Josh Stein’s hypocrisy on misinformation

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein went to federal court to overturn a state law that criminalizes political misinformation.

Why? Prosecutors were using that law to investigate Stein himself.

In some catastrophizing corners of the left, that behavior would be called an attack on democracy. Callous self-preservation seems a more appropriate description, but the incongruence between Stein’s maneuvering and Democratic rhetoric on misinformation is striking. And it reinforces a long-simmering suspicion that the ruling class decrees one set of standards, then changes them when they become inconvenient.

State law makes it a misdemeanor to publish claims designed to impact the results of an election “knowing such report to be false or in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity.”

Considering the rhetoric from left-leaning groups and politicians — including Stein — on the danger of political misinformation, one would think North Carolina’s law would be cause for celebration.

After all, Democrats in Congress held a hearing just last month titled, “A Growing Threat: How Disinformation Damages American Democracy.” Stein said after the 2020 election that “we all have work to do to nurse our democracy back to health” because of “disinformation.” The N.C. Democratic Party said politicians spreading misinformation is “a threat to our country and democracy.”

But in 2020, Stein, a Democrat, ran an ad claiming his Republican opponent, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill, “left 1,500 rape kits sitting on a shelf.” Prosecutors don’t test rape kits, O’Neill countered in a complaint to the State Board of Elections, so Stein’s accusation couldn’t possibly be true.

As investigators closed in on Stein this month over his political misinformation, he sought emergency action from a federal judge to rule North Carolina’s anti-misinformation statute unconstitutional. The SBOE argued that Stein “ask(s) this Court to declare an unabridged, First Amendment right for anyone to lie about candidates for office.”

But the law “punish(es) core protected political speech,” Stein claimed, “in clear violation of the First Amendment.”

Minutes before prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles granted Stein’s wish by finding the anti-misinformation law unconstitutional, halting the criminal proceedings.

Either Stein believes misinformation is a mortal threat to American democracy or he doesn’t. Which is it?

To a casual observer, this fact pattern only confirms a long-simmering undercurrent in American politics: The party in power ignores long-held standards the moment they become inconvenient.

Gathering in large groups during a pandemic is a danger to your fellow man — until you’re protesting the police, then it’s a public health necessity.

Hunter Biden’s emails were “Russian disinformation” — until the 2020 election passed, now they’re “authenticated.”

Spreading lies to sway an election endangers our republic — until the N.C. Attorney General is under investigation, then it’s protected by the First Amendment.

And on and on.

I think back to an excellent series from the New York Times Opinion section last week in which eight columnists analyzed their own misjudgments. One, Bret Stephens, wrote he was wrong in 2015 to allege, “If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling.”

In last week’s mea culpa, Stephens wrote, “What Trump’s supporters saw was a candidate whose entire being was a proudly raised middle finger at a self-satisfied elite that had produced a failing status quo… In my dripping condescension toward his supporters, I was also confirming their suspicions about people like me — people who talked a good game about the virtues of empathy but practice it only selectively.”

Hypocrisy corrodes trust. It slowly rusts institutional foundations until, eventually, they break. There’s short-term gain to be had by operating in this way, but the long-term consequences are severe — and certain.

Contributing columnist Pat Ryan is a former spokesperson for Republican N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger.