"We're confident that we can keep this zip-locked. You know, tight. Tight. Air-tight forever. If we don't protect who is kind of funding this thing … if we have to disclose that or that becomes a necessary part of it, the whole enterprise will not work."
Don't worry Mr. Anti-Fracking movie producer. Your hypocrisy in accepting Middle Eastern oil money for your project with the understanding that those funding it don't want America to become oil independent will remain a secret forever...until Project Veritas posts a video of you making your nefarious deal on YouTube for millions to see. Jame's O'Keefe's Project Veritas has struck again by revealing hidden video of anti-fracking movie producers eagerly agreeing to accept money from "Muhammad" who they believed to be a member of a wealthy Middle Eastern oil family. The Hollywood Reporter broke the story yesterday about this revelation of stunning hypocrisy by the anti-frackers:
Journalist James O'Keefe, known for his controversial undercover sting operations aimed usually at liberals -- is set to unveil at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday the first of a group of videos that he says will reveal hypocrisy among Hollywood environmentalists.
In the video, obtained exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter and embedded below, actors Ed Begley Jr. and Mariel Hemingway are duped by a man named "Muhammad," who is looking to make an anti-fracking movie while hiding that its funding is coming from Middle Eastern oil interests.
However, Begley and Hemingway are merely celebrity sideshows. The real targets are the movie producers:
Muhammad, accompanied by a man pretending to be an ad executive, seemingly has the two actors agreeing to participate in the scheme, even after he acknowledges that his goal is to keep America from becoming energy independent. The meeting, which appears to have been secretly recorded, took place a few months ago at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
But the real target of the sting operation appears to be Josh and Rebecca Tickell, a husband and wife team known for their environmental movies, such as 2008's Fuel, which won an award at Sundance and was later screened at the White House for members of President Obama's administration.
The video has some shocking admissions on the part of the producers about hiding the source of the oil money funding:
The video also includes some audio from phone conversations between the fake Muhammad's representatives and the Tickells. "We're confident that we can keep this zip-locked. You know, tight. Tight. Air-tight forever," Josh Tickell is heard saying. "If we don't protect who is kind of funding this thing … if we have to disclose that or that becomes a necessary part of it, the whole enterprise will not work."
Rebecca Tickell adds: "Because if people think the film is funded by Middle Eastern oil it will, it will not have that credibility," and Josh Tickell says, "It's money, so in that sense we have no moral issue."
The latter comment is in reference to the Matt Damon anti-fracking movie, "Promised Land," which lost a lot of credibility when it was revealed that some of the funding came from the oil-rich United Arab Emirates. If you watch the entire 20 minute video you will see that the Tickell's concern about keeping such funding hidden is not merely a minor issue. They go into quite a bit of detail in plotting how to hide the Middle East Oil funding among environmental type groups. And this is only the first of the videos on this topic promised by O'Keefe.. More to come.
Meanwhile Josh Tickell issued a rather lame video justifying his actions recorded by Project Veritas. Most of the video was really anti-fracking propaganda mixed with a crowd funding plea for bucks. However, Tickell also laughably claimed that he was just being slyly clever in using oil money to produce an anti-fracking movie. Here are the laugh line excuses from Tickell's video:
We thought to ourselves, oh the irony! We'll use the funding from an oil company to make a film that promotes green energy. And where does all that money actually come from anyway? It comes from our own wallets. Every time an American pumps gas he's sending money to the Middle East. Folks like you and me send about a billion dollars a day over there just by gassing up our cars. We figured what better use of our money than to make a film to change that whole screwed up system...
Oh, the irony! The Tickell's lame excuse appears on a web page called, "Fracked." And that is exactly what the Tickells are now that they have been exposed...Fracked!
