In the wake of his public split from Project Veritas, investigative reporter James O’Keefe has launched a new venture that aims to put the power of the media in the hands of everyday people.
The goal, he said, is to “decentralize” journalism.
“What if there was a way to empower and mobilize journalists, citizen journalists, and decentralize journalism—you know, in the same way that Uber did for the taxi?” O’Keefe asked The Epoch Times’ Senior Editor Jan Jekielek, host of American Thought Leaders, in a March 16 interview.
“What if there was a way to do that for thousands and thousands of people?” he wondered. “You might say, ‘Well, that’s impossible, that’s too difficult.’ Well, that’s the mission that I’m embarking upon. And I think that I have the ability to do that.”
O’Keefe launched his new media company, O’Keefe Media Group, on March 15, roughly three weeks after he was ousted from his position as board chairman and CEO at Project Veritas—the undercover journalism organization he founded in 2010—amid an investigation of his spending habits.
“When you’re really good at something, they’re going to try to tear you down,” O’Keefe said on Thursday. “Envy, resentment, ego, power, control, what have you. And I experienced that. But I don’t think it’s a bad thing.
“Ultimately, I think it’s a blessing because it taught me a lot and we got to … build something on a grander scale. It sort of liberated me to achieve the mission that I’ve always wanted to achieve, which is to decentralize and to build a vast army of citizen exposures.”
The Pfizer Exposé
O’Keefe explained that the idea for his new venture stemmed from his last major story with Project Veritas—an exposé in which a Pfizer executive was recorded stating that the drugmaker was “exploring” ways of mutating SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
O’Keefe revealed that Debbie Bernal, one of the two whistleblowers Project Veritas worked with on that story, was initially afraid to reveal her identity because she “doesn’t want to end up in a body bag.”
By Samantha Flom and Jan Jekielek
