fake video edit dr 2
new 11/18
merri ok
SEE PLANNED PARENTHOOD FUCKERY AND FALLOUT
note all gop
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AAF ~ biden nom lisa cook AA woman
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ed martin trump BS titanic gold bars hidden video BS?
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5th-circuit-planned-parenthood-abortion-00206327
02/26/2025
A three-judge panel at the conservative-leaning 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a lower court ruling that Planned Parenthood could be liable for nearly $2 billion for defrauding Medicaid.
The unanimous ruling overturns a decision by Texas U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee. In 2023, he ruled that Planned Parenthood had to return millions in funding it received from Texas and Louisiana’s Medicaid programs and used to provide services to low-income patients. Texas is also seeking more than a billion in damages as the case continues.
The case was triggered by an anti-abortion activist’s sting operation that produced recordings of Planned Parenthood staff discussing the donation of fetal tissue from abortions for research purposes in 2015. The tapes prompted Texas and Louisiana to try to throw the provider out of their Medicaid programs and prevent low-income patients from going to its clinics for non-abortion services like testing for sexually transmitted diseases and contraception. After several years of litigation, Planned Parenthood remains part of Louisiana’s Medicaid program but not Texas’.
Wednesday’s narrow, pre-trial ruling — from George H.W. Bush appointee Rhesa Barksdale, George W. Bush appointee Leslie Southwick and Barack Obama appointee James Graves Jr. — focused on the challengers’ attempt to hold Planned Parenthood’s national organization financially liable by arguing that the group’s lawyers wrongly advised their affiliates in Texas and Louisiana to continue billing Medicaid while the case played out. The appeals court held that the attorneys can’t be sued by a third party for advice they gave to their own clients.
“If private attorneys did not have immunity for their activities within the scope of litigation, they would be subject to suit from a third party every time they represent an unpopular client or advance an unpopular issue,” the judges wrote. “It is not difficult to imagine the chilling effect that would have on private attorneys’ willingness to participate in unpopular cases.”
Planned Parenthood maintains it did nothing wrong and described the case as an ideologically driven attempt to bankrupt it — noting that Texas sued their national arm as well as their lawyers and state medical providers.
“This baseless case has only one goal: to shut down Planned Parenthood and deny patients access to sexual and reproductive health care,” the organization’s general counsel, Susan Manning, said in a statement following the ruling. “The three-judge panel followed the law and the facts to reach their decision. We look forward to having our day in court where we expect to be vindicated.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not respond to a request for comment.
The case now returns to the district court for further arguments on the remaining claims against the state affiliates.
Cutting state and federal funding to Planned Parenthood is a top priority of the anti-abortion movement, and activists are pushing in Congress, state legislatures and other lawsuits to block the provider from receiving money from Medicaid, the Title X family planning program and other government sources.
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an 1 25
Two anti-abortion activists who made sensational videos of Planned Parenthood officials nearly a decade ago pleaded no contest this week to a felony count of illegally recording someone without consent.
*This story first appeared at Cal Matters.
David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt secretly filmed Planned Parenthood executives in California and edited the clips in a way that purported to show them selling fetal remains. Monday’s plea deal and felony conviction ends a criminal case that has dragged through the court system since 2017.
Their explosive videos triggered multiple state investigations into the allegations, some of which were led by Republican attorneys general. Those inquiries cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing, but court cases related to the videos are ongoing.
Daleiden and Merritt pleaded no contest in San Francisco Superior Court and waived any right to appeal. A sentencing hearing will happen roughly a year from now.
Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has taken a firm stance supporting abortion access, said in a statement that the conviction helps ensure California residents can exercise their state constitutional rights to reproductive health care.
“We will not hesitate to continue taking action against those who threaten access to abortion care — whether by recording confidential conversations or other means,” Bonta said.
The conviction comes less than a week after President Donald Trump limited federal enforcement of a law meant to protect abortion clinic workers and pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists convicted of harassing abortion clinic workers.
The terms of the plea agreement prohibit Daleiden and Merritt from contacting or naming any of the victims of the illegal recordings. They must also obey all laws.
Daleiden downplayed the felony conviction in a statement on his website, Center for Medical Progress, saying that the conviction comes with “zero punishment.”
“After enduring 9 years of weaponized political prosecution, putting an end to the lawfare launched by Kamala Harris is a huge victory for my investigative reporting and for the public’s right to know the truth about Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby body parts,” Daleiden said.
At the time, then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris launched an investigation into Daleiden and Merritt’s actions after they published a series of videos showing covertly filmed conversations of Planned Parenthood executives discussing abortion procedures and how tissue is collected and exchanged with research companies.
Donating fetal tissue to researchers and recouping expenses is legal under U.S. law and states may impose additional regulations.
