The Michael Knowles Show


Morning Wire： Twitter Censored Covid Information & Bail Reform Failure ｜ 12.29.22


Summary

Latest set of Twitter files reveal how the platform suppressed opinions concerning COVID. One of the things that is most disturbing, quite frankly, is that when these files came out, the FBI attacked many of us and called us conspiracy theorists. What methods did the social media company use, and how heavily was the federal government involved?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, we will not be releasing an episode of the Michael Knowles Show today,
00:00:03.560 but to keep you informed on the biggest news of the day, here is today's episode of Morning Wire,
00:00:08.380 another show here at Daily Wire where you get the news you need to know every day in 15 minutes or
00:00:13.040 less. Check it out. The latest set of Twitter files reveal how the platform suppressed opinions
00:00:21.680 concerning COVID-19. One of the things that is most disturbing, quite frankly, is that when these
00:00:27.880 files came out, the FBI attacked many of us and called all of us collectively conspiracy theorists.
00:00:37.200 What methods did the social media company use and how heavily was the federal government involved?
00:00:42.680 I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, December 29th,
00:00:48.720 and this is Morning Wire.
00:00:50.120 The celebrity-funded Bail Project is being sued by a waiter who said he was shot seven times by a
00:01:00.720 repeat offender freed by the group just days earlier. Two shots in the back, one also punctured
00:01:07.280 the lung and then one punctured the stomach. And demand for employees in a tight labor market is
00:01:13.040 leading some companies to drop their college degree requirements. We'll tell you which companies are
00:01:17.820 saying no degree necessary. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you
00:01:23.760 need to know.
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00:01:54.120 The latest revelations from internal Twitter records show that the White House pressured the
00:01:58.440 platform to suppress COVID opinions that conflicted with government messaging. Meanwhile,
00:02:03.380 a new poll shows that a majority of voters want an investigation into the FBI's efforts to censor
00:02:08.140 speech on social media. Here to catch us up on the latest news from the Twitter files is Daily Wire
00:02:13.600 culture reporter Megan Basham. So Megan, previously you've reported that the FBI and DOJ pressured
00:02:20.580 Twitter execs to censor news concerning Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings and other election-related
00:02:26.540 content. But these latest drops are now centered on COVID. What do they show?
00:02:32.260 Well, what they show is a similar pattern, but this time it appeared to be the White House itself that was
00:02:37.600 asking for Twitter to censor posts that were related to the pandemic. So these documents show this was
00:02:43.400 happening under both President Trump and President Biden. According to one Twitter employee, the Trump
00:02:48.840 administration wanted help combating misinformation about runs on grocery stores. Now, the Biden
00:02:55.500 administration pushed for anti-vaxxer, that was their term, accounts to be suppressed. They specifically
00:03:01.640 asked, for example, why independent journalist Alex Berenson hadn't been banned from the platform
00:03:07.540 immediately after he said this about the COVID vaccine. And I'm just going to quote,
00:03:12.680 it does not stop infection or transmission. Don't think of it as a vaccine. So what's interesting to
00:03:18.820 note there is that in both the Trump and Biden cases, the information that they were hoping to see
00:03:24.380 suppressed was actually true. Now, as that pressure was ramping up from the Biden White House, Twitter began
00:03:30.520 censoring medical opinions from some very qualified voices, like Ivy League trained doctors and
00:03:36.720 epidemiologists who were challenging things like the necessity for kids to get the jab. And one more
00:03:43.260 key point on this, the email suggests the Twitter executives did feel coerced. To give you one example,
00:03:50.080 one Twitter employee told another, quote, mercifully, we had answers when they were discussing the White
00:03:56.620 House's questions about why they weren't suppressing some posts or users. Now, what do we know at this
00:04:02.900 point about other social media companies? Was the FBI doing the same thing across platforms?
