The message could not be clearer.
Here’s the headline from The Daily Caller:
House Dem Uses Falsehood From MSNBC Host To Threaten ‘Twitter Files’ Journalist With Jail Time
The story reports this, bold print for emphasis supplied:
Democratic Virgin Islands Del Stacey Plaskett sent ‘Twitter Files’ journalist Matt Taibbi a letter on April 13 demanding he issue a correction to his Congressional testimony based on a debunked allegation from MSNBC Host Mehdi Hasan.
“… Under the federal perjury statute, 18 USC § 1621, providing false information is punishable by up to five years imprisonment. For all of these reasons, I am sure you understand the importance of ensuring that your testimony is true and accurate. I look forward to your prompt response,” her letter concluded.
Taibbi’s offense? As Fox News reported, Taibbi had merely made a typo in a tweet, in which he cited an MSNBC journalist, which Taibbi corrected. And note, the irony here is that Taibbi is famous as a left-leaning journalist. No matter.
Reported Fox:
The error was a specific reference to CISA, the government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, when he meant to refer to CIS, the Center for Internet Security, which is a private organization. Taibbi later addressed and corrected the error in his reporting.
And for that typo, this Democrat in Congress as the delegate from the Virgin Islands threatens journalist Taibbi with “providing false information (that) is punishable by up to five years imprisonment”.
Then there was this, also from The Daily Caller:
Gov’t Should Regulate Fox News, Says Former DOJ Official Involved In Mueller Probe
The story begins:
MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann suggested Friday that the US government should regulate Fox News as a punishment following the outlet’s settlement with Dominion.
… Weissmann previously worked at the Department of Justice, where he had a senior role in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation whether into former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
Got that? An “MSNBC legal analyst” is demanding what in essence amounts to a government takeover of a television news network simply because the network’s hosts are critics of the Biden Administration.
Then there was this headline this week from the New York Post editorial board:
Progressive activists are would-be goons embracing mob rule
The Post editorial begins with this:
The tape of a “strategy session” exposes progressive activists as a bunch of would-be goons.
The Post acquired a tape of the April 11 virtual meeting called by Housing Justice for All to brainstorm passage of the “Good Cause Eviction” statewide rent-control bill.
In it, reps from VOCAL-NY, Citizen Action, the Democratic Socialists of America, Make the Road and Communist Party USA Housing suggest everything up to trashing (“redecorating”) the offices of legislators who resist.
Another lowlight: Talk of smashing trash cans at the home of an advocate on the other side.
Aren’t the liberals supposed to be against trashing the offices of legislators? Messing with Pelosi’s desk on January 6 sounded like a felony.
There’s more of this kind of garbage out there but the central fact is clear. Whether in the media – as MSNBC’s Weissman was – or in Congress, as is the Virgin Island’s Delegate Plaskett – or simply a bunch of New York City leftist housing activists – the go-to is always authoritarianism.
They want to threaten a journalist with jail, have the government “regulate” Fox – read: silence – or simply set about “trashing (‘redecorating’) the offices of legislators who resist their policy proposals.
And not to be forgotten was this old chestnut from the Washington Examiner:
House Democrats push TV carriers to stop hosting Fox, OAN and Newsmax, citing ‘misinformation’
The story begins:
Two House Democrats on Monday questioned 12 television and content providers about why they carry Fox News, One America News Network and Newsmax, blaming the right-leaning outlets for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Taken all together this is a serious reminder to millions of Americans that at their core there is serious sentiment in the American Left for blatant authoritarianism. For silencing both conservative media and conservatives anywhere, using government when possible or flat-out threats of violence if needed. They are, in fact, the real threat to democracy.
If the whole Elon Musk Twitter files episode has revealed anything it is the massive degree to which the US government colluded with lefties running Twitter to silence conservatives, whether former President Trump or just Joe Average. Whether it is conservatives on social media or college campuses or in Hollywood or on woke corporate boards (hello, Budweiser) and more, the instinctive response of those on the left is not to debate, it is to silence.
It needs no reminder in this space that the far-left District Attorney of Manhattan has gone out of his way to literally use his government office to indict a former president of the United States, a current candidate for president.
Yes, it is 2023. But make no mistake. The 2024 election is here. And without doubt, the conduct of the “mainstream” media and its authoritarian reflex in silencing conservatives, whether by the omission of simply not reporting news unfavorable to President Biden and the left, or with commission by actively moving to shut down conservative dissent in both the media and elsewhere, is here to stay.
Where all by itself it should become a major campaign issue.
