Tag: diversity

NPR journalist blows whistle on network’s obsession with DEI and progressive diktats and reveals how stories like Hunter Biden laptop were ignored: ‘Here’s how we lost America’s trust’

A veteran NPR editor has blown the whistle on how the publicly-funded broadcaster has become an activist organization obsessed with pushing progressive ideals. 

Uri Berliner, a business editor at NPR for 25 years, has offered a glimpse into his belief that NPR has gone from a respected information source to one that can’t be trusted to honestly cover the news. 

In an essay for The Free Press, Berliner notes that while NPR has always had a liberal bent, the publication was not ‘not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding’ – something he says changed when Donald Trump entered the political arena. 

Berliner uncovers how NPR knowingly kept information from its audience during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. 

He says NPR editors were quick to jump on claims that Donald Trump was a Russian asset – but far more reticent to cover their subsequent debunking.

It was a similar story with the Covid lab leak theory, which NPR continues to discredit, as well as the Hunter Biden laptop, which bosses declined to cover, Berliner says.  

‘Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population,’ Berliner writes.

Berliner tracks the last days of the old NPR to 2011, when he says it still had a leftist tilt, but ‘still bore bore a resemblance to America at large,’ and an audience that described themselves as 26 percent conservative, 23 percent moderate and 37 percent liberal.

But by 2023, only 11 percent of listeners described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, while 21 percent said they were ‘middle of the road,’ and 67 percent reported they were very or somewhat liberal. 

‘That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model,’ the veteran editor says in his essay.

Berliner explains that Trump’s 2016 candidacy for presidency changed how NPR covered politics, writing: ‘what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency.’

NPR, Berliner writes, became obsessed with rumors about Trump colluding with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton, repeatedly covering Representative Adam Schiff as he led the fight against Trump.

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Pres. Biden’s budget proposal seeks to spend $3 billion for teacher DEI training programs

President Joe Biden’s budget proposal seeks to set aside billions of dollars to push progressive gender, sexuality and race ideology at home and around the globe.

Released this week, the $7.3 trillion budget also proposes spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to train school teachers in diversity, equity, and inclusion dogma.

The White House touted the spending in its announcement of Biden’s budget, which includes $3 billion to “advance gender equity and equality worldwide.”

That $3 billion figure is several hundred million dollars higher than the 2023 budget request.

Funding for domestic projects of the same kind are robust as well though, including for public education to “improve the diversity of the teacher pipeline.”

In fact, Biden’s budget prioritizes training a new generation of teachers who embrace progressive ideology on race, gender, and sexuality.

For example, the budget includes $30 million to increase the number of teachers who go through the Hawkins Centers of Excellence, a federal effort that sets up programs to trains teachers in inclusivity on race, gender and sexuality.

Those training programs must be set up at minority-focused colleges such as historically black colleges and universities or colleges focused on serving Native Americans or Hispanics.

Once established, the taxpayer-funded program must “examine the sources of inequity and inadequacy in resources and opportunity and implement pedagogical practices in teacher preparation programs that are inclusive with regard to race, ethnicity, culture, language, and disability status and that prepare teachers to create inclusive, supportive, equitable, unbiased, and identity-safe learning environments for their students.”

In another similar funding item, the budget sets aside $95 million for the Teacher Quality Partnership Program, another federal effort that administers grants for training teachers.

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Columbia University Hospital DEI Chief Accused Of Plagiarizing Wikipedia, 27 Others In Dissertation

In the continuation of a trend rocking “elite” institutions, Columbia University Medical Center’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) officer has been accused of massive plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation — to include copying content from Wikipedia and poaching the work of 27 other writers.   

The accusations against Alade McKen came via a 55-page complaint anonymously submitted to the New York City Ivy League school this week and first published online by Washington Free Beacon. McKen’s dissertation was submitted in 2021at the Iowa State University School of Education. It’s title: “UBUNTU I am because we are: A case study examining the experiences of an African-centered Rites of Passage program within a community-based organization.”  

McKen took his post at Columbia in September. The job was created in 2021 as part of a Columbia quest to vanquish “structural racism” in health care. Just two weeks ago, McKen was quoted in a university profile as declaring that “everyone” in the DEI office is “committed to doing the work.”