The recordings sparked a firestorm of national outrage, particularly from conservative activists and lawmakers who oppose abortion, fueling calls to defund Planned Parenthood. The subjects of the recordings received death threats in the aftermath.
Planned Parenthood won a $2.2 million civil lawsuit in San Francisco against Daleiden and Merritt for violating fraud, trespassing and recording laws.
In an unsigned statement, Bonta’s office said it disagreed with Daleiden’s characterization of the plea deal.
“Make no mistake: the defendants are now convicted felons. They are guilty of feloniously recording private communications.”
Under California law, Daleiden and Merritt are eligible to ask a judge to reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor in 12 months if they adhere to the terms of the plea deal.
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http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-grand-jury-planned-parenthood-20160125-story.html
Texas grand jury investigating allegations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood after the release of covertly-shot videos about the use of fetal tissue from abortions has instead indicted two antiabortion activists who made the videos, authorities said Monday.
David Daleiden, 26, director of the Irvine-based nonprofit Center for Medical Progress, was indicted by the grand jury on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs, Harris County Dist. Atty. Devon Anderson said in a statement.
An employee at the center, Sandra Merritt, was also indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record.
The grand jury was investigating recordings made in April at Houston-based Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, according to the district attorney's statement.
Daleiden made recordings over a period of three years, using a phony name and hidden cameras to infiltrate members-only conventions of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. He released the first videos in July, arguing that they contained evidence of unlawful trafficking in fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood has denied the allegations.
After the recordings were released, more than two dozen states and five congressional committees began investigations. Most of those have been closed without criminal findings, and Republicans in Congress were unsuccessful in their attempt last summer to eliminate funding for the organization.
Federal law allows fetal tissue to be collected and used, but not for profit. Medical ethics prohibit altering the timing, method or procedures used to terminate a pregnancy purely to obtain fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood officials have insisted the videos were manipulated through selective editing.
After meeting for two months, grand jurors cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing, the district attorney said in her statement. She did not say what record or records the pair allegedly tampered with.
...
On Monday, Planned Parenthood officials praised the Texas grand jury’s findings.
"These people broke the law to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood in order to advance their extreme antiabortion political agenda,” said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
“As the dust settles and the truth comes out, it's become totally clear that the only people who engaged in wrongdoing are the criminals behind this fraud, and we're glad they're being held accountable."
Officials at the Center for Medical Progress did not immediately respond to calls and an email seeking comment on the grand jury findings.
But Daleiden’s lawyers have argued that he is protected under the 1st Amendment as a self-described “citizen journalist” who believed he was tracking criminal enterprise.
In a Monday opinion piece in USA Today, Daleiden insisted that the videos “show Planned Parenthood’s senior leadership partaking in a widespread and organized violation of state and federal laws forbidding partial-birth abortions and profiteering from the sale of fetal organs and tissues."
Officials in 11 states have cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing after investigating claims that they profited from fetal tissue donation, officials said, including Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Washington.
Officials in eight other states declined to investigate citing a lack of any evidence, including California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia.
But several states are still investigating, including Arizona, Louisiana, Montana and Texas, Planned Parenthood officials said.
“Nothing about today’s announcement in Harris County impacts the state’s ongoing investigation,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement late Monday.
Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton agreed.
“The fact remains that the videos exposed the horrific nature of abortion and the shameful disregard for human life of the abortion industry,” Paxton said. “The state’s investigation of Planned Parenthood is ongoing.”
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AI?
an 1 25
Podcasting is the medium of choice for millions of listeners looking for the latest commentary on almost any topic. In Australia, it’s estimated about 48% of people tune in to a podcast each month.
However, the rise of podcasts has also led to a new trend of “fake podcasts”. In some cases, these are a trivial marketing strategy. In others, they are a deceptive form of misinformation.
So what are fake podcasts?
Fake podcasts are short video clips designed to appear like snippets from real podcasts published on short-form content platforms such as TikTok.
These clips centre on one or sometimes two speakers, positioned behind high-quality broadcasting microphones, directing their conversation off camera. However, in reality no broader discussion is taking place.
These videos began gaining attention in late 2022 when social media users realised several viral clips showing commentators on seemingly high-profile podcasts were in fact “fake”. These clips weren’t from any real podcast episodes. In some instances the microphones hadn’t even been turned on.
The most noteworthy example came from fitness influencer and YouTuber Vincent Sant. To market his online brand, Sant created a video suggesting he had appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience.
Although the video showed him using the same microphone, headphones and red velvet curtain backdrop as Rogan, viewers quickly pointed out Sant had never appeared on the show. He removed the clip shortly after.
Since then, fake podcast clips have become a recognised marketing strategy employed by a range of brands. Some professional actors produce this content regularly, earning up to US$16,000 per month.
There are even explicit guides on LinkedIn for marketers wanting to produce their own fake podcasts, with the practice described as “the future of video marketing”.
