Redacted - by Mr. Fish The journalist Matt Taibbi has been targeted by the Democratic Party for exposing extensive government blacklists used to censor left-wing and right-wing critics. Given access to the internal traffic of Twitter by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, he documented repeated cases where the FBI and other government agencies repeatedly suppressed news and commentary. The censored content was almost exclusively produced by those critical of the dominant narrative advanced by the Democratic Party and the old establishment wing of the Republican Party. Which has joined forces with the Democrats. Threads that were censored included those from the Yellow Vests movement, activists from the Occupy movement, Global Revolution Live, negative stories about Joe Biden, reports on the Ukrainian energy company Burisma that paid Hunter Biden about $1 million a year while his father was vice-president, positive stories about Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, reports about Ukrainian human rights abuses and details of the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop. These accounts that were flagged and usually disappeared. The so-called “moderation requests” were sent by an entity called the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF). The FITF is an FBI-led interagency task force that includes numerous government agencies, including Homeland Security, the CIA, the Pentagon and the State Department. It flags what it considers objectionable content for about two dozen social media companies, including Twitter, Facebook, Google, Pinterest and Wikimedia. In March, Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger were called to testify before the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government. While Taibbi was testifying on March 9, an IRS agent visited his house in New Jersey. Taibbi discovered that the IRS opened a case against him on the day he published a Christmas Eve Twitter thread from a letter House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan sent to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel inquiring about Taibbi’s case. It was a Saturday. It was Christmas Eve. Taibbi did not owe taxes. The case was four years old. All this suggests that the IRS case was politically motivated and the FBI was monitoring Taibbi. Taibbi ran into a buzzsaw of orchestrated character assassination when he testified. The Democratic members of the committee rarely let Taibbi speak. They delivered vicious and insulting diatribes, which were then broadcast on outlets such as MSNBC and CNN, part of the effort to further discredit Taibbi. The ranking committee member, Stacey Plaskett, sent Taibbi a letter accusing him of lying to Congress and threatened Taibbi with a five-year prison sentence. Joining me to discuss this wholesale censorship, and the efforts by the ruling establishment, including the Democratic Party, to discredit him and his work is Matt Taibbi.
I watched that Congressional hearing. I didn't think much of the Democratic party but it was worse than I expected. They are protecting their censorship system by censoring all mention of censorship. They don't even try to argue that it is legitimate instead they just muddy the waters, make a stink, and accuse anyone who opposes widespread censorship of being an unwitting agent of Putin.
The more we spend on national security the more afraid we are. What's wrong with this picture?
I admire Taibi's work, having read his exposé of Wall Street, the slimy conduct of Goldman Sachs in particular, during & after the country's 2008 financial meltdown.
What he is telling us here is spooky; it certainly casts doubt on the future of serious journalism & of all who try to speak truth to power.
Taibbi's observations about the radical change in the understanding of information and the first amendment by liberals, Democrats and media were profoundly correct and important.
Matt is a rare and endangered species, as are all who speak truth to power now. Despite the efforts of the bad guys and the very bad guys, he has not been shuffled off to the upper reaches of uninhabited slopes like some de facto invisible rara avis.
He deserves every last bit of support that we can give. The stakes are high.
I have imprinted in my brain Matt sitting there testifying, basically gobsmacked at the Orwellian tragicomedy these courtier politicians made him endure.
When you are the fully rational one being told to take off your tin foil hat....well, I suppose they will start calling him Hitler soon, too. It’s just mind blowing how stupid we all are; that this is where we got to. How did these people get their hands on the levers of power???
I am 75 and have followed Chris Hedges long before I followed Matt Taibbi and I followed Taibbi since Moscow.
John Ralston Saul is a European historian and last I checked is still breathing and thinking.
He is the WORLD'S expert on Press Freedom and he can tell you there was no press freedom from before Gutenberg.
This is the 30th anniversary edition of Voltaire's Bastards and Chris Hedges wrote a foreword to a previous edition.
In A Doubter's Companion; A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense, John Ralston Saul defines cynicism as democracy's greatest threat. That was 29 years ago.
Driven to the edges of community, truth is a dangerous commodity.
Truth and it’s brother, Reason, have been painted in an unnatural patina eliciting a fear of those who would engage it and date to trespass the unmentioned policy as such, that Truth not to be handled by mortals but by a priesthood of those anointed as ‘qualified’ to decipher and elicit their constructs supplicating the policy needs of the gods of wealth, finance, war and imperialism.
As constructed by those masters of greed, truth is seen as the illicit commodity of ‘gangster journalism’’, while public sentiment knows that these Robin Hoods sharing truths are their benefactors against a brutal, illegitimate defense of confiscated wealth and power.
