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The primary reason the world knows that Planned Parenthood harvests and sells baby body parts is thanks to independent, undercover investigative journalism. Thanks to David Daleiden, we know what the abortion industry giant really is: a taxpayer-funded baby-killing and commodifying organization. But Daleidens’ The Center for Medical Progress—the only one of the two organizations charged with (trumped-up) felonies brought by none other that Kamala Harris—is not alone in its efforts.
From PJ Media:
On Monday, Project Veritas sued the State of Oregon, claiming that the state’s ban on secret audio recording violates the First Amendment. Project Veritas Founder James O’Keefe announced the lawsuit in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, the federal courthouse that violent antifa rioters repeatedly attacked, night after night, during the nearly 90 days of George Floyd riots in Portland.
“O’Keefe said Oregon’s recording laws ‘prohibit us from going undercover inside these protests to figure out what was going on.'”
“’We have already overturned Massachusetts recording law, now we’re going to do the same in Oregon,’ O’Keefe added.”
In case you’re not familiar with the organization, Project Veritas—who routinely brings its audience undercover videos—has been on the forefront of the very thing noticeably lacking in mainstream journalism today: in-depth investigation and exposés.
And few have put up a greater wall against prying eyes than the Powers That Be in Oregon, where the domestic arm of the DNC—aka Antifa—has raged through the streets, night after night, for over three straight months, mostly unchallenged and un-jailed. And, of course, mostly under-reported by the leftist mainstream media.
More from PJ Media:
Ben Barr, one of the attorneys filing the suit on behalf of Project Veritas, explained, ‘Oregon law currently makes it a criminal act to record a protest, or an interview, or nearly any other interaction without clear and conspicuous notice to anyone whose voice might be recorded.'”
“The lawsuit brings three claims against Oregon’s recording law: that it discriminates against certain forms of speech (by allowing citizens to record police in some circumstances, but barring most forms of recording); that it violates the First Amendment’s freedom of the press by denying the right to record secretly; and that it allows the state to ‘punish journalists for publishing truthful information.'”
“Project Veritas already embedded a reporter within Rose City Antifa in 2018 and released the videos in June 2020. However, the recording laws have ‘chilled’ Project Veritas and Project Veritas Action from ‘exercising their First Amendment rights.’ Were it not for the recording laws, Project Veritas ‘would engage in several journalism projects in the state immediately and in years to come.'”
And that’s exactly the goal of Oregon’s law: hide the truth.
Now, back in the day I was a journalism major, and one of the things we learned—along with eliminating our own biases; novel idea, I know—was that people out in public have little to no expectation of privacy. That means anyone in a public space can be photographed, filmed, and/or recorded by the media without violating anyone’s right to privacy. At least that’s what we were taught then.
And then there’s this quintessentially American thing called “freedom of the press,” enshrined in our Bill of Rights, that’s supposed to restrain government from hindering the press’s right to pen and publish whatever they wish (with, of course, a nod to libel and slander laws that are sometimes even respected).
Project Veritas—like it or not, lefties—are independent journalists; they’re what journalism used to be, where undercover investigations, including recordings, were routinely used to tell stories that might not otherwise see the light of day. These days, though, “journalism” has diminished itself to parroting other “journalists” (who are often flat-out-wrong, either unintentionally or otherwise; see the Nick Sandmann lawsuit settlements), and asking stupid “gotcha” questions of the press secretary and then misinterpreting her answers for their gullible viewers.
But the truth is this: the lefty media doesn’t want us to know what’s transpiring in cities across America; cities dominated by Democrats for decades; cities like Portland…
New report confirms what we all knew: Mayor @tedwheeler instructed police to stand down in the face of riots. Having no opposition, antifa then strategically worked to develop a system to main the riots now for almost 3 months. https://t.co/rpXiUXOvQI
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 24, 2020
And Baltimore…
Kim Klacik, a congressional candidate for the 7th District which includes large swaths of Baltimore County, planned to encourage fellow Republican candidates not to “write off” inner cities Monday on the first night of the GOP’s national convention. https://t.co/tR5KQLjb4O
— Catonsville Times (@CatonsvilleTms) August 24, 2020
And New York…
I was in NYC for a total of 43 hours. Within that time, I witnessed a dozen crimes, rampant drug use, pandhandlers & squeegee guys, 3 dozen homeless, and two possible dead guys that dozens of NY’ers walked by without a second look. The city smells & was dirty AF. pic.twitter.com/UyUuqVgHK8
— Rob O'Donnell (@odonnell_r) August 24, 2020
No, the left and their media arm want us to believe that it’s our president who’s to blame for the rioting, looting, and murders occurring daily since they collectively exploited the death of George Floyd, an event that initially had the country united in indignation. But they’re not seeking unity as happened in South Carolina after that horrific church shooting; they’re stoking a divisive race war, and unified outrage wouldn’t bring that manufactured crisis about like 24/7 “white privilege” and “black lives matter” narratives would. No, they’re not interested in reporting objectively and holding those who hold power to account. Rather, they’ve become complicit in cover-up after cover-up, and willful cheerleaders for the Democratic Party, the wake of burned-out businesses, brutalized citizens, and dead Americans of all stripes be damned.
The First Amendment is the bedrock of America, and it’s the right guaranteed in our Constitution that is most at-risk today. And IF Oregon had a fair and objective legal system, it would decide on behalf of Project Veritas on its “freedom of the press” argument alone, including undercover investigations and recordings of domestic terrorists that just might expose their handlers. But if you know anything about how independent journalists have been treated at the hands of law enforcement and prosecutors in that state—and that likely includes complicity by the governor herself—you know that it’s highly unlikely that Veritas will prevail in its lawsuit. See exhibits A, B, and C.
And that is the world—a world where there’s justice for some, and where dissent is punished with the full weight of the federal government—we’ll all be living in should we make the grievous mistake of electing a communist puppet to the highest office in the land. After all, the Democratic presidential nominee has already served in an administration that oversaw, for starters, the surveillance of numerous journalists, a conservative filmmaker jailed on a charge rarely enforced, and political opposition spied on in an effort to derail his candidacy and then his administration, all of which are apparently a-ok with the DNC and its media sycophants, and that includes those sitting in positions of power in Oregon.
So while I hold out little hope for Mr. O’Keefe to prevail in his lawsuit, I’m certain that his Project Veritas won’t give up doing whatever it can to expose corruption and extremist threats to our great nation, and that likely includes embedding undercover independent journalists inside the domestic terrorist wings of the Democratic Party. For without independent journalists like O’Keefe and Daleiden, we’re nothing more than a Banana Republic ripe for the left’s taking.
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