Some fakes are more harmful than others
There are three main types of fake podcast, each one deceiving viewers to a different extent.
The first is the explicit ad. In this case, the podcast format is used to present an obvious sales pitch for a specific product. Examples include this ad from Junkee and Bank Australia:
While the ad uses a podcast format, it’s unlikely to fool many viewers, not least due to the “paid partnership” disclaimer.
The second category of fake podcasts uses the podcast aesthetic to market a personal brand, rather than a specific product. Several influencers including online entrepreneur Sebastian Ghiorghiu and Pearl Davis (the so-called “female Andrew Tate”), have garnered millions of followers through such clips, which intentionally leave the broader context ambiguous. They produce clips from both real and fake podcasts, with no means of differentiating the two.
These kinds of fake podcasts have three main purposes. The first is to gain consistent viewers. The second is to legitimise the creator’s, at times, conspiratorial political perspectives. And the third is to sell products.
The final and most intentionally deceptive form of fake podcast is what I call the “deep” fake podcast. These clips combine elements of the first two categories alongside manipulated audio and video – usually produced with the help of AI tools.
The purpose here is usually to convince viewers a certain prominent podcaster or personality has made certain claims and/or endorsed certain products. One recent example purports to show Joe Rogan and neuroscientist Andrew Huberman endorsing a “libido-boosting” supplement. This is the most deceptive form of the practice.
The psychology behind fake podcasts
Out of all the mediums to fake, why fake a podcast? Are online audiences so susceptible that they immediately associate anyone talking off camera into a microphone with expertise? Not quite.
Podcasting reflects what media researcher Henry Jenkins calls “convergence culture”. In this space, the distinctions between traditional, alternative and social media are increasingly blurred, as are the lines between producers, consumers, technical experts and “popular experts”.
Social media users usually recognise podcasters as popular experts. These individuals may not have recognised qualifications, yet they are often just as knowledgeable about a particular area of popular culture as a technical expert due to their experience and/or passion. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, hosts of the top podcast My Favourite Murder, are a good example, as is former YouTuber MatPat, whose channel The Game Theorists has close to 20 million subscribers.
Convergence culture has increasingly foregrounded popular experts in online spaces, helping to legitimise their blend of amateur and professional communication.
How to spot them
According to the Pew Research Centre, US adults who hear “news” discussed on podcasts are likely to view this information as more reliable than news gleaned from other sources such as social media. At the same time, podcasts are much easier and cheaper to fake than other forms of traditional media.
Spotting fake podcast clips may not always be easy, especially if you haven’t come across one before. If you see a suspicious clip, a good rule of thumb is to look for a clear link to the original video and recording. If this original is easily accessible, verifiable and lasts longer than sixty seconds, the clip itself is probably real.
Another way is to cross-reference the clip with other official channels. For instance, the next time you see a 20 second video of a renowned health expert spruiking a new supplement on Amazon, check that expert’s official social media page before clicking the purchase link.
Finley Watson, PhD Candidate, Politics, La Trobe University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Right-wing media misleadingly used a video from a fundraiser to renew their attacks on Biden's age
06/18/24 mma
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https://www.newsweek.com/meet-conservatives-trying-embarrass-liberal-educators-hidden-cameras-1787192
no lnx etc
Meet the Conservatives Trying to Embarrass Liberal Educators with Hidden Cameras
BY PAUL BOND ON 3/14/23
One educator talks of how a ban on teaching critical race theory could be skirted. Another boasts of how parents can be "tricked" over what goes in the school syllabus.
Both were recorded on hidden cameras by a conservative group that has been releasing videos periodically on the internet—and noting the fact that the videos have sometimes caused concerned parents to flood school board meetings.
As school battles take a central role at the grassroots of America's culture wars over race, gender, language, COVID-19 rules and more, the group is going all out to draw attention to what progressives are saying, sometimes prompting accusations of unethical behavior with its recordings made under false pretenses.
This time, the hidden camera "stings" aren't from the well-known right-wing group Project Veritas, but from a group that has been around a lot longer and is now putting schools in particular focus: Accuracy in Media—better known as AIM.
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"We'll keep doing it until school officials stop lying. Public school administrators are not entitled to a monopoly on deception," AIM President Adam Guillette, who joined from Project Veritas three years ago, told Newsweek.
For liberal activists, AIM is dangerous.
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"AIM is a conservative media criticism organization that has a history of pushing anti-LGBTQ views and conspiracy theories," says the progressive Media Matters for America organization.
NEWSWEEK
AIM conservative group targets educators
Adam Guillette of the conservative group Accuracy in Media, which is using hidden cameras to try to embarrass liberal educators.
ACCURACY IN MEDIAYOUTUBE VIDEO
Unlike more recent conservative groups that have sprung up to highlight what they say is dangerous progressive radicalism on social media and elsewhere, AIM has been around for decades.
