On Wednesday morning, it was reported that the Department of Homeland Security is putting a pause on the Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board (DGB). It was later reported by The Wall Street Journal that the executive director in charge of the board, Nina Jankowicz is stepping down.
“With the exception of one minute and 23 seconds on the May 1 edition of the Sunday show Meet the Press” the broadcast networks have refused to cover the news of the Biden administration’s Orwellian Ministry of Truth. Instead, the evening newscasts ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News have decided to cover the U.S. women’s soccer team winning a lawsuit over equal pay and local weather reports.
Yet, Fox News Channel’s America Reports did manage to cover the reported pause in the operation of the DGB and Jankowicz’s resignation. At the helm of the Wednesday afternoon broadcast of America Reports, co-hosts John Roberts and Gillian Turner covered the story.
“There’s breaking news in the last few minutes on the Biden administration's so-called Disinformation Governance Board as well as the woman chosen to head up the controversial program,” Roberts announced over the sound of Fox’s famous "Fox News Alert" jingle. “The Wall Street Journal now reporting that Nina Janowicz has made the decision to step down and return to the public sphere following reports the entire disinformation board project was put on pause,” Roberts added.
Turner jumped in to note that “today's announcement comes about three weeks after the board became operational and garnered some pretty fierce criticism from Republicans questioning whether the government should be monitoring what is and what is not true”
Washington correspondent Mark Meredith reporting live from the North Lawn of the White House remarked that “this was a board that was supposed to be built for combating misinformation but critics have accused Nina Jankowicz of extreme bias for some of her past political tweets.”
Meredith then read a snarky and petulant tweet from White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates which bemoaned the pushback from conservatives and free speech advocates: "these smears leveled by bad faith right-wing actors against a deeply qualified expert and against efforts to better combat human smuggling and domestic terrorism are disgusting, and the administration has forcefully spoken out against them repeatedly. Neither Nina Jankowicz nor the board have anything to do with censorship or with removing content from anywhere.”
For the entire twenty-one-day lifespan of Biden’s Ministry of Truth, the networks have almost entirely ignored its existence. That’s how you know they think it makes their pals in the Biden administration look bad.
This bias by omission from the three evening newscasts was made possible by Prevagen on ABC, Allstate on CBS, and Liberty Mutual on NBC. Their information is linked.
To read the relevant transcript of the May 18 America Reports segment click “expand”:
FNC’s America Reports
5/18/2022
2:01:19 p.m. EasternJOHN ROBERTS: And there’s breaking news in the last few minutes on the Biden administration's so-called Disinformation Governance Board as well as the woman chosen to head up the controversial program. The Wall Street Journal now reporting that Nina Janowicz has made the decision to step down and return to the public sphere following reports the entire disinformation board project was put on pause.
GILLIAN TURNER: So today's announcement comes about three weeks after the board became operational and garnered some pretty fierce criticism from Republicans questioning whether the government should be monitoring what is and what is not true. It wasn't just fears about an Orwellian ministry of truth raising questions though but also the administration's defense of the board and what it's designed to do. Both the White House and D.H.S. Secretary Mayorkas really struggled to define the board's mission during sworn testimony. Mayorkas said the board was intended to combat misinformation online but didn’t really offer a lot of specifics to satisfy Republican lawmakers.
ROBERTS: And then, there were also Nina Jankowicz's own past comments that turned out not to be true, critics pointed to her past positions on the now-debunked the Steele dossier and the Hunter Biden laptop, reporting that turned out is true, but she dismissed it as Russian disinformation.
(...)
MARK MEREDITH: Hey Gillian and John good afternoon to both of you. Well just as quickly as it launched, it appears the Department of Homeland Security’s disinformation board is being put on pause. The White House briefing which was set to get underway about thirty minutes ago is just about to get started now and I would bet quite a bit of money there’s going to be a lot of questions about why the sudden change of plans from the administration. As you talked about, The Washington Post was the first to report that Nina Jankowicz, the executive director in charge of this board is stepping down from her post.
This was a board that was supposed to be built for combating misinformation but critics have accused Nina Jankowicz of extreme bias for some of her past political tweets. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was also facing repeated questions about what the board was actually going to be doing and if the administration was truly taking steps to police free speech. The White House is out with a statement today saying it believes the board itself is still a good idea. In a statement out it says "These smears leveled by bad faith right-wing actors against a deeply qualified expert and against efforts to better combat human smuggling and domestic terrorism are disgusting, and the administration has forcefully spoken out against them repeatedly. Neither Nina Jankowicz nor the board have anything to do with censorship or with removing content from anywhere.”
Republicans revolted against the idea of this board from the start, some comparing it to the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell's 1984. We have seen reaction pour in the second this news broke. Michigan Congresswoman Lisa McClain tweeting “the board should never have been created in the first place. Not only does DHS need to pause the creation of this board, we need to make sure nothing like this is ever created again.”
We also heard from West Virginia Senator Shelly Moore Capito who says “word that this ludicrous Orwellian idea has been put on pause is good news for all Americans.” So not only was there a P.R. issue that was coming from this, there was also a potential legal challenge, We had seen something like 20 attorneys general across the country threatening to sue the administration over this, and again we are waiting for fresh white house reaction here any moment now.
