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Who is Richard Stengel? MSNBC analyst joins Joe Biden administration, Internet calls it 'assault on free speech'

'Richard Stengel, who said two years ago that he has no problem with using propaganda against Americans, is working for Biden's legal agency review team for global media'

MSNBC's political commentator Richard Stengel has once again quit his job to take up the new role in the White House. Earlier, in 2013, Stengel resigned from his job as the managing editor of Time Magazine to take up the role of Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and became the 24th journalist to officially join the Obama administration. With Joe Biden winning the election, Stengel has once again bid farewell to his job, along with other three journalists, to join the Biden administration. The said three journalists are MSNBC legal expert Barbara McQuade, health expert Dr Ezekiel Emanuel and CNN's Jen Psaki.

Stengel is now on President-elect Biden’s transition team to the US Agency for Global Media, which is an agency that manages “public service media networks that provide unbiased news and information in countries where the press is restricted.” Considering Stengel’s alleged animosity towards free expression this seems quite a poor fit. History remembers the infamous 2011 Time cover piece, featuring a picture of the Constitution with the headline “Does It Still Matter?” In it, Stengel argues, "we can pat ourselves on the back about the past 223 years, but we cannot let the Constitution become an obstacle to the US’s moving into the future with a sensible health care system, a globalized economy, an evolving sense of civil and political rights. The Constitution does not protect our spirit of liberty; our spirit of liberty protects the Constitution. The Constitution serves the nation; the nation does not serve the Constitution."

In 2019 Stengel went even further, when he argued in a 2019 Washington Post op-ed that the state should begin policing speech. He wrote, "but as a government official traveling around the world championing the virtues of free speech, I came to see how our First Amendment standard is an outlier. Even the most sophisticated Arab diplomats that I dealt with did not understand why the First Amendment allows someone to burn a Koran. Why, they asked me, would you ever want to protect that?"

As soon as the news of his cutting ties with the news organization to join Biden's administration made its way to social media, people started reacting to it, as one Internet user said, "The head of Joe Biden transition’s team for the US Agency for Global Media, Richard Stengel, has branded himself the 'chief propagandist,' urged the government to use propaganda against its 'own population' and called to 'rethink' the First Amendment." Calling his appointment a "direct assault", another one wrote, "The appointment of Richard @stengel by @JoeBiden is a direct assault on #FreeSpeech. Stunning, given the current violence in Europe. A move devoid of any memory of the last few weeks by Biden, as if Biden has no short-term memory."

While another one reminded, "Richard Stengel, who said two years ago that he has no problem with using propaganda against Americans, is working for Biden's legal agency review team for global media". Another one said, "I just love how open and brazen they are about their gaslighting... but no one makes a stink about it. So carry on!"

And some supported the news and wrote, "Richard Stengel was appointed to the State Department by Obama. He is intimately familiar with important diplomacy work and his experience with Time magazine makes him one of *the* best choices to bring VOA back from the mess created by Tяump’s incompetent lackeys. Great news!!" While another one wrote, "Fascism and the war on journalism ends with Trump, of course."

Born on May 2, 1955, Stengel was Time Magazine's 16th managing editor from 2006 to 2013. He also worked as the chief executive of the National Constitution Center from 2004 to 2006, before serving under President Obama from 2014 to 2016. He has authored a number of books, including a collaboration with Nelson Mandela on Mandela's biography 'Long Walk to Freedom'. Stengel resigned from his position from MSNBC where he worked as an on-air political analyst. In 2019 he authored 'Information Wars: How we Lost the Battle Against Disinformation and What to Do About It' that recounts his time in the State Department countering Russian disinformation and ISIS propaganda.

On September 17, 2010, Stengel was awarded 'Citizen of the Year' at the Annual National Conference on Citizenship. He was also awarded with the Lifetime of Idealism Award, by City Year Washington, DC for "his commitment to promoting and expanding opportunities for Americans to serve".