Nina Jankowicz on paused disinformation board: 'There was a disproportionate focus on me'
Former head of Biden administration's Disinformation Governance Board says government 'rolled over' to critics
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former executive director of the Department of Homeland Security's Disinformation Governance Board Nina Jankowicz said Sunday that there was a "disproportionate focus" on her as she criticized the department's handling of the backlash over the fact-checking arm.
CNN "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter asked if the board was the "victim" of disinformation after the DHS announced it would be put on hold following free speech concerns.
"It absolutely was the victim of disinformation," Jankowicz said. "So all of these narratives, that the Disinformation Governance Board was going to be this Orwellian Ministry of Truth and all of the harassment and disinformation that was directed against me, was based on that falsehood,".
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Stelter also asked why the DHS didn't defend Jankowicz: "Why didn't the government explain what the heck it was doing?"
Nina Jankowicz stepped down as executive director the disinformation governance board, which has since been paused. (@wiczipedia Twitter account)
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"I have a lot of misgivings about the way things went down and I think the first thing to point out, Brian, is that there was a disproportionate focus on me, given my level of power within the department," she said. "I was not allowed to speak on my own behalf, and frankly all the communications decisions that were being made about how to talk about the board were made above my pay grade, and above my level, level of decision-making. I was the executive director, but there were a lot of people that were involved that didn’t take advice frankly that I had given them. And I had hoped that things would see things go down differently."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Stelter noted that the name sounded "Orwellian" and said "any PR professional would say ‘don’t call it that.'"
Jankowicz said she decided to resign because she felt like "the government had just rolled over, to the critics, who had completely spun this narrative out of control based on absolutely nothing in reality."
Nina Jankowicz discusses the paused disinformation governance board on CNN's "Reliable Sources." (Screenshot/CNN/ReliableSources)
She said the government was also unable to defend her, "the person that they had chosen, the expert that they had chosen, to lead this board and safeguard this work."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It just didn’t feel like it was worth it," she added.
Jankowicz told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on May 18 that the "sensationalist narratives" about what many believed the disinfo board was supposed to do were "completely wrong."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It was a coordinating mechanism. It was meant to, you know, make sure that the very large agency that is the Department of Homeland Security, that people were talking to each other within it," she said in May.
New York, USA - October 5, 2016: A Homeland Security vehicle late in the day in Lower Manhattan. (iStock)
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Jankowicz called out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday for inaccurately portraying FiveThirtyEight polling data in a campaign email claiming Democrat challenger Val Demings was poised to beat Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"While it's not the most outrageous falsely-attributed statement I've seen in a ‘22 fundraising email, this blatant misrepresentation of @fivethirtyeight's work is unacceptable. Dems should drop this disinfo (as I would wager it was deliberate) & focus fundraising on real issues," she said.