Newsmax has been serving up its own version of the right-wing war on website ratings service NewsGuard for its purported bias. That war returned in a June 26 article by Paul Bond:
With the Federal Trade Commission approving the $13.5 billion merger between advertising giants Omnicom Group and The Interpublic Group of Companies with a consent decree stipulating they refrain from discriminating against conservative outlets, a key question remains: Will they still rely on NewsGuard?
The FTC decree — released last week with a 30 day public comment period — aims to prevent the merged entity from engaging in anticompetitive practices, particularly those related to Big Censorship (sometimes labeled the Censorship Industrial Complex).
The FTC’s order indicated that Omnicom and IPG had violated the law, specifically the Clayton and Federal Trade Commission Acts, by illegally colluding to boycott targeted groups and other violations.
[…]In the past several ad agencies, Omnicom and IPG included, have signed on to DEI-backed initiatives that targeted “disinformation” media outlets.
The disinformation term became a code word for largely preventing conservative media outlets from getting advertising from large ad agencies.
Legal expert Jonathan Turley has called the disinformation scheme used by ad agencies and NewsGuard “a massive censorship system.”
To enforce such advertising bans, agencies used so-called media monitors, many with a left-wing bent, including NewsGuard, Media Matters for America, GDI, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, and the Trusted News Initiative.
Perhaps the most influential is NewsGuard which has been used by both Omincom, IPG or their subsidiaries.
Bond offered no evidence that NewsGuard did anything wrong, nor did he prove that right-wing outlets were more reliable than NewsGuard had ruled they were — he’s just mad that NewsGuard told the truth, and he has to twist that into a partisan war. Given that Newsmax is one of the right-wing outlets NewsGuard has downgraded — something it has never disproven — Bond’s employer is very much a part of this war:
Newsmax contacted Omnicom and IPG to ask of NewsGuard’s status or their use of other media monitors. Neither company responded for comment.
“We are deeply concerned about the FTC’s order because it says nothing about media monitors, politicized ratings from NewsGuard and other who have turned disinformation into a censorship racket,” Christine Czernejewski, spokesperson for The Independent Media Council (IMC), told Newsmax.
It was not explained why potential advertisers should not be made aware of credibility issues involving media outlets.
Newsmax then escalated this to a formal objection to the merger, as described in a July 28 article:
Newsmax Media, Inc., has formally filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opposing the proposed $13.25 billion merger of global advertising giants Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group (IPG).
The filing, submitted on behalf of Newsmax, strongly criticizes both the merger itself and the FTC’s proposed consent order for failing to address anticompetitive harms and what Newsmax describes as “a dangerous expansion of censorship and ideological discrimination.”
[…]At the heart of Newsmax’s opposition is a charge that Omnicom and IPG use third-party media rating agencies, such as NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), to quietly starve conservative or dissenting media voices of ad dollars.
These agencies issue “reliability scores” that are frequently biased against right-leaning outlets and use opaque criteria to justify blacklisting content.
“These so-called ‘reliability’ services are nothing more than ideological filters,” Ruddy said. “When major ad firms rely on them, they become instruments of censorship by proxy.”
Newsmax’s filing cites studies showing that NewsGuard consistently rates left-leaning media significantly higher than conservative outlets.
The filing also references concerns raised by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and legal action by the State of Texas, which claim these entities operate as blacklists suppressing constitutionally protected speech.
Again, no evidence was offered to counter or discredit the ratings NewsGuard has given to Newsmax or any other right-wing media outlet.
The article also declared that “Both Omnicom and IPG have deeply embedded DEI initiatives that include race-based hiring, DEI-based media filters, and identity-targeted ad spending — all of which Newsmax argues are illegal under federal civil rights laws.”
An article the next day touted how “The Independent Media Council (IMC), representing more than 125 million Americans weekly through a coalition of conservative and independent media outlets, has joined forces with the CPAC Foundation Center for Regulatory Freedom” to oppose the Omnicom-IPG merger in part because of “ideological suppression through third-party ‘brand safety’ and ‘misinformation’ tools.” It further ranted:
NewsGuard, a prominent third-party rater used by both companies, was co-founded by Democratic political activist Steven Brill. Studies and analyses by the Media Research Center and others have documented consistent bias in its scoring system favoring liberal media, while disproportionately punishing conservative sources.
As we’ve documented, the MRC has never proven there is “consistent bias” in NewsGuard’s scoring system, let alone provide what it thinks are more accurate ratings for right-wing media outlets. This merger objection follows in the footsteps of Newsmax’s objection to a merger between TV station groups Nexstar and Tegna, based largely on the erroneous assumption that Nexstar’s NewsNation cable channel is “left-leaning.”
Newsmax then called on one of its in-house dudes to rail against the merger in a Newsmax TV hit, as described in an Aug. 3 article:
Newsmax analyst John Tabacco has sharply criticized the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) approval of a $13.25 billion merger between advertising giants Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group, saying the decision “stinks at all levels.”
The merger, approved in June, creates what is now considered the world’s largest advertising agency with control over roughly $240 billion in U.S. ad spending.
Newsmax Media, Inc. on Monday formally filed comments with the FTC opposing the deal, joining other conservative groups that say it threatens free speech and will deepen alleged censorship of right-leaning media.
Tabacco, host of Newsmax’s “Wise Guys,” voiced his concerns during an appearance Friday on the “Chris Salcedo Show,” arguing the approval will allow advertising firms to continue using ratings services that target conservative outlets.
“It says nothing at all in the [Consent] Order about stopping these agencies from using third-party ratings services like NewsGuard to block media like Newsmax and other conservative companies,” Tabacco said.
Tabacco, like Newsmax itself, offered no actual proof of NewsGuard’s purported bias — he just repeated right-wing talking points. Those talking points continued:
Tabacco cited multiple studies by the Media Research Center claiming conservative outlets receive consistently low reliability scores, while left-leaning and even foreign state media, including Chinese Communist Party publications, score higher.
“The New York Times can get the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop wrong, push the Russia hoax, falsely accuse Israel of bombing hospitals in Gaza — and they get 100% or nearly 100% ratings,” Tabacco said. “It makes no sense unless this was political.”
Actually, it does. The Times worked to fix errors, while Newsmax had to be dragged to court so the victims could clear their names, which resulted in payments by Newsmax totaling more than $107 million to Domonion and Smartmatic.
If anyone has any doubt about the credibility of Newsmax in bashing NewsGuard, not the screen capture above. Yes, Newsmax managed to spell Tabacco’s name wrong in the chyron, even though it presumably should know better since he’s a longtime Newsmax associate.