{"id":18079,"date":"2023-03-09T22:13:57","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T03:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=18079"},"modified":"2023-03-10T20:28:29","modified_gmt":"2023-03-11T01:28:29","slug":"n-y-post-democrats-champion-censorship-and-smear-twitter-files-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/09\/n-y-post-democrats-champion-censorship-and-smear-twitter-files-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"N.Y. Post: Democrats Champion Censorship and smear Twitter files heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Post, March 10, 2023\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Democrats Champion Censorship and smear Twitter files heroes <\/a><\/h1>\n

by James Bovard<\/p>\n

The House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government held a hearing Thursday on the Twitter Files<\/a>, which are exposing pervasive federal browbeating to suppress free speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Congressional Democrats championed the National Lampoon definition of censorship: Unless there is a photo of an FBI agent holding a gun to the head of a Twitter employee, the feds did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

Twitter Files reporters Matt Taibbi<\/a> and Michael Shellenberger were on the witness stand. Though both are bestselling authors with long records of excellent reporting, they were treated as shameless grifters who were basely smearing noble federal agencies.<\/p>\n

Taibbi and Shellenberger labored under the misconception that congressional hearings seek to reveal facts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead, Democratic members viewed them as sacrifices on the altar of boundless federal prerogatives. Democratic members continually cut off the witnesses, signaling that their role was to shut up and take a whupping.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-USVI) kicked things off for the Democrats by ominously declaring the pair \u201cpose a direct threat to people who oppose them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) vilified Taibbi: \u201cElon Musk spoon-fed you his cherry-picked information, which . . . generates another right-wing conspiracy theory.\u201d<\/p>\n

She bizarrely accused Taibbi of unfairly profiting from his work because he now has more Twitter followers and Substack subscribers.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She concluded by casting Taibbi\u2019s character into the abyss: \u201cHypocrisy is the hangover of an addiction to attention.\u201d (Wasserman Schultz was named the \u201cmost unethical politician\u201d in Congress in 2017 by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust.)<\/p>\n

Shortly after the hearing, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) tweeted that \u201cRepublicans have launched a dangerous political circus that\u2019s sole purpose is to inject extremist politics into our justice system\u201d and promised to fight \u201coutright conspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Garcia was the Know Nothing Poster Child at today\u2019s hearing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She pounded Taibbi on whether he disclosed the information in his latest Twitter Files to Twitter before publishing.<\/p>\n

He was mystified by her questions: He had posted a series of tweets. Garcia couldn\u2019t comprehend that tweeting is the same as simultaneously publishing on Twitter.<\/p>\n

She interrogated Taibbi: \u201cYou posted on your umm I guess it\u2019s kind of like a web page. I don\u2019t quite understand what Substack is.\u201d Where do the Democrats find these wizards?<\/p>\n

Democrats continually sought to expose ulterior motives that didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

Garcia asked Shellenberger how he joined the Twitter Files project. He said his friend Bari Weiss asked him. \u201cSo this friend works for Twitter?\u201d Garcia asked.<\/p>\n

Shellenberger said no, she is a journalist. \u201cSo you work in concert with her,\u201d Garcia continued. \u201cYou\u2019re in this as a threesome?\u201d There is no m\u00e9nage \u00e0 trois<\/em> \u2014 several other writers are reporting the dirt in the Twitter Files.<\/p>\n

Neither Garcia nor any other Democrat showed any interest in the shocking revelations Taibbi and others have exposed.<\/p>\n

But Taibbi added new logs to the bonfire today with fresh Twitter Files revelations of a federal contractor pressuring social media companies to suppress \u201cstories of true vaccine side effects\u201d and \u201ctrue posts which could fuel [vaccine] hesitancy.\u201d<\/p>\n