Making his case and point, the conservative host brought up Susan Wojcicki, a Bay Area college grad who at 30 years old rented her garage to two men who later founded Google. Twenty-three years later, she runs YouTube – the world’s largest digital platform – and is worth half a billion dollars.
Money buys power, influence
Carlson argues that despite having “no relevant qualifications” to take charge of Americans’ lives, Wojcicki – and others leading social media giants – dangerously wield way too much power.
“What's infuriating is that they won't admit this – they pretend that the control they wield is part of the natural order of things somehow, that they deserve it … that they’re God,” Carlson expressed in his Fox News piece. “Most of them forget that not so long ago, they worked in the marketing department.”
Wojcicki told CNN’s Brian Stelter about her plans of censoring all COVID information that she dislikes – including data posted by doctors who have treated COVID patients.
“But then we also talk about removing information that is problematic, of course anything that is medically unsubstantiated to people saying like, take vitamin C, you know, take turmeric – like those oral [treatments] will cure you,” she told CNN.
“Those are examples of things that would be a violation of our policy – anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy – and so remove is another really important part of our policy.”
Instead of condemning the policy, the CNN host termed it “aggressive,” responding: “So, you're not just putting in the truth next to the lie, you're taking the lie down. That's a pretty aggressive approach.”
That response did not settle quite so well with Carlson.
“To restate: Susan Wojcicki has no medical background at all – she's not a doctor, she's not a researcher [and] she's hardly an eminent epidemiologist,” the Fox News host stressed. “In fact, Susan Wojcicki’s main contribution to science is drawing the doodles that appear on Google's homepage. True, she's from the marketing department.”
He then clearly stated the problem: “In no sane country would Susan Wojcicki be in charge of determining what constitutes problematic medical disinformation; and certainly, in no sane country would she be allowed to silence physicians who are treating the virus. But because of the way our system is structured, Wojcicki is certainly allowed to do that, and so she is.”
Silencing doctors, giving the mic to self-proclaimed experts
Carlson went on to mention how YouTube censored a Republican U.S. lawmaker for giving his medical input about COVID restrictions regarding masks.
“This week, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky – who, by the way, is an actual doctor, not just some guy who rented his garage to Larry Page in the ‘90s – tried to make an obvious point, and it's this: The masks that you buy at the airport in order to comply with federal law will not keep you from getting COVID,” Carlson recalled.
“Rand Paul was not just guessing about this, the science is very clear, no honest person will deny that, but Susan Wojcicki doesn't think you should know that because that'll make you harder to control.”
Part of Paul’s video Wojcicki pulled from YouTube included his statement:
“Most of the masks you get over the counter don't work, they don't prevent infection,” Paul said in the video. “Saying cloth masks work when they don't actually risks lives, as someone may choose to care for a loved one with COVID while only wearing a cloth mask.”
The senator called out YouTube for being the information Gestapo. "A badge of honor," Paul tweeted on Tuesday. "Left-wing cretins at Youtube banning me for 7 days for a video that quotes 2 peer reviewed articles saying cloth masks don't work."(See earlier article)
Paul’s statement aligns with what White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci emailed last year:
"The typical mask you buy in the drugstore is not really effective in keeping out the virus, which is small enough to pass through material," Fauci wrote.
Paul’s assessment also doesn’t fall too far from what President Joe Biden’s former COVID adviser, Dr. Michael Osterholm, said last week.
“We know today that many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out,” Osterholm stated. “Either you're breathing out or you're breathing in, and in fact, if you're in the upper Midwest right now, anybody who's wearing their face cloth covering can tell you they can smell all the smoke that we're still getting.”
After YouTube removed Paul’s recent Newsmax interview, the senator ripped the video website while telling reporters about how it suspended him for a week.
"They are now banning all my speech, including speech that is given on the Senate floor, which is protected constitutionally," Paul asserted, according to The Washington Examiner. "YouTube now thinks they are smart enough and godly enough that they can oversee speech, even constitutionally protected speech."
Carlson argued that YouTube and other social media giants – such as Facebook and Twitter – getting away with censoring information just because it comes from conservatives is nothing short of a crime.
“The point is there was nothing kooky or inaccurate about Rand Paul's video on masks – it was true – people who know what they're talking about agree with it, including the people in charge of our COVID response, but it was censored anyway, and the fact that YouTube did censor it anyway is a scandal,” Carlson contended. “It's one of many such scandals playing out in our country right now.”
Where’s the media?
Carlson indicated that the mainstream media today is more about controlling minds then disseminating information.
“Now, you'd think the media might be on this story – you'd imagine that people who make their living on the First Amendment would defend it and lead the charge against censorship, but no, just the opposite in this bewildering time,” the Fox host impressed.
“Those people encourage censorship – they're out there in public begging the tech companies to suppress news and information to make certain the public never sees it. Doing that makes them feel powerful and protects their monopoly. So now, they're attacking Rand Paul.”
And he suggested why most of the media on the Left stands aside in silence and watches Big Tech censorship.
“For years now, we have been waiting for the big legacy media outlets – NBC News, CNN, The New York Times – to wake up and recall that they must oppose censorship … it's their duty … it's why they exist,” Carlson noted. “So, as much as we criticize them, we've assumed at some point they'll recall that, but no – that's not going to happen. Let's be honest – they're not going to oppose censorship … they benefit from it.”
