Nina Jankowicz, who helmed the Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last year, has decided to crowdfund a suit against Fox News for allegedly spreading “malicious, reckless lies” about her.
According to the Biden administration, the Board was created to combat false narratives around domestic terrorism and human trafficking along the border, but it was viewed by many to have a much broader brief to monitor and possibly curtail disfavored political speech. According to Jankowicz, Fox News is at least partially responsible for this perception and cut short her lifelong dream of serving the public.
“After my position was announced, baseless claims that the board was an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’ and I was ‘President Biden’s chief’ censor spread,” explained Jankowicz in a five-minute video appeal for funds replete with dramatic music.
“Fox News launched overly personalized, false, and incendiary coverage of me, mainstreaming online conspiracy theories to tens of million of Americans,” she added.
Fox News lied about me hundreds of times to tens of millions of people. Help me hold them accountable for the harm they do.https://t.co/m7O8m50OPmhttps://t.co/4K7RgedI90
— Nina Jankowicz (@wiczipedia) March 2, 2023
Jankowicz had been working as a disinformation fellow for the Wilson Center until she began at DHS in March 2022. She was criticized heavily by many on the right for her record and online behavior.
She would tender her resignation a couple months later.
At that point in May, DHS had decided to pause the Board’s activities and was considering shutting the Board down altogether. The Department followed through in August, terminating its charter.
“The Department will continue to address threat streams that undermine the security of our country consistent with the law, while upholding the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of the American people and promoting transparency in our work,” read a DHS statement.
In the video, Jankowicz narrated examples of damage she says Fox has done to her.
“They lied and completely manufactured my past statements. They called me a liar. They called me crazy,” explained Jankowicz. “And they told their audience I was evil.”
Jankowicz claimed she had received hundreds of violent threats and she had experienced thousands of instances of online harassment.
“Fox News irrevocably changed my life…I’ve lost something irreplaceable: peace with my son during his first year in the world,” she explained.
Jankowicz claimed Fox continued to mention her in its coverage after she resigned, saying it did so on most weeks for the remainder of 2022.
“Fox can’t keep getting away with targeting Americans for their hateful rhetoric and lies. Trying to silence professionals doing their jobs is not journalism. It’s vigilantism. And that’s ruining lives. So please donate what you can,” Jankowicz concluded.
She is requesting $100,000. The funds are not only for the defamation suit, but also for legal costs she claims are associated with Fox’s behavior.
Jankowicz said she retained a lawyer in connection with an expected subpoena from Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), chair of the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Federal Government. She claimed Jordan has lied about her and her body of work.
She also said she had to hire an attorney to file a protective order against one of her harassers, and a separate counsel to defend her against what she calls “frivolous, nonsensical” lawsuits.
Jankowicz concluded by assuring donors that she “will not waste, divert, or profit from your donations.”