Biden administration denies targeting journalists and member of Congress critical of State Department – Washington Examiner
The Biden administration has publicly denied allegations that it targeted journalists and a congressman critical of the State Department. The controversy centers around claims that the State Department funded a blacklist of conservative media outlets, purportedly as part of efforts to combat misinformation. Notable figures like Matt Taibbi and investigative journalist Gabe Kaminsky have highlighted links between the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) and censorship practices. Taibbi reported that the GEC pressured social media platforms to suppress content related to COVID-19, while Kaminsky revealed that the GEC provided financial support to an organization that created a list of conservative-leaning outlets to weaken their advertising prospects.
Despite these claims, the State Department maintains that it did not engage in this kind of funding. In response to inquiries, they noted that the reporting was based on incomplete evidence and emphasized their lack of communication with Kaminsky regarding specific grant-related questions. The situation raises concerns about the boundaries of government influence on media platforms and freedom of expression.
Biden administration denies targeting journalists and Congress member critical of State Department
The State Department is attempting to discredit the validity of reports that it was funding the formation of a blacklist of conservative papers due to its alleged spread of disinformation for top company advertisers
Matt Taibbi, author behind the Twitter Files, and Washington Examiner investigative journalist Gabe Kaminsky, both brought to light examples of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center being linked to apparent censorship. Taibbi reported that the GEC was pressuring social media platforms, such as X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook, to suppress posts and information related to COVID-19, while the Washington Examiner reported on the GEC funding a group blacklisting Republican media outlets.
According to Taibbi, the GEC framed it as combating Russian and Chinese disinformation, but it was actually being used to censor people in the United States. This included posts about the Wuhan lab leak theory, which virologists say has more evidence behind it than the theory that the virus jumped from animal to human.
“We learned Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation ‘requests’ from every corner of government: the FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA,” Taibbi testified to Congress in March of that year.
In February 2023, Kaminsky uncovered that the GEC awarded a $100,000 GRANT to the London-based Global Disinformation Index in 2021 and 2021, which then made a list of 10 outlets with Republican and libertarian-leaning opinion sections in an effort to blackball them from top advertisers.
The grant from GEC was distributed in October 2021 and March 2022.
However, records from the State Department obtained by the New York Post seek to claim the agency had no part in funding the GDI.
“Elon Musk’s retweet of Taibbi’s thread insinuates that the [US government], and the GEC in particular, pressured Twitter to close U.S. accounts of which the [US government] disapproved,” the guidance document says.“The evidence offered for this claim is often missing, inferred, or presented out of context. The thread comes to no firm conclusion, and switches blame to the FBI near the end of the string.”
In addition, the State Department said Kaminsky “did not ask for an interview,” but it acknowledged that he “sent questions repeatedly” to the department’s press office for information about the grant to GDI.
“The State Department had numerous opportunities to respond to our reporting in the Washington Examiner on its funding of the Global Disinformation Index, but they declined to answer basic questions,” Kaminsky said.
In its documents, the department paraphrased Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN)’s words in a Washington Examiner article to insinuate that Banks would have influence in Russian operations. Banks had originally said he would tell Congress to ban federal funding of anti-free speech groups.
“The State Department falsely claimed I was boosting Russian state propaganda because I called out their censorship of conservative Americans,” Banks told the outlet in a statement. “They are proving my point. It’s un-American and disgraceful.”
Meanwhile, the State Department denies its involvement in censoring people in the U.S.
“The Department of State has been and continues to be responsive to dozens of reporters’ requests for comment and congressional inquiries,” a spokesperson told the outlet. “The bottom line remains the same: the Global Engagement Center does not engage in censorship, and it is focused on countering foreign disinformation overseas, not on the domestic information environment.”
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