Columns, Free Speech, Media

Should Joe Biden Be Banned?

Below is my column in The Messenger on the view of diplomats in the Biden Administration that the President is spreading “misinformation.” My interest in the story is less the merits than the allegation. The President is facing the same allegation of ignoring fact and spreading disinformation that has resulted in thousands being banned or blacklisted on social media. The Biden Administration has pushed for such censorship in areas where doctors and pundits held opposing views on subjects ranging from Covid-19 to climate control. The question is whether Joe Biden himself should be banned under the standards promulgated by his own Administration.

Here is the column:

An internal State Department dissent memo was leaked this past week, opposing the Biden administration’s position on the war between Israel and Hamas. What was most notable about the memo is that some administration staffers accused President Joe Biden of “spreading misinformation.”

It was a moment of crushing irony for some of us who have written and testified against the Biden administration’s censorship efforts. The question is whether, under the administration’s own standards, President Biden should now be banned or blacklisted to protect what his administration has called our “cognitive infrastructure.”

For years, the administration and many Democrats in Congress have resisted every effort to expose the sprawling government censorship program that one federal judge described as an “Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.'” As I have written previously, it included grants to academic and third-party organizations to create a global system of blacklists and to pressure advertisers to withdraw support from conservative sites.

Most recently, a House Judiciary Committee report revealed another layer of this system, described as a “switchboarding” role for the censorship system by channeling demands for removal or bans from state and local officials. This switchboarding process was confirmed by Brian Scully of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), during prior court testimony. CISA’s director, Jen Easterly, previously declared the administration’s intent to extend its role over maintaining critical infrastructure to include “our cognitive infrastructure” and combating not just mis- and disinformation but also “malinformation,” which CISA describes as “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”

As a result, over the last four years, researchers, politicians, and even satirical sites have been banned or blacklisted for offering dissenting views of COVID measures, climate change, gender identity or social justice, according to the House Judiciary report. No level of censorship seemed to be sufficient for President Biden, who once claimed that social media companies were “killing people” by not silencing more dissenting voices.

Now, though, President Biden himself is accused — by some in his own administration — of spreading misinformation and supporting war criminals.

The five-page State Department memo was signed by 100 State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees and was accompanied by a social media post by a junior foreign affairs staffer, accusing Biden of being “complicit in genocide” in Gaza. The memo accuses Biden of “spreading misinformation,” citing his Oct. 10 speech supporting Israel, and accuses Israel of committing “war crimes and/or crimes against humanity under international law.” It also accuses Biden of ignoring facts — a classic justification for past administration demands to censor figures — on the number of Palestinian casualties.

Democrats face a nightmare of allegations of disinformation on both sides of the war and other issues. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and numerous media outlets have been accused of spreading disinformation about Israel killing hundreds with an airstrike on a Gaza hospital. Former CIA director Leon Panetta, in an interview on Fox News, stood by disproven claims about Russia faking Hunter Biden’s laptop.

There is, of course, not even a whisper (let alone a loud demand) for censorship or suspension of any of these figures or outlets, because that is not how the administration’s policies over “misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation” — what it terms “MDM” — work. The administration at one point insisted that it would police this “MDM space” to target views on a sweeping range of subjects, including racial justice and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

So what will the Biden MDM space-rangers do with President Biden?

The obvious answer is, “Nothing.”

The administration can note that the memo’s view of war crimes is a minority position and a matter of opinion — although that hasn’t stopped others from being censored, particularly scientists involved in the COVID controversies, according to the House Judiciary report.

Indeed, under its own standards, CISA and other agencies may be confused who to censor. It has created standards so ill-defined that it is surrounded by actionable disinformation. For example, if the administration does not believe Israel is committing war crimes, should it push to censor its own dissenting diplomats?

The censors in the administration and at social media companies have always adopted vague standards that allowed them to pick and choose who should be heard or silenced. Former Twitter executive Anika Collier Navaroli called it a “nuanced” approach in determining how much free speech to allow; former CEO Parag Agrawal said that the “focus [is] less on thinking about free speech” because it is not on who should speak but “who can be heard.”