It was founded in 1969 by the late economist Reed Irvine for the purpose of keeping tabs on what he said was a biased media that too often promoted socialism over capitalism.
Rebuked
It is no stranger to criticism: Long ago, it was rebuked by progressives for suggesting that media bias was hurting America's chances of winning the Vietnam War. More recently, it has expressed skeptical views over climate change and called COVID-19 'overhyped'.In 2008, AIM accused President Barack Obama of being "a member of an international socialist movement."
AIM may not be as well known as Project Veritas, but it is looking to expand in the same space with the latter in limbo after the sudden departure of founder James O'Keefe amid allegations of mistreating employees and mismanagement—accusations he has denied while also hinting at an imminent return.
It's not an entirely new concept for AIM. It used hidden microphones in the 1970s in an attempt to show that mainstream journalists deceptively edited interviews in order to hype the dangers associated with nuclear power plants. But that technique used audio only, and AIM hasn't used it much since then.
"I thought it was essential to return the organization to its roots of using unconventionalactivism and investigative journalism. The world needs more of both," Guillette said.
"Investigative journalism is the most honest and most important form of journalism. Instead, we live in an era when most outlets write clickbait and fan fiction, telling people what they want to hear," he said.
That said, ethical questions have been raised over activists using fake identities and hidden cameras to get people to say things that can be used against them. Typically, targets of such sting operations accuse the activists of selective editing that removes relevant context, and some school districts have said as much about AIM.
Guillette denies such accusations and says he is already preparing lengthy passages of unedited video for officials to review, rather than the 2-7 minute versions that are released over the Internet.
"There are cases where incredible investigative journalism has been done by hidden camera," says Christina Bellantoni, the director of the USC Annenberg's Media Center, commenting on the type of work of done by AIM, noting Pulitzer and others have awarded top prizes for undercover work.
Still, Bellantoni teaches her journalism students that it is unethical for journalists to hide their true identities, except as a last resort. In some states, like California, it is illegal to record someone without their permission if there is an expectation of privacy, though the advent of smart phones with cameras blurs the lines between what's acceptable and what is not.
Bellantoni compared what AIM is doing to the widespread sharing of videos from bystanders.
"We all have recording devices in our pocket. At any moment someone who is not a journalist can capture something that can change the world. Just look at George Floyd," said Bellantoni, referencing the two years of Black Lives Matter protests that erupted after Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in 2020.
Guillette isn't conflicted. "It's great police officers wear body cam; politicians and public officials should wear it, too. The next best thing is an investigative journalist with a hidden camera," he said.
To be sure, there's a long history of journalists using the technique to expose, for example, white nationalism. In 1979, Dick Lehr at the Hartford Courant used a false identity to obtain an I.D. card for the Ku Klux Klan in order to infiltrate former Klansman David Duke's inner circle.
But Guillette says mainstream outlets typically have no interest in exposing liberal activism, thus it falls to AIM and others to do so.
Focus on schools
AIM has been focusing largely on schools.
In January, it released a tranche of hidden-camera interviews. In Ohio, for example, there has been a so-far unsuccessful effort to ban the teaching of critical race theory and transgender issues to schoolchildren.
Critical race theory (widely known as CRT) is an academic framework based on the idea that there is systemic racism in U.S. institutions. It has become a hot issue for conservatives, who say it is divisive, while progressives say the controversy was stirred up by the right.
Progressives similarly take issue with conservative efforts to stop the teaching of young children about transgender issues in the name of child protection, saying that by doing so the LGBTQ community is being targeted.
Guillette says that AIM's cameras recorded school employees suggesting that they'll teach whatever they like, regardless of what laws are passed.
In one video, Matthew Boaz, the executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion for Upper Arlington Schools says to undercover AIM activists: "You can pass a bill that you can't teach Critical Race Theory in a classroom, but if you didn't cover programming, or you didn't cover extracurricular activities, or anything like that, that message might still get out. Oops! There will be a way."
Upper Arlington Schools did not respond to Newsweek's emailed request for comment. An automated message from Boaz's email said "I have requested leave and will be away from my office and email".
Guillette wouldn't say who he and others at AIM pretend to be when speaking to their subjects. "It would be a lot more difficult if they knew our tactics. I can confirm that the camera was not behind the salt shaker," he said.
That said, a day after the AIM video hit the Internet, an email sent to parents from Upper Arlington Interim Superintendent Kathy Jenney said, in part, "We know the video was recorded with a hidden camera and under false pretenses by a man and woman who claimed to be interested in enrolling a student. The couple guided the conversation to focus on the topic of critical race theory."
The video dropped in mid January, and at the following school board meeting about 40 people spoke on the matter, about 15 of whom were upset about what they had seen while the rest were there to support Boaz.
"It was wild," said Cathy Pultz, a member of a conservative group and a regular attendee of school board meetings in the district who spoke to Newsweek. She said before the video, she had been confident in Boaz.
