Biden's Misinformation Governance Board Reeks of Orwell

A famous dystopian novel called it the “Ministry of Truth,” although in truth, it was the Ministry of Propaganda. When the Biden administration adopted it, its name was no less frightening: it’s called the “Disinformation Governance Board.”

It’s also un-American, and almost certainly unconstitutional.

It was first reported in Politico’s Playbook Wednesday.

“DHS is standing up a new Disinformation Governance Board to coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia,” the newsletter reported.

So they’re worried about reports that 2 million migrants have crossed the border during the Biden administration, including 42 individuals on a terrorist watch list. The White House is also concerned about “Russian disinformation,” such as the data contained in the president’s son Hunter’s abandoned laptop computer.

Politico added that “Nina Jankowicz will head the board as executive director.”

The Washington Examiner offered some insight yesterday as to who Jankowicz is. Apparently her “fact-checking” comes with a lot of political bias that includes “a history of sharing misleading claims.”

She claimed, for example, that the notorious (and discredited) Steele dossier, financed by the Clinton campaign, that made false and salacious claims against former President Trump, was credible. Why? Apparently because she wanted them to be credible.

The Examiner reported that “Jankowicz also cast doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop story while falsely claiming an intelligence community report on foreign meddling referenced it.”

Apparently this was no snap decision. Jankowicz referred to the Politico newsletter on a tweet Wednesday.

''Cat's out of the bag: here's what I've been up to the past two months, and why I've been a bit quiet on here,” she said. “Honored to be serving in the Biden Administration @DHSgov and helping shape our counter-disinformation efforts.”

When entrepreneur and SpaceX founder Elon Musk first heard of this new “Disinformation Governance Board” Thursday, he had a one-word response: “Discomforting.”

Musk is in the midst of finalizing his purchase of Twitter and returning it to the free speech platform that it was initially intended to be.

Florida-based lawyer and frequent legal commentator Jason Roberge replied, “Clear First Amendment violation.” And so it is.

The First Amendment, as it relates to free speech protections, provides that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech. …”

The courts have held that despite the wording, it doesn’t require an act of Congress to make it a First Amendment violation — it can be any branch or government, at any level.

“Abridging” means limiting or curtailing, in this case, “the freedom of speech.”

It’s hard to imagine anything that limits, and indeed chills, the free expression of ideas more than a federal authority claiming that your ideas amount to “misinformation.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki thought the new board was a terrific idea.

"It sounds like the objective of the board is to prevent disinformation and misinformation from traveling around the country in a range of communities,” she said. “I'm not sure who opposes that effort."

No doubt every critic of the administration opposes it.

It almost appeared as though the Misinformation Governance Board was already up to speed yesterday, when the president discussed the dismal report that the U.S. economy shrunk by 1.4% in the first quarter of 2022.

To put that negative 1.4% in perspective, growth went up 6.9% in the previous quarter.

Biden remarked, "I think what you're seeing is enormous growth in the country.” And mainstream media fell right into line. After reporting on the numbers:

• NPR said, “Here's why analysts say the numbers may not be as worrisome as they appear.”
• The New York Times reported, “but that figure will be misleading, obscuring evidence of a resilient economy.”
• And finally CNN dismissed the numbers as merely "quirky" and “weird."

Jonathan Turley, law professor at George Washington University, was especially taken by the name of the new governmental board.

He tweeted, “it may be impossible to come up with a more Orwellian title other than the Ministry of Truth. Whoever decided to combine Disinformation with Governance wins the 2022 Doublespeak award.”

Winston Smith, the protagonist in the 1949 George Orwell novel “1984,” worked at the Ministry of truth in a future society, where, “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength.”

Winston kept a secret diary containing his innermost thoughts and desires, which he hid from the thought police.

“1984” has been banned from some school libraries for sexual content. At this rate, how soon will it be banned because it’s too close to the truth?

In the event, treasured copies of the novel will have to be hidden, just like Winston’s diary.