Alvaro Bedoya, the far-left academic that the Biden administration has nominated to be a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), previously sat on the board of an organization that called for an advertiser boycott of the Fox News Channel, condemned Breitbart News, and called Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) a “swamp dweller.”
Breitbart News has closely covered his track record of partisan, far-left positions, including his opposition to the effective enforcement of immigration laws and links to George Soros. Now, further links about Bedoya’s far-left past have emerged.
US President Joe Biden gives a thumbs-up from Air Force One prior to departing from La Crosse Regional Airport in La Crosse, Wisconsin, June 29, 2021. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) speaks during a hearing before Senate Judiciary Committee December 10, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The committee held a hearing on “Encryption and Lawful Access: Evaluating Benefits and Risks to Public Safety and Privacy.” (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
From December 2016 to December 2020, Bedoya sat on the board of directors for the organization Free Press and its associated group, Free Press in Action, far-left organizations with $2.2 million in backing from the pro-censorship leftist billionaire Pierre Omidyar.
In 2017, Free Press denounced Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) as a “swamp dweller… mouthing the most uninformed talking points.”
Free Press has smeared a number of conservatives and conservative organizations. It accused Breitbart News and other conservative media entities of spreading “misinformation” and painting “people of color, immigrants, and religious minorities” as “the enemy of the United States.”
It has accused Fox News host Tucker Carlson — the most popular cable news host in the country — of being “notoriously racist” and “part of the white supremacy problem,” calling on major advertisers to boycott Fox News. In its public petition to advertisers, it accused Fox News of spreading “hate” and “misinformation” and tied it to “hate crimes against black people.”
It has called on media organizations to “make reparations to black people,” claiming “white-dominant media companies have inflicted harms on black lives throughout U.S. history.”
Free Press attacked the Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, for signing a law banning the teaching of critical race theory in schools, calling it part of a “right-wing campaign to prevent our nation from learning about the history of systemic racism.” In 2018, Free Press held a roundtable with Khaled Beydoun, an author and critical race theorist.
In his confirmation hearing before the Senate, Bedoya insisted that he knew little about critical race theory, and distanced himself from allegations that the former administration was “white supremacist.” It now appears that not only does Bedoya know exactly what critical race theory is, but he sat on the board of directors of an organization that aggressively promoted it.
As a commissioner of the FTC, Bedoya will have extensive influence over an agency that wields enormous influence over businesses and corporations, including Silicon Valley. At a time when the Biden administration is exerting pressure on tech companies to censor more information, Bedoya has promised to make extensive use of the agencies vast powers to “police Big Tech.”
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.