Biden DHS Gave Counter-Terrorism Grant to Organization Promoting Leftwing Narratives and Targeting Conservatives

Department of Homeland Security sign at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Washington on June 28, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration awarded a $700,000 grant through a counterterrorism program to an organization that frequently promoted left-wing political narratives.

In May 2021, the University of Rhode Island’s Media Education Lab (Rhode Island Lab) applied for federal funding through the DHS’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) grant program. The Rhode Island Lab’s grant application described a plan to host events promoting “media literacy” and education about “disinformation.” The proposal also described a goal to develop and employ crowdsourced “counterpropaganda.”

The DHS approved the grant proposal in May 2022, with funding for the Rhode Island Lab’s grant projected to run through to September 2024.

The DHS grant first came under scrutiny following public records requests submitted by the Media Research Center (MRC), a media watchdog organization with the stated goal of “countering left-wing bias in news media and popular culture.”

Grant Recipient Promotes Left-Wing Views

Among the documents highlighted by MRC were materials the Rhode Island Lab prepared for a May 2023 event dubbed “Feelings and Facts.” One particular document shared for the event was a “conspiracy chart“ that posits a hierarchy of views that are allegedly increasingly detached from reality.

Among the views presented as the most “detached from reality” and existing across the alleged “antisemitic point of no return” are references to the “deep state,” “trans agenda,” and “George Soros.” These references are placed alongside “Holocaust Denial” as among the worst conspiracy theories.

The “deep state” is a term often used by libertarian and conservative commentators to describe current and former unelected government bureaucrats and their political allies who routinely and systematically conspire to subvert the execution of public law and defy the will and direction of democratically elected government officials.

“Trans agenda” is a term that is used to describe the promotion of the idea that society should embrace a person’s gender identity over a person’s biological sex, and that gender identify should be affirmed verbally and through medical interventions, such as hormone treatments and surgery.

Mr. Soros is a Hungarian-born billionaire investor and philanthropist who has donated millions to left-leaning political causes and political candidates. While Mr. Soros is a real person, the citation provided by the “Conspiracy Chart” asserts a defense often employed by Mr. Soros’s supporters, that conservative and right-wing criticism of the billionaire is guided primarily by antisemitism over his Jewish ancestry, and not necessarily because he frequently donates to political figures and causes they oppose on a policy level.

‘Counterpropaganda’

In its 2021 federal grant proposal, the Rhode Island lab states that the use of propaganda is not necessarily bad.

“There’s no doubt that propaganda is effective as a form of warfare, which is why terrorism has long been called ’the propaganda of the deed.' But propaganda can also be used for socially beneficial purposes,” the proposal states. “Indeed, because the public has long been recognized as being suggestible, the United States has long made use of beneficial propaganda during WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. Counterpropaganda has been found to be most effective when it is nonmilitary, focused and authentic, and based on the truth. There are numerous examples of how intentionally designed media messages can be used to shift public opinion and behavior on drinking and driving, smoking and health, voting, and many other topics.”

In it’s proposal, the Rhode Island Lab described plans to fund contests for high school and college students, offering cash prizes for submitting creative work for a statewide public service campaign “designed to raise public awareness of the harms of violent extremism and the importance of applying digital media literacy competencies in responding to false narratives, conspiracy theories, propaganda, and disinformation.”

MRC alleges federal grant funding given to the Rhode Island Lab also covered costs for paying writers to create blog posts for the lab’s website, called Courageous RI. The Courageous RI about page describes the project as one funded through the federal TVTP grant and advertises opportunities for bloggers to a $250 stipend for blog posts submitted by writers.

The Courageous RI website includes a page full of blog posts, with a link for bloggers to apply. The blog page includes a variety of posts promoting “media literacy” efforts, but mixed in are examples of more overt political commentary, including a post by guest writer Taylor Frome that directly criticizes former President Trump and other Republican and conservative figures by name.

In another blog post by Ms. Frome about the criminal conviction of Oath Keepers found Stewart Rhodes suggests a connection between Open Carry and Stand Your Ground gun laws and the breach at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, despite the fact that Mr. Rhodes was not convicted of any charge involving carrying or using a firearm inside the Capitol. In the same post, Ms. Frome states that while many states believe carrying firearms at a protest is protected under First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, “Rhode Island is a happy exception” to that view. She also asserts that the Second Amendment “doesn’t actually protect private militia’s rights to bear arms–in fact it doesn’t even protect the existence of private militias.”

Yet another blog post by Ms. Frome promotes gun control measures employed by other countries as a model for how the United States should act. Ms. Frome states, “I’m not saying this will be easy–currently any talk of reducing gun violence triggers the response ‘our rights are under attack like never before,’ according to the [National Rifle Association].”

The submission guidelines for these blog posts describes the posts Courageous RI is soliciting as being “opinion-based” and “conversationally written,” and reiterates that writers could receive a $250 stipend when their proposed blog submission is published.

It’s not clear whether the federal funds provided to the Rhode Island Lab through its TVTP grant covered the cost of these blog posts. NTD News reached out to the Rhode Island Lab with several questions about its federally-funded program, including whether the funds were used to compensate the blog writers, but did not receive a response by press time.

NTD News also reached out to the DHS with questions about the grant award for the Rhode Island Lab but also did not receive a response by press time.

From NTD News