Journalists are among the most powerful enforcers of the regime’s narrative.

They see themselves as the tribunes who police the thoughts of others, and in the Left-wing world, they are essentially correct. Only Democrat politicians and alphabet activists are more powerful keepers of the narrative, as they get to set the agenda that the journalist secret policemen enforce.

A great example popped up in my newsfeed today, via Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration.

And to top it off, @AlexBerenson was right that the vax didn't stop transmission.

— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) May 2, 2023

The story goes like this. A Philadelphia Inquirer reporter decided to go through the Twitter “likes” of Mark Tykocinski, the president of Thomas Jefferson University and dean of its medical college.

In her role as keeper of the truth she discovered that this medical doctor disagreed with her understanding of The Truth™ about COVID, or at least she assumed so since he “liked” Tweets that questioned some of the accepted COVID narrative and, even worse, suggested that he wasn’t on board with mutilating children.

This must be exposed! So she wrote a story about the controversy she herself started.

Mark Tykocinski, the president of Thomas Jefferson University and dean of its medical college, has used his Twitter account to “like” tweets that question the science of COVID-19 vaccines, call gender reassignment surgery “child mutilation,” and are critical of diversity offices on college campuses, among other controversial topics.

“Two years after their introduction, the mRNAs Covid vaccines have proven to be what we all should have expected,” said a Dec. 11 tweet by Alex Berenson, once called “the pandemic’s wrongest man” by the Atlantic. “Another in a long line of overhyped, rushed, profit-driven Big Pharma flops with weak long-term efficacy and a lousy side effect profile. …”

That was one of nearly 30 Berenson tweets in the last year that Tykocinski, 70, a Yale-educated molecular immunologist and academic leader who was elevated from provost to president July 1, “liked,” using his account, which identifies him as president of Jefferson and dean of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College.

Referring to a case that’s become a cause célèbre for attacks on gender reassignment surgery for children, Tykocinski liked this tweet by Donald Trump Jr. that said: “Doctors lied and coerced a 13-year-old into an irreversible ‘gender affirming medical procedure.’ Now she is fighting back and suing them. Donate here to support the lawsuit and help stop child mutilation.”

Obviously, a woodpile must be built, a stake placed in the center, and a pyre be lit to fry the offending University President and medical school Dean.

It hasn’t gone quite that far–yet. But the school has gone into high gear on damage control, with an abject apology from the president and more than a bit of groveling to placate a mob determined to cancel the doctor.

HOLY MOLY.

The president of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia may be about to lose his job. Dr. Mark Tykocinski is a 70-year-old immunologist with an spotless academic record.

His crime appears to be liking my tweets.

Academic freedom is dead.https://t.co/nDEu339Txk

— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) May 1, 2023

Notice, first, that the mob is a bunch of non-medical professionals attacking the man who actually practices and teaches medicine. These keepers of The Science™ are needed to ensure that the “scientific consensus” exists by systematically eliminating every dissenter.

Even a whiff of skepticism is unacceptable because what makes their claims unassailable is the illusion that all the Best People™ agree with their ridiculous claims. You saw this tactic work in climate science, and it has been deployed in both COVID and gender issues.

If you silence dissent, everybody “agrees.”

As you might expect, plenty of groveling ensued, in a likely unsuccessful attempt to placate the Mongol Hoards of Scientists™ defending the Narrative.

In response to Inquirer questions raising the criticism, Tykocinski, who has worked at Jefferson for 16 years, said in a statement that he “liked” tweets to bookmark them, “to learn more about the subject matter or the particular viewpoint.

“As a scientist, educator and administrator, I firmly believe that productive discourse is a foundational element of science, growth and education,” he wrote. “What I did not understand was that by liking a tweet, it could be interpreted as endorsement of the thought expressed or the person expressing it. … I certainly had no intention of endorsing the content of individual tweets or the person tweeting.

“I regret my lack of understanding of how ‘liking’ a tweet is an implied endorsement. I also regret how my lack of understanding of the Twitter platform caused some to question my views on these complex issues.”

The president, with only 108 followers on his year-old account that he created and maintains — “President, @jeffersonuniv and Dean of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Husband, dad, grandfather to 10 and cyclist” — uses it largely to support Jefferson sports teams, research, and employee and student honors.

