By Wes Walker,
Almost immediately after Project Veritas landed some HUGE stories exposing sketchy stuff over at Pfizer, we heard the word of O’Keefe being put on paid leave by the board. What’s going on?
Most of the time, when the name ‘Project Veritas’ pops up in the news, you can expect a damning video exposing corporate or political figures to some sort of embarrassing corruption.
This time, Project Veritas itself is the story. More accurately, the future of the founder and face of the organization, James O’Keefe, is the story.
James O’Keefe, the founder and chairman of Project Veritas, has taken a paid leave from the conservative nonprofit media organization as its board considers whether to remove him from his leadership position, according to current and former employees of the organization.
An internal message sent to Project Veritas employees by the organization’s executive director, Daniel Strack, said that O’Keefe would be taking “a few weeks of well-deserved PTO.” An image of the message was shared by a source familiar with the organization’s internal operations, and its authenticity was confirmed by a current employee. When reached for comment on his personal cell phone, O’Keefe said nothing in response and did not respond to follow-up calls and text messages. –NewYork Mag.
Well-deserved paid time off. That sounds positive, right?
Yes, but as we saw on Seinfeld, calling someone ‘breathtaking’ can sound positive, too. That doesn’t necessarily tell you the full story.
There are conflicting messages about what’s REALLY going on.
First, the official statement from Project Veritas.
As we read that answer, we cannot help but notice a deafening silence about the one question people want to know about.
So he has paid time off, which may or may not be punitive.
Daily Caller highlighted some incidents of internal strife or other organizational difficulties.
O’Keefe’s communications adviser and the board of the company have seemingly been dissatisfied with O’Keefe’s mismanagement of the organization, according to a source cited by New York Magazine.
…Employees allege that O’Keefe wasted money on his theater dreams and was “outright cruel” to his staff, The Daily Beast reported late Wednesday.
“I would describe Project Veritas’ current environment with this saying: ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves,’” one staffer allegedly wrote in a memo. — DailyCaller
Other possible explanations were raised.
For example:
And here comes a big thread representing at least one version of the OTHER side of the story. You get a sense of where this is going by his use of the word ‘coup’ in the very first tweet.
Hold on, ‘pronouns in bio’ for someone in the C-Suite at an unapologetically conservative outfit like Project Veritas? That was … unexpected.
Who’s right? Who’s wrong?
Sooner or later, time will tell.
Cross-Posted With Clash Daily
