'George Orwell, call your office': State outsourced censorship of conservative media, suit says --By funding and promoting private disinformation cops who targeted advertising revenue, State Department violated First Amendment, Administrative Procedure Act and its own statutory limits, publishers say. | 6 Dec 2023 | The State Department is indirectly regulating the American media, a "scheme [that] is unprecedented in history," by funding, promoting "and/or" marketing private organizations that seek to starve conservative publishers of advertising revenue, according to a wide-ranging lawsuit filed Tuesday. The Daily Wire and The Federalist allege the department, its Global Engagement Center and officials including Secretary Antony Blinken have violated First Amendment speech and press freedoms, far exceeded their statutory authority and ignored regulatory procedure through their efforts with the Global Disinformation Index and NewsGuard "[a]t a minimum." "State Department disinformation tools were developed [...] as tools of warfare – information warfare – to shape the perceptions and opinions of others," limited by statute to "foreign affairs," the suit reads. Those tools have been "misappropriated and misdirected to be used at home against domestic political opponents and members of the American press with viewpoints conflicting with federal officials," the plaintiffs allege.