Last year, the Media Research Center started giving out “Bulldog Awards” that are simply resume-padding rewards for its fellow right-wing activists for advancing the movement’s preferred narratives — including anti-LGBTQ hate. This year, it’s blanketing those activists with something call the “Free Speech Award,” which is all about boosting those who reinforce the MRC’s bogus “censorship” narrative claiming that conservatives are getting “censored” when in fact their harmful misinformation and falsehoods are simply being corrected. The MRC papered the movement with these awards:
- Five senators
- 10 House members
- 10 state-level officials
- 10 “free thinkers” and “thought leaders” (read: propagandists)
Among them are the usual suspects for whom the MRC has done much PR work over the years, like Ted Cruz, Jim Banks, Greg Abbott, Jim Jordan and Jonathan Turley. Are are Republicans or aligned with right-wing politics — that furthers the similarly bogus narrative that oy right-wingers care about “free speech” and liberals only want to censor. (Never mind, of course, that it’s right-wingers like the MRC who are cheering book bans in school.) Also getting an award is Elon Musk, even though he has violated the spirit of the awards by censoring content on X and engaging in the kind of election interference the MRC used to criticize.
Dan Schneider and Joseph Vaquez explained the MRC’s rationale for the awards in an Oct. 24 post:
The Media Research Center (MRC) seeks to uphold the original vision of Free Speech Week, and nothing encapsulates those efforts more than the free speech advocates MRC has honored this year.
Free Speech Week was founded in 2005 by The Media Institute and the National Association of Broadcasters “to raise public awareness of the importance of free speech in our democracy – and to celebrate that freedom.” The freedom of speech is a fundamental American liberty, one that transcends political differences. According to the official website, the event, “is designed as a unifying celebration, elevating the vision of the Founding Fathers above the political fray and recognizing free speech as something we can all believe in and cherish.”
Holding true to that vision, the MRC honored 35 champions of the First Amendment, including five members of the U.S. Senate (announced Monday), 10 members of the U.S. House of Representatives (announced Tuesday), 10 additional public officials (announced Wednesday) and 10 outstanding advocates of free speech in non-governmental organizations (announced Thursday).
MRC Founder and President Brent Bozell commended all the award recipients in a statement: “Free speech is under attack in America. It is time we honor the best defenders of free speech. It is thanks to them that we are not under a full censorship regime.”
The left, in a dystopian twist, has flipped the First Amendment on its head in the years that followed Free Speech Week’s establishment. Now the left actively pushes to suppress speech it disagrees with under the guise of protecting Americans from mis-, dis- and mal-information.
As usual, Schneider and Vazquez don’t explain why lies and misinformation must be allowed to stand uncorrected or that the liars should never face any consequences. The misinformation continued:
The Biden-Harris administration has presided over one of the most expansive censorship enterprises ever seen in American history as government agencies have routinely colluded with Big Tech platforms to suppress speech. Democratic lawmakers have also recently put the squeeze on Big Tech platforms to censor political speech just before the November elections. In 2020, MRC polling research provided damning evidence showing how Big Tech platforms and Big Media stole the 2020 election by insulating Biden by censoring stories that would damage his political image amongst his voter base. MRC studies have shown that the media and Big Tech are attempting to do the same thing on behalf of Kamala Harris.
In another chilling example, leftist billionaire George Soros’s empire has poured an ungodly tens of millions of dollars into numerous groups pressuring Big Tech to censor speech that doesn’t comport with his radical views before the 2024 elections.
Correcting misinformation is not a “censorship enterprise” — that misleading criticism just shows how much right-wingers depend on spreading misinformation that they must demonize anyone who points it out. And that “MRC polling research” in 2020 was bought from Trump’s campaign pollsters in an attempt to manufacture a conspiracy theory, which raises questions about bias, accuracy and manipulation. The claim about Soros links to a May post by Vazquez in which he again falsely portrays correcting misinformation as “censorship” — and, of course, there was no mention of the “ungodly tens of millions of dollars” Musk spent to get Trump elected.
Schneider and Vazquez conclude with a flourish of purple prose:
With such a massive onslaught against Americans’ free speech rights today, it is incumbent upon those standing for freedom to highlight the patriots who have met this threat head-on in their respective fields. Free Speech Week is a time to celebrate one of our most sacred freedoms. Congratulations to all MRC Free Speech Award recipients! The MRC and a grateful nation salute you.
We’re not seeing how allowing lies and misinformation to spread unchecked makes one a “patriot.”