White House Specifically Targeted Alex Berenson for Covid Censorship, Newly-Released Documents Reveal
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White House Specifically Targeted Alex Berenson for Covid Censorship, Newly-Released Documents Reveal
According to newly-released discovery documents, Andy Slavitt, acting as Senior Advisor to the COVID-19 Response under President Biden, specifically targeted Alex Berenson for censorship due to his views on Covid mRNA vaccines. This is the same Andy Slavitt who argued for a strict, Chinese-style “90% lockdown” in July 2020.
Most tellingly, the emails show that a Twitter employee struggled during a meeting with White House officials over a “really tough question about why Alex Berenson hasn’t been kicked off.” “Andy Slavitt suggested they had seen data viz that had showed he was the epicenter of disinfo…”
These communications are the strongest evidence so far obtained that White House officials commandeered Twitter and other social media companies to censor those whose perspectives differed from the federal government on Covid policies, as has been argued in our own case brought by NCLA Legal and in a case we joined representing Drs. Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya which was brought by the Attorneys General for Missouri and Louisiana, for which the judge ordered discovery last month.
While the constitutionally-permissible level of coordination between private companies and the federal government with regard to the restriction of speech is debatable, a universally-acknowledged red line is that the federal government cannot use implicit or explicit legal or financial threats to compel a private company to take actions that would violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens if the government were to take these actions itself. To that end, the most important part of the newly-revealed conversation is that a Twitter employee struggled with a “really tough question” about censoring Berenson, demonstrating that Twitter employees did, in fact, experience such compulsion from the government.
Michael P Senger is an attorney and author of Snake Oil: How Xi Jinping Shut Down the World. Want to support my work? Get the book. Already got the book? Leave a quick review.
White House Specifically Targeted Alex Berenson for Covid Censorship, Newly-Released Documents Reveal
“Persuadable public”… social engineering, coercion, people who need US to think for them.
You’re only good enough to pay the bills but we will decide what you can see, think or feel.
What do you want to bet that the MIT study visual Andrew Slavitt used to justify violating First Amendment rights by the Biden administration was an outgrowth of another infamous MIT study - by the exact same researchers?:
Andrew Slavitt's referenced MIT study:
The Data Visualizations Behind COVID-19 Skepticism
MIT, March 1, 2021
http://vis.mit.edu/covid-story
Researchers: Crystal Lee, Tanya Yang, Gabrielle Inchoco, Graham M. Jones, and Arvind Satyanarayan
The Original MIT study that begot the study Slavitt referenced:
Viral Visualizations: How Coronavirus Skeptics Use Orthodox Data Practices to Promote Unorthodox Science Online
MIT , January 20, 2021
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.07993.pdf
Researchers: Crystal Lee, Tanya Yang, Gabrielle Inchoco, Graham M. Jones, Arvind Satyanarayan
For those who will say TL/DR, the 16-page study basically finds that individuals who do top-notch scientific research, even credentialed experts, worthy of publication in prestigious scientific journals are purveyors of dangerous mis/disinformation and must be shouted down or censored. Not because they are wrong, but because the findings are "unorthodox" and differ from the consensus. Because critical thinking skills leads to independent thought and that is dangerous, best left to the experts who are in that consensus.
Now, we all know that a consensus of Marxists will have different findings than a consensus of Libertarians, so the invitation list to form that consensus is a pretty important part of the findings.
Read the report for yourself. As a "Skeptic" reading through it I found myself overcome by joy many times, the Sally Fields in me often jumped up and said, "They get me, they really, really get me!" Validated, so many compliments and findings that validated us, were virtues and things to aspire to...back when science was science and critical thinking skills were encouraged and developed, honed. Now declared dangerous. Needing to be censored. The world turned upside down type of stuff. Just read it. Then you'll know all you need to know about the mindset of those deigning to run our world and lives today. And their justifications for censoring us.
The message from the Biden administration is:
"Independent, critical thinking is Verboten! Nein!"