Maybe the work of setting race relations back decades by imposing counterproductive DEI doctrine on Columbia Medical Center, but apparently not the work of doctoral dissertations. 

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DEI Disaster: Harvard Plagiarism Scandal Deepens with Allegations Against Diversity Administrator

Harvard’s plagiarism problem continues as the spotlight shines on other faculty members at the Ivy League university in the wake of the school’s former president, Claudine Gay, being ousted amid dozens of plagiarism allegations being unearthed and multiple antisemitism scandals.

Plagiarism allegations against Harvard Extension School DEI administrator Shirley Greene involving more than 40 passages of her 2008 dissertation have been filed with the Ivy League institution, according to a report by City Journal.

This comes after disgraced president Claudine Gay resigned earlier this year in the wake of a slew of plagiarism allegations that resulted in her having to make seven corrections across two articles and her Ph.D. dissertation.

Moreover, Harvard University Chief Diversity Officer Sherri Ann Charleston was also accused of plagiarism in a new complaint, which alleges that Charleston claimed credit for her husband’s work.

Additionally, top cancer researchers at Harvard have been recently accused of scientific fraud affecting 37 studies. The researchers are also accused of manipulating data images with simple methods such as copy-and-paste and Adobe Photoshop.

As for the latest allegations against Greene, who is a Title IX coordinator affiliated with the Office for Gender Equity, she has worked to advance the concept of so-called “Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging.”

The full complaint, obtained by City Journal, raises serious questions about Greene’s scholarship and academic integrity.

In one instance, Greene appears to take words, phrases, passages, and almost entire paragraphs verbatim directly from academic Janelle Lee Woo’s 2004 dissertation, “Chinese American Female Identity,” without including appropriate attribution or quotation.

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Meet Dr. Kathleen Hicks – SecDef Austin’s Presumptive Replacement Woke Deep-Stater

Lloyd Austin underwent an invasive surgical procedure called a prostatectomy for his prostate cancer. He was readmitted to the ICU ward of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center seven days later, on January 1st, due to complications caused by a severe infection. It appears he was septic. He concealed his inability to carry out his duties from Biden, Congress, the Pentagon, and his Deputy Secretary, Dr. Kathleen Hicks. On January 4th, finally becoming aware of Austin’s hospitalization, security adviser Jake Sullivan notified Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico.

Even though Biden continued to back Austin, Austin was already politically skating on cracked thin ice due to the colossal failure of the Afghanistan military withdrawal. Predictably, he will resign. His presumptive replacement is Hicks. Few are aware of Hicks’s woke, deep-state background. Hicks views her Defense Department role as the chief operating officer; in other words, she formulates strategic plans and policy.

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Harvard University Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Hit With 40 Credible Plagiarism Accusations in Brand New Scandal for College – Allegedly Stole the Work of Nearly a Dozen Scholars Including Her Own Husband

Harvard University has been handed another black eye after former Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned in disgrace earlier this month.

As the Gateway Pundit previously reported, Gay refused to condemn calling the “genocide of Jews” hate speech in testimony before Congress last month. Evidence then emerged she committed academic misconduct by plagiarizing her PhD thesis.

Now, the Washington Free Beacon reports that Harvard University’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, Sherri Ann Charleston, was hit with an anonymous complaint Monday accusing her of extensively plagiarizing her academic work. This includes lifting large portions of text without quotation marks and taking credit for a study by another scholar — her own husband.

The complaint lists a total of 40 accusations against Charleston going back to 2009, a decade before she joined Harvard.

The Free Beacon conducted its own independent study of the complaint and revealed Charleston quoted or paraphrased nearly a dozen scholars without giving them credit in her 2009 dissertation at the University of Michigan.

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FAA launches recruitment campaign for workers with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities, psychiatric problems and physical issues to hit woke DEI targets

The Federal Aviation Administration is looking for recruits with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities as it tries to hit woke DEI targets.

The agency is hunting people with psychiatric issues and other mental and physical conditions in its latest diversity drive.

The FAA, which includes jobs such as air traffic controllers, are keen to employ those with hearing and vision impairments, missing limbs, partial and complete paralysis.

