I was contacted on Friday morning by a Guardian journalist called Aisha Down who was planning to run a story saying the Free Speech Union was about to receive a grant of $5 million from the US State Department. I replied, explaining that while FSU International had expressed interest in applying for a grant from the State Department, it hadn’t yet submitted a formal application so the story couldn’t be true. I also pushed back against her characterisation of the FSU as “a rallying point for ‘anti-woke’ grievance” which “frequently allies itself with rightwing causes”, pointing out that it had defended people on the Left as well as the Right.
I was therefore a little shocked when the Guardian published a story later that day with the following headline: ‘Trump administration to grant $12m to groups founded by UK conservatives Jacob Rees-Mogg and Toby Young.’ The journalist had also ignored everything else I’d said in my email, save for changing the recipient of the grant from the FSU to FSU International. This was in spite of saying in the email to me: “We would like to fully and fairly reflect your point of view…”
But don’t take my word for it. Read the exchange of emails between the journalist and me and then read the Guardian story and judge for yourselves.
Here is the email from the journalist:
Dear Toby Young,
I’m Aisha Down, a journalist at the Guardian. I’m getting in touch because we’re planning to report that the US state department is considering a grant of $5m to Free Speech Union, your organisation, as part of a new grant-making scheme, and wanted to give you the chance to comment. We would appreciate receiving your comment by 14:30.
We are considering reporting the following:
– The grant to the FSU is part of a package to Maga aligned groups that former US officials have condemned as a misuse of public money to seek influence over foreign politics and interfere with democracy.
– It is rare for the US government to fund partisan political organisations in western countries.
– These grants are likely to pose a challenge to Andy Burnham, who has said he will be “very upfront” with Trump about any disagreements.
– These grants – including to your organisation – are “sole source” grants, meaning they are to be awarded without any competitive process. This is unusual for a highly regulated process which usually requires grantees to show they have a track record for handling funds and clear plans for the money.
– This lack of process has been criticised as “outrageous and absurd” by former US officials, and as “gross incompetence” and “horrible stewardship” of US taxpayer money.
– Your organisation does not appear to have a track record of handling grants of this amount.
– We describe your organisation as “a rallying point for “anti-woke” grievance” which “frequently allies itself with rightwing causes” and say that you, Toby Young, appeared on Rees-Mogg’s GB news show earlier this month to warn about ‘Soviet-style’ censorship in the UK.
– The state department says that its grant to FSU will “support campaigns promoting free speech and countering digital overregulation across the UK, Europe and Australia”. The sole-source award is justified “due to FSU’s global network of free speech activists”.
We would like to fully and fairly reflect your point of view and look forward to your statement. Thank you,
Aisha Kehoe Down
Senior Tarbell Fellow,
Guardian News and Media
This was my reply:
It sounds like a pretty garbled story.
Free Speech Union International, which is the umbrella group that FSU UK, FSU Australia, FSU New Zealand, FSU Canada, FSU South Africa and FSU Brazil sit within, has expressed interest in applying for grant funding from the US State Department. This would be to promote the right to freedom of expression in those countries, which, far from being a partisan cause, is a universal human right. But it hasn’t submitted a formal application and, consequently, has been awarded no grant from the State Department or any other branch of the US Government.
You’ve mischaracterised the FSUs, all of which are non-partisan organisations that defend people who get into trouble for exercising their right to feee speech regardless of their political views. The FSU UK, for instance, is currently paying for the legal defence of a protestor who’s being prosecuted for holding up a sign saying “I support Palestine Action”, as well as a protestor for wearing a t-shirt at a Unite the Kingdom rally for saying “Fuck Islam Christ is King”. Yes, we helped Lucy Connolly appeal her sentence — we thought a prison sentence of over two-and-a-half years for a single tweet was excessive — but we also tweeted yesterday, condemning the arrest of Heather Herbert and offering our support. Yes, we came to the defence of Nigel Farage when he was debanked, but we’ve also offered to help the Canary in its recent debanking case. So to describe the FSU UK as a “rallying point for anti-woke grievance” is misleading. We are a rallying point for those who want to defend the right to freedom of expression.
Best,
Toby
Now read the Guardian story.
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I like the way they’ve managed to get pictures of both men snarling. I’m sure The Guardian could’ve got more flattering pictures on request.
So much for #BeKind
Seems to me they are trying to make something out of a big fat nothingburger i.e. stirring the sh1t where there is none.
Court case coming up? Now that would serve them right.
Typical that they sought a comment from Toby, then ignored it. I bet the writer imagined she would get no reply in the time frame and went ahead with the previously written article. Probably couldn’t bring herself to read something from someone as ‘far right’ as Toby anyway.
I cannot understand why anyone still after six years of misinformation, anyone still reads, listens to,or watches MSM?
“I’m Aisha Down, a journalist at the Guardian.”
There’s the first lie, in the first sentence. She may be employed as a journalist, but she isn’t really one: she’s a propagandist.
