declaration page with no reason. there s another article that documents this. the tech companies, i don t know exactly the government role in this, but i can say the tech companies definitely de-boosted the signal around the declaration. but shortly after we wrote it, we had an e-mail from the head of the nih telling tony fauci there should be a devastating takedown of the premises of the declaration calling me a fringe epidemiologist. the government played a big role in this censorship effort to create this illusion there was a consensus around their policies, when there wasn t. i read an essay that said this opinion is a huge blow to vital government efforts to harden u.s. democracy against the threats of misinformation. you would say what to them? i mean, the best way to combat misinformation is by real, true speech.
powerful and logical point about just how over the top and out of touch and insane the conversation and all the policies and efforts behind those conversations to ban books is and the uncomfortable truth about lack of safety from guns in classrooms. it s not just reading books anymore. although we ve reported attempts to ban books doubled in 2022 over the year before when they were already alarmingly high according to the american library association. the censorship effort is in overdrive and extend well beyond bookshelves. the washington post reported today the parent of a second-grader in st. petersburg, florida, filed a formal objection about a disney mover about a girl who had to waive to people in the south.
comprehensive censorship effort and we are learning about these other grants and fundings. that has to be investigated but the democrats are resisting every effort to disclose the censorship programs. christina: free speech and first amendment, this shouldn t be a partisan issue, hopefully everybody can understand and appreciate the importance of journalists allowed to investigate and report on important information, that should not be a partisan issue. thank you so much, we really appreciate having you on. also, a new article published in the hill post decency politics, house democrats use a hearing to attack free speech and a free press. jonathan turley, thank you. coming up, more catastrophic flooding here in california. a report from one of the hardest hit parts of the state over really for months of bad weather when we return.
and so i asked the dean, one, to affirm his commitment to academic freedom, not just abstractly but explicitly in the context of israel palestine for people on both sides of the debate. and second, i asked for some transparency about what happened in my case. you know, he s hiding behind the so called confidentiality of the appointment process. but he says, oh, but it wasn t donors. so he s breaching that confidentiality. you know, was it people who were worried about donors? we don t know. so if i could come back to the anti semitism point, because i think it s very important, i d like to bring this up. anti semitism is a very serious threat to jews around the world. and my concern is that if some of these partisan defenders of the israeli government throw around the term anti semitism to try to silence criticism of israel, people are going to take the threat of anti semitism less seriously. they re going to think, oh, this isjust another censorship effort, rather than the genuine
but he says, oh, but it wasn t donors. so he s breaching that confidentiality. you know, was it people who were worried about donors? we don t know. so if i could come back to the anti semitism point, because i think it s very important, i d like to bring this up. anti semitism is a very serious threat to jews around the world. and my concern is that if some of these partisan defenders of the israeli government throw around the term anti semitism to try to silence criticism of israel, people are going to take the threat of anti semitism less seriously. they re going to think, oh, this isjust another censorship effort, rather than the genuine problem. and so this may be, you know, in the short term, good for the state of israel. it is terrible forjews around the world who do face a serious problem of anti semitism. i wish we had more time, but ken roth, thank you very much forjoining me on hardtalk. hello.