Next up on booktv, a book party for james okeefe. His newest book is called american this is booktv on cspan2. [inaudible conversations] 25[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] six civilizations of the very [inaudible conversations] [national anthem] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [applause] good evening. Thank you for coming and i just flew in literally, from colorado. And it is not often that i would rush from my mountaintop in the Rocky Mountains to come to the swamp. [laughter] as many of you know i am a refugee from the swamp about almost 10 years ago, made a decision to leave after being here for nearly a decade to raise my family out in the Rocky Mountain west. But i would pretty much crawl over broken glass to do anything that james okeefe asked me to do. Because he is, in my view, one of the most important figures in modern american journalism. [applause] this is my copy of American Pravda. And most t. V. Interviewers, with the exception of cspan, they do not do this when i have authors on. I actually read the book. From cover to cover i am a homeschool teacher for my ninth grade son. And when the most important things that i teach as a homeschooler and talk about public enemies in american society, homeschooler, one of the most important things i do as an english teacher is to teach the importance of reading closely and annotating. And among the beltway journalism set, reading a book in preparation for interviewing an author constitutes the washington read. And those of you in the business will know that means looking in the index for your name. [laughter] so, one of the questions that i have tackled in the 25 years that i have spent in both old and new media and old, new media is who gets to define a journalist. And perhaps, the most important act that james okeefe has committed has been the gathering of an Incredible Group of citizen journalists who have smashed the club. [applause] and the problem with so much of the beltway media and the j school minted credentialed media as they think that they are the only ones to get to define who is a journalist. And the thing that i admire about james okeefe and his team and those who seek to follow in his footsteps, is that their goal is not to be a part of the club. Their goal is to smash the club. [applause] i did not go to journalism school. And i believe that the modern j school is one of the worst gorges of American Public life. And there were two sides of a corrupt coin that have caused so much of the problem with the dissemination and consumption of news and information in the modern age. And the two sides of that flip coin are identity politics and identity journalism. It is not a coincidence that the most valuable journalists who happen to be conservative, libertarian or define themselves somewhere along the spectrum from center to right. We are shaped in the correct space, not the safe space of american universities that have minted this corrupt coin of identity politics and identity journalism. James, as many of you know, first came into the public spotlight for his brilliant deconstruction of identity politics. As a student at rutgers, when he said he was triggered by lucky charms. [laughter] i have similar experiences. Believe it or not it was a english major at oberlin college. I survived oberlin, they did not survive me. [laughter] at oberlin, my introduction to identity politics, which occurred ai am 14 years older than jane so i suppose talking about this with someone in the elevator it made me feel very old. To try to identify which number of wave, our generation conservative journalism is work. I guess i would be the second. The violent intolerance of the left, when james and i have in common, not only that we are both jersey kids. By the way. He was a little more north than i was. I grew up in the shadow of the trump casinos in atlantic city. Maybe not. But the thing we have in common is seeing the poison of identity politics up close and having to make a choice. Either to sit on the sidelines or to confront it. So, then when i embarked on my own journalism career and i still to this day identify myself as identify at all. Not as a journalist as color but as a journalist who believes in telling the truth without hyphens and without boxes. And [applause] in my case i did not have the same clever inspiration to do what james did. Which was to embark on this experiment will you force the progressives and the identity politics purveyors to have to apply their own standards to themselves as fantastic. [laughter] but i had a very nontraditional path to my identification as when i still call today, an ink stained wretch. What i loved was newspapers. And in reading American Pravda, one of the things that share passionate, so greatly with james is the history of american journalism. And i was passing by on the way from the airport. This is an issue of cosmopolitan. And i dont know how many of you know this. We are at the National Press club so theres probably some he does realize this. But at one point in the golden age of muckraking and james okeefe is our textbook muckraker of american journalism. Cosmopolitan was not actually just a collection of smut and tips it was actually a bible and one of the breeding grounds for muckrakers. Some of james is favorite muckrakers ida tarbell and sinclair lewis, were in this magazine. [laughter] one of the points that james makes it is so important is that all of the modern journalists, wish i was a journalists we are talking about them like that. The same way that when they always attacked those of us as racist. With 20 vowels in there. These journalists who question our journalism have no idea that what james and his team are doing is restoring the greatness of american investigative journalism. Restoring it. [applause] one of my favorite journalists and writers was hl mencken. I want to redo something that he wrote. That is so relevant today and so relevant to james his work and his message in this