Such a broad recruitment is all part of what the FAA term its ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ hiring plan.

The FAA, overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation, is responsible for regulating civil aviation and currently employs around 47,000 people, while John P. Benison is charged with implementing the agency’s DEI plan.

Benison, whose official title is as Assistant Administrator, Office of Civil Rights, ‘is responsible for assuring equal opportunity, and diversity precepts within the FAA’ with his officer overseeing all ‘civil rights, equal opportunity, and diversity matters.’

The FAA states on its website how individuals with ‘severe’ mental and physical disabilities represent an under-represented segment of the federal workforce. 

The agency ‘actively supports diversity through various associations, programs, coalitions, and initiatives, emphasizing the importance of its diverse workforce.’

‘Diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond,’ the FAA states.

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Complex Systems Won’t Survive the Competence Crisis

At a casual glance, the recent cascades of American disasters might seem unrelated. In a span of fewer than six months in 2017, three U.S. Naval warships experienced three separate collisions resulting in 17 deaths. A year later, powerlines owned by PG&E started a wildfire that killed 85 people. The pipeline carrying almost half of the East Coast’s gasoline shut down due to a ransomware attack. Almost half a million intermodal containers sat on cargo ships unable to dock at Los Angeles ports. A train carrying thousands of tons of hazardous and flammable chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio. Air Traffic Control cleared a FedEx plane to land on a runway occupied by a Southwest plane preparing to take off. Eye drops contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria killed four and blinded fourteen. 

While disasters like these are often front-page news, the broader connection between the disasters barely elicits any mention. America must be understood as a system of interwoven systems; the healthcare system sends a bill to a patient using the postal system, and that patient uses the mobile phone system to pay the bill with a credit card issued by the banking system. All these systems must be assumed to work for anyone to make even simple decisions. But the failure of one system has cascading consequences for all of the adjacent systems. As a consequence of escalating rates of failure, America’s complex systems are slowly collapsing.

The core issue is that changing political mores have established the systematic promotion of the unqualified and sidelining of the competent. This has continually weakened our society’s ability to manage modern systems. At its inception, it represented a break from the trend of the 1920s to the 1960s, when the direct meritocratic evaluation of competence became the norm across vast swaths of American society. 

In the first decades of the twentieth century, the idea that individuals should be systematically evaluated and selected based on their ability rather than wealth, class, or political connections, led to significant changes in selection techniques at all levels of American society. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) revolutionized college admissions by allowing elite universities to find and recruit talented students from beyond the boarding schools of New England. Following the adoption of the SAT, aptitude tests such as Wonderlic (1936), Graduate Record Examination (1936), Army General Classification Test (1941), and Law School Admission Test (1948) swept the United States. Spurred on by the demands of two world wars, this system of institutional management electrified the Tennessee Valley, created the first atom bomb, invented the transistor, and put a man on the moon. 

By the 1960s, the systematic selection for competence came into direct conflict with the political imperatives of the civil rights movement. During the period from 1961 to 1972, a series of Supreme Court rulings, executive orders, and laws—most critically, the Civil Rights Act of 1964—put meritocracy and the new political imperative of protected-group diversity on a collision course. Administrative law judges have accepted statistically observable disparities in outcomes between groups as prima facie evidence of illegal discrimination. The result has been clear: any time meritocracy and diversity come into direct conflict, diversity must take priority. 

The resulting norms have steadily eroded institutional competency, causing America’s complex systems to fail with increasing regularity. In the language of a systems theorist, by decreasing the competency of the actors within the system, formerly stable systems have begun to experience normal accidents at a rate that is faster than the system can adapt. The prognosis is harsh but clear: either selection for competence will return or America will experience devolution to more primitive forms of civilization and loss of geopolitical power.

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NO INSTITUTION IS SAFE: DEI THOUGHT CONTROL IN THE MILITARY

There is a misunderstanding that brainwashing, a technique of mental and psychological reprogramming conducted in an environment of ideological totalism, is irresistible and permanent. However, social isolation, sensory and sleep deprivation, torture, and psychological manipulation in a dystopian environment do not transform most subjects into passive automatons that are amenable to any and all suggestions.

