Censorship
Colleges have been around for centuries. College students have also been around for centuries. Yet, college administrators assume that today's students have needs that were unknown to their predecessors. Those needs include diversity and equity personnel, with massive budgets to accommodate. According to Minding the Campus, Penn State University's Office of Vice Provost for Educational Equity employs 66 staff members.
2019 was another year of smashing success for the NewsBusters team as we had umpteen media stories to cover throughout the year, whether it was the Jussie Smollett debacle, the Mueller Report, impeachment, 2020 debates, and more online censorship. While it may seem repetitive, NewsBusters would be nowhere near what its become since its inception in 2005 without the support of beloved readers (and adversaries) who view us as essential reading.
Hate crimes are tragic. Now they are typically followed by calls for government crackdowns on speech. In the wake of the attack on a Hanukkah celebration at a Rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, weekday morning CNN Newsroom co-host Jim Sciuttointerviewed a local Jewish community leader named Steve Gold. When Sciutto asked what can be done to solve this going forward, Gold, the co-president of Jewish Federation and Foundation of Rockland County suggested censoring free speech on social media platforms.
After taking a stand for free speech on several occasions, is Facebook now backsliding? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg decided to take a pro-free speech stand and allowed political ads without fact-checking as early as October 2019, and amidst pressure from the left, the Big Tech CEO has even doubled down on his pro-free speech remarks. But according to sources speaking to The Washington Post, “Facebook has weighed whether to label political ads to indicate they have not been fact-checked, rather than vetting what candidates say, one of a series of proposals the company has floated” leading up to the 2020 election.
YouTube took down more than 300 ads from President Donald Trump’s election campaign in what is only the latest example of the company fighting with the right. CBS News reportedly “found that over 300 video ads were taken down by Google and YouTube, mostly over the summer, for violating company policy. But the archive doesn't detail what policy was violated.”
Reporters are supposed to cover both sides of the story, where there are two sides to it. Journalists trumpeted this principle in defending a recent story in the Harvard Crimson that sought to quote both sides about an immigration controversy. But in the real world, this principle is often ignored. If a reporter doesn’t want to cover both sides of the story, she just pretends there aren’t really two sides to it, and then quotes only the side she likes.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey once said, “Journalists play a critical role in our society: keep the world honest and balanced. They are true servants of the people.” This seems to only apply to journalists that lean left, however. Journalist and Editor-at-large for The Post Millennial Andy Ngo was suspended on Twitter on Nov. 25 for “violating our rules against hateful conduct.” Ngo, who rose to fame by following radical Antifa groups throughout America, had tweeted at Chelsea Clinton earlier that day about trans murder rates. He was censored for his tweet.
Buried deep within YouTube's new Terms of Service, due to go into effect on December 10, is an ominous clause. Perhaps they hoped few or, better yet, none would notice that it has the potential to destroy viewpoints with which YouTube and its parent company Google disagree, namely conservative channels. The good news is that the TOS clause in question which has the potential to wipe out many conservative channels has been spotlighted by several websites and YouTubers, including Mark Dice.
Countering the liberal media call to censor conservatives, the former president came out swinging against Chinese-style censorship on Big Tech platforms and took a stand for free speech online. “At a high-dollar fundraiser on Thursday” former President Barack Obama attempted to bridge the gap and ease the tensions between rising Democratic Party leaders and Big Tech companies, particularly amidst recent controversies over “misinformation,” censorship and free speech, Vox Recode reported.
Twitter appears to be doing all it can to protect those participating in the impeachment inquiry from public criticism. Liberal news outlet BuzzFeed noted that the phrase “I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch” was trending on the morning of Nov. 15.
Accuse liberal billionaire George Soros of impropriety and you could be accused of anti-Semitism and be de-platformed. At least that’s what the Open Society Foundations is allegedly saying should happen to lawyer and Fox News guest Joe diGenova.
“Ignorance is strength.” That’s one of the three infamous “slogans of the Party” featured in George Orwell’s novel 1984, in which Big Brother edits the news to manipulate the populace. Well, it was that kind of authoritarian action CNN shills S.E. Cupp and Brian Stelter were celebrating, during Saturday’s edition of Unfiltered, when it came to social media giants Facebook and YouTube scrubbing the name of the alleged whistleblower responsible for impeachment.