The attempt to crush truth by the self-identified ‘good-cop’ side of a detested duopoly, soils the squads of uniform collaboration and renders any claim to legitimacy an embarrassment viewed in plain sight.
gimme a break. legacy news has always been manufacturing consent for the elites who run the country. this is not a new role for "journalism." what is happening is merely the advance of more extreme control mechanisms to manage collapse of empire as the business model of newspapers has been crashed within capitalisms last money grabs.
"The censored content was almost exclusively produced by those critical of the dominant narrative advanced by the Democratic Party and the old establishment wing of the Republican Party. Which has joined forces with the Democrats.
Joining me to discuss this wholesale censorship, and the efforts by the ruling establishment, including the Democratic Party"
Come on man. I can feel the discomfort coming to the honest admission that this is 90% Democrat party doings... and started with Obama. If we cannot just admit that, we are not ready to discuss the problem and the required solutions. The weaponization of the government agencies for political purpose was something that was done in bits under the cover knowing that the risk was the press would uncover it and justifiably wreck the careers of those involved. Since Obama the press turned propaganda arm of the DNC... next it was big tech... and now the Democrats don't hide it and go big.
Any GOPers still doing that junk are old style under the covers. They fundamentally know it is wrong and will never accept being caught doing it.
Conversely, Democrats today have adopted an any means to their desired end as being moral and ethical. They are righteous in cause, and thus are the dangerous tyrants we should always identify and defeat.
I know that people like Matt and Chris are in a difficult spot... it is THEIR OLD TEAM that is responsible and it is very difficult to turn against their team when there is no other team to support. But I would look at it this way... imposters and idiot activists have infiltrated their party and have corrupted it to a mess. They should directly attack their old party as being broken and needing repair. There is really nothing to be gained by pulling in the minority of old crusty white dudes in the GOP stuck in that old military industrial complex paradigm. The GOP is already well in reform steps to purge that crap.
It reminded me that Public Power, implemented via the current Federal Power Marketing Administrations, was a BIG part and core element of Bernie Sanders’ original Green New Deal, see:
What we need right now, and I suggest that you should draft it for the Cornel West campaign, is a version of our own "Powell memo". You could call it the "New Deal Restoration" memo.
That could be used to focus and organize the kind of coalition that was able to make the New Deal a reality.
I believe it is entirely plausible that the Security State planted the Minecraft platform player with the “secrets” in order to set up a public demonstration of how the establishment want the media to behave. They are nudging the idea of a media that will act in concert, in cooperation, with the oligarchy and in opposition to democracy. I’m surprised and concerned that some in the alternative press, who I deeply respect and value, are naive regarding the shift from a weak democracy into a full on oligarchic state. Oligarchy is a different beast, with different strategies and tactics. Please adjust accordingly.
I am so disturbed by this whole interview. I am watching from my perch not in the US and just so disturbed by the whole thing. Mr. Taibbi is a respected journalist - by those who respect real journalism anyway.
Like most of us, I can only afford to pay for a few substacks. I'm delighted to include both Hedges and Taibbi in that shortlist.
I watched that Congressional hearing. I didn't think much of the Democratic party but it was worse than I expected. They are protecting their censorship system by censoring all mention of censorship. They don't even try to argue that it is legitimate instead they just muddy the waters, make a stink, and accuse anyone who opposes widespread censorship of being an unwitting agent of Putin.
The more we spend on national security the more afraid we are. What's wrong with this picture?
I admire Taibi's work, having read his exposé of Wall Street, the slimy conduct of Goldman Sachs in particular, during & after the country's 2008 financial meltdown.
What he is telling us here is spooky; it certainly casts doubt on the future of serious journalism & of all who try to speak truth to power.
Taibbi's observations about the radical change in the understanding of information and the first amendment by liberals, Democrats and media were profoundly correct and important.
Thanks for this.
Our rights are turning into wrongs on MSM and beyond. Free speach please.....to all.
Matt is a rare and endangered species, as are all who speak truth to power now. Despite the efforts of the bad guys and the very bad guys, he has not been shuffled off to the upper reaches of uninhabited slopes like some de facto invisible rara avis.
He deserves every last bit of support that we can give. The stakes are high.
I have imprinted in my brain Matt sitting there testifying, basically gobsmacked at the Orwellian tragicomedy these courtier politicians made him endure.
When you are the fully rational one being told to take off your tin foil hat....well, I suppose they will start calling him Hitler soon, too. It’s just mind blowing how stupid we all are; that this is where we got to. How did these people get their hands on the levers of power???
I am 75 and have followed Chris Hedges long before I followed Matt Taibbi and I followed Taibbi since Moscow.
John Ralston Saul is a European historian and last I checked is still breathing and thinking.