"I was not surprised that some individuals will teach CRT and hide it, but when I saw it was Boaz in the video, I was shocked."
At the meeting, she said those on her side argued for "trust and accountability" while the other side — all of whom wore red in solidarity with the schools — accused them of "being influenced by an outside group of extremists."
The drama continues two months later, she said.
In another hidden-camera interview, also in Ohio, Hilary Staten, an administrative assistant for Groverport Madison Schools, says that federal funds for the COVID pandemic were used to hire social workers and guidance counselors to push social-emotional learning, which AIM alleges is a way of bringing in some of the same tenets that CRT espouses.
"We had some parents that, you know, they don't fully understand. So, you know, it's when we trick them, you know?" says Staten while the hidden camera rolls.
Groveport Madison Schools declined to respond to Newsweek while Staten did not respond to Newsweek's email.
Guillette supplied videos of crowded school board meetings in Ohio that had followed AIM's videos. The videos appeared to show a roughly even split between conservative parents and those defending a more progressive approach.
In Texas, where Republican Governor Gregg Abbott sought to outlaw CRT in classrooms through a bill prohibiting teaching that some individuals are "inherently racist, sexist or oppressive", AIM says its hidden-camera interviews prove that schools are ignoring the directive.
In one video, Marissa Perez, a curriculum content coordinator for the Edgewood Independent School District, says : "We do not follow much of, like, what Abbott is trying to get us to do."
To get more attention, AIM has parked a mobile, digital billboard near the Capitol building in Austin that plays the undercover video.
Neither the Edgewood Independent School District nor Perez responded to Newsweek's request for comment. Abbott's office did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
In Utah, where the teaching of CRT is also restricted, AIM has conducted similar sting operations, prompting Republican Congressman Chris Stewart to tweet: "This is why so many people don't trust public education: arrogant teachers who think they know better than parents."
After the Utah videos aired on Fox News, the Murray City School District told the outlet: "We have noted some inaccuracies in the accounts shared by our staff member being interviewed. We are also concerned about soundbites that omit context, tenor and questions that elicited the responses. For this reason, and to make a fair assessment of the comments, we are requesting a full, uncut version of the interview from AIM as part of our review."
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Guillette said he would comply with the district's request, adding that he'll remove from the raw video anything that could show AIM's methods. At its request, he says he is also providing the longer versions of the videos to the Utah Attorney General's Office.
Guillette won't say who his next targets are, but said he is not done with schools.
"Having been in over 200 school districts, I honestly believe that public education as we know it cannot be saved. These radicals are so devoted to pushing extremist ideas and indoctrinating children that no law will stand in their way," he said.
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https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/james-okeefes-videos-attacking-mail-voting-minnesota-fall-apart-after
no lnx many pix
James O’Keefe’s videos attacking mail-in voting in Minnesota fall apart after being spread by right-wing media
WRITTEN BY ERIC KLEEFELD
PUBLISHED 10/07/20
Serial political fraudster James O’Keefe, founder of the right-wing group Project Veritas, is now facing the collapse of yet another of his purported “sting” videos — this time, involving accusations of ballot fraud and bribery in Minneapolis. But the fraud and bribery might really be coming from Project Veritas itself.
About Project Veritas
Project Veritas’ basic modus operandi is to secretly record videos, then deceptively edit and release them in order to create a “gotcha” moment for right-wing media. These attempts often backfire. [Business Insider, 11/28/17]
Project Veritas has a long history of distorting videos, claiming they show things they do not actually show, and deceptively editing secret recordings to make the subjects look worse. Project Veritas also has a history of targeting low-level volunteers and staff, then attributing uninformed statements to organizers higher up in authority. [Media Matters, 10/6/14]
Project Veritas refuses to ever release unedited videos, only clips. “We treat our raw video as the same as a reporter’s notebook and we do not release it,” said Project Veritas spokesman Neil McCabe. [Snopes, 10/01/20]
Another O’Keefe stunt from earlier this year involved supposed inflation of coronavirus death statistics in New York City. Despite containing no evidence or meaningful information, it was widely picked up in right-wing media. [Media Matters, 4/30/20]
Project Veritas’ latest scheme is a project codenamed “Diamond Dog” meant to discredit mail-in voting. The intention of this scheme is “literally to get Trump reelected,” as a source said. [The New Republic, 8/3/20]
Project Veritas’ latest claims
O’Keefe’s first new video claimed to implicate an “Ilhan Omar connected Ballot Harvester.” The video featured Snapchat videos by a man referred to as “Liban Mohamed” with absentee ballots collected in his car. Though he is described as “connected” to Omar, he identifies himself in an audio clip as working for his brother Jamal Osman’s successful campaign in an August special election for the Minneapolis city council. [YouTube, 9/27/20]
