How the Left Censors the News

NewsGuard has been in the news lately. It is a left-wing anti-“misinformation” operation that purports to rate web sites according to objective criteria. But of course, far from being objective, its criteria are those of the Left. Thus, NewsGuard has attacked Prager U, which has fought back. And NewsGuard has recently gone after legal commentator Jonathan Turley, who also has pushed back.

The Left’s censorship operation has been in the news for a while, now. NewsGuard appears to be a fairly significant part of that effort. It drives advertisers away from non-leftist web sites, and provides liberal educators with an excuse for barring important news sources, like Prager U, from their classrooms.

Scott wrote a couple of weeks ago about an encounter we had with NewsGuard in 2021. They wanted to know why we said that Joe Biden suffered from dementia “without providing credible evidence that he has dementia.” As Biden himself would say, not a joke. Scott noted that “NewsGuard’s site lists scores of prominent institutional clients.” Apparently they were paying for the privilege of being protected from knowledge of Biden’s condition.

The whole thing sounded familiar, so I searched my email inbox and found that this was at least the third time that we had heard from NewsGuard. They reached out to us in 2018 with this email:

From: Jon William Allsop
Date: Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 4:06 PM
Subject: NewsGuard questions
To: [email protected], Anna-Sophie Harling

Dear John, Scott, and Joe,

My name is Jon Allsop and I work for NewsGuard, a new service that reviews news and information websites for credibility and transparency. I’m reaching out because I have some queries about Powerlineblog.com that it would be great if you could answer.

I can’t see any explicit disclosure as to who owns and funds the site. Could you point me to this, if I’ve missed it? If it’s not there, could you clarify who does own and pay for the site, and why that information isn’t explicitly disclosed?

Does your site issue corrections? And does it have a stated corrections policy? If not, why not?

Thank you, and please just let me know if you have any questions about NewsGuard.

Jon Allsop
NewsGuard Technologies

This reflects the left-wing conviction that all web sites must be supported by some secret cabal. Apparently they believe that because this is, in fact, how left-wing web sites come to be. We heard a lot about this in the old days.

We discussed this overture among ourselves. This is what I wrote to my colleagues (links omitted):

Weird that he addressed his email to John, Scott and Joe. He obviously isn’t very familiar with our site.

This is another Steven Brill venture. They say they have raised $6 million from investors. The guy who emailed us is a young left-winger who graduated from Columbia Journalism School last year. He comes across like a jerk on Twitter and on a web site that no one reads. See this, e.g.: https://jonallsop.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/the-politics-of-lies-will-get-found-out-but-the-left-has-to-be-ready-to-profit/

I really hate to respond to this kind of thing, but I suppose we might as well tell him (tersely) that the site is owned by its authors, that we receive no funding from any source other than ad revenue and subscriptions, and we correct any errors via “correction” or “update” appended to the original post. These are things that are well known to our readers.

John

That was our first encounter with NewsGuard. The second came in October of 2020:

From: Melissa Goldin
Date: Friday, October 16, 2020
Subject: PRESS INQUIRY: NewsGuard Review of Power Line
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hayward,

My name is Melissa Goldin. I’m a reporter at NewsGuard, a new service that reviews news and information sites for credibility and transparency based on widely-accepted journalism standards. These reviews, which include a checklist of nine criteria, are intended to help readers have more context for the news they read online.

I’m working on a review of Power Line and am hoping to find a time to chat with one of you (or the appropriate contact) over the phone about the site, as I have a few questions about its editorial process, including its publication of false and misleading content, and its choices regarding transparency. NewsGuard seeks on-the-record comments from publishers to include their perspectives, out of fairness and for the benefit of our readers.

You can reach me at this email or at (585) 496-7196. Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon.

Melissa
—
Melissa Goldin
Staff Analyst and News Literacy Associate
NewsGuard

(585) 496-7196
[email protected]

“News Literacy Associate”–what a title! Ms. Goldin called me the same day as she sent that email, as I reported to my colleagues:

I got two phone calls from that number this afternoon. I agree, no reason to talk to someone we never heard of who obviously is hostile.

John H.

That wasn’t the end of it. A few days later, Ms. Goldin emailed as follows:

From: Melissa Goldin
Date: Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 2:16 PM
Subject: Re: PRESS INQUIRY: NewsGuard Review of Power Line
To: Cc:

Hello,

I’m just following up on this, as I’d still be interested in speaking with someone at Power Line, as I have a few questions about its editorial practices, including its publication of false and misleading content, and its choices regarding transparency.

Additionally, I’d like to get your comment on the fact that John Hinderaker previously worked as an attorney for a law firm of which Koch Industries was a major client while writing articles defending the Kochs and not disclosing this connection.

You can reach me at this email or at (585) 496-7196. Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon.

Melissa

Apart from Melissa’s blanket reference to “false and misleading content,” she resurrected a leftist theme from nine years earlier. Back in 2011, I devoted considerable effort–highly successful effort, in fact–to debunking ridiculous charges that were made by leftists against Charles and David Koch and Koch Industries. I had a lot of fun crushing stupid attacks on the Kochs, many of which came from Think Progress, a now-defunct left-wing site.

The funny thing about Melissa Goldin’s inquiry is that the exact same question was raised by Think Progress’s desperate crew back in 2011. I responded to it here. That post is actually pretty entertaining, as replying to dimwitted leftists often can be. Melissa could have found the answer to her question–which I gave nine years before!–if she had conducted a simple search of our site, like for example “koch law firm.” But actual research is anathema, I suppose, to left-wing researchers.

I reported to my fellow PLers the same day on Melissa’s more or less simultaneous call to me:

She called me a little while ago and I answered, not knowing who it was. I told her I had never heard of her organization and am too busy to talk to her. What a joke.

John H.

NewsGuard is indeed a joke, like the rest of the Left’s censorship apparatus. And yet, they seek to do harm. These people likely have smeared us, and, even though they are below-average intellects, their lies may have damaged us.

I wondered what NewsGuard has said about Power Line over the years, so I went to their web site and discovered a curious fact: their site is not searchable. Thus, there is no way for a non-subscriber to find out what they have told their customers–companies, schools, and perhaps government agencies–about us, or about anyone else.

So now, my curiosity is piqued. I retired from the litigation business some years ago, but I have a constitutional right to represent myself. I just want to find out what NewsGuard has said about me or about Power Line, and if appropriate, I can sue them for defamation. I could then hire an expert accountant who could calculate the damages that we at Power Line have suffered over the years (within the statute of limitation, of course) as a result of NewsGuard’s lies about us. It could be remunerative, and it certainly would be fun.

Any lawyers or others among our readers who have ideas about how I can get information about NewsGuard’s defamation–without paying them to become a subscriber, which of course is a last resort–should email me at [email protected].