New in PJ Media:
The Biden regime’s abortive Disinformation Governance Board was a sinister initiative from the beginning. The board’s chief public proponents, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the board’s head, Nina Jankowicz, set off alarm bells when they were never entirely forthright or clear about what the board intended to do. Even now, long after the whole thing went sideways on them when they discovered, to their dismay, that many Americans still valued the freedom of speech, they’re trying to cover their tracks.
The patriotic group Citizens United recently submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for emails between Jankowicz and her staff, but what the group received was so heavily redacted as to be virtually useless. And so the question must be asked: what, at this late date, do Mayorkas, Jankowicz, and their henchmen have to hide?
Just the News reported Tuesday that back when the existence of the Disinformation Governance Board first became public knowledge, Mayorkas was full of bland reassurances, insisting that there was “nothing sinister to hide” and claiming that the Orwellian and authoritarian board was actually based upon “best practices.” But you will no doubt be shocked — shocked! — to learn that this hasn’t actually turned out to be true. Just the News adds that “a year later, Mayorkas’ department is refusing to let Americans see most of the legal justifications and talking points it created to defend the now-disbanded board from ‘blowback,’ FOIA documents showed.”
Citizens United received over 100 pages of Jankowicz’s internal communications with her staff, but most of it was just blank white boxes. “What little is visible makes clear that DHS underestimated the negative reaction the board would provoke and was scrambling to find ways to keep the story from being pushed by ‘hostile’ news outlets.” This is understandable. These people live inside the Beltway, and inside the Beltway, nearly everyone hates the freedom of speech. These little authoritarians had no idea how poorly their act would play outside their echo chamber.
On April 27, 2022, Jankowicz warned her staff: “This afternoon I did start receiving a fair amount of blowback (accusing DHS of being the ‘Ministry of Truth’ etc., lots honing in on ‘Russia’ in the Politico blurb) and some abuse (which I expected and I’m used to).” Used to harsh criticism? Really? Yet earlier this month she claimed that the right-wing fiends at Fox News “made over 500 scaremongering statements about my role, my views, and my personal life,” causing her to be inundated with death threats and upsetting her to the extent that she has not been able to establish the proper relationship with her newborn.
There is more. Read the rest here.
Greg Smith says
They won’t just force in authoritarianism, they’ll sneak it in, slip it in between pages all dressed up as an incident little kindness. Did you see something? No, I didn’t see anything.