I’d like for you to imagine a scenario where employees in the federal government reached out to Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather a few weeks before an election and convinced them to not do a news story that could affect the outcome. Just called them up and said, “Hey, we know you have the facts of a story exactly accurate, but what if you hold off on running that story until after the election, because it might hurt our guy’s chances…” Like they do in, you know, Communist China.
"Twitter Gate" exposes how government manipulates Big Tech for their own agenda
What Matt Taibbi and Elon Musk have exposed is one of the most egregious examples of agents within the U.S. Intelligence Community conspiring with two of the largest media platforms in the world to purposely change the outcome of an election. And while there are those who are making the claim that these are private companies and therefore can do whatever they like with their algorithms and content, the same cannot be said of the current and former government agents—all of whom took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. The internal Twitter files provided by Musk reveal the purposeful manipulation of these media platforms at the behest of those within the government and power apparatus in D.C. who wanted a particular outcome—the defeat of Donald Trump and the successful election of Joe Biden as President of the United States.
Conspiring with two of the largest media platforms in the world to purposely change the outcome of an election.
Some months ago, Zuckerberg confirmed the same sort of election-oriented interference was also going on at Facebook, with the FBI suggesting to Facebook’s content moderators that certain stories should be suppressed or blocked. Facebook did their bidding. Taibbi’s articles exposed that Twitter had gone so far as to actually block the New York Post's bombshell reporting from even being shared in private and direct messages—holding the story hostage and blocking their account for several weeks.
Those members of the media who failed to do their jobs in 2020 have now turned to attacks ad hominem, attempting to discredit Matt Taibbi and Elon Musk. Yet nobody in the press who is now attacking Taibbi has disputed any of his reporting.
Government uses Big Tech to interfere in elections
So, what we have here is now a confirmed conspiracy whereby Government agents convinced media platforms to actively work to change the outcome of an election. Musk, now CEO and owner of Twitter, has openly stated that now-fired employees of his company engaged in election interference. When done by private employees of a private company, election interference may be illegal. When done by government agents, it may rise to the level of treason, since they subverted the constitutionally mandated process of free and fair elections.
They subverted the constitutionally mandated process of free and fair elections.
Americans seem to have long accepted the notion that the CIA and FBI engage in election interference in countries around the world, putting our thumb on the scale to support our favored candidates. However, most Americans would be horrified to learn that our intelligence agencies are engaging in that type of activity here in our own country. But that seems to be precisely what’s happened. The majority of Biden voters who learned about the Hunter Biden laptop story after the election have indicated it would have changed how they voted. The outcome of that election was certainly impacted.
Watergate. Teapot Dome. Iran-Contra. All massive scandals in our nation’s history which altered politics and proved the value of the 1st Amendment and the special protection we provide to journalists. But those privileges come with a counterbalancing set of responsibilities. The freedom of the press is vital, there is a reason they are called The 4th Estate, and there is a reason we grant them legal and social protections against pressure or manipulation of the government.
The press is supposed to be our check against the consolidation of power by governments, by companies or religions. The press doing the bidding of the government is what they had in Soviet Russia or what they have in China and North Korea today. Without a free and independent press, you can’t have a free and independent civilization.
The press doing the bidding of the government is what they had in Soviet Russia or what they have in China and North Korea today.
Big Tech's unholy marriage with the Swamp
For those of you wondering how deep the Swamp really is, look no further than former Deputy Director of the FBI turned Twitter editorial consultant James Baker. I think this was one of the things that Donald Trump underestimated when he ran on the Drain the Swamp campaign promise in 2016. Most of us and Trump’s team seem to have believed that was a job they’d go do in Washington, as if that is where the Swamp began and ended.
But given the unholy marriage between Silicon Valley and D.C., the revolving door that now exists between the White House and Congressional staffers and Big Tech, the Swamp isn’t now just D.C., it’s also big Media. And I don’t mean NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX, that isn’t the media anymore. The media is now Twitter, Facebook and TikTok, because that is where people actually get their news. About 80% of news media consumption happens via social media, so that is where the Swamp is now.
The Swamp isn’t now just D.C., it’s also big Media.
James Baker, famous for being one of the primary purveyors of the Trump Russia-collusion hoax, also turns out to be the filter through which Twitter determined to limit access to the original New York Post story about the Hunter Biden laptop. I think this is something that Trump and team learned the first time around that I hope they take into account if he truly decides to run for the White House again. The Swamp doesn’t end at the Potomac. When Facebook and Twitter are doing the bidding of the FBI and CIA, suppressing free speech and the freedom of the Press, that’s the Swamp. Private companies doing the bidding of 3-letter agencies can no longer claim independence or privacy. They are agents of the government, agents of the Swamp, and any claim they had to the 1st Amendment’s protections of Free Speech or Freedom of the Press are thereby forfeit.
None may dare call it treason, but at the very least, there must be accountability, and those in the government who ordered this story to be surpassed must be investigated and, if laws were found to be broken, should be prosecuted. If we don’t, what’s the point to a free and independent press at all?
