Just so you know, I\u2019m all for national security. I like it a lot more than national insecurity. I\u2019m also for truth over lies and for honest information over misinformation and disinformation. So, what could possibly go wrong when the federal government establishes an agency populated by bureaucrats accountable to just about no one to combat false information?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the board were to stick to letting us know that the Russians or the Chinese are lying to us about this or that, well, okay. But are we supposed to really believe that the kind of people who actually want to be part of something called the Disinformation Governance Board won\u2019t make all sorts of pronouncements on supposed threats to national security right here in the United States? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s imagine what might happen the next time \u2014 and there will be a next time \u2014 that Donald Trump<\/a> tells his loyal fans that he really won the presidency in 2020 but that he was robbed, that the Democrats stole the election right out from under him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do we actually think the Disinformation Governance Board won\u2019t see that as a threat to our democracy and, therefore, a threat to our national security? Do we really think the board will stay silent about that? https:\/\/a59ba5ce1bc5f8ae19e7346fe0398539.safeframe.googlesyndication.com\/safeframe\/1-0-38\/html\/container.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, what happens when some conservative bloviator on Fox News Channel says something \u2014 let\u2019s be kind and call it \u2014 \u201ccontroversial\u201d? Will the government\u2019s \u201ctruth squad\u201d let that kind of \u201cdisinformation\u201d go without comment, or will they put out press releases announcing their discovery of a threat to our safety and well-being? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe I\u2019m being a tad paranoid. I mean, Jen Psaki<\/a>, President Biden\u2019s press secretary, has assured us<\/a> that the disinformation board will be \u201cnonpartisan\u201d and \u201capolitical.\u201d If you can\u2019t trust her, who can you trust? <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, as long as the head of the Biden administration\u2019s version of Orwell\u2019s Ministry of Truth is a down the middle, nonpartisan type<\/a>, we should have no problems, right? Except, she isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The person who reportedly will head up the new agency is Nina Jankowicz<\/a>, a woman of reliably left-wing views about politics and the media; a woman who once said that Hunter Biden\u2019s<\/a> laptop was \u201ca Trump campaign product<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s see if I have this right. The woman who we\u2019re told will lead the \u201cnonpartisan\u201d campaign against disinformation is a partisan who spouts disinformation herself? This raises a question: In a country of 330 million Americans, was she really the best person they could come up with? Did they forget to ask Pee Wee Herman<\/a> if he wanted the job? https:\/\/a59ba5ce1bc5f8ae19e7346fe0398539.safeframe.googlesyndication.com\/safeframe\/1-0-38\/html\/container.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n As professors Roger Koppl and Abigail Devereaux point out<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal, Jankowicz also has written that America\u2019s \u201cinformation landscape\u201d includes \u201cdeclining trust in the media fed by the Trump administration\u2019s relentless attacks on the fourth estate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Koppl and Devereaux note<\/a>, she\u2019s worried about the kind of partisan political back-and-forth that goes on right here at home, having said: \u201cUnless we mitigate our own political polarization, our own internal issues, we will continue to be an easy target for any malign actor \u2014 Russian or Iranian, foreign or domestic \u2014 to manipulate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It sounds like she\u2019s saying that if we don\u2019t mind our political manners here in America, if we get into all sorts of uncivil political debates \u2014 the stuff of democracies like ours \u2014 well, we just might be helping our enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I raise the question one more time: How long will it be before \u201cincorrect opinions\u201d and \u201cunapproved ideas\u201d expressed here at home are deemed to be threats to our national security?\u00a0 What\u2019s Your Peace? Share It to Be Featured in a Statewide CampaignWhat are the ways you take care of yourself? Mental Health Colorado is inviting all Coloradans to share how they improve their mental well-being.Learn MoreSponsored by Mental Health Colorado <\/a>Taming inflation: The role of businesses and employees Originalism and the football coach\u2019s prayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do we really want the federal government, which is doing such a bang-up job controlling inflation and crime and chaos at our southern border \u2014 do we really want that gang that can\u2019t seem to shoot straight \u2014 to be the arbiters of what\u2019s true and what isn\u2019t?<\/p>\n\n\n\n