US Activist Group Project Veritas Says Court Battle With CNN Over Blackout Tapes Unlikely

Neil McCabe, the communications director at the Project Veritas independent media organization, in a comment to Sputnik cast doubt on the possibility that CNN would follow through on its threats and engage in a real legal battle, after the independent website posted a recording of what seems to be a board meeting in which CNN chief Jeff Zucker had ordered editors to suppress a story about projected US President-elect Joe Biden family's dubious links to a Ukrainian energy company

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th December, 2020) Neil McCabe, the communications director at the Project Veritas independent media organization, in a comment to Sputnik cast doubt on the possibility that CNN would follow through on its threats and engage in a real legal battle, after the independent website posted a recording of what seems to be a board meeting in which CNN chief Jeff Zucker had ordered editors to suppress a story about projected US President-elect Joe Biden family's dubious links to a Ukrainian energy company.

In October, the New York Post published two letters allegedly sent by Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, to Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, who served as an adviser for the Burisma board of directors at a time when his father was in charge of Ukraine policy in the administration of former president, Barack Obama. In one of the letters dated April 17, 2015, Pozharskyi thanked Hunter Biden for organizing a meeting with his father, while in the other one he asked Hunter how he could use his "influence" to support the Ukrainian company. Notably, Joe Biden has said he had nothing to do with his younger son's work for Burisma.

One of the recordings published by Project Veritas presents Zucker allegedly telling his staff to avoid covering the Burisma story, noting that "we should not be repeating unsubstantiated smears just because the right-wing media suggests that we should."

On Tuesday, Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe filmed himself calling into a CNN network's meeting saying that his organization had been secretly recording the network's conference calls and pressing Zucker on the network's journalistic integrity.

"Jeff Zucker, the outgoing president of CNN, actively suppresses news and then hypes other stories.

Not because the stories are true or because the stories are false. But because the stories either fit Zucker's worldview or they don't, so Hunter Biden and his laptop and the correspondence and images found on that laptop did not fit Jeff Zucker's political agenda or his narrative. And so the order went to suppress it," McCabe said.

CNN Communications did not confirm or deny the authenticity of recordings, but tweeted, citing "legal experts," that the leak of the tapes "may be a felony," adding that the company had "referred it to law enforcement."

"Listen, the statement about contacting law enforcement and a felony came from the CNN PR staff - it didn't come from their lawyers, right? That was a PR stunt by the PR staff. The police aren't knocking on our door. They didn't name any legal experts, maybe law enforcement. The whole thing is ridiculous," he said.

At the same time, McCabe noted that Project Veritas is ready for court proceedings with any media outlet that is suppressing or hyping stories based on someone's political agenda or worldview.

It is worth mentioning that most of the US media followed CNN's lead in avoiding to cover the story about the emails sent to Hunter Biden, while Twitter blocked the New York Post account for two weeks, and Facebook limited its audience reach.

Sputnik has reached out to CNN for a comment but has not received a reply so far.

Project Veritas is a far-right activist media group in the US founded by O'Keefe in 2010. The group is known for using undercover techniques to capture proof of what it says is liberal bias and corruption in mainstream media, as well as for producing deceptively edited videos about media organizations.