(Video: Fox News)
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) warned what’s happening with corporate media in the United States is not so different from the state-owned TV of Russia, stating, “They’re afraid of the truth.”
Appearing on Tuesday’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Gabbard was asked by Fox News’ Jesse Watters to opine on the striking similarities between the “American left-wing ideology and Russian statism.” Watters first drew attention to the reported arrest of Russian Channel One TV editor Marina Ovsyannikova.
Ovsyannikova interrupted a live broadcast to protest the war in Ukraine with a sign telling the public in part, “Don’t believe propaganda. They’re lying to you here.” That action was in violation of the recently signed law by Russian President Vladimir Putin that prohibits “fake news.”
Watters likened this to efforts from the left to silence Fox News and right-wing media outlets before airing a clip of “The View” where the hosts suggested that publicly disagreeing with the approved narrative of President Biden and his supporters was treasonous and worthy of arrest.
“Every American should be wondering why our White House and our Democratic Party seem to be mimicking Putin’s propaganda style and seeking out ways to silence free speech,” Watters said before introducing Gabbard.
Highlighting the comparison between “Putin propaganda” and “Biden propaganda,” Watters asked, “Do you think that we’re at risk of kind of moving in that direction now?”
“We are moving in that direction, Jesse,” Gabbard asserted, “and your question there, what are they so afraid of? They’re afraid of the truth. They’re afraid of even a single voice coming out as challenging the power elite, questioning them, daring to hold a dissenting view.”
“They’re afraid because their arguments are so weak, they know they will not withstand the light of the truth,” Gabbard explained. She elaborated on the public-private partnership between the administration and entities like Big Tech corporations that dictate what is or isn’t “misinformation” before prohibiting those ideas in outlets that are supposed to permit free speech.
“And this is what’s so dangerous about the place that we’re in right now as a country,” Gabbard offered, “where the idea, this principle, this foundation of freedom of speech, freedom of expression is directly under threat and under attack.”
Gabbard used Biden’s recent deployment of TikTok influencers preloaded with White House talking points as an example of the administration’s efforts to manage the narrative through propaganda.
“And you’re right. It’s not so different,” she acknowledged. “What’s happening here is not that different from what we’re seeing happening in Russia, where you’ve got state TV and controlled messaging across the board. This is where we’re at.”
Watters recounted the state of social media throughout the COVID pandemic where asking questions could get you banned from platforms and pointed out how a similar playbook was being run now. Notions like questioning no-fly zones or expressing “any reservation about launching into a land war in Asia, that’s now something we’re not even allowed to debate,” Watters said.
“We’re Americans, let’s debate this. We get the best idea and we put it forward. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?” he asked.”
Gabbard expressed her agreement in favor of discourse in the public square before reiterating her point that the left opposes such outlets because they are afraid,.
“They refuse to argue on substance, of one position versus another, because of that weakness of their position,” she said.
Continued character assassinations, smears, name-calling and censorship, Gabbard said is “not who we are as America” and “it will undermine our Democratic Republic if it’s allowed to continue.”
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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