PAYOLA PROPAGANDA: DHS paid leftist academics to create “counter-propaganda” under the guise of improving media literacy on hot issues like immigration

01/24/2024 / By Ava Grace

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the Biden administration allegedly paid leftist academics $700,000 to develop “counter-propaganda” under the guise of media literacy.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) disclosed this in a letter addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. According to the senator, the Biden administration via the DHS is utilizing federal funds for an “outrageous” abuse of power.

“This is an outrageous use of federal funds and abuse of power,” Hawley wrote in the letter to Mayorkas. “All these funds should be clawed back by the federal government immediately, and anyone involved … should be fired.”

“This amounts to the use of government funds to further President [Joe] Biden’s political agenda. Such an allegation would have been inconceivable four years ago, but you have consistently weaponized the [DHS] against conservatives through the creation of the [now-dissolved] Disinformation Governance Board and the so-called Homeland Intelligence Experts Group. Your department has also coordinated with Big Tech companies to censor conservative views.” (Related: Don’t let government get away with poisoning Americans (by Sen. Josh Hawley.))

In particular, Hawley singled out the DHS’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program that reportedly awarded a $700,000 grant to the University of Rhode Island‘s (URI) Media Education Lab. Several media outlets such as the Daily Wire confirmed the grant.

According to URI’s grant application, the Media Education Lab will “use community-created counter-propaganda to raise public awareness” to improve “media literacy” about topics ranging from immigration to racial issues.

“Counter-propaganda has been found to be most effective when it is nonmilitary, focused and authentic, and based on truth. There are numerous examples of how intentionally designed media messages can be used to shift public opinion,” the grant application further stated.

“There’s no doubt that propaganda is effective as a form of warfare, which is why terrorism has long been called ‘the propaganda of the deed.’ But propaganda can also be used for socially beneficial purposes. Indeed, because the public has long been recognized as being suggestible, the U.S. has long made use of beneficial propaganda during World War I, World War II and the Cold War.”

DHS heavily involved in censoring the “far-right”

According to reports, the URI’s Media Education Lab was involved in coordinating propaganda workshops with German censorship practitioners – with the $700,000 DHS grant bankrolling these efforts. Aside from these workshops, the grant also involved “blog posts that criticized [former President] Donald Trump and other conservatives under the guise of ‘media literacy.'”

Moreover, Hawley mentioned in his letter to Mayorkas that this is not the first time the Biden administration provided grants to leftist organizations via the TVTP program.

“There appears to be a pattern of funneling taxpayer dollars through the TVTP program to disparage conservatives. Last year, reports indicated that your department provided a grant to a University of Dayton (UDayton) program to fight ‘domestic violent extremism and hate movements,'” wrote the senator. According to the Post Millennial, this program received more than $350,000 from the DHS.

“The year prior to the grant award, [UDayton’s] Human Rights Center – which runs the program – hosted a seminar during which the Christian Broadcasting Network, the National Rifle Association, Fox News and other mainstream conservative organizations were included in a ‘pyramid of far-right radicalization’ with neo-Nazis and White supremacists.”

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Watch this segment from “The Bottom Line with Dagen and Duffy” about Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and President Joe Biden still keeping their jobs despite their illegal actions.

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