“We found a 25 percent increase in testing at Cherry Health,” says Diaz in the package, referring to a health center with more than 20 sites in Michigan.

One of the shots in the presentation shows cars queuing up.

As it turns out, that queue may not represent the actual demand for coronavirus tests in Grand Rapids. Project Veritas, the sting-video operation headed by James O’Keefe, secured evidence that Cherry Health had padded the line for the sake of appearances while the operation was being showcased in a national news story.

On Twitter and in a Project Veritas video, O’Keefe charges that, according to an inside source, CBS News staged a fake event – an allegation that the network denied in a statement: “CBS News did not stage anything at the Cherry Health facility. Any suggestion to the contrary is 100% false,” notes the statement, which asserts that the clinic did indeed take steps to dress up the visuals: “These allegations are deeply disturbing. We reached out to Cherry Health to address them immediately. They informed us for the first time that one of their chief officers told at least one staffer to get in the testing line along with real patients. No one from CBS News had any knowledge of this prior to [Tuesday night]. They also said that their actions did not prevent any real patients from being tested. We take the accuracy of our reporting very seriously and we are removing the Cherry Health portion from the piece.”

Project Veritas has a long history of poking major media outlets with video operations. They range from the bankrupt (an attempt to plant a bogus story with The Post); to the weak-but-impactful (candid comments by an ABC News reporter); to the legit-and-impactful (a leaked video from ABC News regarding its Jeffrey Epstein coverage).

Large national broadcasters stand by their on-air work if at all possible. So the fact that CBS News is removing the Cherry Health portion of the Diaz story amounts to a significant concession that something went awry in Grand Rapids. The video, recorded by a clinic “insider,” includes a comment from a health worker complaining about having to “do fake patients.”

Cherry Health president and chief executive Tasha Blackmon issued a baffling statement: “Though the Project Veritas report claims the CBS video showing a line of cars was staged; to my knowledge ‘CBS This Morning’ did not stage any part of their visit, and I did not instruct any of our staff to get in their cars as part of the line of vehicles.” That’s what they call in the business a non-denial denial. As the CBS News statement notes, “one” of the clinic’s “chief officers told at least one staffer to get in the testing line along with real patients” – meaning that Blackmon’s statement that she didn’t demand line-puffing doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. We pointed out that distinction to a clinic spokesperson, who sent along this statement from Blackmon:

– – –

I was not aware of any staging that took place. Cherry Health has had a process of pre-screening individuals for covid-19 testing. On the day of the CBS interview we had 34 prescreened individuals that came for testing. I was not asked for help on any staging, nor was I aware that any staging activities were going on. The only requests we had were tied to the number of patients being tested that day and the PPE supply that we had in place.

– – –

A Tuesday email from Blackmon to Diaz, provided by Project Veritas, reads in part, “I am learning that some of our staff may have been hanging around near the testing tent and some even may have pulled their cars up to get in the video and/or make it look a bit busier,” noted the clinic CEO. (Neither CBS News nor Cherry Health has returned requests for comment about the email.) “I am sure many staff were anxious to show you just how busy things can get some times,” Blackmon continues, “I do not believe that your team captured any of this, and it was obviously not part of your story.” CBS News might disagree with that latter point; otherwise, it wouldn’t have edited the piece.

The network affixed this note to the top of its web story on Michigan testing:

– – –

Editor’s Note: CBS News could not verify the authenticity of a scene from one of the testing sites initially featured in this story. At least one staff member of Cherry Health, which operated the testing site in Michigan, may have been in line along with real patients. The story aired last Friday, however, CBS News learned of that possibility Tuesday night, and references to that testing site have been deleted from the video and this accompanying article.