CBS News was caught lying about the severity by the conservative watchdog group Project Veritas — and then leaked emails show how the liberal news outlet tried to minimize the damage.
CBS’ national news center was caught staging a fake coronavirus testing event, according to Project Veritas president James O’Keefe.
A whistleblower came forward with the information, including video confession of a medical expert saying that CBS News told them they were going put actors in the footage they were filming.
“You’re telling me you’re 100 percent certain that CBS News Corporation, national, staged a fake event,” the video shows O’Keefe asking the unnamed whistleblower. “They faked the news. They faked the reality to all of their audience … on ‘CBS This Morning’?”
“100 percent,” the whistleblower replies. “Absolutely.”
The footage that was aired was played for a national audience on Friday, May 1, the whistleblower claimed, in a segment involving the state of coronavirus testing in America. In Michigan, CBS News reportedly used footage that included actors that were staged to make the testing facility more crowded than it really was.
In the video, O’Keefe shared a telephone call with a supervisor from the Cherry Health, a nonprofit health clinic in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“Apparently, [CBS News] wanted more people in line [for coronavirus testing] because they knew it was scheduled,” Nick Ross, the Corporate Cleaning Site Supervisor of the testing center, told O’Keefe.
The footage includes a Registered Nurse seen on an undercover video complaining that CBS News had forced them to act like they were treating fake patients.
“We knew [CBS News was] coming, but we had no clue that we were going to have to, like, treat fake patients,” she’s seen saying on camera. Another health professional is also shown talking about how CBS News ordered healthcare workers to “make it look busy for the news” by pretending to treat patients that were only acting.
As the video continues, more and more health care workers are seen in undercover footage talking with the whistleblower.
One complains the CBS News staged event took away medical personal and resources from real patients and delayed their care. “We even had real patients” mixed in with the actors “which made it even worse,” an infectious disease expert is heard saying.
In response to the accusation, CBS News edited a portion of their “CBS This Morning” segment and removed the footage featuring the faked testing line.
The network, however, denied the claim that CBS News used a faked scene with actors in their news report. Cherry Health CEO Tasha Blackmon also denied helping to fake footage. “We and CBS News had nothing to do with that line,” she reportedly told Project Veritas.
In a separate statement, CBS News said they “did not stage anything at the Cherry Health facility. Any suggestion to the contrary is 100% false. These allegations are alarming.”
Again… not true, O’Keefe said. And he had proof.
O’Keefe released a leaked email between the CEO of Cherry Health and the CBS News reporter in question from that night — and it seems to show they worked together to organize the fake patients.
The email contradicted both statements of denial.
“I am learning that some of our staff may have been hanging around the testing tent and some may have pulled their cars up to get in the video and/or make it look a bit busier,” the CEO’s email states.
“I am sure many staff were anxious to show you how busy things can get some times.”
BREAKING: @Project_Veritas just obtained an email that occurred last night between @CherryHealthMI CEO Tasha Blackmon and @CBSNews reporter @adrianasdiaz that conflicts with on the record statements given by both organizations.#ExposeCBS pic.twitter.com/ZGXFAz15ud
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) May 6, 2020
In other words, CBS News reporter was reporting on a scene with faked patients — and knew about it.
This isn’t the first time CBS News has been caught sharing faked footage during the deadly Wuhan virus pandemic.
In April, CBS News used footage from inside an overwhelmed Italian hospital and claimed it was from New York City.
The network also walked back a featured dramatic confession from a sobbing nurse saying she quit because her hospital was overwhelmed and out of protective supplies… when it turned out she wasn’t being honest.