book. Much more than half of the amount of the american newspapers print every days interesting only to relatively small minorities. And thats no wonder that the average leader was only a small part in pauls instant mental habit of taking a small part lately. The more reflective reader goes further. He reads next to nothing and believes the same amount precisely. Why should he read will believe more . Every time he goes on something that infringes upon his own knowledge he discovers at once that it is inaccurate. The essential difficulty here is that journalism to be intellectual be respectable requires equipment and has practitioner that is necessarily rare in the world and especially where in a country given over to the superficial. They should have the widest range of knowledge and should be the sort of man who is not easily diluted by the fraudulent. Obviously there are not enough such men to go around. The best newspaper which one can substitute broadcast outlet for that matter, may be able to muster half a dozen at a given moment but the average newspaper, or maybe an outlet some seldom has one. Thus, american journalism is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretension are enormous but its achievements are insignificant. Even at its fundamental business of ascertaining and reporting what has happened in the world, it fails miserably. 4 5 of the socalled news at prince is dubious and a very large proportion is downright false. Cliff notes version. Fake news. [applause] james and his team have garnered headlines and forced the false narrative purveyors to cover news that they would rather cover up a shear force. When i first started out in this business, there were very few outlets for getting at the truth. Its been a miracle to see the proliferation of choices. These pose threats to the old monopoly and what im hoping is that james and his team and this book, which should be assigned in every j school in america. [applause] will continue this legacy of part american muckraking. Actually have a gift for james later. It is a newspaper that covered Theodore Roosevelt 1906 speech where he essentially, actually didnt use the term muckraking but of course, he alluded to pilgrims progress. Where the phrase initially came from. And it was about had given a speech when he was laying the cornerstone of the Cannon House Office building. And at once, he acknowledged the importance of the mcgregor and muckraker. If that is all you did you get pretty depressed. What i love about james and his team is that in the spirit of happy warriors, whether it was regular breitbart or the current generation of warriors into the future that they are doing the muckraking that the journalists refused to do. But they do it with an undercover camera as well as an eye towards the light. Its truth and light. And it is my distinct honor to introduce to you the man with the most great. A team of undercover operatives. Someone who sheds light, not only on this but all the dark corners of the country. Please help me welcome, james okeefe. [applause] thank you. Thank you very much michelle. That was heartening and a wonderful introduction. I especially like the reference to teddy roosevelt. I also like another thing that michelle said. She said the word team. And at veritas have one of the most unbelievable teams of any Media Company you will ever see. We have some 50 People Associated with an organization not including many of the agents and sources inside of the institutions. And we have the best media team, the best Production Team you can possibly imagine. Of undercover people who do not have a beilein are risking their own skins to do this. Often times, the risk fear of humiliation will be in compromise. We have an amazing team at project veritas. I am here today to say what about this book. American pravda. The last two days the chief Operations Officer of twitter has resigned. [applause] seemingly out of nowhere according to reports. That is in the wake of a series of undercover videos into twitter. There was a lack of a prepared replacement for the coo would seem to indicate it took everyone at twitter by surprise. Those videos brought Silicon Valley and frankly, wrapped the Technology Media companies that report on Silicon Valley. According to a prominent investor website, project veritas published scathing video of twitter employees bragging about censoring the post of the politically conservative and a Senior Engineer saying they want the term President Trump messages over to the department of justice. This can be good for twitter stop. Stay tuned. Interesting to see. I will start this, interesting to see twitter brass and interesting to watch what they said to the media and how they reported it. They did not express criticism George Orwell horror court extensively in this book, American Pravda and i do believe one day this book may be required reading in various journalism schools. He said something probably all have heard. Journalism is printing something nobody else wants printed and Everything Else is public relations. I call it modern media the political marketing industry. This is typical for the 20th century. Twitter responded by saying we do not proactively review direct messages. Headlines in major media i will quote them. These are Mainstream Media outlets like buzzfeed, techcrunch. Quote twitter says no. Hundreds of twitter employees are not reading your tms. Another headline. Twitter denies claims. They are reading your tms. Techcrunch. Twitter hits back again at claims that it plays on monitoring dms. So the media just blindly reporting what theyre being told on the record. When a dozen engineers off the regular same exact opposite. And this is my favorite comic. Buzzfeed reported charlie one a real quote twitter disputes the claim from okeefes video today. Well it wasnt my claim. [laughter] it was the Senior Network security engineer, not a low level it guy. The Senior Network security engineer is said and i quote the Senior Network