Here at NewsBusters, we’re keeping a continuing, day-by-day watch of the network attempts to hide every new detail of the Hunter Biden controversies. It’s time for different monitoring alert: “Disinformation Watch.” Last Wednesday, it was revealed that the Joe Biden administration has created a “disinformation” board that will be run by a partisan Democrat. All of this as we ramp up to the midterm elections.
Since last Wednesday, all three network morning and evening newscasts have ignored what some are calling an Orwellian attempt at muzzling free speech. The only exception same on NBC’s Sunday chat show Meet the Press. For one minute and 23 seconds, host Chuck Todd ever-so-gently discussed it with Department of Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas.
He kindly tossed Mayorkas this softball: “I want to ask you about another concept. There is some concern about misinformation and disinformation at the department that you have in DHS. There’s some people that look at it and it looks like policing of speech. Can you explain what this program is about?”
Can you imagine the “Democracy Dies in Darkness”-style outrage if Donald Trump had done such a thing? Todd would be nowhere near as polite.
Mayorkas assured Todd that the new board “does not infringe on free speech, does not infringe on civil liberties.”
The woman tapped to run this board, Nina Jankowicz, is a partisan Democrat who actually engaged in disinformation herself. As The Hill reported on Saturday:
She has been ridiculed for pushing the false “Russian disinformation” claim about the original reporting on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, stressing that “we should view it as a Trump campaign product.” She continued to spread that disinformation, including tweeting a link to a news article that she said cast “yet more doubt on the provenance of the NY Post’s Hunter Biden story.”
Jankowicz also peppered her Twitter feed with bizarre moments, such as when she parodied Mary Poppins, singing, “Information laundering is really quite ferocious. It’s when a huckster takes some lies and makes them sound precocious, by saying them in Congress or a mainstream outlet, so disinformation’s origins are slightly less atrocious.”
But rather than mention any of that, the timid Todd on Sunday simply asked: “Do you think the person you chose to head it expressed too much politics on their Twitter feed, and it`s caused some consternation?”
So here are our totals so far:
Network morning and evening newscast coverage of Orwellian Disinformation board: 0 minutes and 0 seconds
Sunday chat show total: 1 minute and 23 seconds
To its credit, CNN on Sunday pressed Mayorkas harder. Dana Bash demanded, “Republicans are calling it Orwellian and comparing it to the ministry of truth in the novel 1984. Can you clarify what exactly is this? What exactly will this disinformation governance board do? Will it monitor American citizens?”
The gentle touch of Chuck Todd on Sunday was sponsored by Allstate. Click on the link to let them know what you think of abetting such stifling of free speech.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more:
Meet the Press
5/1/2022
10:51
1 minute and 23 secondsCHUCK TODD: I want to ask you about another concept. There is some concern about misinformation and disinformation at the department that you have in DHS. There’s some people that look at it and it looks like policing of speech. Can you explain what this program is about?
MAYORKAS: Sure, so we set up, essentially, an internal working group. And I must say that we could -- we could have done a better job at communicating what it is and what it isn`t. It’s a working group that takes best practices with respect to our work that has been going on for years, best practices on how to do that work, the work of addressing disinformation that presents a threat to the security of our country, how to do that work in a way that does not infringe on free speech, does not infringe on civil liberties. So this working group takes best practices and disseminates it to -- disseminates those best practice to the operators.
TODD: Do you think the person you chose to head it expressed too much politics on their Twitter feed? And it's caused some consternation?
MAYORKAS: Eminently qualified individual, a recognized expert on battling the threat of disinformation that presents a threat to the security of our homeland, from Russia, from China, from Iran, from the cartels.
