President Joe Biden signed on Friday the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which included a pro-free speech provision effectively prohibiting the Department of Defense from contracting with radical leftist entities that discriminate against right-leaning media. Hours later, however, Biden invoked a George Soros-tied Supreme Court case to hint at his potential rebellion against the provision he just signed into law.
“While I am pleased to support the critical objectives of the NDAA, I note that certain provisions of the Act raise concerns,” Biden whined, drawing attention to Section 1555(a) of the NDAA. Specifically, the provision prohibits the Pentagon from doing business with NewsGuard, the infamous Internet traffic cop, and the Global Disinformation Index, the blacklisting rag, among others who would use taxpayer dollars to censor.
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Biden claimed the Pentagon “will comply with this provision by requiring recipients of such contracts to certify that they will not place the Department’s advertisements based on the enumerated grounds.” But here’s the caveat. Biden cunningly warned that the Pentagon will also comply with the “First Amendment,” claiming that the government cannot force entities — in this case, NewsGuard and GDI — to adopt a specific ideological belief.
Most strikingly, Biden cited a distantly analogous and readily distinguishable case brought by the Soros-funded Alliance for Open Society International to defend his take. The Court held in that case that the federal government “may not use funding and the threat of the loss of funding as a method for the regulation of speech and policies of non-governmental organizations.”
MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider torched Biden’s pledge to usurp the pro-free speech provision by citing “one of the biggest censors” in the world as “his get out of jail card.”
Schneider said, "The U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from censoring political speech; likewise government cannot collude with private companies to violate the First Amendment. Several courts already rebuked and ordered him to stop colluding with Big Tech. Congress has also stepped in to pass a law to force Biden to comply with the Constitution. It appears nothing will deter Biden from using government to silence his political opponents.”
Biden hinted that it will continue to instruct advertising firms to place ads on left-wing media outlets. The president’s opposition to the provision came after Senate Democrats pushed back on the original language of the prohibition, which explicitly barred the Pentagon from funding and doing business with NewsGuard.
Both NewsGuard and GDI have blatantly discriminated against right-leaning media and those who dare to oppose the Biden administration’s approved talking points. However, the NDAA specifically declared that the Pentagon cannot “place advertisements in news sources based on institutional political preferences or biases, or determinations of misinformation.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