A far more successful system of thought control and persuasion is described by founders of Critical Race Theory (CRT), who far better understood the psychological motivations required to instill long-lasting and uncompromising cognitive alterations. Their genius was to disguise this obscure, destructive Marxist philosophy by identifying the operational component of CRT with three benign words that appeal to fairness and the fellowship of the human race—diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Brainwashing and DEI share a spectrum of similar mind-altering practices, including the strict control of word definitions and speech patterns, the emphasis on confession without absolution, the forfeiture of individual identity to the group, and the labeling of detractors in absolute, pejorative terms. But unlike the brainwashing techniques employed in the Chinese prison camps of the 1950s, DEI offers its subjects a sense of belonging and a path to the self-defined moral high ground that has captured the will of millions, who are willing to devote their lives with near religious fervor to the transformation of the world’s institutions. 

In 1950 the journalist and CIA operative Eduard Hunter introduced and glamorized the term brainwashing to describe the coercive methods of mind control the Chinese Communists employed against US POWs during the Korean War.  His sensational claims of an irresistible form of indoctrination that rendered its subjects intellectually placid remodeled evinced parallels to the fictional works of Brave New World and 1984. The movie The Manchurian Candidate led the public to speculate that there were those among us, who could be activated by a simple word or deed to metamorphose from an everyday citizen to an active Communist agent. 

The psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton repudiated many of Hunter’s claims, citing evidence from his extensive interviews of both military and civilian prisoners that were the targets of intensive, programmed thought reform. Lifton stated that the process could be resisted, its implementation was systemic, and the methods were not exclusive to the Chinese. Supporting his claim was that only twenty-one of twenty-two thousand US POWs refused repatriation, while the remainder, despite receiving comprehensive mental reprogramming, elected to return home.

Lifton published his findings in 1961 in the book, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of “Brainwashing” in China. He listed eight elements that form the basis for intimidatory mind programming that share similar psychological objectives with DEI. Communication is highly controlled with the reduction of language to easily remembered clichés in a system where subjects do not realize they are being manipulated. 

Purity of thought is a requisite, and it is defined in a good vs. evil dialectic that considers opposing doctrines as illegitimate. Ideology is sacred, and one’s character must be shaped to fit the template. Those who stray from the doctrine must confess lapses, while unrepentant detractors have no authority to express contrary opinions.  

In a 2014 interview Dr. Lifton reiterated that the term brainwashing was a misleading construct and that he preferred the terms thought reform or mind control. Brainwashing imputes an all-or-nothing phenomena and does not account for different types or levels of persuasion. He provided two examples applicable to the political and academic setting that he described as “more gentle expressions of totalism.” The politician can be compelled to confess for failing to adhere to political orthodoxy, and the student can be subjected to psychological coercion for failing to attain proper achievement, depending on the ideas promulgated by one’s teachers. 

For thirteen years impressionable K-12 students are bombarded with relentless propaganda promoted by teachers who interact with them as trusted adult authority figures. The two largest teachers’ unions in the United States, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), staunchly support DEI, and its member teachers could be described as its disciples. The NEA’s three million educators and retired members are pledged to promote inclusivity and racial justice—both politically charged terms drawn from the core of Marxist critical theories. The smaller AFT includes 80,000 educators and 250,000 retired members, but the organization’s DEI and racial justice resolutions read more like the Occupy Wall Street Manifesto than a pledge to provide the highest quality of merit-based education. 

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The High Costs Of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion At Illinois Universities

Several Ivy League schools have been put under a national microscope recently for applying the right to free speech inconsistently. These universities are giving some groups unwavering protection to protest, while shutting down other groups altogether. These inconsistencies have one common denominator: Higher education’s unwavering devotion to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

DEI’s focus on race, gender and is credited for much of the divisiveness on college campuses these days and Illinois’ university system is not immune. Look no further than the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) where Communication 9 goes as far as to tie faculty performance evaluations to professors’ commitment to DEI. We outlined problems with the university’s initiative here.

But what also deserves attention are the growing DEI bureaucracies and the significant financial costs associated with them. Illinois’ universities are building out big teams led by executives with big pay, the highest among them Sean Garrick, Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). His total compensation in 2023 is reported at $352,000, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

But he’s just the tip of the DEIceberg.

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