Ministry of Truth shut down for now

The Disinformation Governance Board – meaning America’s Ministry of Truth – abruptly shut down yesterday. Not only that, but the Minister-in-chief of Truth, the Director of the DGB, resigned.

When did America get a Ministry of Truth?

Last month, the Biden administration announced a new Disinformation Governance Board within the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission, as The Blaze quotes it, was to:

coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia.

Oho! Everything from “we’re not getting swarms of people crashing our borders” to “we have always been at war with Russia.” Replace Russia with Eastasia and you have the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s 1984.

On May 2, incidentally the very day of the Roe v. Wade leak, DHS released this “Fact Sheet” explaining the mission of this Ministry of Truth – or Office of Truth. The headline is bad enough:

DHS Internal Working Group Protects Free Speech and Other Fundamental Rights When Addressing Disinformation That Threatens the Security of the United States

But now read the second paragraph:

Disinformation, which is false information that is deliberately spread with the intent to deceive or mislead, can take many forms. When it comes to DHS’s work, the Department is focused on disinformation that threatens the security of the American people, including disinformation spread by foreign states such as Russia, China, and Iran, or other adversaries such as transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling organizations. Such malicious actors often spread disinformation to exploit vulnerable individuals and the American public, including during national emergencies.

Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa. “Can take many forms”? What forms? And when they mention human smuggling organizations – those guys are the government’s friends! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

Bill Maher calls out the Ministry of Truth immediately

Bill Maher – who has lately been sounding less like the broken clock having its moment telling the correct time and more like Neo taking a timed-release Red Pill – called out former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) on this very point. He said,

Yes, they’re right to compare this to Orwell in the Ministry of Truth. It’s exactly what it sounds like.

He then asked Harman who would direct this Office of Truth in 2025. Of course when he said that he conceded that Republicans will be back in the White House by then. Ms. Harman didn’t get it.

Maher also called out Nina Jankowicz, Director of this Office of Truth. She actually said (per The New York Post)that Blue Checkmark Twitter users needed the power to edit others’ tweets. Furthermore she proposed that some people have the Blue Checkmark who shouldn’t. This video on Twitter of the Zoom Meeting where she said that, proves very instructive:

Worse than that, she said Big Tech silences voices on the left, not the right. Psychiatrists have a fancy Latin word for that: projection. Which means: throwing off on the other person.

By the way: the Disinformation Governance Board is more properly an Office of Truth, not a Ministry of Truth. First, America does not have Ministries; we call them Departments. Second, this is an office in the Department of Homeland Security – hence Office of Truth.

The Board collapses

But by whatever name, this Office of Truth is now no more – for now. The Washington Post broke the news.

UPDATE: Nina Jankowicz has officially resigned from Disinformation Governance Board and the DHS. Taylor Lorenz, May 18, 2022

After that, the American Center for Law and Justice had this video:

We have other information from The Daily Caller, The Western Journal, WorldNetDaily, and Just the News. All these sources tell us that DHS has suspended the operation of this Board. Furthermore, Nina Jankowicz resigned, though the Department offered, two nights ago, to let her stay on.

The Administration makes much of what they call “vile personal attacks” against Jankowicz. Those “attacks” consist of resurrecting some of her old tweets, making statements we now know are false. Like saying Hunter Biden’s laptop was a Russian disinformation operation, less than two weeks before the Election of 2020.

Or denying that a Deep State exists.

Or this riff on the Walt Disney Mary Poppins movie. Nina Jankowicz, you’re no Julie Andrews!

And how about her telling a British Member of Parliament that government should set standards of social media content?

Add to it that staff at DHS want this Office or Ministry of Truth to come back, with someone like Nina Jankowicz at the helm. That according to Taylor Lorenz, whose tweet broke the story of the suspension of the Board. The detestable boo-hoo-ing (apologies to Rex Harrison and Alan Jay Lerner) has already begun:

Biden’s Department of Homeland Security hired Nina Jankowicz to head its new disinfo board, then failed to defend it with verve and clarity, failed to defend Nina Jankowicz at all, and kept her from defending herself. So she fell victim to a nasty disinformation campaign. Siva Vaidhyanathan, May 18, 2022

https://web.archive.org/web/20220518232759/https://twitter.com/sivavaid/status/1526958205707988992

But why?

Why did the Department suspend its Office or Ministry of Truth? They won’t really say. That Nina Jankowicz was subject to withering personal attacks shouldn’t have fazed them. We’re talking about people having no shame.

More likely Barack Obama – who is really pulling the strings – realized that the phrase Ministry of Truth is already a talking point. Furthermore, it’s a talking point neither he nor his media allies can defend anymore. So he gave the order: tell the public we’re not going to have it anymore. Nina Jankowicz wrote a letter of resignation because she had become the lightning rod. Did she mean it? Well, she acts like a loose cannon on the gundeck, saying the quiet part out loud. That some DHS staff say, “We need another Nina on board,” and not, “We need Nina back,” probably means she really is gone. So, fine. DHS reconstitutes its Office of Truth but this time says nothing about it. That place has turned into a puzzle palace and that makes it the worst mistake George W. Bush made.

So: watch carefully, everyone. Don’t let up on criticizing the Office of Truth just because the government has retreated from it. That they formed it at all should tell you everything you need to know. This government just tried to use overt censorship to decide the Midterms. Don’t let that happen. Take for granted that you can respect freedom, or vote Democratic. You can’t do both.

Update May 18, 2023

Taylor Lorenz seems to have deleted her tweet announcing the shutdown of the Disinformation Board. Likewise, Siva Vaidhyanathan’s tweet of the same day will not resolve, either. The Wayback Machine refuses to process Taylor Lorenz’ tweet, but it will process Saya Vaidhvanathan’s tweet. The article now has direct quotes from both tweets and a Wayback Machine link to the second.