Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, March 31, 2020

The federal government has passed a two trillion dollar stimulus plan, and there’s probably more cash on the way. Corporate lobbyists worked hard for their “essential” industries to get help. The Columbia Journalism Review, not wanting to be left out, tells us, “Journalism Needs a Stimulus.”

Author Craig Aaron, president and co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action, writes that there should be “more federal and state support for public media.” Journalism is “too important to democracy to be left to the whims of the market.” Free Press wants “at least” $5 billion, along with a foundation “to help sustain journalism over the long term.” If accurate information is a national interest, it would be better to pay journalists to quit.

But who would get the $5 billion Mr. Aaron wants splashed out? Not us. You don’t even have to read the Free Press home page to know what it’s about. Just look at the photo. Free Press doesn’t support a free press. It wants deplatforming and control.

“The media must stop providing a platform for racism, White nationalism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and other forms of hate,” it says. “News outlets need to hold the Trump administration and hate groups accountable and acknowledge the dangers they pose to our democracy.” Free Press warns journalists not to “normalize hate speech” or “behave as passive observers.” “Our democracy” means their democracy.

In November 2019, Free Press published a piece called “Activists Urge Twitter to Ban White Supremacists.” “Their hate poisons the platform,” it said, “and puts our lives in danger.” Puts their lives in danger? It also promoted a censorship campaign it co-founded with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In October 2019, Free Press published an article criticizing Mark Zuckerberg for “his intention to continue platforming hate and violence.” The article put “freedom of expression” in scare quotes. At best, it said, Mr. Zuckerberg’s “framing was grounded in far-right politics.”

“[T]he news media continues to contribute to the racial divisions in our country,” Free Press wrote in October 2018. “A racist candidate who is now our racist president exploited this to his advantage throughout the 2016 presidential campaign.”

Activists write this way, not journalists, but perhaps there are no “journalists.” Journalism is increasingly a tactic, not a profession. Name-calling and hysteria are neither news nor facts.

Before asking for a handout, “journalists” should remember their role in spreading “fake news.” Last year, many of them turned a chance meeting between leftist activist Nathan Phillips and pro-life Catholic schoolboys into a national story. They demonized young men from Covington Catholic, especially Nick Sandmann, until a full video showed that the boys did nothing wrong.

During Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, major outlets recklessly spread charges that he is a borderline rapist. Unlike Martin Luther King, he isn’t. When Mr. Kavanaugh responded angrily, they mocked his “entitlement.”

For years, “journalists” have promoted wild claims about President Trump’s supposed collusion with the Russian government. This included stories based on almost no evidence.

ABC News claimed that General Michael Flynn was going to testify that President Trump told him to contact Russian officials during the 2016 campaign. The story got a lot of attention, but it wasn’t true. The same reporter had also linked the Tea Party to a shooting in 2012, another false claim.

The Washington Post reported in December 2016 that Russian hackers had penetrated our country’s electrical grid. They hadn’t.

The month before that, the Washington Post promoted a report by “experts” at a mysterious group called PropOrNot that contained a list of sites that supposedly spread Russian propaganda. American Renaissance is on the list.

These sensationalist reports had consequences. A poll taken just before the 2018 election showed that two-thirds of Democrats thought it was “definitely” or “probably” true that Russia directly tampered with vote tallies to elect Donald Trump. There’s no evidence of this.

During the Black Lives Matter movement, CNN hosts used the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” protest gesture. It’s based on the lie — yes, the outright lie — that Officer Darren Wilson shot a man who had surrendered with his hands up. This lie did more to “contribute to racial divisions in our country” — to use Free Press’s words — than anything Donald Trump has done.

In Fall 2019, the Columbia Journalism Review published an article called “Beyond Facts.” Editor-in-chief Kyle Pope admitted that the media’s “screaming” and “hectoring” stopping disinformation. However, he also said that “depending on facts alone isn’t fair to the facts.” Instead, journalists must “take responsibility for understanding the broader narrative.”

“Narrative,” in this case, means spin, which is sometimes all we get from “journalists.” Their stories and myths don’t provide context for facts. They often deny facts.

Everyone claims to be against “disinformation,” but there will never be universal agreement on what’s true or false. That’s why the American tradition is freedom of speech. Americans should study facts and decode “narratives” for themselves. “[W]e are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, “nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

One of the greatest errors today is race denial. Race is real. Racial differences in intelligence are real. Race has consequences. Blacks are much more likely to attack whites than whites are to attack blacks.

I say these things based on evidence. If someone has better evidence, he can prove me wrong. I accept facts I don’t like; Asians’ do better than whites on IQ tests.

If a group with the laughable name of “Free Press” wants to shut me up, I’d like to see its evidence. Like many other “journalists,” its leaders want censorship, not truth. I suspect they fear a genuinely free press because they know they would lose.

If we want information, we shouldn’t give taxpayer dollars to “journalists” any more than we should to the ADL. They shouldn’t be spent on censorship or deceiving Americans about race. Media fog is bad enough without us having to pay for it.

Instead, it would be in America’s interest to fund groups that provide accurate information instead of clickbait and propaganda. So, President Trump (or Stephen Miller), if you are reading this, at least $5 billion should be enough for American Renaissance.

We’re providing accurate information that you can’t get anywhere else. We’re worth far more of course. However, at a time like this, we’re willing to make a sacrifice. Heck, we’d even settle for $4 billion.