He’s not a prolific tweeter: He’s tweeted 85 times total; in April, his five tweets were all retweets. The last time he wrote his own tweet was March 17, a congratulatory message to medical students. But he regularly likes tweets: 539 since he started his account, including one about students on Match Day, a photo of a rainbow, and a Thomas Jefferson commercial. A few of the hundreds of tweets he liked could be classified as legitimate scientific discussion about COVID vaccines, but many, however, represent controversial stances.

A man with 108 Twitter followers is being roasted for what he reads on Twitter.

There may be some justice in this, I suppose. He IS a cyclist, after all. They generally deserve any disdain that gets heaped upon this. But in this case, the criticisms are unfair because I am assured he does stop at STOP signs.

My own suspicion is that this controversy will not blow over quickly. The desire to get a scalp is too great with the COVIDiots and alphabet people. They are out for blood, and won’t stop until they have it.

It’s incumbent on a university president and medical college dean not to spread information that contradicts prevailing science, said Paul Offit, a medical doctor, professor of pediatrics, and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

…

After reviewing Tykocinski’s “likes” history, Offit said: “It’s an anti-public health message that he puts out there.”

Other examples of Tykocinski’s “likes” include:

• On Dec. 24, he liked a tweet by Toby Young, a British commentator who created the blog Dailysceptic.org, called by MediaBias/Fact Check “a far-right biased quackery level pseudoscience website that frequently publishes false and misleading information regarding COVID-19 and science in general.” The tweet was about the vaccination of pregnant women leading to neonatal deaths, linking to an article in Dailysceptic.org. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that pregnant women get vaccinated.
• Also on Dec. 24, he liked this tweet by Berenson, the former New York Times reporter once suspended from Twitter for violating its COVID-19 misinformation rules, but was reinstated after he sued: “2021 was the year the mRNAs failed us. 2022 was the year we failed ourselves, by doubling down after we’d already lost. 2023 will be the year we find out how high a price we pay.”
• Tykocinski also repeatedly has liked dozens of tweets by Twitter CEO Elon Musk, a polarizing figure, and Michael Shellenberger, who has been critical of climate change research; he is the author of Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All.
• And from Dec. 27, he liked this tweet from Libs of Tik Tok, which has been described as a far-right, anti-LGBTQ+ Twitter account: BREAKING: Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation just announced they are investigating the “Drag Queen Christmas” all-ages drag show which took place yesterday. “Exposing children to sexually explicit activity is a crime in Florida”

Tykocinksi said Thursday when asked whether he regarded transgender surgery as child mutilation: “This is not my clinical area of expertise. In general, any issue involving children should be referred to clinical experts at children’s hospitals who offer the full complement of services necessary.” Jefferson Health provides gender-affirming care, according to its spokesperson.

So many examples of wrongthink! It is impossible for this man to survive in the current academic environment.

Clearly, the reporter for the story and many in the Mongol Hordes riding into his university are out for his blood.

Although there are many examples of employees being disciplined for tweets they authored, liking tweets that contradict an employer’s values also has been reason for termination, including in the case of a Toronto Marlies hockey coach who had allegedly liked tweets in support of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in Washington, and others that were transphobic and anti-vax.

Employees can be fired for conduct that harms a company’s reputation, wrote Lluc Cerda, an employment lawyer and partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, a Canadian law firm, in a 2021 piece for Global News.

“Factors a court will consider include whether the employee had a public-facing role, including one that dealt with clients and suppliers, or if they managed others,” the lawyer wrote. “The more senior the employee, the higher the standard of conduct that’s usually expected.”

Throughout the story are quotes from academics and activists whose “expertise” has nothing to do with medicine explaining how liking tweets with which they disagree is a threat to intellectual freedom and truth. The entire scientific enterprise is at stake for potentially believing that the vaccines didn’t deliver on their promise to prevent infection with COVID and stop the spread of the disease.

All this storm and strife over an account with 108 followers, and over not one single tweet that the president and dean actually wrote.

This is all about creating an example for others. Defy us and see what you get.

All our institutions are broken, and the press most of all.