Joe Biden’s Failed Attempt at a Disinformation Force Might Seem Frivolous, but We Need to Be Wary

By Brad Slager

The quick failure of Joe Biden’s disinformation force shows why we needed to oppose it.
 
I have segued into a full-time role in covering our country’s press complex in the past couple of years. This is as corrupt a cabal of communicators as we may find, and rooting out their ethical lapses is needed. Many times I get comments, telling me there is no need to bother, as the bias in the journalism industry has long been known. But understand, there is not a pretext that I am delivering BREAKING news in saying there is partisanship in the media; exposing their tactics on the regular is a needed tool to combat their narratives.
 
Case in point – Joe Biden’s recent attempt at establishing the Disinformation Governance Board.
 

The threat this attempted Ministry of Truth division presented was real, but there is also a reality the administration avoided. It was doomed simply because it was a government entity. This is not to say it should not have been attacked for the propaganda effort that it was, but we did see many of the inherent problems of this being a typical federal agency – starting with the name, which managed to generate to ominous acronym DGB, sounding just as bad as your run of the mill, communist wrong-think authority.

 

The DGB was said to be established to help combat undermining efforts from abroad that threatened our domestic governmental operations. This establishes the first of myriad problems this agency displayed. The obvious echoes this mission statement had to the Russian collusion campaign were undeniable, and also abjectly unfortunate; the Board was set up to fight misinformation under the aegis of protecting from a threat that was itself based entirely on misinformation. 

 
No matter, that curtain of a cause was swiftly pulled back to expose the real focus. The Disinformation Czar plucked to run this fiasco was Nina Jankowicz, a woman of dubious merit and in possession of a gauzy skill set. In short order, her past comments and current commentary were splashed across social media to get a read on what we could expect from this new outfit. Mary Poppins karaoke and her sexy Harry Potter fan-fiction aside, Janx also gave plenty of discussions about misinformation and battling back narratives that hindered political policy.
 
The hitch: Her evidence, examples, guidelines, and proposals were all centered on commentary found on the right side of the political spectrum. It became laughable that she was operating as if the concept of misinformation coming from the left, Democrats, or other mainstream news outlets besides Fox/NewsMax/OANN was a foreign one. This myopic focus showed both the craven establishment of this division and the ineptitude of those behind its creation.
 

Many in the media environment were applauding the formation of the DGB. Brian Stelter saw the formation as being little more than “common sense.” Many in the press hailed its arrival, clearly a sign they felt they were all on the good side of government authorities. This was the behavior of journalists seeing the creation of a division of statist thought police, and believing they would become deputies in the effort.   

 
Of course, it never dawned on the press what this new office could become under a Republican administration. Were a GOP President given the reins of this office, the squealing would be heard of the dangers this presents, probably before the confetti hit the hardwood at the victory speech. This is how short-sighted the supposed arbiters of free speech have been.
 
But the press fealty to this administration and this new DGB entity is displayed in the lack of reality as the news came out of its dissolution. Last week, as criticisms were being seen, it was explained that this was something the new department could not contend with, amazingly enough. Part of the problem, it was reported, was that the explanation behind the formation of this new department had been unclear, according to Alejandro Mayorkas.
 
This lack of self-awareness continued with the news this week. In announcing the closing of the DGB the New York Times appears oblivious to just how ridiculous they sound in trying to rationalize the ending of this mess.

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