Shock: Another misleading Drudge headline

If you head over to the Drudge Report today, you might be left with the false impression that the government is blocking you from accessing websites that espouse “controversial opinions.”

Why? Because once again, Drudge is blaring a big, misleading headline at the top of his site -- this time with the help of CBSNews.com.

Drudge is hyping the headline, “BIG SIS BLOCKS WEBSITES WITH 'CONTROVERSIAL OPINIONS' ” -- clearly suggesting that the Department of Homeland Security is blocking your access to certain websites:

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Drudge is linking to a CBSNews.com article, which has the equally misleading headline, “TSA to Block 'Controversial Opinion' on the Web”:

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Both of these headlines give the false impression that the government is now restricting access to these sites for everyone -- which is obviously not true. As the CBSNews.com article clearly states, according to an email TSA sent to its employees, “TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed 'inappropriate for government access.' ” According to the article, these categories are:

  • Chat/Messaging
  • Controversial opinion
  • Criminal activity
  • Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content
  • Gaming

CBSNews.com further noted: “There is also no explanation as to why controversial opinions are being blocked, although the email stated that some of the restricted websites violate the Employee Responsibilities and Conduct policy.”

So, yes, TSA is blocking its employees from browsing sites that might violate its conduct policies. But head over to Drudge -- thanks to CBSNews.com -- and this is spun to suggest that the government is now censoring all “controversial opinions” on the Web.