A second video claimed to show an exchange of $200 for a single vote. Both videos relied heavily on the statements of a community “insider” named Omar Jamal. O’Keefe claimed that “our sources inside the Somali community here allege that the architect of this pay-for-votes scheme is none other than U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.” [YouTube, 9/28/20]
The new video releases appear to have been promoted beforehand with Trump campaign officials. The latest Project Veritas release was teased on Twitter by Donald Trump Jr. and businessman Mike Lindell, Trump’s Minnesota campaign chair. [Election Integrity Partnership, 9/29/20]
The videos’ release may have been moved ahead of schedule to distract from The New York Times’ reporting on Trump’s personal finances.“Mr. O’Keefe’s promotional posts had said the video would be released on Monday, but Project Veritas released it on Sunday instead, a few hours after the publication of The Times’s investigation. … Many of the same accounts that had shared promotional tweets also shared the video as soon as it was released, moving it quickly into Twitter’s trending topics alongside The Times’s tax investigation.” [The New York Times, 9/29/20]
Fact-checking Project Veritas’ claims
The collection of absentee ballots by a designated person who delivers them to be counted, which right-wing media refer to as “ballot harvesting,” was legal in Minnesota for a period this summer, during which the man in the Snapchat videos claims to have been working. The Minnesota Supreme Court reinstated a limit on collecting ballots in early September, after the state’s primary election had already taken place. [Star Tribune, 9/9/20]
Project Veritas has provided no direct evidence for any vote-buying. Any such allegations in the video “come solely from unnamed people who speak with Project Veritas operatives in the video and whose faces are not shown.” [The New York Times, 9/29/20]
Now, “Liban Mohamed” has come forward — though his name is actually Liban Osman, and he was not working for Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign. Osman also said that Project Veritas misleadingly edited together two different videos he had taken a month apart from each other, as he boasted of his brother’s campaign and its successful fundraising against a wide field of 11 opponents. [KMSP-TV, 10/5/20]
An Omar campaign spokesperson confirmed that Liban Osman had never worked or volunteered for Omar’s campaign. [Snopes, 10/1/20]
Liban Osman says Project Veritas’ main “insider” source, Omar Jamal, had offered him a bribe of $10,000, to be paid by Project Veritas. Osman says Jamal wanted him to say he was harvesting ballots for Rep. Ilhan Omar, and claims Jamal said to him, “They [Project Veritas] are not after you or your brother. Why are you defending her?” Project Veritas is denying the accusation. [KMSP-TV, 10/5/20]
Video file
CitationVia Fox 9, KMSP-TV, October 5, 2020
KMSP-TV in Minneapolis reports that the video showing an exchange of $200 was actually Project Veritas' source, Omar Jamal. “But two sources tell the FOX 9 Investigators the man is a relative of Omar Jamal, and that during the encounter outside Cedar Riverside Apartments, it is Jamal who is handing the man $200 which was intended for the family of a sick relative in Somalia.” [KMSP-TV, 10/5/20]
Project Veritas’ source Omar Jamal
Omar Jamal claims to be the chairman of “Somali Watchdog Group,” but the organization does not appear to exist. It is also unclear if Jamal is at all associated with the Ramsey County Sheriff Department, which he claims to be working for in the Project Veritas video. “Further, according to records obtained by the Daily Dot, Jamal isn’t currently a U.N. Permanent Representative to the Federal Republic of Somalia, which he has also claimed on LinkedIn.”[Daily Dot, 10/1/20]
Jamal has also admitted the video purportedly showing an exchange of $200 for a ballot was a staged dramatization. “I think that incident was one that was depicting how [cash-for-ballot] works,” he said in an interview with a Somali American TV program. He also admitted that he had never met anyone who had received cash in exchange for a vote. [Sahan Journal, 10/1/20]
Project Veritas is now promoting a GoFundMe for their “#BallotHarvesting Insider Omar Jamal,” with a goal of $500,000. The money is allegedly to support efforts to “further expose potentially more election fraud come November.” At time of writing, it has raised just over $31,000. [Twitter, 9/28/20]
Right-wing media and President Donald Trump spread the latest apparent hoax from Project Veritas
On September 28, O’Keefe appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, to promote the video. [Fox News, Hannity, 9/28/20]
Video file
CitationFrom the September 28, 2020, edition of Fox News' Hannity
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones hosted O’Keefe to talk about the story. [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 9/28/20]
Video file
CitationFrom the September 28, 2020, edition of InfoWars’ The Alex Jones Show
O’Keefe was interviewed by former National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch. [YouTube, 9/28/20]
O’Keefe also appeared on The Larry Elder Show. [YouTube, 9/29/20]
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon hosted Project Veritas’ Neil McCabe to discuss the story on his War Room: Pandemic podcast. [Twitter, 9/28/20]
Far-right blogger and white nationalist sympathizer Michelle Malkin hosted state Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R-MN) to discuss the Project Veritas video. [YouTube, 9/28/20]
