NewsGuard
 NewsGuard     | |
|---|---|
 NewsGuard warns that RT is unreliable | |
| Founder | • Steven Brill • Gordon Kravitz |
| Interests | Fake news |
| Sponsored by | Publicis Groupe, US/Air Force |
| A tech company which is teaming up with Microsoft as regards "fake news" | |
NewsGuard is a company which purports to tackle "disinformation" through its browser extension.
Contents
Activities
" A new app claiming to serve as a bulwark against "disinformation" by adding "trust rankings" to news websites has links to a PR firm that received nearly $15 million to push pro-Saudi spin in US media, Breitbart reports.
NewsGuard and its shady advisory board – consisting of truth-lovers such as Tom Ridge, the first-ever homeland security chief, and former CIA director Michael Hayden – came under scrutiny after Microsoft announced that the app would be built into its mobile browsers. A closer examination of the company's publicly listed investors, however, has revealed new reasons to be suspicious of this self-declared crusader against propaganda. As Breitbart discovered, NewsGuard's third-largest investor, Publicis Groupe, owns a PR firm that has repeatedly airbrushed Saudi Arabia."[1]
Criticism
Breitbert notes that "WikiLeaks, which has never had to retract a story due to false or misleading information, is also given a “red” rating in contrast to the "green" which it gives to BuzzFeed, which was recently humiliated for publishing alleged details about the ongoing Mueller investigation that were contradicted by the spe[c]ial prosecutor himself. BuzzFeed did not retract the story, and even led with it on its frontpage … after Mueller contradicted it."[2]
Uncritical usage by Wikipedia
Whitney Webb described in 2019 How a Small Group of Pro-Israel Activists Blacklisted MintPress on Wikipedia. The article describes, among other things, how Wikipedia cited Mint Press News' unfavourable rating from Newsguard, "several months after MintPress authored a viral exposè of Newsguard’s connections to neoconservatives and former government officials, including former CIA director Michael Hayden."[3]
Known members
8 of the 18 of the members already have pages here:
| Member | Description |
|---|---|
| John Battelle | Helped launch Wired in the 1990s. Young Global Leaders. On the Advisory Board of the CIA-front NewsGuard |
| Arne Duncan | Educational bureaucrat; United States Secretary of Education under 7 years of Obama. |
| Michael Hayden | US Spook, NSA Director 1999-2005, CIA Director 2006-2009, News Guard advisory board |
| Anders Fogh Rasmussen | Bilderberger, ex Danish PM, ex-Secretary General of NATO. |
| Richard Sambrook | UK media executive, Edelman's Global Vice Chairman and Chief Content Officer 2010-2012 |
| Richard Stengel | Senio US Propagandist "Having once been almost a First Amendment absolutist, I have really moved my position on it, because I just think for practical reasons..." |
| Ed Vaizey | UK politician, Merton College Oxford, Henry Jackson Society, NewsGuard/Advisory Board, Notting Hill Set |
| Jimmy Wales | Founder of super-influential Wikipedia. Tony Blair aide's is (strategically?) married to him. |
Sponsors
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Publicis Groupe | French multinational advertising and public relations company |
| US/Air Force |
