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James O’Keefe breaks in on live CNN call, tells Jeff Zucker he’s been secretly recording calls for months

December 1, 2020 | | Print Article

Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe broke in on a live call to CNN staffers hosted by its president, Jeff Zucker, to inform the network chief that O’Keefe is set to release secret recordings of insider calls allegedly revealing efforts to taint news coverage in favor of a certain political party and its members.

In a video clip posted to social media, O’Keefe is seen cutting in on the phone call to ask for Zucker, who acknowledges and identifies himself.

“I’ve been listening to your CNN calls for basically two months, recording everything,” O’Keefe begins. “Just wanted to ask you some questions if you have a minute.”

O’Keefe proceeds to ask Zucker if he believes his network “is the most trusted name in news because I have to say from what I’ve been hearing on these phone calls, I don’t know about that.”

After a moment, Zucker responded, “Okay, thank you…for your comments. So everybody, in light of that, I think what we’ll do is we’ll, uh…uh…we’ll set up a new system and we’ll be back with you, and we’ll do the rest of the call a little bit later.”

O’Keefe then told Zucker that his group will be releasing the recordings later Tuesday, as the network chief bids everyone on the call good-bye and appears to hang up.

O’Keefe went on to explain his actions, noting that there were still people on the 9 a.m. EDT daily conference call line listening to him.

“We recorded for a while and we have clips of various producers talking, [Zucker] talking, describing their motives, describing their political philosophy, describing how they don’t cover certain things, certain political parties tell them to cover things a certain way,” O’Keefe continued.

He went on to indicate that an insider at CNN was responsible for providing O’Keefe and his group access to the calls, as he noted again that people were still on the call continuing to listen to him.

O’Keefe then jumped back on the call and told those listening “we think it’s important for the American people to know how you make the sausage, how you, to quote Noam Chomsky, ‘manufacture consent,’” a reference to a 1988 book he co-wrote with Edward S. Herman in which they contend the major media exist to “defend the economic, social, and political agendas” of privileged groups.

“Get ready,” O’Keefe goes on to tell viewers watching the livestream, adding that his organization will start releasing recordings at 7 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

In October, Project Veritas released undercover video of various CNN staffers making comments about Zucker and the network’s anti-Trump coverage.

“I haven’t listened to a 9 a.m. call in about 15 years,” Patrick Davis says. “Just…can’t listen to it. It’s all just a bunch of bulls**t. And I wish that wasn’t the case.”

Other CNN staffers made similar comments, including network chief Zucker, who admitted that he was the one responsible for the network’s non-stop coverage of President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

Other comments include:

— “I want to chase the facts, like the motto that CNN put out earlier this year, ‘the facts first,’ that’s what I want the news to be. That’s what it should be. That’s what it used to be.” – CNN staffer Cary Poarch

— “…I hate seeing what we were and what we could be and what we’ve become. It’s just awful…I mean, we could be so much better than what we are…And the buck stops with him (Zucker).” – Patrick Davis

— “We used to cover news. We used to go out and do stories…But Trump is more important.” – Senior Field Engineer Scott Garber

— “He (Zucker) basically said f**k all the other stories.” – Media Coordinator Nick Neville

— “And you learn it in journalism school, we’re supposed to be middle of the road, that’s our job. Now it’s just infotainment is all it’s become. There is no true media news outlet.” — Patrick Davis

“I want CNN and any other outlet to basically return to what they once were, where hey, we tune in to get our facts. We can make up our minds left, right, center, whatever. Cool, and we go on with our lives. I don’t want anyone to basically, you know, be spun into believing or programmed into believing one way or the other. That’s not what I’m about and that’s why I’m coming forward.” — Cary Poarch

https://twitter.com/WeTheInevitable/status/1333799756041076737

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Jon Dougherty
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