(NRSC News) – The federal government has become totally corrupt but America is not completely without hope, yet. As long as we continue pushing back and taking action, change can happen.
Change has happened thanks to the diligent investigative work of the Washington Examiner. The Examiner has revealed that as a direct result of their digging and reporting, a State Department-backed nonprofit group is ending its financial relationship with an organization that openly engages in “disinformation” tracking and blacklisting conservative outlets.
The group is called the National Endowment for Democracy and is almost entirely funded through congressional appropriations. Between 2020 and 2021 it granted $545,750 to the Global Disinformation Index which has been spending tax dollars to send conservative website blacklists to advertising companies.
It’s hard to believe this kind of thing is going on in America. Fortunately, Republicans have raised the red flag. The National Endowment for Democracy is now taking steps to distance itself from the so-called “disinformation” tracker and reportedly will not be sending the group any future grant money.
“As set forth in our Articles of Incorporation and the NED Act, our mandate is to work around the world and not in the United States,” Leslie Aun, the group’s vice president of communications, told the Washington Examiner. “We have strict policies and practices in place so that NED and the work we fund remains internationally focused, ensuring the Endowment does not become involved in domestic politics.”
“Recently, we became aware that one of our grantees, the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), was engaged in an initiative, funded by a different donor, that focused on specific U.S. media outlets,” the statement continued. “We recognize the important work GDI has done with NED support in other countries to help preserve the integrity of the information space and counter authoritarian influence. However, given our commitment to avoid the perception that NED is engaged in any work domestically, directly or indirectly, we will no longer provide financial support to GDI.”
A source in Congress explained to the Examiner that this development unfolded after the group briefed the House Foreign Affairs Committee and another committee on Thursday in an attempt to clarify that its grants were not allotted for the Global Disinformation Index’s conservative blacklists. Of course, that’s what they have to say but is it the truth? Not likely. The Biden regime has been the most anti-First Amendment administration in US history. There’s no reason whatsoever to believe they earnestly weren’t intending to fund conservative blacklists.
Unfortunately the more than half a million in grants already sent to the Global Disinformation Index have been spent.
“But there will be no more grants going forward,” remarked a second source also noting that committee representatives told the group that money is “fungible” regardless of the grants being sent for overseas activity.
The Washington Examiner reports:
“The 2020 and 2021 grants to Global Disinformation Index were earmarked for the group to collaborate with foreign partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere to research disinformation and develop “risk ratings” for advertising companies, according to the NED. In 2021, the group received $300 million in taxpayer dollars, according to public records.
The Global Disinformation Index, as the Washington Examiner has continued to detail, compiles a “dynamic exclusion list” of the biggest “disinformation” peddlers among websites and feeds it to advertisers. It has noted that the 10 “riskiest” outlets are the American Spectator, Newsmax, the Federalist, the American Conservative, One America News, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, RealClear Politics, Reason, and the New York Post.”
Isn’t it interesting how the top ten websites are all conservative leaning? It’s pretty clear this so-called “disinformation” initiative has very little to do with stopping any actual disinformation but rather shutting down narratives that don’t agree with the left’s globalist agenda and silencing truth, reason, and facts.
It’s really past time for unelected bureaucrats to stop attempting to tell Americans how and what to think by censoring information whether outright or through shady conservative media blacklists.
The congressional source explained that during the Thursday briefing, the NED claimed that the Global Disinformation Index “didn’t do any of this bad stuff when they signed the grant.” The Global Disinformation Index was incorporated in April 2018, as per British financial records.
Surely those at NED were blissfully unaware of the “work” going on at the Global Disinformation Index when they sent them half a million dollars and they most likely didn’t just start doing this “bad stuff” after getting the grant money.
The Examiner continues:
“The State Department has increasingly come under fire from Republican lawmakers for its ties to the Global Disinformation Index. In 2021, the department’s affiliated Global Engagement Center granted $100,000 to the Global Disinformation Index as part of the U.S.-Paris Tech Challenge, which sought “to advance the development of promising and innovative technologies against disinformation and propaganda” overseas, records show.
Park Advisers, an investment firm that fights “disinformation, terrorism, violent extremism, [and] hate speech,” was initially given the $100,000 and delivered it to the Global Disinformation Index, according to the State Department.”
“I’m going to focus my time on the weaponization subcommittee on these matters,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “This direct assault on the First Amendment and the ways in which the exquisite powers of the government have been merged with the capabilities of technology to constrain rights that Americans have long held close and cherished.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), ranking member on the permanent subcommittee on investigations, said Wednesday that Congress needs “to further investigate this potential First Amendment violation.”
Indeed. No more excuses. There needs to be accountability.
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