AP Paints Jankowicz As Victim of a Torrent of Sexist ‘Online Abuse’

Now that Nina Jankowicz has resigned her job as “Disinformation Governance Board” boss at the Department of Homeland Security, the liberal media have competed to paint her in the most melodramatic tones as a victim of vicious sexist harassment. Amanda Seitz, an Associated Press reporter who is supposed to be a Fact Check Reporter, filed a Friday story with the headline “Disinformation board’s ex-leader faced wave of online abuse.“

Seitz began:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nina Jankowicz, like so many millennials, was excited to share a social media post announcing her new job on Twitter late last month when she was named executive director for a new disinformation board established by the Department of Homeland Security.

But instead of well-wishes, Jankowicz’s tweet set off a Social media is flooded with sexually explicit profanities and menacing email messages containing rape threats or death threats. These thoughts continue to haunt her even though she left the new job Wednesday morning after the horrible rollout.

The conservative argument in favor of Jankowicz or the DGB was irrelevant to the AP reporter. The word spread quickly through American newspapers and online that right-wingers “silencing” and “terrorizing” her for being female.

It’s a familiar scenario, not only for those who criticize Trump, but also for many other women.

In part, it’s also due to a confluence of social media, A hyperpolarized society and an epidemic of harassment, stalking, and abuse online has pushed dozens of women from high-ranking positions around the world. These attacks are uncontrolled and speedy.Another way social media can be used to create discord is by accelerating it.

“This type of Terrorizing and silencing are unsurprising and widespread, unfortunately.,” said Danielle Citron, a law professor at the University of Virginia who studies online privacy and hate crimes. “It is a playbook. And it’s downright scary.”

Citron claims that from 2014-2016, she was an advisor to Kamala Harris (California Attorney general) as part of her task force against “cyberexploitation and violence towards women”. Her NPR interviews include more than 25 and an appearance with John Oliver. Last Week Tonight.

Seitz also cited a United Nations Report to play up the Torrent of Sexual Abuse angle.

No matter their political affiliation or gender, women politicians face 10 times more hateful messages from Twitter than men. Some even suggest that they commit suicide. In its U.N. report, it concluded that online abuse makes democracies less representative.

For her part, Jankowicz said Wednesday she won’t be “silenced” by the online harassment and it was not the final provocation that led to her resignation.

It had the same effect.

Seitz, the “Fact-Check Reporter”, could not touch the conservative argument about Jankowicz being highly partisan. He claimed that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.  The smearing was not the point. 

Conservative pundits, users of Twitter and hosts on TV showed a constant campaign that was full of misleading statements and sexist attacks. against Jankowicz. Fox News journalist asked Jankowicz if she would have consented to the leadership of the board during her pregnancy. One far-right extremist called her “mentally ill” and a “nasty … Jew,” on his podcast; Jankowicz is not Jewish.

Why is it so surprising conservatives are irate at AP’s claims to be a news site that “fact-based?”