Last week, we shared our dismay over the Department of Homeland Security’s announcement of the formation of the Disinformation Governing Board charged with “countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia.” As we observed, there will now be an official mechanism to monitor comments by Americans in these two areas, investigate whether they “misinform” other Americans, and then make public the “correct” take on events. At the same time, there are no guidelines provided for determining what is or is not “misinformation,” how far government agents could go in their investigations, or any limits on any remedial action.
It all seemed way too Orwellian for this country to us – and this was still before Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee the following Wednesday confirmed our worst fears.
Responding to questions about his appointment of Nina Jankowicz as head of the Disinformation Governing Board, Mayorkas said she is “a subject matter expert in the field” without offering a clue as to what that could possibly mean. Presumably she is a serious student of public affairs and regularly comes to her own conclusions about conflicting views of current events.
He also answered some pointed questions about Ms. Jankowicz’s history prior to her being selected: No, he wasn’t aware of her reputation for sharp Democratic political partisanship. No, he was not aware that she vouched for the veracity of the now-discredited Steele Dossier. No, he was not aware that she said that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal was the product of Russia disinformation.
Nor apparently, was he aware that Ms. Jankowicz publicly dismissed parental concern about critical race theory as merely the GOP “weaponizing people’s emotion.”
Not too encouraging. This is still America, and it is not the way we are used to doing things here, despite the best efforts of the rabid cancel culturists. The Biden team tried but got caught. They should cut their losses and promptly dump its ministry of truth.
