Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald tore into Christopher Wray on Wednesday after the FBI Director failed to offer a definition for the word “disinformation.”
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) posed the question during a hearing in which Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee, asking for a firm definition — and Wray appeared to balk.
WATCH:
“They did this under the guise that it was disinformation. Can you define what disinformation is?”
“What I can tell you is that our focus is not on disinformation, broadly speaking…”
Director Wray’s FBI is responsible for repeated 1A violations and he can’t answer for it. pic.twitter.com/3jChwqt3Rc
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) July 12, 2023
“The evidence shows that you, your agency, the people that directly report to you, suppressed conservative-leaning free speech about topics like the laptop, the lab-leak theory of COVID-19’s origin, the effectiveness of masks and COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccines, speech about election integrity in the 2020 presidential election, security of voting by mail, even parody about the president himself, negative posts about the economy,” Johnson said.
“The FBI made the social media platforms pull that information off the internet if it came from conservative sources,” he continued. “They did this under the guise that it was ‘disinformation.’ Can you define what disinformation is?”
Wray evaded the question, saying, “What I can tell you is that our focus is not on disinformation, broadly speaking …”
Johnson pushed back, but Wray insisted that the only “disinformation” being addressed came from “malign foreign actors” — and still failed to provide a definition of the word.
“The reason FBI Director Chris Wray can’t define ‘disinformation’ — even though that’s the basis for the FBI’s pressure campaign on Big Tech to censor Americans — is it’s a bulls***, concocted term with no fixed meaning. That’s what gives it its power (like ‘terrorism’),” Greenwald tweeted in response.
The reason FBI Director Chris Wray can't define "disinformation" — even though that's the basis for the FBI's pressure campaign on Big Tech to censor Americans — is it's a bullshit, concocted term with no fixed meaning.
That's what gives it its power (like "terrorism"): https://t.co/Qhq6CNd2Qr
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 12, 2023
Greenwald went on to explain that the nebulous nature of the word – and its apparent lack of a solid definition — was a feature rather than a bug.
“There’s a whole array of terms that have no real, fixed meaning except for however those in power decide subjectively to apply them, on an ad hoc basis. ‘Disinformation’ — ‘Hate speech’ — ‘Terrorism.’ Their ambiguity is intentional: it’s what allows them to be abused,” he explained.
However one defines "disinformation," it's beyond reasonable dispute that the FBI always has been, and continues to be, one of the most prolific disseminators of it.
The same is true of corporate media and the establishment frauds they've christened as "disinformation experts." pic.twitter.com/21MSZ6tw49
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 12, 2023
“However one defines ‘disinformation,’ it’s beyond reasonable dispute that the FBI always has been, and continues to be, one of the most prolific disseminators of it. The same is true of corporate media and the establishment frauds they’ve christened as ‘disinformation experts,'” Greenwald concluded.
He punctuated his statement with a screenshot of a tweet from former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki – who was among the many in the Biden administration, the legacy media, and the intelligence community to label the Hunter Biden laptop “Russian disinformation.” It was later proven to be anything but.