That leaves any potential censorship based on the ridiculous standard which Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart advanced for pornography in the case of Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964): “I shall not today attempt further to define [it] … But I know it when I see it.”

Thus, President Biden has no fear about his views being censored: His administration has always exhibited distinct myopia when it claims to know disinformation when it sees it.

Jonathan Turley, an attorney, constitutional law scholar and legal analyst, is the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School.

194 thoughts on “Should Joe Biden Be Banned?”

  2. Entertains me to no end to see such a fan of censorship such as you, Jon, speak so disingenously on the topic.

  3. Joe Biden in an inveterate liar – what else is new? Takes some folks longer to realize things than others. The former we call Dim voters. The rest of us don’t need any banning. We just ignore the mouth spew.

    1. What was the lie?

      I assume you didn’t read the Axios article that Turley linked to above. If you had, you would realize the memo does not allege a single lie. You fell for the memo’s intended deception. Congrats. There was no misinformation alleged.

      1. “Joe Biden in an inveterate liar” Jo Biden is the liar. Mespo didn’t mention Axios and based on your history you are not trustworthy.

        You sound like a Hamas supporter.

        1. This is incoherent.

          Unless mespo has Tourette’s, one would assume he is responding to Turley’s article. If he had read the Axios news article that formed the basis of Turley’s piece, he would know that there was no alleged lie or falsehood included in the memo.

          This has nothing to do with Hamas. It has everything to do with our capacity to think critically and not blindly accept what we hear from the media. As Reagan put it, “Trust but verify.”

  4. Professor Turley,

    You failed to include the following line from the Axios scoop: “Without offering a specific example, the memo accuses Biden of “spreading misinformation in his Oct. 10 speech” supporting Israel, one of the signature addresses of his presidency.”

    This was not a memo about “misinformation.” It was a policy disagreement with the President. They used the “misinformation” buzzword intentionally (and incorrectly) in the memo because it sounds worse than a policy disagreement. This memo was always intended to be leaked and to be soaked up by the right, and you fell for the bait.

    Did you not even read the Axios article that you linked to? There was no alleged misinformation, yet you wrote an entire post about misinformation.

  5. If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the First Amendment and prohibits censorship – all Americans benefit. Censorship harms voters of both parties.

    The practical problem is it’s nearly impossible to write a censorship law.

    Do you censor the Bible? Do you censor rap music lyrics? Do you censor country music lyrics? Would Clint Eastwood movies be censored for violence? What about TV police shows being censored? No more Chuck Norris movies.

    Prior to the 1930’s it was illegal on many public beaches for men to be “topless”. How do you write that law censoring images on social media? Mixed race couples were once considered obscene (not acceptable in public view).

    One local voting district might be offended by something that’s acceptable in another voting district. A liberal district could censor Conservative speech and a Conservative district could censor liberal speech.

    How would you write a censorship law that doesn’t create a slippery slope?

  7. I’ll bet a dollar to a doughnut the majority of the “dissenters” that we read about are Obacala holdovers. It’s extremely difficult to believe Biden is driving the bus. Find the driver/driver’s understand the cause of the problems.

    1. I don’t know where you live, but I think a doughnut these days costs more than a dollar….

  8. Of course he should be banned. An old fairy tale that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Joe has been excused for gaffe’s for , it almost seems like centuries, decades really but now we know them for just lying.. As far as the State Dept is concerned, they have been anti-Jewish even before the present state of Israel came into being. Harry Truman was heavily pressured by the State Dept, primarily the rank and file, to not recognize the new state of Israel in 1948. Harry, of course, ignored them and recognized Israel. Genocide is when there is an overt act of war in a time of no war with civilians of a particular ethnicity or religion being primarily targeted. That’s like accusing the US of genocide when we launched a global spanning war against Japan after 12/7/1941 when Japan launched a surprise attack in a time of peace and killed 2100 Americans (slightly over 1000 on the USS Arizona alone).
    When you hit someone, why should you be surprised when they hit back, twice as hard. When someone sends over a bullet to your side, you send back a 155 mm HE shell.
    Nice to see a large part of Democratic Party unmasked for the anti-semites that they are. We all knew they have been lurking there for decades.

