In yesterday’s newsletter, we reported on the government’s relentless push to control “journalism” and social media messaging going into Election Year ‘24, despite the exposure of their unconstitutional efforts leading into Election Year ‘20.  Margot Cleveland had written a column about a private entity called NewsGuard that had received $750,000 in federal money (our taxes) to continue developing its censorship tool called “Misinformation Fingerprints.”  The company says their invention enables users to “verify the content of their posts before publishing them.”  Danger, danger, Will Robinson!!

Coincidentally, only a few hours after yesterday’s newsletter reached you, we found perhaps the most valuable and accessible source of information we’ve seen on this subject, an interview with Mike Benz of the organization Foundation for Freedom Online.  We’ve discussed this group before and encourage you to dig into their website...

https://foundationforfreedomonline.com

The video, brought to us by AMERICAN GREATNESS and hosted by Dan Proft, is remarkable for its rare combination of information-density and ease of understanding, coming in with a running time of just under an hour.  Watch Benz’s explanation of how the “deep state” --- let’s just go ahead and call it what it is --- is crafting a diabolical way to skirt the First Amendment and control the messages Americans can send or receive, particularly on certain topics such as election integrity and the pandemic, and you’ll come away with a solid grasp of just how sophisticated and dangerous it is.

I could summarize it here, but there’s so much of value that I’d much rather you watch the whole thing.  Some of the entities Benz talks about, like the Election Integrity Project and CISA, will be familiar, as we’ve discussed them often.  Benz ties them all together and emphasizes their global nature.  In other words, it’s not just our country doing this to us.

The program doesn’t really begin until the one-minute mark, where you’ll see a brief foreword by Proft and his introduction of Benz, and then we’re off to the races.

At 37 minutes in, Benz specifically addresses NewsGuard, whose goal, he says, is “to kill the revenue of alternative news.”  (That’s us, folks.)  They plan to do this “so people are forced, CLOCKWORK ORANGE-style, to read only mainstream media, which is intermediated by the Pentagon and the CIA.”  You’ll think you have a choice, because there will be different outlets to choose from, but “choice” will be an illusion, because everything will have been either “verified” or flagged as misinformation, if you can see it at all.

In the coming weeks, Benz says, his organization will be coming out with a three-part series on “exactly how this has been concocted.”  It can’t come too soon.

RELATED: I’m thrilled to see that the efforts to expose NewsGuard are not going unnoticed. A group called the FSA (Free Speech Alliance) has launched a campaign to pressure House Republicans to cut the $750,000 in funds that the Defense Department is paying NewsGuard. That’s right: as a conservative taxpayer, your hard-earned taxes are being used to fund an organization dedicated to taking away your right to free speech.

https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2023/11/28/free-speech-groups-launch-offensive-against-newsguard-n2166925