By William Haupt III | The Center Square contributor
“If we are not ashamed to think the truth, we should not be ashamed to speak the truth.” – Cicero
In George Orwell’s book 1984, he writes about how he envisions the world in the future is controlled by Big Brother. Orwell’s dystopian leader’s Ministry of Truth decides what it believes are truths for the media to report as news and events to support government. If Big Brother believes something doesn’t support his beliefs the Ministry of Truth corrects the records, which they call “the new truth.”
Within the novel, Orwell reveals that the actual existence for the Ministry of Truth is to maintain the illusion that what the Party believes in is absolute. Ultimately, the Ministry of Truth does not decide what is true and what is not true. It only instructs the news media to repeat what Big Brother wants the people to believe is the truth. The Ministry of Truth is actually a political arm of his government.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, emerging democratic nations in Eastern and Central Europe began revising their constitutions and statutory laws to guarantee the right to a free press. Citizens who had been inundated with news filtered through government media were thinking: “How could they tell if the media was telling the truth or still repeating lies?”
In 26 AD, Pontius Pilate, governor of the Roman province of Judea, asked, “What is truth? Who decides what is true? Who should compel the press to tell the truth”? There were no answers then, and we still confront them today in Europe and global autocratic nations and right now in America.
The First Amendment guarantees a free press. It prevents government from censoring any news media from reporting facts or opinions on anything they wish since they answer to the people. An independent news media is vital in maintaining democracy and preventing government overreach.
“A truly independent free press is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.” – Dan Rather
In the free world, media does not belong to the government but the people. Since a healthy nation is one that is talking to itself, dissent must be protected and welcomed and it should never, ever be censored or forbidden. But in America, dissent is now classified as disinformation. And conservative news organizations are being blacklisted by disinformation approved and financed by government.
With disapproval of his job performance escalating, Joe Biden and his progressive generals have been working overtime on damage control to silence his critics. News and opinions reported by conservative media is labeled as dangerous lies by the State Department’s disinformation groups.
“There is truth and there are lies. Leaders of America, we must silence those that lie.” – Joe Biden
As a result of being caught blacklisting conservative news groups to discredit them for criticizing Biden, the State Department-backed nonprofit “disinformation” tracking organization, The National Endowment for Democracy, was forced to sever its financial relationship with Congress.
The National Endowment for Democracy, funded almost entirely by Congress, granted $545,750 between 2020 and 2021 to the Global Disinformation Index. They are feeding conservative website blacklists to advertising companies. Amid complaints about government censorship, the National Endowment for Democracy has become criticized by journalists for discrediting legitimate news.
Like Orwell’s Big Brother’s Ministry of Truth, self-styled “disinformation” tracking groups that are blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media outlets, are being exposed as progressive hit squads. Their only goal to discredit groups that report truth and facts about Democrats and Biden.
“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” – Mark Twain
It has been revealed that the State Department has been using conservative tax dollars to block information conservative media outlets. And Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) have vowed to investigate the State Department for bankrolling these “disinformation” tracking groups. Secretly blacklisting and to defund conservative media news is a violation of the First Amendment.
Jordan and Gaetz have set their sights on investigating this questionable practice with the newly created Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Getz said, “I’m deeply concerned about this and it fits into the current horizontal pattern across this government.”
Gaetz added, “We traditionally prefer less intense tools than subpoenas, but, unfortunately, so far, the Biden administration has been recalcitrant to the normal tools of oversight. So, if they are going to be unusual in their response to accommodate then we will have to be unusual in pursuing that.”
A spokesman for the State Department said, “While we are not aware of these specific issues in question, the Department is committed to working with Congressional committees with jurisdiction over U.S. foreign policy to accommodate their need for information to help control disinformation.”
First Amendment lawyers say that taxpayer dollars supporting any disinformation group directly or indirectly is a major problem for government. According to David Warrington of the Dhillon Law Group, “Any ties between the State Department and Global Disinformation Index would be totally inappropriate regardless of whether they do it directly or by proxy, as appears to being done here.”
Recently, Americans for Prosperity launched a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain any documents that show financial support given to the Disinformation Index Foundation and other disinformation groups. It is their goal to determine their involvement with the State Department.
“I suppose that the most revolutionary act one can engage in is… to tell the truth.” – Howard Zinn
The Global Disinformation Index compiles a “dynamic exclusion list” of the biggest “disinformation” peddlers among websites and feeds it to advertisers. It has concluded that the 10 “riskiest” news organizations are the American Spectator, Newsmax, the Federalist, the American Conservative, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, One America News, RealClearPolitics, Reason, and the New York Post.
John F. Kennedy said, “Without public debate, our republic cannot survive.” Progressives and Joe Biden are trying to silence all critics by claiming they are spreading “disinformation.” Their goal is to turn our republic into a socialist democratic state controlled by the far left Democrats. The socialist manifesto reads: take control of media and education, inflate the currency and divide the classes.
Orwell’s Big Brother knew the role of truth and facts within societies and the ways in which they can be manipulated. By rewriting history, turning lies into truths, and outlawing proven facts, he became the dystopian dictator of Oceania. It could happen here if we don’t end this illegal alliance between liberal self-anointed truth seekers and the government.
“Truth is not something we invent. If we do it is a lie. Truth is something that we discover after we learn all of the facts.” – Bishop Fulton Sheen
