James O'Keefe's 'CNN-Leaks' Fall Flat

James O'Keefe

For a few days earlier this week, 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, according to Politico.