AOC Suggests Commission To ‘Rein In’ Media; Gets Slammed Immediately As ‘Wholly un-American’ Idea

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Jan 14, 2021

Folks in the media are super ticked off at super liberal Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she stated that Congress is currently looking into creating media literacy initiatives, which would include the creation of a commission to “rein in” misinformation after last week’s siege on the U.S. Capitol building.

One particular critic was so angered by the idea he called it “wholly un-American.”

AOC conducted a rather long and bloated live stream on Instagram Tuesday evening, where she spoke about the aftermath of the riot at the Capitol building and how she was terrified she was going to die, also discussing what she thought needed to be done in the wake of the incident.

During one part of the stream, AOC took a question from a viewer that asked if there was any sort of talks going on in Congress about “truth and reconciliation or media literacy initiatives” to help with healing.

via Fox News:

“I can say, there is absolutely a commission being discussed but it seems to be more investigatory, in style rather than truth and reconciliation, so I think that’s an interesting concept for us to explore, and I do think that several members of Congress, in some of my discussions, have brought up media literacy because that is a part of what happened here and we’re going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so that you can’t just spew disinformation and misinformation,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“Fox & Friends” anchor Steve Doocy said he was “a little troubled” by Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion and enlisted The Hill media columnist Joe Concha to help figure out who would decide what media gets reined in under the progressive lawmaker’s plan.

“Let’s unpack this proposal, she wants to basically establish a Ministry of Truth, we’ve all read ‘1984’ and, you know, to determine what is truth and what is not. So who sits on this committee exactly? Eric Swalwell? Adam Schiff? Because they seem to have some challenges when it comes to telling the truth,” Concha said.

“How does Mrs. Ocasio-Cortez define truth exactly? She was asked in a [“60 Minutes”] interview, this was a couple of years ago after she was fact-checked on some very dubious claims, about those particular claims and she said, ‘People want to really blow up one figure here, or a word there, I would argue they are missing the forest for the trees, I think there is a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, semantically correct than being morally right,’” Concha added.

“Oh, so it’s not about being factually correct, it’s what she sees as being right and wrong from a moral perspective,” he went on to say. “Let’s say I want to argue against defunding the police or adding two states, which therefore would add four Democratic Senators, does that make me morally wrong and therefore do I have to testify before this committee? Am I pulled off the air? That’s the thing when you have a Democratically controlled Washington — Congress, Senate and White House – this sort of thing in terms of government regulating speech should stay in China, or stay in North Korea or, I don’t know, ‘1984.’”

“Perhaps in the political systems favored by AOC citizens are impelled to look to government for ultimate truth, but that’s not the case in the United States. At least, not yet. Here, the Constitution ‘reins in’ Congress from intruding on the speech of citizens, journalists, or any private institutions, not the other way around,” Harsanyi stated in a written piece. “As a practical matter, we can already envision from ‘lived experienced’ — as a progressive might say — how sanctioning the state to adjudicate the veracity of journalism can be abuse.”

“It’s just creepy, not to mention wholly un-American, for an elected official to advocate the state as adjudicator of veracity of our political speech. It’s also crassly hypocritical. If anyone could use a truth commission, it’s Congress,” he concluded.

Right on the money.

There’s a reason why a free press is included in the Bill of Rights. Newspapers and media are supposed to help keep the populace informed about what their elected officials are up to in Congress. We have a right to know who is doing what and why, because they represent us and are our voices in the lawmaking process.

Having someone else, inside the government, decide what the media can and can’t say undermines that incredibly important foundational pillar of our country and way of life.

Let’s just not go down that rabbit hole, okay?

Besides, if it’s something being suggested by AOC, it should probably just be thrown in the garbage.