security are not okeefe quote we have hundreds of engineers at twitter who look at i did not say that. [laughter] i did not create the quote. But okeefe claims and it is just, journalism has become a kind of perversion. Its become a joke. And there was an interview with jordan peterson. I dont know if youve seen it, you should watch it. It has 5 million views on youtube and he expresses a false dichotomy. Putting words into peoples melts, creating false narrative. It has become a joke the only way we can circumvent the joke is due the power of cinema vcritc. That is the latin word for truth. And as the imagery of our society and images of the power to transfixed and to quote Michael Goodwin of the New York Post wrote a great review of the book on sunday said that he actually changed his mind. About me and about what we do. He said, this gives me to another reason for change in view of veritas of james okeefe. The reprehensible conduct of socalled legitimate news organizations. They are also guilty of deception by pretending to offer straight news. When they function my propaganda outlets. What is goodman saying there . Is any real deception is not in what we do. Losing alias to build trust with somebody. To draw them out. The real deception is passing along information to the consumer that is not itself true. Like the twitter headlines i just reported you are not grounded in reality. And that is not necessarily for political reasons. Sometimes it is economic reasons. Because it is not safe to rock the boat. And it is not a right wing philosophy. There was a book written called manufacturing consent about that very thing. In a quote that in this book. They may criticize our ethics. That is the number one thing you hear and read about me in this city. But falsehoods spread from the podium and from those who speak on the record. And that often times plays a far more pernicious effect on society. When journalists do not challenge what they are told. Where is the virtue in passing along that information . Is that not deception . Is that not worse for our democracy . Then in challenging what people tell us . So we go undercover. Why . Because we want to tell the truth to our audience. That is the most important virtue and that is why these tactics are justifiable. False speech to an individual can paradoxically equate truth to the masses. Truth to the masses is the most paramount thing in journalism. There will state okeefe, youre not a journalist. Call me Spongebob Squarepants or captain kangaroo. For a meat popsicle. It doesnt matter what you call me. It matters what we do. Journalism is an activity, not an identity. You are what you repeatedly do. Journalism is a way of being. And by any measure, project veritas has had just as many results in less 15 years than any journalist in the 21st century. [applause] voter id laws passed Election Officials resigning, ceos, mpr resigning, medicaid workers resigning, work is being retrained, fired. Both houses of congress. Democratically controlled houses of congress defunded a federal organization. I dont even think the republicans can do that. [laughter] but, why . Because video transfixed is. Video builds a moral consensus. If we patrol the boundaries of the moral order, testing and affirming what and what is not an outreach to that order. So they say you are not a journalist. But i say it is a way of being. Except one undercover journalist. We dug deep in this book and tell a lot of stories. He says the task is to deceive in order not to be deceived. You break the rules of the game. We do break rules are part of veritas. The roles of the journalism gods. And set another 20 century much quicker quote the journalist job is to get through the palace guards to break through the palace guards. Upton sinclair was hated in his day. Hated by the new york media so much so he had to open a press office for six months and do nothing but battle the journalist who hated his guts. History remembers him fondly. They say okeefe, you have an agenda. Upton sinclair had a much for bigger agenda than i did. He cared about workers rights. It is not about the techniques. It is about whose side you are perceived to be on. I say it is really about the facts. Journalists, janitors, schoolteachers, longshoremen, secret shoppers, we pose as secret shoppers, terrorists, drug dealers, rape victims, child abusers, child victims, russian drug mafia smugglers, and anything you can imagine and those are the only ones that you know about. [applause] purchased a bar and benefit an entire year. That is far far more than weve ever done there were denied a Pulitzer Prize because of how elaborate the deception was good the use of a concealed tape recorder. This is according to some, at least when one party is present is not nearly the moral quandary. They would have us believe. Really it is not an invasion of privacy. Youre talking to a stranger. He can write down what you say and walked out of the room. It is not an act of deception. It is not a form of eavesdropping. At least when one party is present. Does not constitute entrapment. Because we are not the government here we cannot get people to say things they otherwise wouldnt say. I dont put words into melts. They say i made your lips move using cgi. I was using a borrowed copy on my macbook air but this is what people say because they can accept the reality. They cannot accept the truth. We think that what we do is not just ethical but necessary. It is not about techniques. Not in the abstract isnt. It is about something deeper. The framers of this country created government that only exist with the consent of the governed. With that consent it must be informed not manufactured. We had veritas in this vision, have this creed that is not the same as many people in the media. What we believe is the power of free people. Given the basic facts about the world they live in, they will make the right decisions. It is that simple. We want them to trust their senses. The founders of journal