00:04:09.320 Yeah, it appears so. So some internal communications reveal that Twitter's regular meetings with an FBI
00:04:15.800 task force also included, and I'm quoting from independent journalist Matt Taibbi's reporting,
00:04:21.140 virtually every major tech firm, including Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest,
00:04:28.420 and many others. So they also showed that representatives of another unnamed government
00:04:34.020 agency were also almost always present at these meetings. Taibbi says context suggests that these
00:04:40.240 were likely CIA personnel. Now, I know last time we talked, the FBI had issued a statement saying that
00:04:46.720 they provide information about risks to a lot of companies. Have they said anything else since
00:04:51.920 then? So they said in a statement, quote, it is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others
00:04:58.380 are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the
00:05:04.120 agency. But George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News that this response
00:05:10.840 should be unsettling to Americans. It was highly inappropriate because the FBI has said that
00:05:17.160 combating disinformation is one of its priorities. So it's a very menacing thing when you have the
00:05:23.300 largest law enforcement agency attacking free speech advocates. So Turley went on to point out that
00:05:30.500 when the FBI and CIA were implicated in Watergate in the early 1970s, there was an outpouring of calls
00:05:37.240 across the political spectrum to see those agencies investigated and reformed. And he says he's
00:05:43.900 alarmed that not only are so many public officials downplaying or staying silent on the Twitter files,
00:05:50.260 so are most of the major media outlets. Now, according to some new polling, though,
00:05:55.340 it sounds like a lot of Americans actually agree with Turley. Yeah, exactly right. So a Rasmussen survey
00:06:01.680 released the day after Christmas found 63 percent of likely voters want Congress to investigate the
00:06:08.240 FBI's effort to control content on social media. And it looks like they're going to get their wish.
00:06:14.220 Incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has already sent FBI Director Christopher Wray
00:06:20.180 what's called a preservation notice, citing evidence that suggests the Bureau has been demonstrating,
00:06:26.320 and I'll quote here, hostility to the First Amendment. Now, that letter asked the Bureau to provide
00:06:32.720 all of the FBI's documents and communications referring or relating to content moderation on
00:06:39.600 Twitter's platform. In fact, Jordan also asked for a full and complete accounting of that $3.5 million
00:06:46.340 that the FBI paid Twitter for what it called processing their requests.
00:06:51.700 Megan, thanks for reporting.
00:06:53.240 Anytime.
00:06:53.600 That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
00:06:57.260 Coming up, the victim of a violent attack sues the Bail Project.
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00:07:29.780 A popular chapter of The Bail Project, which has been backed by A-list celebrities,
00:07:35.380 closed its doors after being sued by a waiter who blames the group for being shot several times.
00:07:41.320 Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo. Hey, Amanda. So an alarming story
00:07:47.440 here and one that traces back actually to 2020 and the Floyd riots. First, tell us about this
00:07:52.460 shooting incident.
00:07:53.920 Hey, John. Yeah, a man named Rashawn Gaston Anderson was arrested in November 2021 for burglary and theft,
00:08:01.460 just one day after he had been arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. Then he was released
00:08:06.200 without having to pay any bail when The Bail Project stepped in and paid $3,000 to free him.
00:08:11.280 Six days after he was sprung, Gaston Anderson shot at Chang'an Wong 11 times while Wong, who came to
00:08:18.300 America from China, was working as a waiter at the Shanghai Taste Restaurant. Wong was hit by seven
00:08:24.240 bullets and somehow survived, though he suffered lifelong permanent injuries, and he's now suing The Bail
00:08:29.600 Project. Here's Wong speaking through a translator to News 3.
00:08:33.280 Thank to God's grace for saving me and all the hard work the medical team put in, and now I have
00:08:42.820 a second chance at life. By the way, Gaston Anderson has pleaded guilty and was sentenced earlier this
00:08:48.320 month to seven to 18 years behind bars over the shooting. And what exactly is Wong claiming in this
00:08:53.760 lawsuit? Wong is seeking $15,000 in damages from The Bail Project and claims in the suit that the group
00:09:00.160 used, quoting here, no due diligence in determining whether Gaston Anderson would be a danger to the
00:09:06.180 community and likely re-offend. Wong is also seeking another $15,000 each from Gaston Anderson and the
00:09:12.800 owner of Shanghai Plaza. A spokesperson for The Bail Project confirmed the shuttering of the Vegas
00:09:17.920 chapter while claiming it was not connected to the litigation. Now, this is a popular fund with
00:09:24.120 celebrities. Who are some of the names backing The Bail Project? Yeah, it's definitely a celebrity
00:09:29.000 favorite. We have musician John Legend and his model wife Chrissy Teigen. They pledged money to the group
00:09:34.720 during the 2020 George Floyd riots. Teigen notably seemed to taunt conservatives who objected to her
00:09:40.520 donation by doubling her total contribution to a total of $200,000 for The Bail Project and two other
00:09:46.900 progressive bail funds. Legend and other celebrities like actors Danny Glover and Richard Branson
00:09:51.880 also sit on The Bail Project's advisory board. It's also worth noting that Kamala Harris famously urged
00:09:57.780 people in June 2020 to support a different but similar bail fund, the Minnesota Freedom Fund that
00:10:03.840 paid bail for jailed rioters. Now, the major criticisms of this movement, the so-called
00:10:08.640 decarceration movement, is that it breeds repeat offenders and often hurts the very communities these
00:10:14.320 groups say they're trying to help. This seems like the claim being made in this lawsuit, correct?