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Glenn Beck promoted the video on his Blaze TV show in a segment titled “Vote Buying In Ilhan Omar’s District?” [YouTube, 9/28/20]
screen grab
[New York Post, 9/27/20]
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[Breitbart, 9/27/20]
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[National Review, 9/27/20]
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[The Gateway Pundit, 9/27/20]
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[The Post Millennial, 9/27/20]
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[RedState, 9/28/20]
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[The Epoch Times, 9/28/20]
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[CBN, 9/28/20]
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[The Washington Times, 9/28/20]
Right-wing YouTuber Tim Pool: “Trump Proven RIGHT After Video Shows Voter Fraud By Ilhan Omar Supporters, He DEMANDS Investigation” [YouTube, 9/28/20]“Trump Proven RIGHT After Video Shows Voter Fraud By Ilhan Omar Supporters, He DEMANDS Investigation” [YouTube, 9/28/20]
Pro-Trump cartoonist Scott Adams: “Trump Taxes, Mail-In Ballot Fraud Scandal, How Trump Wins Without Trying” [YouTube, 9/28/20]
Trump amplified the claims at his campaign rally in Duluth, Minnesota. “And what about Omar? Where she gets caught [ballot] harvesting. What the hell is going on? I hope your U.S. attorney is involved,” Trump said, as the crowd chanted, “Lock her up.” [Vox, 10/1/20]
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), in a now-deleted tweet: “Project Veritas offers further evidence of the need to ban ballot harvesting. It's not a partisan issue. It's been abused to help both R & D candidates, including in North Carolina & California. Please help by telling your congressional rep to pass our bipartisan bill HR8285.” [Twitter, 9/28/20]
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Gabbard posted a new tweet after the latest allegations broke about the videos:
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https://www.mediamatters.org/james-okeefe/james-okeefe-cycle-after-sean-hannitys-eager-promotion-another-project-veritas-video
no vid
fox News star Sean Hannity hosted disgraced right-wing fabulist James O’Keefe last week to promote his latest video “sting,” which seeks to aid President Donald Trump’s reelection by undermining the credibility of U.S. elections. The video has since been discredited -- an incredibly predictable outcome for anyone remotely familiar with O’Keefe’s oeuvre -- but Hannity hasn’t bothered to let his audience know, because he’s a shill for the president.
Every news cycle about an O’Keefe “sting” video is the same (though every cycle about one of his efforts fizzling before launch is hilariously different). O’Keefe’s Project Veritas group targets a Democratic candidate, a progressive group, or a media outlet. His operatives use hidden cameras and leading questions to elicit responses from low-level participants that he can decontextualize and distort. His team edits together the footage into a video which he presents as damning evidence of widespread illegal or unethical behavior. The published result gets blasted through the right-wing infrastructure of social media storytellers, digital media outlets, and talk radio, moving up the food chain until it reaches Fox and the president. And then people take a closer look at the video and its participants and point out the particular ways in which O’Keefe has misled the public this time.
O’Keefe’s latest target is U.S. elections. His latest video is a two-part Project Veritas investigation into a “Cash For Ballots Voter Fraud Scheme” in the Somali American community in Minneapolis. And his latest wild allegation is that his team has identified “the biggest systemic voter fraud smoking gun in American history.”
There is no systemic voter fraud in the U.S. elections and mail-in voting is a secure way to cast ballots, despite the right-wing disinformation campaign to the contrary. And the videos in question are a mishmash of decontextualized snippets, some from anonymous individuals, which ultimately provide no “hard evidence of cash in exchange for votes.” Nonetheless, the video had rocketed through the right-wing noise machine to Hannity’s radio show, his Fox show, and the president in one day.
On his September 28 broadcast, Hannity presented O’Keefe as a credible investigator who had documented corruption. O’Keefe’s video, Hannity warned, “should scare every American.” After acknowledging that “Fox News has not independently verified the contents of the video,” he proceeded to show part of it to his millions of viewers. He brought on O’Keefe himself, who claimed he had produced “incontrovertible evidence” of “voter fraud” that is “all on tape.” “I hope the attorney general of the United States is watching tonight and will watch that video,” Hannity concluded at the end of the interview. “We need to get to the truth."
[vid]
and then the Project Veritas claims started to fall apart.
The “insider” at the center of O’Keefe’s tale who explains the purportedly crooked “scheme” is Omar Jamal, a local gadfly who presents himself as a leader in the Somali American community but has few apparent followers. Subsequent reporting revealed he isn’t a credible source, and he reportedly backtracked on key claims he made to O’Keefe in a subsequent interview -- notably, that he had ever seen cash exchanged for ballots. In fact, he “specifically alleges that he thinks a clip that purports to show a ‘ballot harvester’ paying a voter $200 in exchange for a vote was instead a demonstration of how that process allegedly works” -- a statement he may have been in good position to make, since he is reportedly the “ballot harvester” shown in the clip.
