Anadolu Agency
The State Department is using taxpayer money to smear its critics — the ones who exposed its funding of pro-censorship groups that target right-wing news organizations, including The Post, under the guise of combatting “disinformation.”
A bombshell Committee on Small Business report confirmed the reporting of independent journo Matt Taibbi and the Washington Examiner: “The Federal government has fueled a censorship ecosystem impacting not only individuals’ First Amendment rights, but the ability of certain small businesses to compete online.”
One group, Global Disinformation Index, created a “blacklist” of conservative publications for advertisers to avoid, smearing The Post and other major news outlets as “risky” possible spreaders of false info.
GDI received $100,000 from the State Department’s Global Engagement Center between October 2021 and March 2022.
Another group mentioned in the report, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, maintained a private email list that included GEC staffers, called “FakeNewsSci,” where members maligned conservative news organizations that had applied to join Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles.
In response, the State Department’s press team has handed out talking points trying to discredit Taibbi, who exposed GEC censorship in his “Twitter files” posts in early 2023 and Washington Examiner reporter Gabe Kaminsky, who broke the GDI story, by framing them as bumbling and uninformed.
State’s flacks also deceptively claim the GEC “did not fund GDI to study, analyze or report on social media platforms or accounts inside the United States,” and “the GEC’s work with GDI was limited to disinformation efforts in East Asia and Europe.”
But GDI did target US-based conservative media and the GEC did fund GDI.
And as the House report put it: “While the GEC does not fund initiatives domestically focused on their face, many of them do impact the U.S.”
State is trying to cover its tracks, but the report is clear: The feds have “funded, developed, and promoted entities that aim to demonetize news and information outlets because of their lawful speech.”
Nor is State alone, whether it’s the FBI pressuring social media companies to target right-wing accounts or the Harris-Biden administration bid to create a Homeland Security “disinformation board.”
Every time the government claims to target “disinformation,” it goes after just plain information that self-appointed “experts” don’t want aired.
The right way to fight false info is to share the truth — not, as the Harris-Biden crew keep trying, to censor and smear.