Red Ice TV - May 20, 2022


Ministry Of Truth Czar Resigns, Disinformation Governance Board On 'Pause' ...For Now


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

158.40616

Word Count

1,728

Sentence Count

105

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 We do have some positive news.
00:00:01.840 The Disinformation Governance Board.
00:00:04.080 Now, of course, they came out strong with that.
00:00:05.740 People were covering this quite extensively, which, of course, absolutely justified.
00:00:12.480 Orwellian, to say the least, is like a ministry of truth.
00:00:15.360 But it kind of felt a little bit on the nose.
00:00:19.620 You know, you can read that in multiple ways.
00:00:21.040 But you know what I'm saying, right?
00:00:23.060 It was a little bit obvious, a little bit too much, a little bit too strong, wasn't it?
00:00:27.520 I didn't say it at the time, but it reminded me of like the Total Information Awareness Agency.
00:00:34.560 Remember that?
00:00:35.540 They literally had like the all-seeing eye over the pyramid, like the eye of, you know, Zauron, Zogron, like scanning everything, you know.
00:00:43.920 And that, I mean, officially it went belly up, right?
00:00:48.020 T-I-A, I think it was the acronym for it.
00:00:50.740 But, of course, then we learned years later that basically the very thing that they had proposed under that now defunct agency were, of course, things that the NSA and other organizations already were doing, right?
00:01:01.680 So this was under the Department of Homeland Security, which is now, you know, white supremacy.
00:01:06.560 There's the big, all domestic terrorism now.
00:01:08.740 It's white nationalism, and that's the big issue, right?
00:01:10.740 So they wheel out this with Nina Jankovic heading up the thing, and good, decent pushback, good, decent pushback on this.
00:01:20.680 And, of course, she came out saying, well, I'm being harassed, you know, for no reason whatsoever, because people are just targeting me.
00:01:27.780 Although this was clear what this was about, right?
00:01:29.900 We kind of, Friday's show, we gave that kind of little tidbit away that she was basically like on a first name basis and like, you know, talking in the back end with Antifa members, Brandy Zandrosny and Ben Collins, right?
00:01:41.680 Who's working at NBC, technically MSNBC, but, you know, they're like NBC, you know, reporters basically, right?
00:01:49.080 And they were like feeding her information, like who should we target, what's going on, blah, blah, blah, all these things, right?
00:01:53.200 So, of course, we're happy to see that she resigned and that this now is defunct.
00:02:00.160 The image that they use in this story as well, it's hilarious, right?
00:02:04.120 Anyway, Washington Post, how the Biden administration let right-wing attacks derail its disinformation efforts.
00:02:12.900 A pause of the Department of Homeland Security's newly created board comes after its head.
00:02:19.000 Nina Jankovic was the victim of coordinated online attacks as the administration struggled to respond.
00:02:27.760 And, of course, you can't make it up.
00:02:29.600 It's written by Taylor Lawrence herself.
00:02:33.940 You guys remember who this is, right?
00:02:35.800 The woe is me, like they cry out in pain as they strike you, right?
00:02:40.400 Or as they attack you.
00:02:42.220 You feel like any little piece of information that gets out on you will be used by the worst people on the Internet to destroy your life.
00:02:51.020 And it's so isolating.
00:02:54.180 And terrifying.
00:02:55.800 It's horrifying.
00:02:58.940 I'm so sorry.
00:03:00.900 It's overwhelming.
00:03:02.540 It's really hard.
00:03:04.160 Complaining, right?
00:03:05.160 She was doxing people.
00:03:06.680 She was harassing.
00:03:07.540 I mean, lunatic, crazy.
00:03:08.860 Not even journalists in any regard.
00:03:12.180 It's just pure activism, like political harassment by using the power and reach and mechanism of the mainstream media, right?
00:03:19.120 Anyway, so she's the one writing this much in the same way.
00:03:23.020 Like, oh, I was also harassed for no reason whatsoever.
00:03:26.040 Crazy right-wingers are going after me, right?
00:03:28.620 But, yeah, check out the image here they're using here.
00:03:30.900 Here's Nina Djankovic in 2019, where in Kyiv, Ukraine, as she's working in a press room at the Volodymyr Zelensky's campaign headquarters.
00:03:45.920 You can't make it up, right?
00:03:47.880 All of these things that have happened has, like, tied perfectly into, like, the Ukraine crisis as well, right?
00:03:53.860 And then the disinformation stuff, and now it's white supremacy, domestic terrorism.
00:03:58.540 It just, one thing just weaves into another.
00:04:00.960 It's beautiful the way they do that, isn't it?
00:04:05.180 Anyway, should we read?
00:04:06.680 I guess we could read a little bit here.
00:04:08.040 On the morning of April 27th, the Department of Homeland Security announced the creation of the first disinformation governance board
00:04:19.500 with the stated goal to, quote, coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security.
00:04:25.280 The Biden administration tapped Nina Djankovic, a well-known figure in the field of fighting disinformation.
00:04:31.760 I'd rephrase that, say, disseminating disinformation and extremism as the board's executive director.
00:04:40.020 In naming the 33-year-old Djankovic to run the newly created board,
00:04:45.320 the administration chose someone with extensive experience in the field of disinformation,
00:04:49.820 which has emerged as an urgent and important issue.
00:04:52.800 The author of the book, How to Be a Whamans Online and How to Lose the Information War.
