Legal expert jokes about Jim Jordan 'Festivus' hearing: 'airing of Republican grievances'

The push to expose bias on behalf of pre-X/Twitter (before Elon Musk purchased the site) is being mocked by former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance as the government's own version of Festivus.

During Wednesday's hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government, called out some social media companies as part of a "censorship industrial complex" and has been trying to expose the "governments' efforts to censor the American people."

And he touted Musk for calling Twitter after he purchased it "both a social media company and a crime scene."

The jovial tone of Vance's argument is a throwback to a Seinfeld episode harping on it getting out that George Constanza's dad invented a kind of anti-Christmas holiday to protest the over-saturation of consumerism and inspired the other characters to become Scrooges.

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"Technically, the Committee is meeting to commemorate the one year anniversary of the 'first Twitter Files report,'" writes Vance on her "Civil Discourse" Substack.

Twitter was purchased by billionaire Elon Musk who in turn shared internal documents to selected journalists to try and prove that Twitter’s content moderation had "an overwhelmingly left-leaning bias."

But Vance goes on to showcase how the findings fell far short of proving anything revelational.

"Despite the big push, the 'Twitter Files' turned out to be less than the promised bombshell," she writes.

She continued: "All hat, no cattle. Nonetheless, right wing figures, like über-conservative activist and president of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton, continue to this day to insist that the content was shocking, leading to tomorrow’s Festivus-style proceedings."

In her statement in the hearing today, Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), ranking member of the subcommittee, delivered a severe rebuke of the hearing which invited as witnesses journalists Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Rupa Subramanya, and Olivia Troye, a former Homeland Security Advisor and Counterterrorism Advisor.

"Republicans on this committee want to entrench their theory of social media censorship," she said. "There's no evidence of this collusion. And in fact this committee has heard closed door testimony from 29 witnesses who said on the record that government, as well as social media individuals, that the alleged collusion and supposed censorship claimed by Republicans has not taken place."

"But Republicans won't release that testimony and they're not being honest with the American people."

Vance also called the hearing essentially a nothing burger and said a better use of time would be to "consider encouraging people to register to vote."

"We need elected representatives who are committed to working for us, not just showboating and trying to accumulate power for themselves," she added. "This hearing is a good reminder that our local elections, and those for members of Congress, can be just as important as picking a President."

She called the hearing an "airing of Republican grievances" aimed at the Democrats.