He is the WORLD'S expert on Press Freedom and he can tell you there was no press freedom from before Gutenberg.
This is the 30th anniversary edition of Voltaire's Bastards and Chris Hedges wrote a foreword to a previous edition.
In A Doubter's Companion; A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense, John Ralston Saul defines cynicism as democracy's greatest threat. That was 29 years ago.
Driven to the edges of community, truth is a dangerous commodity.
Truth and it’s brother, Reason, have been painted in an unnatural patina eliciting a fear of those who would engage it and date to trespass the unmentioned policy as such, that Truth not to be handled by mortals but by a priesthood of those anointed as ‘qualified’ to decipher and elicit their constructs supplicating the policy needs of the gods of wealth, finance, war and imperialism.
As constructed by those masters of greed, truth is seen as the illicit commodity of ‘gangster journalism’’, while public sentiment knows that these Robin Hoods sharing truths are their benefactors against a brutal, illegitimate defense of confiscated wealth and power.
The attempt to crush truth by the self-identified ‘good-cop’ side of a detested duopoly, soils the squads of uniform collaboration and renders any claim to legitimacy an embarrassment viewed in plain sight.
gimme a break. legacy news has always been manufacturing consent for the elites who run the country. this is not a new role for "journalism." what is happening is merely the advance of more extreme control mechanisms to manage collapse of empire as the business model of newspapers has been crashed within capitalisms last money grabs.
"The censored content was almost exclusively produced by those critical of the dominant narrative advanced by the Democratic Party and the old establishment wing of the Republican Party. Which has joined forces with the Democrats.
Joining me to discuss this wholesale censorship, and the efforts by the ruling establishment, including the Democratic Party"
Come on man. I can feel the discomfort coming to the honest admission that this is 90% Democrat party doings... and started with Obama. If we cannot just admit that, we are not ready to discuss the problem and the required solutions. The weaponization of the government agencies for political purpose was something that was done in bits under the cover knowing that the risk was the press would uncover it and justifiably wreck the careers of those involved. Since Obama the press turned propaganda arm of the DNC... next it was big tech... and now the Democrats don't hide it and go big.
Any GOPers still doing that junk are old style under the covers. They fundamentally know it is wrong and will never accept being caught doing it.
Conversely, Democrats today have adopted an any means to their desired end as being moral and ethical. They are righteous in cause, and thus are the dangerous tyrants we should always identify and defeat.
I know that people like Matt and Chris are in a difficult spot... it is THEIR OLD TEAM that is responsible and it is very difficult to turn against their team when there is no other team to support. But I would look at it this way... imposters and idiot activists have infiltrated their party and have corrupted it to a mess. They should directly attack their old party as being broken and needing repair. There is really nothing to be gained by pulling in the minority of old crusty white dudes in the GOP stuck in that old military industrial complex paradigm. The GOP is already well in reform steps to purge that crap.
"The lie is a weapon of war" affirmed the Greek philosopher Aeschylus more than 2,500 years ago.
Whoever reads bourgeois newspapers becomes blind and deaf: away with the stultifying bandages! Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ) 9. no. 6
https://www.wikiart.org/en/john-heartfield/whoever-reads-bourgeois-newspapers-becomes-blind-and-deaf-away-with-the-stultifying-bandages-1930
Amazing anti-fascist artist from the 1930's.
Dear Chris Hedges: I just read a superb piece by Thom Hartmann, see:
https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/22/the-unlimited-campaign-spending-by-corporations-and-billionaires-has-destroyed-democracy/
It reminded me that Public Power, implemented via the current Federal Power Marketing Administrations, was a BIG part and core element of Bernie Sanders’ original Green New Deal, see:
https://berniesanders.com/issues/green-new-deal/
What we need right now, and I suggest that you should draft it for the Cornel West campaign, is a version of our own "Powell memo". You could call it the "New Deal Restoration" memo.
That could be used to focus and organize the kind of coalition that was able to make the New Deal a reality.
I believe it is entirely plausible that the Security State planted the Minecraft platform player with the “secrets” in order to set up a public demonstration of how the establishment want the media to behave. They are nudging the idea of a media that will act in concert, in cooperation, with the oligarchy and in opposition to democracy. I’m surprised and concerned that some in the alternative press, who I deeply respect and value, are naive regarding the shift from a weak democracy into a full on oligarchic state. Oligarchy is a different beast, with different strategies and tactics. Please adjust accordingly.
I am so disturbed by this whole interview. I am watching from my perch not in the US and just so disturbed by the whole thing. Mr. Taibbi is a respected journalist - by those who respect real journalism anyway.
Authoritarianism. The same unAmericans calling people Putin puppets are the ones acting like Soviet operatives. You can't make this hypocrisy up.