Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Censored by Facebook with "Fact Check" by NATO-funded, Pro-Ukraine Group

Not surprisingly, Facebook has slapped a “false information” warning label on a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist’s article, effectively stifling the spread of the piece and raising serious questions about the impartiality of so-called “independent fact-checkers.”

Sy Hersh’s article, titled “Trading With the Enemy,” alleges that Volodymyr Zelensky’s government has been “skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments.” However, when Facebook users attempt to post the article, they are met with a warning label stating that the piece contains “false information” and has been “checked by independent fact-checkers.”

This is especially odd, considering the Ukrainian government itself admitted this in January and multiple top-level politicians were ousted in the process. As we reported at the time, a top presidential adviser and four deputy ministers – among these two defense officials, along with five regional governors were forced out of their posts after skimming money from the pockets of US taxpayers. They were then using these dollars to buy expensive homes, luxury cars, and extravagant vacations.

But when we look a little deeper at these “independent” fact checkers, we find out that they’re actually quite dependent.

Disturbingly, the “fact-checker” in question is not an independent entity at all but a pro-Ukraine group “partly funded by Foreign Offices of two NATO countries.” The basis of their “fact check'”relies on denials from the White House and the Pentagon regarding the claims made in the article — hardly a reliable rebuttal.

Hersh’s research was likely impossible to debunk legitimately, so “sources” were cited and the label slapped. This was in spite of the piece implicating Putin as well. According to the article:

The Ukraine government, headed by Volodymyr Zelensky, has been using American taxpayers’ funds to pay dearly for the vitally needed diesel fuel that is keeping the Ukrainian army on the move in its war with Russia. It is unknown how much the Zelensky government is paying per gallon for the fuel, but the Pentagon was paying as much as $400 per gallon to transport gasoline from a port in Pakistan, via truck or parachute, into Afghanistan during the decades-long American war there.

What also is unknown is that Zelensky has been buying the fuel from Russia, the country with which it, and Washington, are at war, and the Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments. One estimate by analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency put the embezzled funds at $400 million last year, at least; another expert compared the level of corruption in Kiev as approaching that of the Afghan war, “although there will be no professional audit reports emerging from the Ukraine.”

“Zelensky’s been buying discount diesel from the Russians,” one knowledgeable American intelligence official told me. “And who’s paying for the gas and oil? We are. Putin and his oligarchs are making millions” on it.

By applying this “fact-check” label, the article’s visibility is diminished, preventing it from going viral. This situation highlights another example of how accurate information is being censored through the weaponization of the “fact-checker industrial complex.”

Far from being neutral, non-partisan actors, many fact-checking organizations are actually front groups for larger media corporations, NGOs, or governments. Alan Macleod pointed this out last August in an article for MintPress News when he found that “most of the fact-checking organizations Facebook has partnered with to monitor and regulate information about Ukraine are directly funded by the U.S. government, either through the U.S. Embassy or via the notorious National Endowment for Democracy (NED).”

The ongoing use of biased “fact-checkers” by social-media platforms to suppress information is a cause for concern, as it threatens the very foundation of independent journalism and the free flow of information. It is vital to remain vigilant and question the motives behind these so-called fact-checkers, ensuring that the public continues to have access to truthful, uncensored news.

Source: The Free Thought Project

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.

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