MRC Cheers That Right-Wing Congressmen Target NewsGuard In Defense Funding Bill

The Media Research Center’s war on NewsGuard hit a high point when its Republican buddies inserted a provision into a defense funding bill that would restrict government contracts with firms like NewsGuard. Luis Cornelio chortled in a Dec. 18 post:

The federal collusion with infamous Internet traffic cops — NewsGuard and Global Disinformation Index — is likely on the chopping block.

The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes a provision that bars the Department of Defense from contracting with radical leftist entities that discriminate against right-leaning media, and is one inch closer to becoming law after both the Senate and House passed the legislation on Dec. 13 and Dec. 14, respectively. Now awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature, the bill would mark the first victory against government-tied censorship and the blacklisting of media critical of the federal government and the far left.

First introduced by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) and later endorsed by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), the NDAA provision requires the Pentagon to ensure that the entities it uses for the placement of recruiting ads certify that they do “not place advertisements in news sources based on personal or institutional political preferences or biases, or determinations of misinformation.” The NDAA also orders the Pentagon to notify Congress if it enters a contract with NewsGuard and GDI.

While the initial version of the provision explicitly barred the Pentagon from contracting with NewsGuard and GDI, Republicans had to settle for a narrowed version of the provision due to Senate Democrat pushback.

Despite the change, the amendment marks a free speech victory, MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider said. “Speaker Johnson led the charge on securing this victory to protect our First Amendment rights,” Schneider declared. “He, Rep. McCormick and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) deserve all the credit, but this is still just a first step. We’ve got to figure out how to terminate the Biden censorship regime before it’s too late.”

Of course, policing false and misleading conduct is not “censorship,” but narratives are more important than facts at the MRC.

Cornelio touted a fellow right-winger’s attack on NewsGuard in a Dec. 20 post:

The Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway had a few words to say for the leftist Internet traffic cops over at NewsGuard and the dystopian Global Disinformation Index: Their work is “un-American.”

In a Monday interview on Fox News’s Ingraham Angle, Hemingway, who is suing the Department of State for its funding of entities plotting to destroy media that question the government, blasted both NewsGuard and GDI for seeking to hurt media organizations that are not “toeing” the Biden regime’s line. 

“I think Americans would be really horrified to know how much of their taxpayer dollars have gone into not just helping launch some of these things, but also helping market, promote, and work with them,” Hemingway told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. Earlier in the interview, Hemingway highlighted that NewsGuard has rewarded leftist media that have “peddled” the Russian collusion hoax and the Justice Brett Kavanaugh rape conspiracy theory.

It’s a lie to claim that the investigation into Donald Trump’s Russian ties was a “hoax,” given the dozens of contacts his 2016 campaign had with Russian operatives and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort giving internal polling data to another Russian operative. After more whining about how NewsGuard rates right-wing sites lower than non-right-wing ones — and refusing to admit there are reasons for this beyond the MRC’s “bias” narrative — Cornelio continued to tout Hemingway’s ranting:

Hemingway warned that ratings firms like NewsGuard affect free speech and the operations of right-leaning media. “This type of censorship affects what type of news and information people can get on every issue that matters, on every issue that affects elections,” she continued. “It can be anything from foreign policy, to domestic policy; to how we talk about trans issues or life issues or economic issues. It’s everything and it’s the most un-American thing to get involved in censoring this speech.”

Again: Calling out false and misleading is not “censorship,” however much Hemingway and the MRC demand that their lies never get called out for what they are. Tim Graham regurgitated the narrative anyway in his Dec. 20 podcast:

On Monday’s The Ingraham Angle on Fox News, host Laura Ingraham reported on how a think tank called the “Global Disinformation Index” compiled a “dynamic exclusion list” to help advertisers avert “risky” right-wing websites engaging in “misinformation.” The list included the New York Post, The Blaze, the Daily Wire, and The Federalist. The censors’ list of “reliable” sites included NPR and the New York Times, but also HuffPost and BuzzFeed, which printed the “Steele Dossier,” a complete garbage barge of Russian-collusion misinformation.

Joseph Vazquez with MRC’s Free Speech America discusses the censors like GDI and NewsGuard. For the third year running, NewsGuard has demonstrated it finds the liberal prestige press far more credible than conservative sites. Out of 100, the top liberal sites average a 91 percent rating, while the conservative sites average a 65. How would that look on your average report card?

As we’ve repeatedly pointed out — but Graham and Co. will never admit — BuzzFeed never vouched for the accuracy of the Steele dossier.

Joseph Vazquez cheered a right-wing Florida politician spoutint his employer’s narrative in a Dec. 21 post:

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis has had it with government agencies partnering with dystopian outfits like NewsGuard to attack right-leaning voices that don’t comport with state and leftist dogma.

Patronis announced new anti-NewsGuard legislation filed by Florida State Rep. Philip Wayne Griffitts (R-District 6). Florida’s Department of Financial Services said in a press release that the Griffits bill echoes the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which blocks the U.S. Department of Defense from using NewsGuard to “blacklist publications.” The Griffits bill, according to the press release, effectively “bars state agencies from contracting with censorship companies like NewsGuard.” Patronis rebuked in a statement how tax dollars were being used to finance entities like NewsGuard. “This is a new dystopian landscape where we’ve got big government, partnering with big business, in using NewsGuard to punish those that don’t parrot the government’s narrative.” In Patronis’s view, “That’s not the way any of this should work, and I don’t want a single penny of Florida taxpayer money being used to subsidize garbage.” 

Patronis is right on target. 

In repeating Vazquez’s talking points, yes, but not reality. The fact is that Vazquez is the one who’s framing “right-leaning” content as lies — not offering any actual evidence it’s not — and they’re so angry that companies like NewsGuard call it out that they’re trying to destroy these companies.

If right-wing websites want to get higher ratings from NewsGuard, all they have to do is stop lying to and misleading their readers. Vazquez and Cornelio don’t seem to understand that.