It Has Not Been A Good Week For Successful Stings: A Two Part Blog Special- Part 1
Well if there’s one thing we learned this week, it’s that it’s not as easy as it looks to run an effective sting. I've broken this up into two blogs because I have a short attention span and I assume you do as well. Our first example comes from the one and only, Washington Post!
A woman who falsely claimed to The Washington Post that Roy Moore, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, impregnated her as a teenager appears to work with an organization that uses deceptive tactics to secretly record conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets.
In a series of interviews over two weeks, the woman shared a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship with Moore in 1992 that led to an abortion when she was 15. During the interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore’s candidacy if she went public.
The Post did not publish an article based on her unsubstantiated account. When Post reporters confronted her with inconsistencies in her story and an Internet posting that raised doubts about her motivations, she insisted that she was not working with any organization that targets journalists.
Full story of how dumb this was here.
So you’ve probably already seen this from last week. Basically a woman went to the Washington Post falsely claiming to have been impregnated by Roy Moore. It ends up she’s connected to Project Veritas, an organization that in the past has targeted several media organizations. It appears that her goal, and the goal of her group, was to plant misinformation and then expose the Post to discredit other accusers of Moore. Fortunately for the Washington Post and those of us who don't try to make a living doing nasty things, reporters did a thorough enough background check to doubt some of her claims, and then spotted her entering Project Veritas headquarters; confirming their suspicions and ending said sting, once and for all.
Hmmm leading people right back to your lair, huh? Well, I’ll tell you this much- you can’t do that! Have you any seen any spy movie ever? You guys every heard of dead drops? Clandestine meetings? Not leaving a paper trail that leads directly to your organization? Fuck, this is stuff I learned from one season of Homeland. You can’t just lead the people you’re lying to right back to the headquarters of the organization in charge of said lying! You’ve got to be aware when you pick up a tail! That’s Spying 101! This is just pathetic sting-planning on every level, two thumbs down! James O'Keefe (head of Project Veritas), you certifiably stink at spying!
P.S. Kudos to the Washington Post for avoiding what would have been a terrible shit storm.
