Disinformation Governance Board Comes as No Surprise

On April 27, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a “disinformation governance board.” As politicians, scholars, and journalists of various persuasions noted, such a board is more characteristic of Communist dictatorships than a constitutional democracy. On the other hand, in current conditions, the board should come as no surprise. 

Saule Omarova, Biden’s choice for comptroller of the currency in the Treasury Department, was an advocate of Soviet-style banking, with the government running the show. The former Komsomol from Kazakhstan is on record that the “market doesn’t always know best,” and she is essentially uncritical of the “old USSR” where there was “no gender pay gap.” 

Omarova failed to get the post, but her selection in the first place is revealing. What Omarova wanted to do with the currency, the new DHS board will do with information. That raises more than a few issues. 

Chief White House advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci is a non-practicing physician and his bio shows no advanced degrees in molecular biology or biochemistry. Dr. Fauci has reversed himself many times but now claims to represent science. Will the new government Disinformation Board now brand criticism of Dr. Fauci as disinformation?

U.S. Agency for International Development boss Samantha Power recently went on record that a global food shortage crisis would push farmers toward more green energy. “Never let a crisis go to waste,” proclaimed Power. Will the government board now attack criticism of Power‘s misguided notions as disinformation?

Joe Biden recently claimed that during the Six-Day War in 1967 he served as a liaison between the Israelis and Egyptians. If some journalist dares to point out that in 1967 Joe Biden was still in law school, and could not have served as a liaison between the Israelis and Egyptians, will the government board target the writer for disinformation? And what will be the penalty?

The new Disinformation Board is a project of the Department of Homeland Security, created in 2002 to prevent 9/11-style terrorist attacks. The vaunted DHS failed to prevent terrorist attacks at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 (14 dead, more than 30 wounded); San Bernardino, California, in 2015 (14 murdered, more than 20 wounded); Orlando, Florida, in 2016, with 49 murdered and more than 50 wounded. In 2013, the DHS failed to stop the bombing of the Boston Marathon, which claimed three lives and inflicted hundreds of crippling injuries. 

Back in 2002, the late P.J. O’Rourke said the Department of Homeland Security sounded like a failed savings and loan. In 2020, the DHS is a failed security agency now menacing freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of the press in America.