  10. One of the smartest moves the President did was to run with our current Vice President. No matter how awful and incoherent he gets, she is worse. That was played brilliantly.

    His administration (those who are really pulling the strings) has done much harm to this nation and to the world. It appears to be intentional.

    1. E.M.
      If the damage they are doing to this country was not intentional then it is by incompetence.
      Based off the evidence we are seeing, I could say it is 50/50.

  11. A cognitive infrastructure can only be built on truth and moral values. It seems today, truth is determined by who speaks the loudest on selected media platforms. Morals have been lost and replaced by what feels good for “me”.

  12. Misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories,… don’t play the progressively stupid word games. Use the correct word in the correct context with the correct dictionary meaning.

    Everything makes sense then.

  13. I would appreciate Jonathan’s view of the documentary”The fall of Minneapolis” and Megyn Kelly’s Podcast “False George Floyd narratives. The bodycam footage and sound indicates a terrible injustice was inflicted on the cops involved.

  14. “Fake [𝙄𝙏], till you Make [𝙄𝙏]” “They’ll Be Lying To the Very End” “The Truth, is not The Truth” “You have to allow People their Place in Life” “Go ask your Mother” “Go ask you Father” “[𝙄𝙏] is what [𝙄𝙏] Is” “Hope” and “Change We Can Believe In” … [𝙄𝙏]

    “Should Joe Biden Be Banned?” or “Should We give the Presidency blanket [𝙄𝙏]:
    impunity · exception · immunity · privilege · absolution · freedom · privilege · liberty · prerogative?”

    If you disagree, 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 [𝐈𝐓] 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐈𝐌. This President is a Moral Hazard to the People of the United States.
    He has kept doing [It] over and over again All his Life. His age is is deteriorating the Facade, and you are seeing what the core of his soul truly is. His foundations are exposed.

    That’s what happens to some old People “Lying To the Very End” , some get away with [𝙄𝙏], some don’t.
    We on the other hand, have been letting them get away with [𝙄𝙏] for far to long.
    – 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 [𝐈𝐓] 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌 –

  15. I would really appreciate a column by Jonathan on this new documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis” and Megyn Kelly’s Podcast “False George Floyd narratives”. These really expose a terrible injustice inflicted on the cops involved with bodycam footage and sound.

  16. “Democrats face a nightmare of allegations of disinformation on both sides of the war and other issues.” (JT)

    Why is it that those who shout “off with their heads,” believe that the guillotine will never come for them?

    Are they that myopic?

    1. Are you referring to trumps call for his opponents to be disposed of like vermin? You reference Democrats but I’m pretty sure trump is not a democrat.

      2. Donald Trump was a lifelong democrat. He became a republican to run for president.

        1. The Bob you refer to is a moron. He can’t stand clear of ignorance. He is like fly paper, but instead of attracting flies he attracts ignorance.

  17. “The five-page State Department memo was signed by 100 State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees and was accompanied by a social media post by a junior foreign affairs staffer, accusing Biden of being “complicit in genocide” in Gaza”

    That’s twice as many as the ’50 past intel chiefs’ They are at least twice as accurate. Biden is actively promoting genocide. AND Democrats are defending the genocide.

    We know from Trumps impeachment, 1.0 via our National Hero Andrew Vindman, the State Dept sets the foreign policy of the Nation, and the President of the United States is subservient to the nameless functionaries at The Dept of State.

    2. Iowan, describe the genocide? One side has a charter that calls for the ELIMINATION of one group of people and one side avoids killing civilians as much as possible. One side filmed themselves killing babies and grandmothers with glee and one side is fighting them.

      The only genocide is that which is being called for by HAMAS and little fascist leftists around the world.

      1. That is the fault, sorry to admit, of those to the right on the politicsl spectrum. We have ignored what the prog/left has been accomplishing since the time of FDR. WE have allowed this pernicious ideology to infest our government, our media/education industries and our churches and did nothing to push back – not even questioning the appropriateness of such indictrinators as Sesame Street. We have no one to blame but ourselves and I doubt , now, whether we can easily turn this around.

