The President's Daily Brief - April 23rd, 2022. Special Brief: A Disinformation Campaign?

Episode Date: April 23, 2022

It’s April 23rd. You’re listening to a special edition of the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. With Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton pronouncing a war on disinformation; are they truly looking to protect democracy? ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's April 23rd. You're listening to a special edition of the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. Before we start, a quick reminder to those new to the show, the special brief you're about to hear is in the same spirit of the actual President's Daily Brief, which is a top secret summary of the most critical events in the past 24 hours, all delivered to the president each morning by the nation's spymasters. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I am your spy, and this is your. brief. This morning, I'm here to relay a developing story that really can't wait for Monday. You need to be prepared for what's about to come. It's a political campaign against disinformation or fake news. Now, I know this will sound perhaps dry and academic to some, maybe even boring, because it's not a particularly new issue, is it? But there's something very peculiar happening this morning. It's the timing and the people involved that deserve your attention and mine.

In the past 48 hours, two very important political leaders and the Democrat Party have delivered one perfectly timed message, and that is that our democracy is imperiled, and it's because of disinformation. First up was former President Barack Obama, who announced a push to regulate social media platforms, all in order to combat what he called disinformation, saying that tech companies were promoting divisive material, and that they required, listen to this, some democratic oversight. He put this need for democratic oversight into very stark terms. Each of us, he said, has to pick aside. Do we allow our democracy to wither?

Or do we choose to make it better instead? At virtually the same time, Hillary Clinton tweeted out a similar message also about disinformation. For too long, she said tech platforms have amplified disinformation and extremism with no accountability. She went on to applaud a bill in Europe that's designed to address this disinformation in order to, quote, bolster global democracy before it's too late. Do you hear the themes there? Disinformation is bad. Our democracy is under attack. And big tech is letting it happen. All being promoted by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to deeply influential politicians in American life on the same day. Now, in and of itself, there's nothing conspiratorial about this. Politicians coordinate messages all the time. And to be fair, both have been ramping up this talk of disinformation for quite some time. But it's also clear that there's a new effort underway by these political leaders and others, especially on the left, to regulate our speech. Because they say, democracy is once again under attack. This begs a huge set of questions.

and we can't tackle all of them this morning. But we're going to start with one that's especially critical, all so that you are better prepared to pick aside, as Barack Obama has said, you must. All right, here's that critical question. Why is this coordinated campaign against disinformation happening right now? What is so sudden, so shockingly new about disinformation on social media that it has turned this perhaps legitimate concern

into an existential threat to our democracy that involves teams, good versus bad. I think I know the answer. If you've been paying attention to the news these past few weeks, there's been a big fight between Twitter and Elon Musk. The latter is trying a hostile takeover from the former, that is to say, Musk is trying to buy Twitter despite it not wanting to be sold. Elon is justifying his actions in large part because he says Twitter has collapsed into a regime of censorship.

Specifically, it's censorship of specific political voices, namely conservative voices. So is Elon right? Is Twitter really a leftist regime trying to squash conservative voices and stories? Well, there's data to suggest that actually, yes, he's right. According to Open Secrets, which is a reputable research group that tracks political donations, 98% of political giving from Twitter employees to federal candidates was given to members of the Democrat Party. 98%. Meanwhile, Twitter's former CEO, Jack Dorsey, said in a 2018 interview that Twitter, like most tech

companies in Silicon Valley, has a lot more left-leaning employees than right-leaning. In fact, he said conservative employees at his company, quote, don't feel safe to express their opinions within the company. But it's not just Twitter, the company that's hyper-liberal, it's many of the people who use it, too. In a set of studies from 2019 and 2020 from the Pew Research Center, data show that Twitter users are more liberal than the general public and less inclined to find common ground with Republicans, more so than even other Democrats who don't use Twitter. So let me translate all of that data and give you the key takeaways. Twitter is a company with very liberal employees, with very liberal values, and neither they nor the Democrats who use Twitter want to be on the same team as conservatives.

That's not Brian's opinion. That's not your opinion. That's what the data show. So I think we've answered part of the question that started this special brief this morning. Why are Democrats waging this fight over disinformation right now? It appears that the very liberal base, of the Democrat Party is angry that Elon Musk is trying to take control of their company, or so they would say. In other words, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have heard from their donors. But I suspect it's about much more than donors and money. Recall that Twitter censored the story of the Hunter Biden laptop, saying it was Russian disinformation. That encouraged other media outlets to hide the story right before the 2020 election.

and data show it probably gave Joe Biden the White House. In other words, this war on disinformation by Obama and Clinton, this curiously timed fight where you have to pick a side, tells me that this isn't just about money, but also power. The power that comes from controlling information to deem what is good speech and what is bad. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I brought you this special brief this Saturday morning. We have entered a new fight. and it's ultimately about who has power and who gets to keep it. It's either them or you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes your special Saturday brief. I'd like to ask for your help.

Do you want Saturday shows or do you need a weekend break from the news? And if you like a Saturday show, do you want me to follow this issue of disinformation and fake news? As a former CIA officer, it's something I understand and I think I could help you understand the importance of it, as well. So send me an email if you think the PDB should have a Saturday show or not. It would be really focused on one issue, less than 10 minutes probably like today. The email address, as you know, is PDB at thefirsttv.com. Again, that's PDB at thefirsttv.com. And with that, I will speak with you again on Monday for the latest edition of the President's Daily Brief. As always, my friends, I remind you of why we are here talking about our country. It's the creed of every good spy

and every smart American. It's from John chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day.