00:05:00.560 I guess, is that what she, is that she's an expert on that?
00:05:03.900 Did she do that right now? Right?
00:05:06.400 Her career also featured stints at multiple non-partisan, non-partisan think tanks.
00:05:14.860 And how do you know that's true?
00:05:15.820 Well, it says it right there in black and white.
00:05:20.180 Well, it's non-partisan, it's fine.
00:05:22.440 And non-profits and included work that focused on strengthening democratic institutions.
00:05:28.100 With the small community of disinformation researchers, her work was well-regarded.
00:05:34.640 All right, great.
00:05:36.180 But within hours of news of her appointment,
00:05:39.840 Djankovic was thrust into the spotlight by the very forces she dedicated her career to combating.
00:05:45.680 Yeah, it's funny how that works, isn't it?
00:05:47.480 The board itself and the Department of Homeland Security received criticism for both its somewhat ominous name and scant details of specific mission.
00:05:58.240 Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas said it, quote,
00:06:01.680 could have done a better job of communicating what it is and what it isn't.
00:06:06.080 I don't think there was any confusion what it was.
00:06:08.100 I think people out there understood perfectly what this was about and people didn't like it.
00:06:15.580 How about that?
00:06:16.120 Is that possible?
00:06:17.120 Yeah, that's possible.
00:06:18.560 But Djankovic was on the receiving end of the harshest attacks with her role mischaracterized as she became a primary target on the right-wing internet.
00:06:30.380 She has been subjected.
00:06:32.740 Why do you think that is?
00:06:33.820 Because, of course, that's the segment that they would target and try to shut down and terrorist label it.
00:06:38.300 We know what we know these games.
00:06:40.220 We know what they're up to.
00:06:40.940 This is no secret here, right?
00:06:42.680 She's been subjected to an unrelenting barrage of harassment and abuse while unchecked misrepresentations of her work continue to go viral.
00:06:51.960 See, they control all the avenues of information.
00:06:54.940 They have all the mainstream television channels.
00:06:57.220 They even have these huge alternative YouTube channels and creators that they promote and everything.
00:07:02.560 And they censor and they shut people's accounts down and they ban and block and prevent people from operating on a normal level.
00:07:11.320 And despite this, they cannot hold it together, right?
00:07:16.560 It's a good sign.
00:07:18.200 I'll take it.
00:07:18.900 It's a good sign.
00:07:19.500 Of course, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves.
00:07:21.700 Shouldn't get too excited.
00:07:22.900 Though we'll, of course, position a new person in this role.
00:07:25.700 Maybe they will rebrand it, kind of like what they did with the Total Information Awareness Agency.
00:07:31.120 Or it will have been surface, you know, compartmentalized in different divisions.
00:07:37.420 And then they just set up like a cross-agency, you know, unit that kind of helps out sharing information between them and stuff like that.
00:07:45.080 Anything is possible, right?
00:07:46.060 Anyway, so now, just three weeks after its announcement, the Disinformation Governance Board is being paused, according to multiple employees at the DHS,
00:07:56.240 capping a back-and-forth week of decisions that changed during the course of reporting of this story.
00:08:01.360 On Monday, DHS decided to shut down the board, according to multiple people with knowledge by the situation.
00:08:05.860 By Tuesday morning, Jankovic had drafted a resignation letter in response to the board's dissolution.
00:08:11.140 But Tuesday night, Jankovic was pulled into an urgent call with DHS officials who gave her the choice to stay on,
00:08:18.160 even as the department's work was put on hold because of the backlash it faced, according to multiple people with knowledge of the call.
00:08:26.140 That basically means she would see, I'm sure she would anyway, because there's people behind the scenes handling these things, right?
00:08:32.240 But so you're saying, you will have this paid position, you have a cushy job here in D.C.,
00:08:38.400 we'll provide you with, you know, I don't know, apartments, houses, cars, you know, who knows what, right?
00:08:43.240 What was the salary? Did someone figure that out? Like, you know, six figures, I would imagine?
00:08:47.520 Obviously, right?
00:08:50.640 You would just get to sit on your ass and do nothing and still be, like, employed by the DHS, I would assume?
00:08:55.780 Anyway, working groups within the DHS focused on miss, diss, and mal information have been suspended.
00:09:03.660 The board could still be shut down, pending a review from the Homeland Security Advisor Council.
00:09:08.040 On Wednesday morning, Jankovic officially resigned from her role within the department.
00:09:13.800 Nice. Well, that's a win. We've got some W's in chat, everybody. I think that's a win overall.
00:09:23.000 We'll definitely take it. I think that is good, guys. I think that's actually positive news, right?
00:09:30.020 They're not done by any means. It was just, it will just maybe go from somewhat obvious to little less.
00:09:35.540 I mean, I know they like to, you know, rub our noses in it. They kind of like to, you know, they like to, you know, just do this to us without even, like, flinching and, you know, batting an eyelid.
00:09:50.880 But I guess it was just too much. It was unsalvageable. So we'll see what they do.
00:09:55.180 I'm sure they will reform it in some capacity and then come back with vengeance, right?
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