Proposed bill requires Calif. students to be schooled on ‘fake news,’ based on state’s interpretation

California lawmakers are looking to fulfill a propagandist’s dream as a new bill would not only require instruction on “media literacy,” but would leave it up to the state to determine what constitutes “fake news.”

As witnessed at Parent Teacher Association meetings and at school boards across the country, moms and dads are fed up with any curriculum that pushes an agenda over facts. Now, a Democratic assemblymember in the Golden State is promoting legislation that would establish a framework to combat “misinformation & disinformation” in K-12 grades, according to government-determined standards.

“The social implications of technological development are pervasive as over 90 percent of young adults use social media, and the reach and influence of digital media platforms will continue to expand,” Assembly Bill 873 reads in part.

Introduced by Democrat Assemblymember Marc Berman (Menlo Park), the bill argued, “A Stanford University study showed that 82 percent of middle school pupils struggled to distinguish advertisements from news stories.”

It further contended, “The proliferation of online misinformation has posed risks to international peace, interfered with democratic decisionmaking, and threatened public health.”

Speaking with EdSource, Berman said, “We meed to make sure the next generation has the critical thinking skills and analytical skills to be discerning about what they’re bombarded with online,” and, “My hope is that students talk to their parents about this too.”

The lawmaker had also tweeted, “Kids are being inundated by misinformation & disinformation. Media literacy instruction is essential to keeping our students safer online & safeguarding our democracy. #AB873, which unanimously passed the Assembly today, expands media literacy lessons to all CA k-12 students.”

The vague terminology of “media literacy” left the bill open for interpretation. However, California has already demonstrated a willingness to crack down on speech that runs counter to leftist ideology as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2098 into law.

As previously reported, the new law allows for the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California to discipline doctors who steer clear of the “approved COVID treatment consensus.”

“I am signing this bill because it is narrowly tailored to apply only to those egregious instances in which a licensee is acting with malicious intent or clearly deviating from the required standard of care while interacting directly with a patient under their care,” Newsom said upon signing the bill.

Along with AB873, AB787 was also making its way through the California Assembly and would require the state superintendent of public instruction to gauge the current state of media literacy in government-run schools and implement a program based on those findings.

In addition to seeking to control the narrative on “misinformation & disinformation” in the English language arts curriculum, AB873 also aimed to incorporate media literacy content “into the mathematics, science, and history-social science curriculum frameworks when those frameworks are next revised after January 1, 2024.”

Examples of this have already been seen with regard to critical race theory where Marxist ideologies have been promoted through math problems.

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Kevin Haggerty

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