The Washington Post told the American public earlier this week that they were on the side against government-backed censorship when it came to free speech.
The Post’s long piece, which we are not making up, frames Republican lawmakers, conservatives, and media organizations like the Daily Caller News Foundation’s efforts to hold accountable a growing and well-heeled industry dedicated to combating so-called disinformation and misinformation as “harassment”.
After all we’ve learned about how these groups operate from the Twitter Files, and other investigative reports, it is clear that fighting misinformation is usually a way to censor facts and opinions, especially those of conservatives.
It is no coincidence that the vast majority of conservatives who are deplatformed, shadowbanned or fact-checked by Google and social media sites, are conservatives. It is no accident that conservative news sites, and not corporate or liberal outlets, are always on the secret blacklists compiled by pro-censorship organizations, which they send to ad agency to rob them of revenue.
DCNF revealed recently that the Biden State Department funded a large group dedicated to demonetizing Conservative sites. Many similar groups that encourage censorship receive huge federal checks. This is a serious issue that should concern every American, regardless of their party affiliation or ideologies.
WaPo, however, wants you to ignore this and think that the government-funded “censors” are the true victims. Not the people who they’re trying silence. Unfortunately, it seems that the Biden Justice department agrees.
After WaPo’s “censors are real victims” article, Lee Fang published a document showing that the Biden DOJ interfered to impede DCNF record requests pertaining to a little-known Department of Homeland Security advisory panel that advised the agency on fighting misinformation and disinformation.
We wanted to know what the secretive panel’s agenda was, given all we have learned over the past few years — particularly from the Twitter Files – about the federal government’s efforts to censor or silence opinions that they do not like. We have a duty to inform people about threats to fundamental rights and freedom of expression, including the federal government.
Kate Starbird, founder of the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington was a key member of the panel. She’s not only a member of this committee but also receives government grants for research. Starbird was prominently featured in WaPo’s article defending the pro censorship industry. However, the paper conveniently left Starbird’s role as an advisor to DHS’s secretive committee out. Why?
We believed the public should know what the DHS advisory committee was doing, which alarmed the Biden DOJ.
In an email sent to the University of Washington in September 2022 by Assistant U.S. attorney Annalisa Cravens, she asked that the records be held back “so we could review them and determine whether we would have to file a lawsuit to keep them secret.”
It is important to note that we received all the records requested from University of Washington. However, it took us six months to receive them. We’re now wondering if all of the documents that we requested were actually received. We’ve filed follow-ups to find out the truth.
Someone must. WaPo’s puff article made it clear that the corporate media and legacy media don’t want to hold the Censorship Industry Complex accountable. Major media outlets often act as the biggest enablers of this insidious business.
We now know that the Biden administration has been complicit in the cover up and is willing to use any legal means to conceal what the government is doing in order to undermine constitutional protections.
The collusion of government officials with a private industry that aims to silence ideas and information that are inconvenient for the ruling party should be a common issue among Americans. We all risk being silenced if we don’t take these powerful and secretive groups to task today.
Democracy dies in darkness, indeed.
