Joe Concha warns Biden's disinformation board will be 'weaponized'
Fox News contributor Joe Concha argues Secretary Mayorkas and board executive Nina Jankowicz are the 'last people' who should be leading an effort on disinformation.
The Biden administration announced this week that a Disinformation Governance Board has been created to combat online disinformation, irking conservatives and free speech advocates who aren’t sure about potential consequences as media watchdogs on the left have stayed quiet.
"Liberal outlets don't see this as a story because it seems all right and good to them. When you believe deeply that most Americans aren't very smart and need to be guided by the smarter people, you get this," Media Research Center executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News Digital.
"On the other hand, if the Trump administration had created a Disinformation Board, everyone knows they would have had one of their daily freak outs," Graham added. "This reflects today's liberal mentality. They represent ‘information,’ and the conservative side is ‘disinformation.’ They represent Democracy, and the conservative side is autocracy -- arrogant, but tidy."
The Biden administration announced this week that a Disinformation Governance Board has been created to combat online disinformation. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
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Nina Jankowicz, who previously served as a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, will head the board as executive director. Jankowicz, who has been roasted online for her passionate "Mary Poppins" parody singing about disinformation, suggested during the 2020 presidential election that Hunter Biden’s laptop, which has been verified by multiple media outlets, was a "Russian influence op." Jankowicz has since claimed she was simply live-tweeting a debate, but she also cast doubt on the laptop as potentially of "illicit provenance" during a House Intelligence Committee hearing she testified at in October 2020.
The New York Times and Washington Post hadn’t even mentioned the "Disinformation Governance Board" as of Friday morning, according to their websites.
"The left-wing mainstream media outlets are ignoring the disinformation board because their reporters support it, and calling attention to it will rightly enrage Americans who find this kind of government meddling to be odious," radio host Jason Rantz told Fox News Digital.
"The media and Democrat party have the same goal here -- to exclusively label positions by the right as disinformation," Rantz continued. "The same people who claimed the Hunter Biden laptop story was fake and that there are 300 genders that you can have at once, are the ones celebrating a disinformation board. Isn’t that alarming?"
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The Columbia Journalism Review also failed to acknowledge the Biden administration's attempt to rid society of whatever Jankowicz declares to be "disinformation." The Poynter Institute, which bills itself as a group that "champions freedom of expression, civil dialogue and compelling journalism," didn’t bother to mention Jankowicz’s new role at the Disinformation Governance Board as of Friday morning, either.
Grabien founder Tom Elliott feels this should be the No. 1 story across at all news organizations and is baffled that it’s not.
"We don't even need to imagine the major media's hysterics had it been Trump creating a U.S. Ministry of Truth. Whenever he insomuch as mocked the likes of Jim Acosta, reporters lined up to nominate themselves for Purple Hearts," Elliott told Fox News Digital.
"Now we have an obviously unconstitutional federal agency tasked with silencing any media that deigns venturing outside the bounds of progressive groupthink, and these same self-described stalwarts for press freedom are utterly asleep at their keyboards," Elliott said. "This is Orwell in real life, and to quote our president, that's not hyperbole. The only reason these activists who play journalists on TV are totally ignoring the story is because they're actually attracted to the idea of Big Brother silencing the real journalists holding them accountable. By my lights, this story speaks more about our so-called media than it does Biden's failed presidency."
Newsweek published a glowing explainer of Jankowicz's prestigious background, although it did mention she was "controversial" before listing her achievements, such as holding an MA in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
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The left-wing Daily Beast mentioned the "Disinformation Governance Board," but only to note that conservatives are upset about it.
While liberal newspapers and media watchdogs groups have ignored the "Disinformation Governance Board," conservative and nonpartisan organizations have taken issue.
"Insane as it is that the Department of Homeland Security has created a Disinformation Governance Board, it’s utter madness that the woman running it is Nina Jankowicz, who’s a veteran disinfo spreader," The New York Post editorial board wrote.
"She embraced and promoted the bogus Clinton-campaign-created Trump-Russia dossier. And she waged war on The Post’s true and accurate reporting of Hunter Biden’s laptop," the editorial board continued. "She’s a career left-wing partisan … Hiring her for this job just shows how detached from reality and broad American society the entire Biden team has become."
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The Washington Examiner reported that Jankowicz "has a history of sharing misleading claims," and National Review has published several pieces on the Disinformation Governance Board and its leader.
DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall believes outlets ignoring the "Disinformation Governance Board" think it’s a great idea.
"They know their news organizations would never come under scrutiny from such a board, no matter how much inaccurate reporting they might ever do. They also are glad to have as much of the rhetorical sphere to themselves as possible, so a board that would restrict other participants in the marketplace of ideas suits them just fine," McCall told Fox News Digital.
"They also fully know that this board would only go after disinformation from a particular political perspective, which those media outlets are only too happy to themselves disempower," he added. "But these establishment media are foolish to sit still and let this disinfo board get rolling. Weakening the robust flow of information is bad for broad rational debate in a civilized society. Stifling voices is a poor solution for the crazy stuff that floats around public dialogue."
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McCall said opening this door is "contrary to constitutional principles" and will likely increase polarization.
"When it comes to the free flow of information in a society, news organizations should be above partisan manipulation," McCall said.
Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
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