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About that deaf signer at the press briefing - Speedy - 01-29-2021
Biden’s sign language interpreter has translated far-right misinformation
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/28/biden-asl-interpreter-heather-mewshaw/
A gesture meant to bolster President Biden’s call for unity and inclusion instead inspired divisiveness, after news emerged that a White House American Sign Language interpreter was a Trump supporter who previously interpreted videos rife with misinformation.
Heather Mewshaw, who appeared in the White House coronavirus briefing on Monday beside press secretary Jen Psaki, was identified by deaf and hard-of-hearing advocates and Time Magazine, fueling questions about the White House’s vetting process and what could have happened if Mewshaw misinterpreted Biden officials or inserted her own bias. No one has publicly disputed her interpretation, but many questioned why the White House would legitimize her by giving Mewshaw the national platform. A right-wing group she produced videos for acknowledged it was Mewshaw.
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Soon after Psaki’s announcement, Mewshaw was identified online. The Time article tied Mewshaw to Hands of Liberty, a right-wing interpreters group formerly known as Right Side ASL, pointing to posts that suggested Mewshaw led the group.
Mewshaw appears in Hands of Liberty videos that convey false information and conspiracy theories, including a speech by Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani and other right-wing figures. In one video Mewshaw interprets, an OAN commentator baselessly saying the 2020 presidential election was a “military-grade sting operation.”
Re: About that deaf signer at the press briefing - deckeda - 01-29-2021
Perfect. Let her former employers and readers now see her providing legit content. I hope they have the balls to keep her.
Same reason why Biden shoulda found a way to get a Republican under his wing, to turn their message around by dint of positioning and job description.
Re: About that deaf signer at the press briefing - Dennis S - 01-29-2021
Woody Allen asked wha if Kruschev wanted peace and the interpreter wanted war.
Re: About that deaf signer at the press briefing - mrbigstuff - 01-29-2021
deckeda wrote:
Perfect. Let her former employers and readers now see her providing legit content. I hope they have the balls to keep her.
Same reason why Biden shoulda found a way to get a Republican under his wing, to turn their message around by dint of positioning and job description.
Agree
Re: About that deaf signer at the press briefing - Blankity Blank - 01-29-2021
Reading the story from Time, it appears this interpreter is not the White House interpreter, but an interpreter from a pool of interpreters of some kind.
Notice the language used in introducing her,
”But it turns out the first ASL interpreter chosen was not such a change from the previous Administration after all. Heather Mewshaw, who Psaki introduced on Monday as “today’s interpreter, Heather,” also appears to manage a group of ASL interpreters who provide sign language accompaniments to right-wing videos. Some of these videos have featured vaccine misinformation, conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, and false claims about Michelle Obama being transgender, according to a review of social media posts by TIME.”
The information in the Time article also makes it clear that her willingness to propagate widely known to be false information and information known to be deleterious to public health and safety, make her an inappropriate choice to act as a reliable conveyer of information from the administration to the public.
Re: About that deaf signer at the press briefing - cbelt3 - 01-29-2021
Blankity Blank wrote:
The information in the Time article also makes it clear that her willingness to propagate widely known to be false information and information known to be deleterious to public health and safety, make her an inappropriate choice to act as a reliable conveyer of information from the administration to the public.
FFS. She is an interpreter. Her job is to interpret whatever nonsense is being spouted without interference. The fact that she stood there and did her job despite the dumpster fire of nonsense spewing from Trump's mouth is an enormous credit to her professionalism.
Re: About that deaf signer at the press briefing - Acer - 01-29-2021
If there's even the slightest whiff that this interpreter is altering any message, no matter what the politics of the speaker are, she is out of a job everywhere. I trust the ASL community to keep her honest.
Re: About that deaf signer at the press briefing - Don C - 01-29-2021
Agreed that once she has the job she just interprets what is being said, whatever that is. I would question whether it is morally just to take a job that requires interpreting outright lies and promoting insurrection.
That said, I don't know how much leeway she has in accepting or rejecting specific jobs.
Re: About that deaf signer at the press briefing - DeusxMac - 01-29-2021
Don C wrote:
Agreed that once she has the job she just interprets what is being said, whatever that is. I would question whether it is morally just to take a job that requires interpreting outright lies and promoting insurrection.
That said, I don't know how much leeway she has in accepting or rejecting specific jobs.
Like Axis Sally, Tokyo Rose, Hanoi Hannah? :devil:
Re: About that deaf signer at the press briefing - deckeda - 01-29-2021
DeusxMac wrote:
[quote=Don C]
Agreed that once she has the job she just interprets what is being said, whatever that is. I would question whether it is morally just to take a job that requires interpreting outright lies and promoting insurrection.
That said, I don't know how much leeway she has in accepting or rejecting specific jobs.
Like Axis Sally, Tokyo Rose, Hanoi Hannah? :devil:
If no one knew what those 3 said, then sure. But it would have been very tough to hold a radio job while being mute. Ooh, I know! Heather could flash double-secret gang-like signs that *only* conservatives would pick up on! And then QAnon would fall in love with Biden.