America First Legal posted a lengthy Twitter thread on Wednesday exposing the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC). The GEC was carrying out US government propaganda through private media organizations.
The Global Engagement Center defines its mission as: “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.”
The GEC’s stated mission is to address “foreign adversaries’ attempts to undermine US interests using disinformation and propaganda.” But they were doing more than targeting “foreign adversaries.”
America First Legal was able to piece together how the US government is funding private entities to silence opposing voices at home who challenge the US government narrative.
/1🚨BREAKING — America First Legal released documents obtained from a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of State, exposing how the Global Engagement Center carries out state propaganda through private media organizations.
Disturbing thread below ⤵️
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
The GEC funds Poynter Institutes’ International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and members of its international fact-checking network.
The IFCN also received its initial funding from the Omidyar Network, Google, Facebook, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and George Soros’s Open Society.
The IFCN was nominated for a Pulitzer for their work in censoring and blacklisting opposing voices not sanctioned by government officials (Ex. Gateway Pundit, RFK Jr.’s Children’s Defense Fund).
/3 IFCN received its initial funding from the Department of State-funded National Endowment for Democracy, the Omidyar Network, Google, Facebook, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. pic.twitter.com/c99g4kmyla
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
The State Department’s GEC regularly works with the IFCN.
/5 The GEC regularly works with IFCN on targeted campaigns.
For example, the GEC worked closely with Baybars Orsek, Poynter’s director of international programming, to set up an IFCN partner in Tunisia.
The “GEC-funded project” would work on “achieving two main objectives: pic.twitter.com/nnKTIANQig
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/7 In particular, the GEC aimed to ensure that two specific media organizations in Tunisia would “absorb the fact-checking skills” to censor disfavored narratives from the news. pic.twitter.com/1piqtmETlK
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/9 AfricaCheck is a fact-checking organization, substantially funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Google News Initiative, the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, the IFCN, the Omidyar Network, the Department of State, and earned income through Facebook.
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
They exclude media outlets they disagree with.
/11 When threatened, they join together to protect their mutual interests. pic.twitter.com/o6Z5u2N5OG
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/13 For example David Mikkelson of @snopes attempted to discredit the @DailyCaller to kick them out of their Google Groups on “Combating Fake News: The Science of Misinformation,” even though another member raised the point that Daily Caller had the same “source-credibility”… pic.twitter.com/MQk7xfchqr
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
Their work appears biased in promoting state-approved narratives – no matter how wrong it was.
/15 For example, a professional fact-checker at PolitiFact, which is operated by the Poynter Institute, appeared to rely on the GEC to debunk a “claim [that] stems from the letter that GOP senators wrote to the Biden Administration,” even though the GEC was under the Biden Admin. pic.twitter.com/rVpglqEMJ8
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
The Washington Post discredited The New York Post’s reporting on Hunter’s Laptop.
/17 @washingtonpost readily jumped into the conversation to discredit the @nypost reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
The notorious deep state WaPo reporter Ellen Nakashima is outed in the report.
/17 @washingtonpost readily jumped into the conversation to discredit the @nypost reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/19 On the same day, Ellen Nakashima, a national security reporter with the Washington Post “covering election security,” reached out to the GEC requesting a call on “more declassified Russian disinformation.” pic.twitter.com/Pho6J3BHKP
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/21 On October 16, 2020, Ellen Nakashima sent another email to the GEC to inquire about “upcoming releases by the GEC.” pic.twitter.com/AAjSouOpCY
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/23 Nakashima also highlighted numerous federal agency lines of effort to combat “Russian interference,” including the GEC’s August 2020 report exposing websites and organizations as Russian sites spreading disinformation. pic.twitter.com/amJRQyuJgT
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
Mainstream outlets viewed the GEC as the authoritative source – despite their record of disinformation.
/27 As the fact-check by PolitiFact above demonstrates, however, this presents the risk that critical investigative journalists become nothing more than state media mouthpieces…
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/30 On February 4, 2021, with another potential outlet seemingly interested in writing a story on the topic of interest, the GEC shared its talking points with the @nytimes pic.twitter.com/xGLHhpNpWf
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/29 Meanwhile, on February 2, 2021, New York Times reporter Julian Barnes obtains an introduction to the GEC through his National Security Agency (NSA) contact for his story on “Russian anti-vax disinformation.” pic.twitter.com/yevPs4bLX2
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/31 By February 12, 2021, the GEC Deputy Spokesperson, J.T. Ice, warned Michael Gordon that it will pitch the story to another outlet if the @WSJ didn’t publish the story “imminently.” pic.twitter.com/Abc0ZkgznC
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
/32 Finally, on March 7, 2021, the Wall Street Journal published the story the GEC wanted. https://t.co/sfPfe2I1bL pic.twitter.com/eD4lrZVUHS
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 24, 2023
This is a devastating report exposing much of what The Gateway Pundit assumed and previously reported with even more background.
The government was – AND LIKELY STILL IS – censoring speech in America today. Now they are exposed. It’s time for justice.
Source: TGP
