James O'Keefe video has New York Times management reeling

Hats off to James O'Keefe and Project Veritas (donate here – please!) for another video that is rocking a major progressive institution to its foundations.  This time, it is not Planned Parenthood executives selling baby body parts, but rather Nicholas Dudich, an unhinged editor at the New York Times (the video labels it "American Pravda") boasting about his ability to get biased coverage published.

The video and a summary of its content can be found below.

So blatant is the self-described misbehavior that the Times tasked its vice president of "comms," Danielle Rhoades Ha, with a response:

Based on what we've seen in the Project Veritas video, it appears that a recent hire in a junior position violated our ethical standards and misrepresented his role. In his role at The Times, he was responsible for posting already published video on other platforms and was never involved in the creation or editing of Times videos. We are reviewing the situation now.

In 63 words, Ms. Ha manages to:

  1. Distance the Times from its responsibility for its own editor ("recent hire in a junior position").
  2. Claim that the Times actually has ethical standards.
  3. Distance the Times from any content its own employee posted to its own website ("was never involved in the creation or editing of Times videos").
  4. Gain time to figure out what to do next.

James O'Keefe has made it clear that more videos are to follow.  Showman that he is, he is saving the really juicy stuff for a bit later.  So the Times has got to be frantically asking people if they have ever shot off their mouths to someone they didn't know particularly well.  I'd really love to see how that memo is worded, and I hope that somebody will leak it.

The heart of the problem is that the Times people live in what I call the Blue Bubble, where everyone shares their prejudices.  In the mentality of most urban progressives, one gains approval, acceptance, and prestige by cleverly expressing contempt for the "other" upon whom they look down with contempt: Trump and the racist morons who foisted him upon "us."

"They" are seen as a threat to all that urban progressives hold dear.

There is a good analogy to the way Germans and Japanese were commonly demonized and made fun of during World War II.  People were encouraged to make jokes, use derisive names, and otherwise pillory the enemy.  As far as residents of Manhattan in particular are concerned, it is perfectly acceptable to say things about Trump, Republicans, conservatives, and the less urbane populace that would offend a broad swath of Americans.  If it is done cleverly, it is rewarded.

So the notion that people are wandering around with hidden cameras and publicizing the results has got to be terrifying, once they think it through.

Who knows?  Maybe it will make people think about changing their behavior.

 If you have not seen the video, here it is:

 

If you don’t have 15 minutes to spend on the video, Joel Pollak of Breitbart does an excellent job of summarizing the major revelations:

In the videoNew York Times Audience Strategy Editor Nicholas Dudich claims to have worked on social media for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and to have worked on his 2012 re-election effort. He also says he was a volunteer media strategist for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, making her videos more “heartfelt.” Now, he says in the video, “I will be ‘objective.’ No, I’m not. That’s why I’m there. Like, after the Clinton campaign, I’m like, no I need to get back into news and keep doing shit because, like, this isn’t going to change.”

In the Project Veritas video, he is shown expressing his ideas for bringing President Trump down: “I’d target his businesses, his dumb f**k of a son, Donald Jr., and Eric, so they’re running Trump, like, the Trump business. … And you put pressure on his business and you start investigating his business and you start shutting it down. … He cares about his business more than he cares about being President. … He would resign.”

Bizarrely, Dudich then claims that former FBI director James Comey is his “godfather,” but it is not clear whether he meant that literally: “I’ve met him. He’s a great guy, actually. … [H]e’s my godfather. … My dad and mom knew him and his wife for a really long time.” Although Dudich is shown speaking to a Project Veritas reporter down the street from the Times‘ main New York office, it is not clear where this particular portion of the video, among others, was shot. Dudich then is shown admitting that according to Times policies, he should have recused himself from editing videos on Comey’s testimony before Congress, but did not — and that he could lose his job at the Times if anyone knew.

In yet another bizarre portion of the Project Veritas video, Dudich seems to suggest that he was an undercover FBI informant as a member of the radical, violent left-wing Antifa organization (“I used to be an AntiFa punk once upon a time”), gathering “intelligence” as to whether they were involved in “domestic terrorism.” When asked if Comey was aware of his activities in Antifa, he answers: “I cannot confirm or deny that information.”

 

If you experience technical problems, please write to helpdesk@americanthinker.com