00:00I'm worried about this administration, essentially, right now, those judges.
00:03I want to talk with you, Ms. Hemingway, about the State Department's use of the Global Engagement
00:09Center to censor news outlets like the Daily Wire and the Federalist.
00:15I know that this is something that you have had to deal with.
00:20And Daily Wire is located in Tennessee.
00:24We're proud of them.
00:26We are delighted that they chose to move from California over to Tennessee.
00:32And it is my understanding that the Global Engagement Center was created to counter messaging
00:41from bad actors, including terrorist groups.
00:45But the Biden administration weaponized it to silence conservative groups.
00:52And what has the censorship—I call it the censorship industrial complex—what do you
00:59think they're trying to hide when it targets outlets like the Federalist and the Daily Wire?
01:08Thank you, Senator Blackburn.
01:10Yes, our reporter Margo Cleveland, who's our senior legal writer, uncovered through
01:14her reporting facets of the censorship industrial complex and learned that the State Department
01:20was one of the federal entities that was engaging with nongovernmental organizations
01:26and other entities in big tech to market, promote censorship tools and blacklists, which
01:34were then used against my publication, the Federalist, and also the Daily Wire.
01:39Publications that are a threat to the reigning orthodoxies are targeted by the censorship
01:44industrial complex.
01:45They want to exist without people pointing out their lies or the fact that there are
01:49really important debates.
01:50And so we are suing the State Department for that.
01:53And it is ongoing, this support of the censorship industrial complex.
01:57It is the bureaucracy, really, which perpetuates this even more than a particular administration.
02:03Yes, and I think it's so important to note that robust, respectful, bipartisan debate
02:08adds to our freedom, helps to keep us free, and allows that debate in the public square.
02:15And when you have an entity that becomes weaponized and shuts down one side of that speech and
02:22only allows speech with which it completely agrees, that that is when you have that censorship
02:30writ large.
02:31My time expires.
02:33Professor Turley, I have a question I will submit to you for the record.
02:36Thank you all for joining us.
02:40Thank you for being with us today.
02:42I'd like to start with you, Ms. Hemingway.
