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James O'Keefe Project Veritas 'CNN Leaks' fall flat

For a few days, Project Veritas founder and conservative activist James O'Keefe has been hyping the release of what he said were hundreds of hours of undercover audio recordings of employees at CNN.

Some staffers at CNN were legitimately alarmed that O'Keefe would be releasing tapes that could be embarrassing for the network. O'Keefe is known for his undercover video recordings, though questions over deceptive editing and concerns about the questionable tactics used to obtain those recordings have plagued some of his prior work. Before releasing the tapes Thursday, O'Keefe was featured on The Drudge Report and on Sean Hannity's radio show, where he previewed their release.

Instead, what O'Keefe released on Thursday landed with a dull thud in the media world. Though not all the hours of tapes have been made available for review, and damning recordings could still come out, O'Keefe made clear the audio he obtained is from 2009 and for the most part features lower-level staffers at the network.

In Project Veritas' news release about the tapes, the first highlighted segment are two producers talking about the use of certain polls and why then-CNN polling director (now NH1 News political director and anchor) Paul Steinhauser declined to use a poll by Rasmussen, a group whose polling methods are still not widely accepted. Another highlight is of an assignment desk editor saying "Fox News is unbearable," and a news desk editor talking about how "there's no debate" about climate change.

What got the most attention on social media, though, was the unusual highlighting of a well-known quote that role of journalism is “aiding the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.” But Project Veritas portrayed the situation as Richard Griffiths, now vice president and senior editorial director, being "caught explaining" the role of a journalist.

Here is Griffiths' quote, as “caught” by Project Veritas:

"If we are journalists, what is our role as a journalist? What is the fundamental role as a journalist, for us to do? Tell a story. Tell what's going on. There's a secondary corollary to that, right? Aid the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. To a degree, right? Is that not part of the traditional role of a journalist. It's actually one of the things I can be most proud of as a journalist. You know we try to show the ugly side of humanity so we can do something about it. It's hard, very hard."

O'Keefe suggested in a video that CNN is now working on afflicting President Donald Trump. The phrase "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," though sometimes attributed to H.L. Mencken, is best known for its use in the 1960 film "Inherit The Wind." Poynter reported that the first known use of the phrase was from 1902, written by journalist and humorist Finley Peter Dunne.

O'Keefe says he isn't done. He's calling on volunteers to comb through the 119 hours of raw tape, and is offering a $10,000 reward of "content that exposes media malfeasance." Shortly after the tapes were released, The Drudge Report shifted the focus from the tapes to O'Keefe placing "a bounty" on the media by offering the reward.

When reached for response, a CNN spokesperson said "I don't think there's anything to comment on."

Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico.