Morning Wire XX
[0] The latest set of Twitter files reveal how the platform suppressed opinions concerning COVID -19.
[1] One of the things that is most disturbing, quite frankly, is that when these files came out, the FBI attacked many of us and called all of us collectively conspiracy theorists.
[2] What methods did the social media company use and how heavily was the federal government involved?
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickleckle.
[4] It's Thursday, December 29th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] The celebrity -funded bail project is being sued by a waiter who said he was shot seven times by a repeat offender freed by the group just days earlier.
[6] Two shots in the back, one also punctured the lung and then one punctured the stomach.
[7] And demand for employees in a tight labor market is leading some companies to drop their college degree requirements.
[8] We'll tell you which companies are saying no degree necessary.
[9] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[10] Stay tuned.
[11] We have the news you need to know.
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[17] The latest revelations from internal Twitter records show that the White House pressured the platform to suppress COVID opinions that conflicted with government messaging.
[18] Meanwhile, a new poll shows that a majority of voters want an investigation into the FBI's efforts to censor speech on social media.
[19] Here to catch us up on the latest news from the Twitter files is Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[20] So, Megan, previously you've reported that the FBI and DOJ press, pressured Twitter execs to censor news concerning Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings and other election -related content.
[21] But these latest drops are now centered on COVID.
[22] What do they show?
[23] Well, what they show is a similar pattern, but this time it appeared to be the White House itself that was asking for Twitter to censor posts that were related to the pandemic.
[24] So these documents show this was happening under both President Trump and President Biden.
[25] According to one Twitter employee, the Trump administration wanted help combating misinformation about runs on grocery stores.
[26] Now, the Biden administration pushed for anti -vaxxer, that was their term, accounts to be suppressed.
[27] They specifically asked, for example, why independent journalist Alex Berenson hadn't been banned from the platform immediately after he said this about the COVID vaccine.
[28] And I'm just going to quote, it does not stop infection or transmission.
[29] Don't think of it as a vaccine.
[30] So what's interesting to note there is that in both the Trump and Biden cases, the information that they were hoping to see suppressed was actually true.
[31] Now, as that pressure was ramping up from the Biden White House, Twitter began censoring medical opinions from some very qualified voices, like Ivy League trained doctors and epidemiologists who were challenging things like the necessity for kids to get the jab.
[32] And one more key point on this, the email suggests the Twitter executives did feel coerced.
[33] To give you one example, one Twitter employee told another, quote, mercifully, we had answers when they were discussing the White House's questions about why they weren't suppressing some posts or users.
[34] Now, what do we know at this point about other social media companies?
[35] Was the FBI doing the same thing across platforms?
[36] Yeah, it appears so.
[37] So some internal communications reveal that Twitter's regular meetings with an FBI task force also included, and I'm quoting from independent journalist Matt Taiibi's reporting, virtually every major tech firm including Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest, and many others.
[38] So they also showed that representatives of another unnamed government agency were also almost always present at these meetings.
[39] Taiibi says context suggests that these were likely CIA personnel.
[40] Now, I know last time we talked, the FBI had issued a statement saying that they provide information about risks to a lot of companies.
[41] Have they said anything else since then?
[42] So they said in a statement, quote, it is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency.
[43] But George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News that this response should be unsettling to Americans.
[44] It was highly inappropriate because the FBI has said that combating disinformation is one of its priorities.
[45] So it's a very menacing thing when you have the largest law enforcement agency attacking free speech advocate.
[46] So Turley went on to point out that when the FBI and CIA were implicated in Watergate in the early 1970s, there was an outpouring of calls across the political spectrum to see those agencies investigate and reformed.
[47] And he says he's alarmed that not only are so many public officials downplaying or staying silent on the Twitter files, so are most of the major media outlets.
[48] Now, according to some new polling, though, it sounds like a lot of Americans actually agree with Turley.
[49] Yeah, exactly right.
[50] So a Rasmussen survey released the day after Christmas found 63 % of likely voters want Congress to investigate the FBI's effort to control content on social media.
[51] And it looks like they're going to get their wish.
[52] Incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has already sent FBI director Christopher Ray what's called a preservation notice, citing evidence that suggests the Bureau has been demonstrating, and I'll quote here, hostility to the First Amendment.
[53] Now, that letter asked to the Bureau to provide all of the FBI's documents and communications referring or relating to content moderation on Twitter's platform.
[54] In fact, Jordan also asked for a full and complete accounting of that $3 .5 million that the FBI paid Twitter for what it called processing their requests.
[55] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[56] Any time.
[57] That was Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.
[58] Coming up, the victim of a violent attack, Sue's the Bail Project.
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[66] A popular chapter of The Bail Project, which has been backed by A -list celebrities, closed its doors after being sued by a waiter who blames the grays.
[67] group for being shot several times.
[68] Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo.
[69] Hey Amanda.
[70] So an alarming story here and one that traces back actually to 2020 in the Floyd riots.
[71] First, tell us about this shooting incident.
[72] Hey, John.
[73] Yeah, a man named Roshan Gaston Anderson was arrested in November 2021 for burglary and theft, just one day after he had been arrested for carrying concealed weapon.
[74] Then he was released without having to pay any bail when the bail project stepped in and paid $3 ,000 to free him.
[75] Six days after he was sprung, Gaston Anderson, shot at Chang 'an Wang 11 times while Wang, who came to America from China, was working as a waiter at the Shanghai Taste Restaurant.
[76] Wong was hit by seven bullets and somehow survived, though he suffered lifelong permanent injuries, and he's now suing the bail project.
[77] Here's Wong speaking through a translator to News 3.
[78] Thank to God's grace for saving me and all the hard work the medical team put in, and now I have a second chance at life.
[79] By the way, Gaston Anderson has pleaded guilty and was sentenced earlier this month to seven to 18 years behind bars over the shooting.
[80] And what exactly is Wong claiming in this lawsuit?
[81] Wong is seeking $15 ,000 in damages from the bail project and claims in the suit that the group used, quoting here, no due diligence in determining whether Gaston Anderson would be a danger to the community and likely reoffend.
[82] Wang is also seeking another 15 grand each from Gaston Anderson and the owner of Shanghai Plaza.
[83] A spokesperson for the bail project confirmed the shuddering of the Vegas chapter while claiming it was not connected to the litigation.
[84] Now, this is a popular fund with celebrities.
[85] Who are some of the names backing the bail project?
[86] Yeah, it's definitely a celebrity favorite.
[87] We have musician John Legend and his model wife, Chrissy Teigen.
[88] They pledged money to the group during the 2020 George Floyd riots.
[89] Tegan notably seemed to taunt conservatives who objected to her donation by doubling her total contribution to a total of $200 ,000 for the Bail Project and two other progressive bail funds.
[90] Legend and other celebrities like actors Danny Glover and Richard Branson also sit on the Bell Project's advisory board.
[91] It's also worth noting that Kamala Harris famously urged people in June 2020 to support a different but similar bail fund, the Minnesota Freedom Fund that paid bail for jailed rioters.
[92] Now, the major criticisms of this movement, the so -called decarceration movement, is that it breeds repeat offenders and often hurts the very communities these groups say they're trying to help.
[93] This seems like the claim being made in this lawsuit, correct?
[94] Yeah, exactly.
[95] Reports have highlighted issues with the Bell Project's Chicago chapter in particular.
[96] Some of the felony defendants, after being bailed out by the group, were quickly charged with new crimes, which critics' view is otherwise avoidable.
[97] The Chicago Tribune highlighted a case where a 34 -year -old man named Christopher Stewart, a four -time felon who was facing charges for illegal handgun possession, he was sprung by the bail project only to be charged with attempted murder some four weeks later.
[98] And what are the supporters' arguments for the group?
[99] What do they say about the purpose or need for these bail fund groups?
[100] Yeah, most of these advocates are pretty clear that these charities or bail reform policies, they're meant to promote racial equity above all else.
[101] The bail project explicitly states that its mission is to, quote, prevent incarceration and combat racial and economic disparities in the bail system.
[102] One well -known proponent of bail reform and other criminal justice reform measures is New York rep Alexandria Ocasio -Cortez.
[103] Back in 2018, AOC citing the population of incarcerated black Americans actually called for efforts to reduce our prison population by 50%.
[104] Last year, when she was asked about bail reform and rising crime, She denied that the problems in New York were tied to bail reform at all and advocated for fewer jails and more spending toward mental health programs and other resources.
[105] If we want to reduce the number of people in our jails, the answer is to stop building more of them.
[106] The answer is to make sure that we actually build more hospitals.
[107] We pay organizers.
[108] We get people in mental health care and overall health care, employment, et cetera.
[109] Interesting.
[110] And we'll have to see where this lawsuit from Wong goes from here.
[111] Amanda, thanks for reporting.
[112] Yeah, any time.
[113] That was Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo.
[114] In a tight labor market, some employers are dropping the requirement for college degrees.
[115] The movement away from requiring a degree is happening in both the public and private sectors.
[116] Here to give us the details is DailyWire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
[117] So Charlotte, first off, what percent of job listings currently say they now require a college degree?
[118] Hi, Georgia.
[119] So according to the Burning Glass Institute think tank, 41 percent of job listings in the U .S. listed bachelor's degrees as a requirement last month, but that's down from 46 % in 2019.
[120] Now, is this just a reaction to the tight labor market, or are employers actually finding that degrees are just less relevant than they were in the past?
[121] The biggest factor is the tight labor market.
[122] In September, there were 10 .7 million job openings, but only about 5 .8 million unemployed Americans.
[123] So just looking at those numbers, employers had to get creative and make compromises.
[124] But another big factor is the recognition that college degrees just aren't necessarily relevant in a lot of modern workplaces.
[125] Instead of focusing on degrees, these companies are specifically seeking out relevant experience and expertise.
[126] For example, Google, Delta Airlines, and IBM have all cut down on the education demands for specific roles.
[127] We spoke to Nicholas Giordano, professor of political science at Suffolk Community College in New York, about why companies are moving away from requiring degrees for new hires.
[128] They're not coming in with the critical skills necessary to perform in the workforce.
[129] And I think what we're going to see going forward is that there may be more emphasis placed on attending two -year schools.
[130] You get some of the academics, you get some of the technical, and that's all you need in order to go into the workforce.
[131] Now, sometimes we see trends first in the private sector, but you've reported that we're now beginning to see the same trend in government jobs as well.
[132] Yes, this fall Democrat Josh Shapiro successfully won the governorship in Pennsylvania.
[133] Pennsylvania.
[134] Shapiro said during his campaign that he would propose changing the educational requirements for a variety of state positions and advocate for more skills -based hiring.
[135] At the federal level, Republican Representative Elise Stefaniq introduced the advancing skills -based hiring act, which would help employers who want to move towards a skills -based hiring approach but might be worried about doing so for legal and regulatory reasons.
[136] Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
[137] Thanks for having me on.
[138] That was Daily Wires, Charlotte Pence Bond.
[139] Well, that's all the time we've got this morning.
[140] Thanks for waking up with us.
[141] We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
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