Welcome back to the Dershow, you know, when I was a kid, we used to joke about the government

setting up a Department of Redundancy Department, the United States Department of Redundancy

Department. You know, that was typical of the alphabet agencies and the some of the absurd

bureaucracies that were surrounding us. Today, of course, in universities, you know, when I started

teaching at Harvard Law School, there was a dean, 35 members of the faculty, the dean had a secretary

and four of us shared a secretary and the whole staff of the law school was, you know, 75 or

something like that. Today, Harvard Law School has a dean for every student virtually and it's

just administrative puffery all over the place and so does the United States government. So now,

in a tone deaf announcement, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it's

established a disinformation governance board. I mean, if, you know, the people who wrote 1984

and Brave New World, I had thought of it. I think they would have come up with a government

disinformation governance board. The problem with having a disinformation board is that there's

going to be a lot of disinformation about this information board and that's what's happened

because we live at a time of extremism, exaggeration and lack of credibility and so

Republicans and the right in general is attacked this board mercilessly on grounds that have nothing

to do with what the board is actually doing and the left and the Democrats are defending it

on grounds that have nothing to do with what is actually being done and those of us who care

about truth and principle are stuck between extremist disinformation on both sides. So let me try

to clarify it before I call for its total and complete and immediate abolition. But let's start

with what it's not. It's not big brother. It doesn't have enforcement powers. It's not going to

come into your living room and tell you what you can say and what you can't say. It's not even

going to correct disinformation online in the United States. It's not going to punish people.

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