All the News Fit for You To Hear | RealClearPolitics
Do you want your government, under the guise of managing foreign affairs, to divert its anti-terror technology and resources to censor a segment of the American domestic press? Do you expect your tax dollars to fund and promote a scheme of media blacklists, designed to drive advertising dollars away from disfavored media outlets to bankrupt and thereby silence them? Does this sound like an Orwellian governmental curating of all the news we deem fit for you to hear ? Welcome to the world of the U.S. Department of State.
Among the many nasty shocks delivered by the Twitter Files, discovery in Murthy v. Missouri, and recent congressional oversight investigations, came the revelation that the State Department has diverted government grants, technical resources, and the time and efforts of salaried federal employees into a sprawling, whole-of-government effort to silence a segment of the American press those news organizations that disagree with the preferred views of those holding the reins of government power.
Launched in the Obama administration, this lawless juggernaut powered undisturbed through the Trump administration, blossoming into full flower during the Biden presidency. In 2016, the State Department, whose only lawful charge is guiding foreign affairs, rebranded its Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications as the Global Engagement Center. Soon this arm of the State Department transitioned from countering the message of violent extremism of terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, to supposedly Countering Propaganda and Disinformation.
I’m far from certain this sort of all-of-government censorship would disappear under a Trump administration. If it could be persuaded to be pro-Trump, I think Trump would be good with it. Biden is obviously good with it.