White House Caught Censoring
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White House Caught Censoring
For months, mainstream journalists and Democrats have insisted that nobody in the White House was demanding censorship of anybody. They were just “flagging content” and using their own right to free speech to point out “mis- and disinformation.”
But now, newly released emails show that the Biden White House demanded more censorship by Facebook of accurate information about vaccines and Covid’s origin.
“Can someone quickly remind me why we were removing — rather than demoting/labeling — claims that Covid is man made,” asked Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president of global affairs, in a July 2021 email to his coworkers.
Answered a Facebook Vice President in charge of censorship: “We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more. We shouldn’t have done it.”
We already knew that Facebook, under White House pressure, censored "often-true content,” in the words of one company executive, even though it "does not contain actionable misinformation" because it was "discouraging vaccines."
But the new emails released yesterday by Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government, and first reported this morning by the Wall Street Journal, are even more damning.
In April of 2021, another Facebook executive emailed CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg to say, “We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders,” the person wrote, including the [Biden] White House and the press, to remove more COVID-19 vaccine discouraging content.”
Lest there be any doubt about White House pressure, the Facebook Vice President said, “There is likely a significant gap between what the WH would like us to remove and what we are comfortable removing.”
The White House even demanded that Facebook take down jokes.
“The WH has previously indicated that it thinks humor should be removed if it is premised on the vaccine having side effects, so we expect it would similarly want to see humor about vaccine hesitancy removed,” said the same Facebook vice president.
“I can’t see Mark in a million years being comfortable with removing that—and I wouldn’t recommend it,” wrote Clegg.
This kind of thing will keep happening until Congress takes action. Happily, that’s what Rep. Dan Bishop, who recorded a podcast with Public a few weeks back, proposed to do this week.
Bishop, and Reps. Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Harriet Hageman, and others introduced The Censorship Accountability Act, which would allow people to sue executive branch employees caught demanding social media companies to censor.
Given that journalists and Democrats insist that such a thing never occurs, surely we can expect to see them championing the legislation. Right?
— MS
Trans-victimization
For many Americans, extending rights to trans people aligns with past movements to extend rights to women, racial minorities, gays, and lesbians. In the same way that women and girls deserved female-only spaces and sports, which they achieved in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, transwomen should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
But many people who believe this do not understand that many transwomen, including the swimmer Lia Thomas, have entirely intact male genitalia. And not only must biological women compete with Thomas in public, but they must also share a locker room in private.
Few people support denying the rights of trans people to live safely and freely. But what of the rights of women athletes? And what of the rights of women athletes who are the survivors of sexual assault?
Such were the questions raised by Paula Scanlan, a former NCAA female swimmer. Yesterday she testified before Congress and presented some shocking information.
“My teammates and I were forced to undress in the presence of Lia, a six-feet-four-inch tall biological man fully-intact with male genitalia, 18 times per week,” Scanlan said. “Some girls opted to change in bathroom stalls, and others used the family bathroom to avoid this.”
This was particularly traumatizing for Scanlan, she said, since a man had sexually assaulted her in a bathroom just a few years earlier.
“I know of women with sexual trauma who are adversely impacted by having biological males in their locker room without their consent. And I am one of these women. I was sexually assaulted on June 3, 2016, in a bathroom.”
Rather than respond with human decency, the University of Pennsylvania sided with political correctness.
“When we tried to voice our concern to the Athletic Department,” said Scanlan, “we were told that Lia swimming and being in our locker room was non-negotiable and we were offered psychological services to attempt to re-educate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male.”
All of this happened just last year.
Scanlan spoke out in an op-ed for the Daily Pennsylvanian, the University of Pennsylvania’s student newspaper.
“I approached this from a scientific, statistical perspective,” she said, “where I used my engineering background to discuss how Y-chromosomes cannot be changed by any surgical procedure or systemic therapy. This biological fact lends itself to athletic advantages that cannot be mitigated by lowering testosterone levels, which are readily apparent in sports competitions and locker rooms.”
Can you guess what happened next?
“Only a few hours later,” writes Scanlan, “my piece was retracted. I was given no notice, nor reasoning. Again, I was silenced for my dissenting viewpoint and felt my First Amendment Rights were denied by my university.
“This is representative of a greater issue, the destruction of free speech. Today any discussion of maintaining the sanctity of women’s spaces is labeled transphobic, bigoted, and hateful.”
The good news is that Americans appear to be coming to their senses. The share of Americans who say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that conform with their birth gender rose from 62% in 2021 to 69% this year.
Stories like Scanlan’s are no doubt part of the reason.
— MS
Coal And Oil Use Reach Historic Highs
The era of fossil fuels is over! Cheap solar and wind mean there’s no need for coal, oil, or natural gas!
At least, that’s what the mainstream news media has said repeatedly over the last decade.
The truth is somewhat different.