BC SOCIAL MEDIA
Saved by @Alex1Powell

So let's check in on "Newsguard," one of the Orwellian groups (e.g., The Atlantic Council) that totally reliable sites like @voxdotcom and @axios use to decide what is "Unreliable" and "fight disinformation."

One example:

 OK, so "The Daily Wire" and "https://t.co/oEa89coNak" are unreliable. Fair enough, maybe they are (I don't use either one of them).

So let's look into one of our new official arbiters of "reliability," Newsguard!

What's their advisory board look like?

https://t.co/5N8op70VE1
OK, so maybe a few names jumped out at you immediately, like, oh I don't know, (Ret.) General Michael Hayden, former Director of the CIA AND former Director of the National Security Agency in the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003! Google him, he's famous!
Newsguard is all about "seeing who's behind each site," (like how Michael Hayden is behind Newsguard?)

All they want to do is fight "misinformation." That's laudable, right?

Also, Newsguard has a "24/7 rapid response SWAT TEAM!!"

So cool!
https://t.co/EDN3UXvBR9
Ok, I'm not a journalist or a former CIA director, so I have no idea what's true or not unless someone tells me, so hey, Columbia Journalism Review - what do you think of Newsguard Advisory Board Member Michael Hayden?
https://t.co/UCQseaJqbZ
"Hayden has a long history of making misleading & outright false statements...It is something of a wonder that someone responsible for so many reprehensible acts is now considered a totally above-the-fray, honest commentator on all issues intelligence."

Oh dear.
Michael Hayden "has lied so brazenly and so often, anything he says must be treated with instant suspicion.”

He even lied to Congress? Sounds bad.

Yet he's on the Newsguard Advisory Board (and I'm sure many others), protecting us from misinformation.

https://t.co/UCQseaJqbZ
Hayden is also a Principal of the Chertoff Group. Michael Chertoff was the 2nd Secretary of Homeland Security, he calmly watched as New Orleans drowned, worked at Covington & Burling (#GIK) & founded a group that makes/lobbies for full body scanners. Yay!

https://t.co/Tj1o2f1FV1
So there's a lot of names on the Newsguard Advisory Board - I don't want to get hung up on one guy who happened to have been head of the NSA as we rolled into Iraq, then ran the CIA, who has a long history of, um, lying?

I'm just glad he's out there preventing misinformation.
OK, how about Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Prime Minister of Denmark.

Denmark is cool, right? Nobody lies to the public in Denmark.

What a great guy to be on the Newsguard Advisory Board, to prevent misinformation from getting out!
Oh.

Are we sure this is the same Anders Fogh Rasmussen? Must be a common Danish name.

"Libya is finally free." - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, 2011

Um, who wants to tell him?

https://t.co/ov7dxJy6bJ
OK, so there was the Libya thing. No big deal.

Then Anders went on head up NATO, an organization which would probably never mislead anyone about anything. Newsguard chose wisely.
I guess Anders was Prime Minster too, which is ok.

Then he went to his payday I mean reward as a Citigroup advisor.

https://t.co/VzANOteIfR
According to Wikipedia - this will become important at some point - "As Prime Minister, Rasmussen strongly supported the 2003 Iraq War."

As we know, the Iraq War was a war based solely on truth, with no misinformation.

Anders is perfect to oversee a fact-checking group!
Take it away, Anders:

"Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. This is not something we think. We know it....there is no doubt in my mind." (March 2003)

https://t.co/AcbXEnzSp2
To wrap up with Anders for now, he has his own global consulting firm https://t.co/RiAObKzzkV, set up a [now-deleted] "Friends of Ukraine" site https://t.co/KyPvW9tLVQ, & became an advisor to the President of Ukraine.

Busy guy! Perfect arbiter of truth.

https://t.co/7lTgIz7F8O
Newsguard says of their advisors, "Members of the advisory board provide strategic advice to NewsGuard. They play no role in the determinations of ratings or the Nutrition Label write ups of websites unless otherwise noted."

Maybe the strategic advice is to attack anti-war sites
Anyway, that's just the tin-foil talking.

Let's move on to another Newsguard Advisor...let me throw a dart...hang on...

Boom!

"Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of Homeland Security (George W. Bush administration)"
Sure seems like some prominent people closely connected to the Iraq War are on Newsguard's advisory board. For an organization supposedly dedicated to the truth, this seems odd.

Anyway, here's Ridge with Rachel Maddow in 2009.
https://t.co/RzHlPptxqd
Tom Ridge is completely un-apologetic for his role is supporting a war that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. https://t.co/q3CL5bBG8I
So after the Iraq debacle, Ridge atoned by working with Jimmy Carter building houses for poor people with Habitat for Humanity.

Oh, wait - I mean, in 2015 Ridge hooked up with the Jeb Bush campaign, along with these other unrepentant warmongers. https://t.co/CifIR78C4J
So you ask - Rudy, isn't Tom Ridge also on the Board of Directors of another MSM "fact-checking" organization and home for wayward neo-con warmongers, The Atlantic Council?

Yes, yes he is.
https://t.co/XFoDwuyJh6
Anyway, you could write a book on Tom's corporatist ties & all the boards & lobbyists & connections (he almost was McCain's VP choice).

Let do another: Elise Jordan, political analyst, NBC, and former speechwriter for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice! https://t.co/5aIOfYDXh7
OMG. Please tell me this is a DIFFERENT Elise Jordan.
I mean, I'm sure she's very nice, but she also has worked for some people and entities not known for their aversion to lying.

Perfect to be an advisor to arbiter of truth at Newsguard I guess. Why not.

https://t.co/QZReJCh8ub
"During the Bush administration, Elise worked in the White House Office of Presidential Speechwriting and at the State Department as speechwriter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."
Moving on to the more mundane...

"Ed Vaizey, former Member of British Parliament for the constituency of Wantage, former Minister of Culture and Digital" https://t.co/zgxMzIqT5j
Come on, Ed. Think bigger. https://t.co/fodMEmS67S
Note that Ed Maizey - advisor to MSM truth-determiner Newsguard, is described by The Telegraph as "a key ally of David Cameron." https://t.co/HImn9eWGa8
If you're starting to get the impression that the Newsguard MSM "fact-checkers" might be tied at the hip to prominent people quite comfortable with Iraq War-style large-scale propaganda operations, you win a T-shirt.

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