The reaction to the newly instituted ’Disinformation Board’ are varied and a multitude.
Hard Pass On Truth Ministry
What Could Go Wrong?
Tulsi Gabbard: “Obama, April 21: social media censors ‘don’t go far enough,’ so the government needs to step in to do the job. Six days later, Homeland Security rolls out the ‘Ministry of Truth’ (aka Disinformation Governance Board).”
Joe Concha: “The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced this week that it has launched what is being dubbed a Disinformation Governance Board, to combat ‘misinformation.’ No, really.” “Who better to give more responsibility — in a democracy that largely rejects government intervention over free speech? What could possibly go wrong?”
Greenwald: “That the Biden Admin casually announced today that the Dept of Homeland Security — a domestic security agency — has created a ‘disinformation’ board is indescribably dystopian and chilling. That Democrats think this is good and normal tells you all you need to know about them.”
Turley: “Mayorkas assured CNN viewers that there is nothing to fear from his new Disinformation Governance Board, which will ‘gather together best practices in addressing the threat of disinformation.”
NY Post: “Mayorkas claims new DHS disinformation board will not monitor US citizens”
Speech Karen
Turley: “Biden’s ‘Mary Poppins of Disinformation’ the perfect nanny to tidy up mess of free speech?”
“…Nina Janowicz was pitch perfect for one of the most anti-free speech Administration’s history. She routinely found that the solution to disinformation was less speech by either corporate or state regulation … His new head of the DGB achieved acclaim on the left for demanding corporate and state censorship as well as banning of news sources from social media. Her past focus was on conservatives, not cartels…”
“Now, with Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and his pledge to restore free speech values to the platform, panic has set in among Democrats — including [Nina] Jankowicz, who told National Public Radio, ‘I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities.’”
Jerry Dunleavy: “DHS Secretary just described Nina Jankowicz as ‘eminently qualified’ & ‘a renowned expert’ & ‘absolutely’ neutral. Here’s what the qualified, renowned, neutral disinfo expert thought about Chris Steele, Hunter Biden, & Wuhan lab.”
Concha: “You get the point. Mayorkas and Jankowicz are two of the last people who should be leading any ‘Ministry of Truth.’ And the U.S. government shouldn’t even have considered creating something like this to be run by partisans with political agendas. Yet this horrible idea apparently has been in the works for some time among Democrats.”
Journalists Betray First Amendment
Greenwald: “I’ll keep pointing it out: the leading agitators and activists for censorship are employees of media corporations — in part because they believe only they can be trusted to speak, in part to eliminate competition as they collapse. @ElonMusk has forced them to say it explicitly”
Stephen Miller: “Journos are cheering on a federal government board on speech and disinformation, so you can tell their industry is in a healthy place right now.”
What Goes Around
Concha: “This is always a fun game to play: Let’s say Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) had decided to create a ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ in the state of Florida. And to lead that effort, let’s say he chose someone who once openly pushed a partisan conspiracy theory. You can only imagine the exclamations about a ‘chilling attack on democracy’ and totalitarianism rearing its head in the Sunshine State.”
Joe Bernstein: “It will be interesting to see what the new Disinformation Governance Board in the Department of Homeland Security looks like under the second Trump or first DeSantis administration.”
Yours truly is especially fond of the last one. They seldom think long term. Of course, the could dissolve the ‘Board’ in November 2024.
