The mastermind behind a recent “sting” that tried — and failed — to reveal crooked reporting practices at The Washington Post is scheduled to speak on Wednesday at Southern Methodist University.
James O’Keefe, founder and president of Project Veritas, will speak at the invitation of the SMU chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, a politically conservative student group.
A woman who appeared to be an employee of Project Veritas recently offered the Post fake claims of sexual assault against Roy S. Moore, Alabama’s embattled Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, seemingly hoping to reveal bias by the news organization and to persuade it to publish the tale.
The sting backfired when the Post wrote an exposé on the operation instead of taking the bait, detailing how reporters and editors had figured out the undercover Veritas operative was a phony.
Veritas’s operation was widely criticized as both an attack on the news organization, which has recently reported several accusations of improper sexual behavior against Mr. Moore, and an insult to actual victims of sexual assault.
A statement by the student leadership of Young Americans for Freedom stopped short of endorsing Mr. O’Keefe’s tactics, instead framing the appearance as an opportunity to foster dialogue with a controversial figure.
“We view this event as a platform for our peers and Dallas community members to engage in firsthand dialogue with Mr. O’Keefe by hearing his perspective directly,” the statement said.
The group has “never encouraged student activists to pursue undercover investigations,” the statement said. “In what manner Mr. O’Keefe chooses to engage in his work at Project Veritas is up to him.”