00:10:18.140 Yeah, exactly. Reports have highlighted issues with The Bail Project's Chicago chapter in
00:10:23.620 particular. Some of the felony defendants after being bailed out by the group were quickly charged
00:10:28.720 with new crimes, which critics view as otherwise avoidable. The Chicago Tribune highlighted a case
00:10:34.300 where a 34-year-old man named Christopher Stewart, a four-time felon who was facing charges for illegal
00:10:39.940 handgun possession, he was sprung by The Bail Project only to be charged with attempted murder some
00:10:45.040 four weeks later. And what are the supporters' arguments for the group? What did they say about
00:10:50.500 the purpose or need for these bail fund groups? Yeah, most of these advocates are pretty clear that these
00:10:56.660 charities or bail reform policies, they're meant to promote racial equity above all else. The Bail
00:11:02.540 Project explicitly states that its mission is to, quote, prevent incarceration and combat racial and
00:11:08.540 economic disparities in the bail system. One well-known proponent of bail reform and other criminal
00:11:14.180 justice reform measures is New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Back in 2018, AOC, citing the
00:11:21.540 population of incarcerated Black Americans, actually called for efforts to reduce our prison population
00:11:26.940 by 50 percent. Last year, when she was asked about bail reform and rising crime, she denied that the
00:11:33.040 problems in New York were tied to bail reform at all and advocated for fewer jails and more spending
00:11:37.800 toward mental health programs and other resources. If we want to reduce the number of people in our
00:11:42.300 jails, the answer is to stop building more of them. The answer is to make sure that we actually build more
00:11:48.060 hospitals, we pay organizers, we get people mental health care and overall health care, employment, etc.
00:11:55.180 Interesting. And we'll have to see where this lawsuit from Wong goes from here. Amanda, thanks for
00:12:00.000 reporting. Yeah, anytime. That was Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo.
00:12:07.800 In a tight labor market, some employers are dropping the requirement for college degrees.
00:12:12.840 The movement away from requiring a degree is happening in both the public and private sectors.
00:12:17.720 Here to give us the details is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. So Charlotte, first off,
00:12:23.020 what percent of job listings currently say they now require a college degree?
00:12:28.360 Hi, Georgia. So according to the Burning Glass Institute think tank, 41 percent of job listings in the U.S.
00:12:34.840 listed bachelor's degrees as a requirement last month. But that's down from 46 percent in 2019.
00:12:42.600 Now, is this just a reaction to the tight labor market or are employers actually finding that
00:12:47.140 degrees are just less relevant than they were in the past?
00:12:50.080 The biggest factor is the tight labor market. In September, there were 10.7 million job openings,
00:12:55.760 but only about 5.8 million unemployed Americans. So just looking at those numbers,
00:13:01.160 employers had to get creative and make compromises. But another big factor is the recognition that
00:13:06.500 college degrees just aren't necessarily relevant in a lot of modern workplaces. Instead of focusing
00:13:12.260 on degrees, these companies are specifically seeking out relevant experience and expertise.
00:13:17.780 For example, Google, Delta Airlines, and IBM have all cut down on the education demands for specific
00:13:23.080 roles. We spoke to Nicholas Giordano, professor of political science at Suffolk Community College in New
00:13:28.860 York, about why companies are moving away from requiring degrees for new hires.
00:13:33.360 They're not coming in with the critical skills necessary to perform in the workforce.
00:13:37.500 And I think what we're going to see going forward is that there may be more emphasis placed on
00:13:42.200 attending two-year schools. You get some of the academics, you get some of the technical,
00:13:46.740 and that's all you need in order to go into the workforce.
00:13:50.540 Now, sometimes we see trends first in the private sector,
00:13:53.720 but you've reported that we're now beginning to see the same trend in government jobs as well.
00:13:58.900 Yes. This fall, Democrat Josh Shapiro successfully won the governorship in Pennsylvania.
00:14:03.840 Shapiro said during his campaign that he would propose changing the educational requirements for
00:14:08.260 a variety of state positions and advocate for more skills-based hiring. At the federal level,
00:14:13.780 Republican Representative Elise Stefanik introduced the Advancing Skills-Based Hiring Act,
00:14:18.520 which would help employers who want to move towards a skills-based hiring approach but might
00:14:23.500 be worried about doing so for legal and regulatory reasons. Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
00:14:28.660 Thanks for having me on. That was Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
00:14:35.820 Well, that's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.
00:14:38.940 We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
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