It’s a hacknied phrase but “never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
“…her characterisation of the FSU as “a rallying point for ‘anti-woke’ grievance” (correct) which “frequently allies itself with rightwing causes”, No, with causes that are right, or to put it another way – causes that are just.
The Guardian never reported anything about the myriad scandals surrounding USAID and its “Troubling Ties to the Left’s Dark Money Network” (please look it up), perhaps because they have been one of its beneficiaries, until Trump stopped the pipeline, hence Aisha’s vindictiveness.
And, how about this data?
Aisha Pipe Down.
The journalist’s title gave me enough interest to find out what a Tarbell Fellow is:-
Aisha Kehoe Down is an investigative journalist based in London, covering artificial intelligence for The Guardian. Prior to Tarbell, she spent six years at OCCRP reporting on financial crime in the Middle East and Sahel. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, NPR and other outlets. Her investigation into a multi-billion-dollar money laundering scheme at the Central Bank of Iraq won a 2024 SABEW award for international reporting. She began her career at The Cambodia Daily, Cambodia’s award-winning national paper. She holds a degree in Physics and English from Harvard University
Why her fellowship in AI is the basis for a spurious hit piece on the FSU, I am unsure. Perhaps, without knowing it, we’re all bots in a computer game rather than real human beings and that is why she is interested rather than us being supportive of free speech of whatever shade. No doubt, unlike us, she would struggle with our core belief, that we profoundly disagree with what you have said but will defend your right to say it.
It never ceases to amaze me how these constructs can produce thousands of words of earnest prose without ever actually saying anything. This is then used to give an air of distinguished respectability to support a desired outcome. We are not fooled here and that must be a significant source of irritation to them.
So not an English or British person then.
Apparently good enough to be in the England football team.
The Tarbell Fellowship is funded by Coefficient Giving et al and is worth investigating. AI is a main focus. Opaque is my inference, which indicates the usual subversive activity we have come to expect. The Guardian piece is misinformed and ignorant and reads as if it has been written by a bot, whoever has put their name to it. It seems libelous.
Campaigns have intensified over recent weeks by the Guardian, Times of London and others together with characteristic slurs from the old Westminster Parties against FSU, Reform UK and individuals who dare to disagree with the political class. It seems certain that State organisations (possibly the NCA) released innocent information to the press referring to various Reform people and which the left have used to mislead readers.
I have little doubt there is coordination between them all, including Labour and Tory parties while LibDems will be told the line to follow. I wonder how deeply involved is the “nudge unit”.
All will be revealed if we elect a Reform government.
Well, with a Hope Not Hate functionary as the new policy adviser to the PM, one would expect some of his wisdom and expertise to inform the Behavioural Insights Team. Though it’s scarcely necessary when even the Daily T uses HNH in their investigative journalism.
Yes, the purchase by the German mob means that the DT is probably getting its last subscription from me.
The DT has become a largely fiction publication with regard to a number of issues, such as foreign wars and climate. I subscribe only because I enjoy providing a constant contrary opinion in those echo particular chambers, although I am seeing increasing support for what I say.
I might continue if they repeat the very low subscription offer when I called them to complain about the standard rate, but the place is being polluted by so many Grauniadista types that I sometimes wonder why I should bother.
Pretty standard awful stuff from the Guardian.
But then again, if you read the Guardian to be informed you’re already an idiot and probably lost in a fantasy world with little chance of being rescued.
Typical of the grauniad, but I suspect you weren’t that surprised. An honourable publication would print the exchange of e-mails. Unfortunately, the word does not exist in their vocabulary.
In some ways it must be a badge of honour to be slandered by the Guardian.
Hear, hear!
An awful lot of badges need to be handed out then.
The Graun being its usual repulsive self.
It is surely an encouraging sign that the Guardian has stooped to publishing falsehoods about the FSU. Possibly, just possibly, the UK is reaching peak censorship?
I’m sure they will be publishing a full and prominent apology
The last time I looked they were ‘proud’ of their ‘independent’ journalism that didn’t have any political donors (or some such twaddle). Interestingly, they fail to mention the $13 million ‘donation’ from the Gates fund. We’ll see an apology about the same time that my idiot brother understands that a models output is based on its input and the bias programmed into the modeling i.e. when hell freezes over.
And this seems to be the problem. Young miss Kehoe Down would appear to be under the impression that, even after receiving Toby’s reply stating that her information is a load of lies, she can still publish the story with no repercussions. And weirdly, she’s probably right.
As is always the way with these people, they’ll ask the question if they really, really have to, but have no intention of listening to the answer.
If Toby doesn’t sue the backside off them, then she will be vindicated and will continue (along with the rest of ‘em) to write whatever happens be “her truth”. Which is normally bollocks.
Oh, but the Grauniad is “ balanced “ according to my rabid Lefty sister. Yes, of course it is. It has a pack of lies on both shoulders.
Toby, why can you not sue these people for libel? If additional funds were needed I’m sure they’d be countless people who would happily donate to see this disgusting rag of Marxist filth taken down a peg or two.
I’m pretty sure he could do so. I hope he does.