The local Fox owned-and-operated affiliate, KMSP, added to the implosion on Monday with an interview with Liban Osman, another subject of the Project Veritas videos. KMSP provided at least one clear-cut case of Project Veritas deceptively taking Osman out of context to suggest he had been offering money for votes, and Osman told the station that Jamal had offered him $10,000 from the group if he were to claim to be harvesting ballots for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). “Project Veritas denies manipulating or misrepresenting its undercover video and claims it never offered Liban Osman $10,000,” KMSP reported.
Hannity’s audience hasn’t heard any of this from him, and they shouldn’t expect to. The Fox star knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s been promoting O’Keefe’s purported bombshells for years, despite his lack of credibility, because it’s propaganda intended to benefit the Republican Party, and Hannity is a Republican Party propagandist.
In this case, O’Keefe is the leading edge of an insidious and wide-ranging GOP plan to damage the credibility of absentee and mail-in ballot counts, suppress as many Democratic votes as possible, and undermine confidence in the election results. As part of that effort, Project Veritas has “worked to infiltrate the groups of volunteers and paid canvassers who collect absentee and mail-in voter applications from low-income, elderly, and minority groups--a perfectly legal practice in most states that conservatives have tried to label as nefarious ‘ballot harvesting,’” The New Republic reported over the summer.
That means we can expect more dubiously edited videos from O’Keefe’s crew in the month before the election -- and there’s little doubt he’ll be back on Hannity’s show to talk about it. That’s Fox’s role in the scheme -- an outlet willing to feed its viewers nonsensical, overblown attacks on the election process to benefit the president.
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https://theconversation.com/faked-videos-shore-up-false-beliefs-about-bidens-mental-health-145975
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https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/facebook-allowed-pro-trump-pac-run-hundreds-ads-false-information-about-joe-biden
pro-Trump PAC America First Action ran at least 397 ads on Facebook and Instagram since July 24 featuring a video that falsely suggests Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden supported efforts to defund the police. While Facebook finally removed many of the ads on August 4, a number of them had already run for over 10 days, earning more than 5.7 million impressions -- and the false information will still be allowed in other posts on the platform.
The false claim that Biden supports defunding the police has been repeatedly promoted by President Donald Trump and right-wing media, seemingly meant to inspire fear about supposedly radical policies among centrist voters.
PolitiFact, which is one of Facebook’s trusted fact-checking partners, fact-checked the video in America First Action PAC’s ad on July 29, five days before Facebook reportedly removed the ads:
The 15-second ad, from conservative super PAC America First Action, selectively edits a clip from Biden’s interview with liberal activist Ady Barkan. While the text on the screen reads, “Defund the police?,” Biden is seen on a TV saying, “Yes. Absolutely, yes.”
Using Facebook Ad data from the Dewey Square Adwatch tool set, Media Matters found 397 ads that America First Action PAC ran with versions of the misleading video since July 24. The PAC spent at least $87,900 on these ads, most of which specifically targeted Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania -- states which are part of Trump’s reported priority list. At the time of publication, at least 17 of the ads are still active on Facebook [pix]
[pix: six of 397 Facebook ads from America First Action PAC with false information about Joe Biden]
Facebook has repeatedly allowed political ads with misinformation to run on its platform. In fact, Media Matters has previously reported on hundreds of Facebook ads with misinformation and hate speech from the Trump campaign, including 529 ads with false claims of voter fraud and 88 ads with an infamous Nazi symbol; and hundreds of misleading ads from pro-Trump PACs, including Judicial Watch and The Committee to Defend the President.
Facebook has reportedly considered banning political ads leading up to the 2020 U.S. election, but that move wouldn’t prevent organic posts containing political misinformation from spreading on the platform.
Case in point: Even though Facebook removed America First Action PAC’s ads after they were fact-checked and labeled as false information, a Facebook spokesperson reportedly told Fox News that “the videos can, instead, run as original content on the group's page.”
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FB 2020 fail
https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/facebook-and-other-social-media-platforms-let-manipulated-biden-blackface-video-circulate
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NRATV host Dan Bongino used doctored Infowars video of Jim Acosta in White House press briefing
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is coming under fire for sharing an apparently doctored video of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s interaction with a White House intern at Wednesday’s press conference. The video was originally shared by an account linked to InfoWars, a far-right conspiracy website, and appears to speed up the moment of contact between Acosta and an intern while she tried to take his mic away, making it seem like he was aggressively pushing down on her arm. The Washington Post published a side-by-side Thursday, showing the original footage and the apparently edited video. The White House banned Acosta Wednesday—ostensibly because of the interaction—hours after he clashed with President Trump at the press conference, demanding answers on the migrant caravan.
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