Stelter Allows Former Ministry of Truth Head to Spread Disinformation

Kevin Tober
July 10th, 2022 1:22 PM

Text to Speech

00:00 00:00
Font Size

On Sunday's Reliable Sources on CNN, host Brian Stelter spent the opening monologue of his show in a tizzy over the amount of disinformation on the internet and in American politics in general. So naturally, Stelter decided to bring the former head of President Joe Biden's Ministry of Truth Nina Jankowicz to help her rehabilitate her image. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jankowicz spread disinformation herself during the interview. 

Predictably, Stelter opened the segment by sucking up to her and failed to correct her on any of her lies. "The sympathetic view, to you, is that the disinformation board was the victim of disinformation. Is that how you feel?" 

Jankowicz responded that "it absolutely was the victim of disinformation. All of these narratives, that the disinformation governance board was going to be this Orwellian Ministry of Truth and all of the harassment and disinformation that was directed against me, was based on that falsehood. Based on that falsehood that was knowingly peddled by many people in the conservative media ecosystem and on Capitol Hill."  

 

 

The fact that she claimed she was being unfairly targeted got Stelter all hot and bothered, which caused him to blurt out "if that is true, what the heck was the Homeland Security Department doing? Why didn't they defend you? Why didn't you defend yourself? Why didn’t the government explain what the heck it was doing?" 

She proceeded to make excuses that she wasn't actually in charge and that all the decisions were being made without her final say. 

Stelter teed her up to play victim about all the personal attacks she allegedly had to endure: "These critics, there were many of them, they were incredibly loud. They say you are just a giant liberal, could never be appropriately hired for this job because you posted disinformation on Twitter yourself."

In response Jankowicz went through a laundry list of grievances many of which were false:

I did not post this disinformation, the folks that are honing in on tweets that I sent in 2016, when I had fewer than 1000 Twitter followers, that you know, I was just sharing information about a presidential election as it was happening, as millions of other Americans were doing, using their right to freedom of speech, that wasn't disinformation, it was just sharing news. 

Other people honed in on tweets that were completely stripped of context. The one that the conservatives love to really amplify was a tweet that they claimed that made me seem like I was calling the Hunter Biden laptop disinformation when in fact I was just live-tweeting a debate. Saying the exact words that then-candidate Biden and President Trump were saying during a debate. Totally stripped of context. 

Shortly after Jankowicz made these claims on CNN, our friend Jerry Dunleavy from the Washington Examiner brought the receipts that her claim that she never spread disinformation online was pants on fire false: 

She purposefully lied about former President Trump's ties to the Russian Alfa Bank and that he had two secret email servers to communicate with the Russians. Both claims were and are flat-out false. Screenshots are forever, Nina! Of course, Stelter never confronted her about this either. Stelter is a fake journalist at a fake news network. 

Brian Stelter inviting the former Ministry of Truth head to rehabilitate her image was made possible thanks to the endorsements from Allstate and Fisher Investments. Their information is linked. 

To read the relevant transcript of this segment click "expand":

CNN’s Reliable Sources
July 10, 2022
11:06:06 a.m. Eastern 

BRIAN STELTER: So the sympathetic view, to you, is that the disinformation board was the victim of disinformation. Is that how you feel? 

NINA JANKOWICZ: Oh, it absolutely was the victim of disinformation. All of these narratives, that the disinformation governance board was going to be this Orwellian ministry of truth and all of the harassment and disinformation that was directed against me, was based on that falsehood. Based on that falsehood that was knowingly peddled by many people in the conservative media ecosystem and on capitol hill. 

STELTER: Ok why…

JANKOWICZ: And frankly

[crosstalk]

STELTER: If that is true, if that is true, what the heck was the Homeland Security Department doing? Why didn't they defend you? Why didn't you defend yourself? Why didn’t the government explain what the heck it was doing? 

JANKOWICZ: Yeah, I have a lot of misgivings about the way things went down and I think the first thing to point out, Brian, is that there was a disproportionate focus on me, given my level of power within the department. I was not allowed to speak on my own behalf, and frankly, all the communications decisions that were being made about how to talk about the board were made above my pay grade, and above my level of decision-making. I was the executive director but there were a lot of people that were involved that didn't take advice frankly that I had given them. 

STELTER: I see.

JANKOWICZ: And I had hoped that I would see things go down differently. 

[crosstalk]

STELTER: Look I would start with the name. Even just the name. It sounds Orwellian, and any PR professional would say don't call it that. There were just dumb mistakes made. 

JANKOWICZ: Right, and that belies the fact that it was meant to be an internal governing mechanism, governing how the Department of Homeland Security did its work on disinformation, not governing the internet. And that was one of the reasons that I ended up making the choice to resign, right? Because I felt like the government had just rolled over, to the critics, who had completely spun this narrative out of control based on absolutely nothing in reality and the fact that they weren't able to defend me, the person that they had chosen. The experts that they had chosen to lead this board and safeguard this work. It didn't feel like it was worth it. Especially given the fact that my family was receiving threats. 

STELTER: And you are about to have a child and I want to ask you about that in a moment. These critics, there were many of them, they were incredibly loud. They say you are just a giant liberal, could never be appropriately hired for this job because you posted disinformation on Twitter yourself. 

JANKOWICZ: Well, so there is a lot of things to unpack in that. First let's start with the idea that anybody would be someone, anybody on the political spectrum would want to be policing speech. Again, at the colonel of that criticism is the idea that this board would be policing speech which it wasn't going to do. 

If that was the case, there would be no person nonpartisan enough particularly in the counter disinformation sphere, who would appeal to everyone in that role. But, I did not post this disinformation, the folks that are honing in on tweets that I sent in 2016, when I had fewer than 1000 Twitter followers, that you know, I was just sharing information about a presidential election as it was happening, as millions of other Americans were doing, using their right to freedom of speech, that wasn't disinformation, it was just sharing news. 

Other people honed in on tweets that were completely stripped of context. The one that the conservatives love to really amplify was a tweet that they claimed that made me seem like I was calling the Hunter Biden laptop disinformation when in fact I was just live-tweeting a debate. Saying the exact words that then-candidate Biden and President Trump were saying during a debate. Totally stripped of context. 

STELTER: So you still think you were the right hire?

JANKOWICZ: People didn't want to look further into the context.

Donor Privacy Policy