Investigative journalism was changed forever when James O'Keefe walked into an ACORN office in 2009 posing as a pimp, Hannah Giles posing as a prostitute, and exposed workers there actively assisting the duo to set up sex trafficking operations. The workers exposed on video were fired, ACORN lost its government contracts, and the whole operation shut down within a year.
From that investigation, O'Keefe founded Project Veritas, a journalistic enterprise that relies on donations to carry out their work exposing educators, media figures, elected officials, and most recently Pfizer executives giving away information that they never would have if they'd known they were speaking to undercover reporters.
Now, O'Keefe appears to be being pushed out of the organization he founded, and he's currently on paid leave while the board makes their determination. The Daily Beast calls O'Keefe "a power hungry tyrant," while New York Magazine reported that there has been "infighting" within the organization. The Veritas board, which includes three members, Matthew Tyrmand among them, is apparently set to meet on Friday to determine O'Keefe's future with Veritas, and the fate of Project Veritas itself.
O'Keefe isn't talking, and Veritas staff contains a mix of loyalists and those who are ready to move on from O'Keefe, apparently believing that the man who built the ship and had captained it through the many rough seas over the years is no longer needed to lead.
The chief allegations against O'Keefe appear to be that he was mean to employees, and that the workplace, according to the Daily Beast, was a "raucous, sexually charged workplace complete with at least one drug overdose." Anyone who has ever spent time with O'Keefe and the Veritas crew knows that the pressure they are under is immense, and the stakes are incredibly high.
Sixteen staffers signed on to a memo saying that O'Keefe was "abusive" to staff, alleging everything from O'Keefe yelling at staff in public, taking a sandwich from a pregnant staffer when he was hungry, "berating" staff with at least one incident of him calling a staffer a "pussy," and being "so fearful of leakers within his organization that he set up at least one 'mole hunt' complete with private investigators and a lie detector test."
That alleged search for disloyal staff apparently was not effective, as there have now been leaks to the Daily Beast and New York Magazine, and that could only be the beginning.
Perhaps those who are seeking to remove O'Keefe from his position within the company he founded believe that they are through the roughest seas, that the censorship that has dogged Veritas on social media, including the recent difficulties stemming from reporters confronting a YouTube executive to find out why that platform removed Veritas' video exposing a Pfizer exec, are in the past.
But removing the man who founded the Project Veritas project, who made it what it is today, who has taken slings and arrows from colleagues in media, who has been literally raided by the FBI, whose motives have been disparaged and questioned, and whose life has been turned upside down due to his diligent work exposing finks, phonies and frauds, will not sit well with Veritas' supporters.
Bird flu discovered in seals in Scotland as carcasses found on coastAnd, coincidentally (or not), following those reports the WHO pops up just a week later reminding people to remain afraid, because bird flu could become more infectious to humans:
Four grey and harbour seals found dead in Aberdeenshire, Highlands, Fife and Orkney have been confimed this week as having avian flu.Bird-flu has been found in seals in Scotland after their carcasses were found on coasts across the country. Marine testing of the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza, most commonly found in birds, was detected in four seals this week.© The Scottish Marine Animal Strandings SchemeBird flu has been confirmed in seals in Scotland
'Detected' is not proof of dying due to bird flu.
The virus was confirmed in both harbour and grey seals in Aberdeenshire, Highlands, Fife and Orkney. It is thought that the current outbreak, which began in 2021, is a result of the high numbers of wild birds carrying the disease across the UK.
Scottish Marine Animal Standings Scheme sent samples from six dead seals to be analysed, with four positive tests confirmed yesterday: a grey seal found dead in Aberdeenshire in late 2021; a dead harbour seal in the Highlands in spring 2022; and two more harbour seals in Fife and Orkney that summer.
A statement from the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme reads: "We have just had results back from APHA from samples we sent for influenza virus screening last year. Three out of the four harbour seals and one of the two grey seals from 2021 and early 2022 tested positive for HPAIV H5N1.
"In other words, bird-flu has been confirmed in seals in Scotland. This perhaps isn't that surprising, given last year saw the UK's biggest outbreak of 'flu, almost all due to the H5N1 strain which killed thousands of wild birds and also seen to spill over into foxes and otters.
"It does however raise a lot of questions about the possible disease ecology behind this finding and the possible implications for conservation, particularly of harbour seals. In one case, an adult harbour seal, gross and histopathology revealed a viral meningoencephalitis, meaning influenza was the likely cause of death.
"We're hoping to send more cases for screening to better understand what this means in terms of disease ecology and epidemiology."
Meanwhile, an outbreak was also confirmed in Eurasian otters in Scotland. Four carcasses of the mustelids tested positive for the virus in the Isle of Skye, Shetland and Fife.
Last week, the Record told how highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was discovered at a poultry farm in Fife. A 3km exclusion zone was erected around Woodlea Poultry Farm, near Dunfermline, following the confirmed case last Thursday. In January, over 1,000 hens died after a huge outbreak on a farm in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.
The terminology used is awfully strange, '1000 hens died'; did they die because of bird flu, or were many of them just culled as a precaution? It's a journalist's job to report on the facts and the specifics.
And a fresh bird flu warning was issued in Glasgow last month after 22 swans were found dead at a city park. It followed a confirmed outbreak at Hogganfield Loch in the North East of the city, which killed a further 23 swans.
The current infections are thought to be the worst in Scotland in terms of transmission and mortality rates.
Members of the public have been urged to report cases of dead marine mammals to the Scottish Marine Animal Standings Scheme via reports@strandings.org to experts can better understand to extent and magnitude of the outbreak.
WHO: Don't assume bird flu risk to humans will remain lowSince we can reasonably conclude that the coronavirus was tweaked in a lab to be more infectious, it is possible that something bird flu could become more infectious, and with over 70% of much of the West's population injected with an immuno-compromising experimental covid injection, infections and illnesses of various kinds are on the rise.
The recent spillover of bird flu to mammals has led the World Health Organization to warn that while the risk to humans currently remains low, it cannot be assumed that this will remain the case.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that cases of avian influenza in minks, otters, foxes and sea lions reported in recent weeks need to be monitored closely. "For the moment, the WHO assesses the risk to humans as low," he said. Tedros pointed to the fact that since the emergence of H5N1 in 1996 there has only been "rare and non-sustained" transmission to and between humans.
"But we cannot assume that will remain the case and we must prepare for any change in the status quo," he said.
In October, the H5N1 virus was detected in a mink farm outbreak in Spain's Galicia region. While investigations found mink-to-mink transmission may have taken place at the farm, all staff there tested negative for the virus.
What is it with mink?
Worldwide, four people were infected by the avian flu virus (H5N1) last year, one of whom died, said Christian Lindmeier, WHO spokesperson, in emailed comments.
Avian flu poses an ongoing threat to human health due to its potential to cause a future pandemic and therefore strong disease surveillance remains critical, he said.
The same could be said for a great number of viruses, and yet one wouldn't reasonable call attention to them as a 'threat'.
"Surveillance in animals is important to catch any changes in the virus that have implications for human health," the spokesperson said.
On Wednesday, Tedros called on countries to strengthen their surveillance of areas where humans and animals interact.
The WHO is also working to ensure that if the worst happens, supplies of vaccines and antivirals are available. Tedros said the WHO was continuing to engage with manufacturers on this issue
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