Daily Wire And The Federalist Sue Biden State Department Over Censorship Effort
Daily WireDec 06, 2023
Lawsuit Claims US Funds Tech That Blacklists Conservative News
The Facts
A lawsuit filed in the US Eastern District of Texas on Wednesday has accused the State Department of violating the First Amendment by using taxpayer money to fund "fact-checking" enterprises that allegedly favor left-wing media outlets over conservative news sites.
The plaintiffs — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, the Federalist, and the Daily Wire — claim that State Department-sponsored technology to counter foreign "propaganda and misinformation" could "render disfavored press outlets unprofitable."
The Spin
Right narrative
Governments have no business acting as the arbiters of truth, and by funding self-serving organizations that show a clear bias toward conservative news outlets, that's exactly what the department is doing. This lawsuit is a defense of the rights of all journalistic organizations and every American, including the right to a free press as protected by the Constitution. It must be taken seriously.
Left narrative
The GEC was established to protect US national security interests, and claims of its misuse are wildly unfounded. This conservative legal strategy will do more harm than good if it forces the Biden administration to stop funding tech firms to spot foreign meddling, as many foreign influence campaigns have evolved to spread conspiracy theories and target American politicians to advance state interests.
Nerd narrative
There's a 50% chance that the US' score in the Freedom in the World Report for 2050 will be at least 80.6, according to the Metaculus prediction community.