      2. Hullboy. Listen to me. The 100 (geez 100 is a lot) State Department EXPERTS. (Just working WITH the State Department makes you an expert, look what it Did for the Expert Vindman) Have identified Joe’s actions as genocide. That makes it more solid than a consensus of Scientists. Don’t come down on me. YOU must cede your personal opinion for the infallible State Department.

    3. I think this is satire. This part was pretty clever: “That’s twice as many as the ’50 past intel chiefs’ They are at least twice as accurate”

  18. Biden lies so often about so many things. That combined with his mental deterioration presents a tragic situation for the country. I’m not sure who is making the decisions, but it’s obviously not him, he just reads whatever is put in front of him. Sad.

  20. We knew all that, Professor. “Censorship for thee, but not for me” has long been the rule for Democrats.

    1. I’m pretty sure all the book banning and not teaching the true history of racism has been the domain of republicans.

      2. No one is banning books. That is just a leftist tactic to keep complaining that they cannot groom children with pornography in schools. Something and decent and moral person would support.
        You are clearly neither.
        Democrats were the party of the KKK and Jim Crow laws.

        1. Bob is Biden’s bidet, billowing, bloviating, bountiful bioluminescence with a toxic bioavailability that is barbaric, brainless and breathless.

          TL:DR: don’t feed the trolls. Regardless of the sockpuppet (name) they adopt, you can spot them in 5 words or less, much like Name that Tune Troll. Such is the look of defective minds.

      3. Bob, if you could read, I am sure you would discover that no one is banning books.

        1. Just that statement shows how ignorant you are. Yes, there are a number of right wing groups that have banned books and want more banned. They are not pornographic. Heck one of them was on the ban list because the authors name was Gay. Get a grip. Yes, books are being banned for morality purity reasons. They are not pornographic. If you don’t like a book, don’t read it. But you have no right to prevent others from reading the books. And yes, there are republican lawmakers that want to teach revisionist history about blacks and slavery. Slavery was not a good thing period, there were no, none, nada, redeeming values of slavery. You cannot whitewash a disgusting part of our history. Teach it and learn. Likewise trumps fascists statements. He is spouting fascism. If you support trump you are supporting fascist ideas. That makes you a fascist. His opponents are not vermin. That language is exactly fascist language.

          3. Bob, unless you have some believable sources to link to, I’m stuck with my working theory, you’re just spitting out talking points. Meaning you have no clue about the facts.

          4. Your goofballs banned Tom Sawyer and many cartoons and lots of Dr Suess.
            They’ve (you’ve) been banning, besides books now for decades, PEOPLE.
            Your own mirror is blinding.
            Since you have your fingers in your ears should we call you Helen Keller ?

      4. Bob, when you have Upstate and Estovir against you the game is over and you lost.

        Saying the removal of a book from a children’s library for it’s adult content is book banning is so stupid as to be almost impossible to argue against. How do you argue against someone that says up is down or day is night. You need a rational basis and an understanding of empirical knowledge in order to debate. Saying Deep Throat being pulled from kindergarten is a book or movie ban is an example of the stupidity of this argument.

        1. HullBobby,
          Well said.
          Their logic defies, well, logic. And common sense, reasoning, critical thinking.
          They think themselves as progressive when in reality they are regressive. 2+2=5. There are more than two biological sexes. It is okay to have pornography in libraries in elementary schools. Biological males should be able to compete in women’s sports. These and many other of their way of thinking is clearly regressive to that of a 6 year old who thinks they are a unicorn.

          1. Your ignorance is plainly evident. Phd students are going to have a field day studying how so many people became so stupid just because of the rise of their golden idol trump. What’s make people become so stupid? I don’t know. Vaccines saves lives, it does not kill people or turn them autistic or cause heart problems. Science is real. Yes, there are more than 2 sexes, XX, XY are not the only combinations of DNA. Only idiots think there is actually a problem with kids wanting to be a cat, unicorn, or whatever in school. Not happening except in your snail sized brain. How did people become so stupid?

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