Since Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced plans for a “Disinformation Governance Board” on Wednesday, those who understand the value of free speech have raised numerous concerns.
On Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is prepared to move beyond words to action.
“Clearly, our entire principles that the country was founded on — you cannot have a ‘Ministry of Truth’ in this country,” DeSantis said.
“Ministry of Truth” is a term many have used to describe the new disinformation board. The name comes from George Orwell’s famous dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
No matter how the Biden administration attempts to sugarcoat it, this board amounts to an attack on free speech.
“Let’s get real here, let’s make sure that we’re doing things to benefit Floridians and Americans, but we’re not going to let Biden get away with this one,” DeSantis said. “So we will be fighting back.”
The Biden administration has suggested that this board is a benevolent force everyone should accept, because that is exactly what an overreaching government would want people to believe.
“It sounds like the objective of the board is to prevent disinformation and misinformation from traveling around the country in a range of communities,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday. “I’m not sure who opposes that effort.”
To answer Psaki’s question, anyone who has a basic understanding of American principles should oppose that effort for two main reasons.
The First Amendment to the Constitution protects the freedoms of speech and the press. This often includes false statements, and even a leftist outlet like The Atlantic said this was a good thing not too long ago.
In 2016, The Atlantic reported on a statute in Ohio that would have made it a crime to utter false statements against a political opponent. It would have carried a sentence of up to six months in jail.
“A federal court struck the law down in 2014 — quite rightly,” the outlet reported. “That’s not because there’s any ‘constitutional value’ in false statements of fact but because the cure — government control of what can be said in politics — is far worse than the disease.”
At the time the article was published, The Atlantic was trying to paint then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in a bad light. He had argued newspapers should not be allowed to print deliberate lies about him, and The Atlantic was explaining why he was wrong.
Fast forward six years and leftists now have one of their own in charge. They suddenly have no issue allowing the government to act as the arbiter of truth, which brings us to the second reason Americans should oppose the Disinformation Governance Board.
If the board was to be filled with completely objective people who only wanted to stop the spread of completely false information, the Biden administration may have an argument. That argument likely would not hold up against the First Amendment, but it would at least make more sense.
However, that is not what the disinformation board will be. Completely objective people hardly exist in the world of politics, and if they did, the woman chosen as the executive director of this new board would certainly not be one of them.
Biden has appointed Nina Jankowicz as the head of the board. She has a history of repeating leftist propaganda and misidentifying truths as “disinformation.”
In October 2020, she suggested during a presidential debate that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation.
“Back on the ‘laptop from hell,’ apparently- Biden notes 50 former natsec officials and 5 former CIA heads that believe the laptop is a Russian influence op,” she wrote on Twitter. “Trump says ‘Russia, Russia, Russia.’”
On Wednesday, she attempted to quell concerns by explaining that she was simply live-tweeting the event, not taking sides.
This disingenuous excuse ignores the tone of her original tweet, which clearly suggested Biden was correct and Trump was trying to spread lies. In reality, the Hunter Biden laptop story was true.
Jankowicz further revealed her bias in 2020 by saying most disinformation comes from the right.
It is clear Biden has no intention of using the board to determine what is true and false. This is nothing more than a political stunt to try to silence conservatives, and DeSantis is not going to stand for it.
Starting to sound more and more like the old Soviet Union. We need people like DeSantis, Donald Trump and Elon Musk to stop these commie bastards from destroying democracy!
Isn’t that what We the People fought a bloody war about,,,,,and wrote a constitution and bill of rights to prevent. , This reeks of obomisim.
There is no doubt in my military mind that the half honky and his ilk is behind this and still has his sights on the SOCIALIST STATES OF OBAMA.
Don’t take this too lightly either. After all most of the country cow-towed and put on masks and watched people loose everything they had when big brother closed their businesses in the name of “Greater Good” ,,, And the “science” turned out to show it was all for naught,,,,except getting the general population used to blind obedience and control. The ministry of truth is step two in the NWO Marxist plan to “Fundamentally Change” the country I sheaf blood for. I am 10,000% behind Gov. DeSantis.
They actually established the ministry of truth and same NWO Marxists call the Oathkeepers terriorists. Something don’t smell good here.
Don’t let this commie get away with it!
The real coup to take over the government was a smashing success and the proof is that we now have a communist government running the country. This “ministry of truth” is all the proof we need.
The only way to liberate America is remove all current political divisors and put non partisans into office, to get rid of the stigmata of dividing this nation and the people. This is why our nation is full of self serving political groups tossing the American people to and fro.. leading with all throw-down accusations. Seems to me Not One Political Leader has all there eggs in one basket. 🤔 the old saying a house divided cannot stand congress to mind.
I think that’s very true.