When The Washington Post published a story about how Project Veritas had tried to entrap its reporters into revealing an agenda, there seemed to be poetic justice in its reportorial methods. The right-wing stunt group, led by video activist James O’Keefe, had sent a woman to bait the paper into running a fake allegation that she had been impregnated, and forced to get an abortion, by Roy Moore when she was 15 years old. (If along the way, she could secretly record reporters saying that the story would destroy the Republican Senate candidate’s chances for a win in Alabama, that would be a glittery bonus.) Instead, the Post turned the tables on Project Veritas: after discovering an Internet post that seemed to indicate the operative, Jamie Phillips, had taken a job in conservative media, the Post recorded her meeting with one of its reporters and watched Phillips crumble when presented with inconsistencies in her account. Post reporters later observed her entering Project Veritas's office in Mamaroneck, New York. Even for large sectors of the conservative media, it was a win that bolstered the Post’s reputation—score one for the hated mainstream media.

But conservative provinces further afield tended to view the matter differently. Even though the sting had gone awry, on another level, to them the Post had revealed a shocking, salacious truth, one so astounding that it more than excused O’Keefe’s blunder. Said Lucian Wintrich, a correspondent for Gateway Pundit: “I do think that video that WaPo released shows how manipulative their reporters are. Just based on her good-cop, bad-cop demeanor with that woman. It made me uncomfortable.”

“I think it’s wild that WaPo was stalking him [O'Keefe] outside his building,” Wintrich added. “It seemed humorously unprofessional. What a very poor parody of what conservative activists actually do.”

For MSM observers, Post reporter Stephanie McCrummen, as depicted in the video, was a paragon of journalistic manners. But for many who’ve marinated deeply in the right fringe world, McCrummen's professionalism was a guerrilla tactic meant to discredit their work. “The Project Veritas video exposé of The Washington Post speaks for itself,” said fellow video activist Laura Loomer, herself a former Project Veritas alum who made a name for herself taping similar sting videos at college campuses. “Democracy may die in the darkness, but The Washington Post will die in the sunlight.”

And for Mike Cernovich, one of the biggest figures on the far right these days, the Post story only opened the door to more questions about the Post's workings. “Why did WaPo make a big deal out of O’Keefe, if he’s not a ‘big deal’ angle?” he asked. “If he were a nobody, why do a big story about him hoaxing you? WaPo’s response to O’Keefe validates his work.”

In fact, so complete was the triumph over the Post, at least in certain eyes, that O’Keefe and Project Veritas began fundraising off the story within minutes, and spun it as yet another attack on their efforts from the LIEberal MSM. “They’re worried that we have a story on them,” Project Veritas wrote on its fundraising page, hinting that it would have more selectively edited videos on the way.

So much winning.