The House Oversight Committee announced this week that it has opened an investigation into news rating systems that supposedly rank which news organizations are trustworthy, focusing on whether contracts between the rating groups and federal agencies influence the news they seek to suppress.
Supervisory Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said Thursday that the committee is investigating NewsGuard’s “impact on First Amendment protected speech and its potential to serve as an opaque vehicle for a censorship campaign.”
in Letter to Steven Brill and Gordon CrovitzComer, NewsGuard’s chief executive officer, requested documents about the group’s “business relationships with government agencies, its adherence to its own policies to avoid the appearance of bias, how it avoids and manages potential conflicts of interest arising from investors or other influences, and actions that could delegitimize its factually accurate information.”
“Of primary concern to the Committee is a contract NewsGuard received from the Department of Defense in 2021, raising questions about whether a federal agency is engaged in potential censorship activities,” Comer wrote in the letter. “One concerned journalist expressed concern that NewsGuard’s activities are an extension of the federal government’s efforts (already invalidated by the courts) to coerce social media companies and ‘destroy the economic viability of disadvantaged media.'”
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Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said this at a hearing in Washington, DC on March 20, 2024: (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Comer told the two men that the committee aims to “make an independent determination as to whether NewsGuard’s interference with protected speech is in any way supported by federal, state, local or foreign governments.”
In his letter, Comer noted that NewsGuard “promotes” its editorial staff to sign a pledge “to refrain from any political activity, including participating in or donating to political events, posting opinions on social media, engaging in protests, or any other activity that may call into question my impartiality or give the appearance of political bias.”
“The social media accounts of several individuals listed as ‘Editorial Directors’ in NewsGuard’s online employee directory call into question NewsGuard’s commitment to fulfilling this pledge and its anti-bias efforts,” Comer said.
NewsGuard has reportedly received nearly $1 million from the federal government, most of it from the Department of Defense, and was a participant and winner of a State Department co-sponsored “COVID-19 Misinformation and Disinformation” technology competition.
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Many advertisers use NewsGuard as a way to find niche audiences for their products and services, while others reportedly use the service to avoid doing business with networks and outlets that spread “misinformation.” (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
Many advertisers use the service as a way to find niche audiences for their products and services, but others reportedly use it to avoid doing business with networks and outlets that spread “misinformation.”
“The Committee is not concerned about companies providing data-based analysis to other companies or customers to protect their brand. Rather, we are concerned about government agencies’ potential involvement in interfering with freedom of expression. Truth and transparency regarding the purpose and provenance of research, as well as management of conflicts of interest that may affect the public interest, are also important,” Comer added.
“This appears to be a very biased, very unfair service that is receiving federal funding. This may be another backdoor attempt to censor conservative media,” Comer said during a recent appearance on One America News. “What is the standard that gives networks like MSNBC and CNN fantastic ratings and networks like OAN, Newsmax and Fox very poor ratings?”
Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, spoke at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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NewsGuard is a web extension that employs a team of journalists and experienced editors to create credibility ratings and scores for news and information websites based on nine journalistic criteria. Group WebsiteNews sources ranked by NewsGuard receive scores from select journalists and “experienced editors,” who are tasked with rating publishers on a scale of 0 to 100 based on “a set of non-political criteria related to journalistic practice.”
Comer requested a number of documents from NewsGuard that it is required to provide by June 27, 2024, including complete copies of “current and past contracts with government entities” and “records of all disciplinary or corrective actions taken by NewsGuard related to violations of the Editorial Employee Covenant during the past five years.”
