Rep. Rich McCormick Introduces NDAA Amendment Banning Military Funding Of Censorship

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-GA, has introduced an Amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. This amendment prohibits the Department of Defense contracting with or cooperating any organization which facilitates censorship of Americans.

The amendment applies to organizations such as NewsGuard and Global Disinformation Index, which encourage the blacklisting conservative news by advising advertisers. The amendment prohibits military agencies from working with advertising agencies that use these services.

In the past, both organizations have been funded by the U.S. Government. A $750,000 Pentagon contract was awarded to NewsGuard 2021.

McCormick, a 20-year veteran Marine Corps and Navy of the United States, said that the military’s embracement of wokeness, and its apparent aversion towards conservative media with a pro-military following, had hurt recruitment.

McCormick said, “The amendment that I offer today is only a partial solution to the military’s recruitment challenges.” Last year, the United States Army fell 25 soldiers short of its recruitment goal. The Navy, too — managed to meet its recruiting goals for sailors, but fell 200 officers short.

There are many reasons for the recruitment shortage. More than three-quarters of young people of military age are not eligible to serve due to obesity and criminal records. There’s also the fact that the pentagon is obsessed with diversity and inclusion, which has taken the focus off recruiting and training warfighters.

In fiscal year 2024, the Army will spend $400 million on marketing to try and close the recruitment deficit. “We owe it the taxpayers to ensure that as many qualified recruits as possible see these advertisements.”

This amendment will prevent the Department of Events from contracting any of a variety of misinformation and disinformation monitors who rate news and information resources. The media monitors may claim to be nonpartisan but they are actually used to divert advertising from conservative news websites, where most of the recruits come from.

The amendment also requires that advertising agencies that want to run military recruitment ads must certify they don’t use such services.

According to Media Research Center’s average NewsGuard rating, “left” and leaned left outlets received a “green shield rating” of 91-100 while outlets on the right and leaned right side of the spectrum scored a lowly 66 out of 100.

The Global Disinformation Index Report on Online News lists the 10 most risky online outlets as The New York Post (conservative), The Federalist, The Blaze Daily Wire, Newsmax One America News, The American Spectator American Conservative, Reason Magazine and Real Clear Politics. The 10 least risky online news sites were ProPublica, NPR New York Times Washington Post BuzzFeed News and Huffington Post. News Guard rates Epoch Times higher than two Chinese Communist Party sites. This is perhaps even more alarming.

We do not have to exclude large groups of Americans because they read and watch conservative news. We should also not subsidise censorship through proxy.