The Biden administration has approved a $5.7 million grant to George Washington University to create a program to provide psychological care to journalists who believe they are the targets of “misinformation-driven harassment campaigns.”
the program, he called Expert Voices Together, is described in the government grant database as “a socio-technical system that provides real-time support for experts experiencing online harassment”. The aim of the project is to provide journalists, and eventually other “experts”, with means of “surveillance and reporting” of alleged abuses, as well as “personalized assistance with digital security” and access to “mental health specialists” as a way of “trauma informed care”.
First the National Science Foundation (NSF). assigned $749,222 in funding to George Washington University in 2021 and approved the project to continue in 2022, approving an additional $5 million in taxpayer funds. Work associated with the grant is ongoing, with funding projected will end in August 2024. (RELATED: Meet All the Journalists Who Tried to Downplay Antifa Assault on Andy Ngo)
The NSF characterizes offering journalists mental health counseling as part of an effort to address the “rapid spread of misinformation” because “harassment undermines trust in fundamental sources of knowledge and reduces the participation of experts in the information ecosystem”. The grant is part of a larger NSF initiative to strengthen “trust and authenticity in communications systems.”
Project grant 2021 abstract mentions “changing the actions of bystanders to abuse and harassment” as a possible way to combat harassment. Similar language is not present in more recent grant materials.
The Poynter Institute also helped administer a pilot program for the platform. Poynter offered newsrooms “that have already identified the safety and well-being of their staff as a key priority” $5,000 to test the service.
Some liberal journalists have engaged in high-profile public outbursts over the alleged harassment they suffer on social media. For example, Taylor Lorenz, a tech reporter for the Washington Post, is infamous she burst into tears during an interview on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press,” saying the online harassment she experienced was “horrific.”
“You feel like any little bit of information that gets out is going to be used by the worst people on the internet to destroy your life and it’s so isolating,” Lorenz said.
A few weeks later, Lorenz doxxed Chaya Raichik, the previously anonymous operator of TikTok’s viral Twitter account Libs, which led to Raichik receiving death threats. Lorenz continued tease Raichik for tweeting about the threats.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to the principal investigator on the project associated with the grant funding and the Poynter Institute for comment. The NSF declined to comment.
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