine that didn’t work to fight off a virus that was intentionally engineered to be harmful and then inadvertently (I hope) released. I also think this will backfire. If they terminate O’Keefe he will be able to fundraise millions instantly and start a new operation. All which doesn’t mean that he isn’t a real jerk to his staff – driven people often are – but that is not why he was put on leave.
The proper response from the regime media should be skepticism – of the guy making the claims and especially Pfizer. Journalists should be asking questions of Pfizer, not burying the story. They should be trying to verify the accuracy of the claims. But it wouldn’t be the regime media if they actually spoke truth to power.
I had a colleague start with the ‘he was exaggerating on a date …” excuse to which I replied “why are you defending Pfizer?” He had the good grace to acknowledge that I had a point. Since when is the left defending ‘Big Pharma’? Strange days. I tend to think that the most likely explanation is that some serious pressure was put on Project Veritas’s Board because their reporting shed light on what may be the biggest story of our lives – that we were forced to take a dangerous vaccine that didn’t work to fight off a virus that was intentionally engineered to be harmful and then inadvertently (I hope) released. I also think this will backfire. If they terminate O’Keefe he will be able to fundraise millions instantly and start a new operation. All which doesn’t mean that he isn’t a real jerk to his staff – driven people often are – but that is not why he was put on leave.
The proper response from the regime media should be skepticism – of the guy making the claims and especially Pfizer. Journalists should be asking questions of Pfizer, not burying the story. They should be trying to verify the accuracy of the claims. But it wouldn’t be the regime media if they actually spoke truth to power.
I do not follow Project Veritas, although I did see the recent footage that went viral. Why would the guy have lied in such a detailed manner – in order to get laid? That seems like nonsense to me. Why is it so hard to believe that Pfizer, a corporation with not the cleanest of track records, would be above manipulating the situation in order to maintain record profits? There is plenty of evidence out there.
I must admit that I have been grateful for several of the alternative reporting organisations – Unherd is one – that gained greater momentum during the appalling period of Covid and associated lockdowns, draconian censorship and gaslighting of senior doctors and scientists who dared to venture inconvenient opinions, psy-ops etc.
2020 made it crystal clear to a great many shocked people that they could no longer continue lend their trust to the MSM.
One of the most fun transformations on Youtube has been the estimable Dr John Campbell on covid. I have watched him through the whole process – first he was with the agenda, now has flipped to totally against it as truth comes out.
What makes this so fun is Youtube rules make it a banning offense to mention Ivermectin, covid lockdown harms, and the health horrors of the vaccine, or anything against the official agenda lies. Dr Campbell is the most gentle, gentlemen, fatherly, trustworthy, compassionate man ever to be on social media – his sincerity was complete – now he loathes the Vax industry and the twisted politicians who did this to us. It is so fun to listen to him – he uses eye-rolls, mentioning how he is forbidden to say what he thinks of ‘Facts’ he has just read, and endless devices to show all the only allowed truths are -TOTAL LIES. Great fun.
The truths are coming out More and More – this writer has it 100% wrong!
If you want truth go to ‘Rumble’ instead of youtube. For wild cultural comedy truths – ‘Salty Cracker’ (Reeeeeee) cannot be beat – silly, but great right wing appraising of the mad lefty garbage.
‘Redacted News’ for a sort of RT kind of view, but not really – still, great info on the Ukraine-Russian-Biden war, and on many issues.
Bannon’s ‘War Room’ – some interesting stuff but his regular guests are all horrible, the Cortez is a complete idiot, and he is over half on state election coverage.
Many of them – many good. Bret Weinstein is still on Youtube by playing the game – when his wife will shut up (she has to interrupt to explain every thing by 1000 words where 12 are enough), but are returning to non-political stuff lately – but they remain
There is More Every Day – of excellent anti-agenda on social media. Now Twitter’s Lefty Hegemony is broken, and alternates to youtube are flourishing. This is the opposite of what the writer says – this is the opening of the internet to alternative views – NOT the contraction.
One of the most fun transformations on Youtube has been the estimable Dr John Campbell on covid. I have watched him through the whole process – first he was with the agenda, now has flipped to totally against it as truth comes out.
What makes this so fun is Youtube rules make it a banning offense to mention Ivermectin, covid lockdown harms, and the health horrors of the vaccine, or anything against the official agenda lies. Dr Campbell is the most gentle, gentlemen, fatherly, trustworthy, compassionate man ever to be on social media – his sincerity was complete – now he loathes the Vax industry and the twisted politicians who did this to us. It is so fun to listen to him – he uses eye-rolls, mentioning how he is forbidden to say what he thinks of ‘Facts’ he has just read, and endless devices to show all the only allowed truths are -TOTAL LIES. Great fun.
The truths are coming out More and More – this writer has it 100% wrong!
If you want truth go to ‘Rumble’ instead of youtube. For wild cultural comedy truths – ‘Salty Cracker’ (Reeeeeee) cannot be beat – silly, but great right wing appraising of the mad lefty garbage.
‘Redacted News’ for a sort of RT kind of view, but not really – still, great info on the Ukraine-Russian-Biden war, and on many issues.
Bannon’s ‘War Room’ – some interesting stuff but his regular guests are all horrible, the Cortez is a complete idiot, and he is over half on state election coverage.
Many of them – many good. Bret Weinstein is still on Youtube by playing the game – when his wife will shut up (she has to interrupt to explain every thing by 1000 words where 12 are enough), but are returning to non-political stuff lately – but they remain
There is More Every Day – of excellent anti-agenda on social media. Now Twitter’s Lefty Hegemony is broken, and alternates to youtube are flourishing. This is the opposite of what the writer says – this is the opening of the internet to alternative views – NOT the contraction.