Trust #3: This media startup helps us sort through disinformation, propaganda

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Trust #3: This media startup helps us sort through disinformation, propaganda

The shortage of trustworthy news created a business opportunity for NewsGuard

James Breiner

Sep 12

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You’re reading the My News Biz newsletter. My goal is to help digital media entrepreneurs find viable business models.

I’m a non-paying subscriber to two newsletters from NewsGuard, whose slogan is “The Internet Trust Tool.” NewsGuard provides news reliability ratings for 35,000 news websites around the world, including all the big ones (I’ll share some of their ratings in a moment).

NewsGuard’s founders Steven Brill, left, and Gordon Crovitz. I’ve been reading them for years.

They also publish a newsletter called Reality Check. Here are the headlines from the Aug. 30 edition:

Forty-two percent of misinformation about Russia-Ukraine war traced by NewsGuard originated on Telegram
A false story about NFL star Travis Kelce turns into a clickbait ad goldmine
Betraying Scout’s honor? Tim Walz is accused of lying about his dog

You can read it all the headline stories here.

InPublishing has described NewsGuard as “Defunding Fake News.”

Rating reliability on a scale

NewsGuard uses a team of journalists to vet thousands of websites on a 100-point scale. They add up an organization’s score on the following nine criteria:

Does not repeatedly publish false or egregiously misleading content — 22 points
Gathers and presents information responsibly — 18 points
Has effective practices for correcting errors — 12.5 points
Handles the difference between news and opinion responsibly — 12.5 points
Avoids deceptive headlines — 10 points
Website discloses ownership and financing — 7.5 points
Clearly labels advertising — 7.5 points
Reveals who’s in charge, including possible conflicts of interest — 5 points
Provides the names of content creators, along with either contact or biographical information — 5 points
(The full explanation of the criteria is here.)

Not meeting standards

The Press Gazette in April reported NewsGuard reliability scores of “84 leading English language news websites.” Almost half had perfect scores of 100, and three-quarters had a score above 80.

Notably, the New York Times lost its perfect rating of 100 because, in NewsGuard’s judgment, it failed to distinguish clearly between news and opinion. It dropped to 87.5.

(I agree with this rating. While I respect and trust the Times, their news reporters often insert loaded words and virtue signaling to liberal readers. I find it annoying and unprofessional. — JB)

The Washington Post, ”another major liberal-leaning title,” according to the Press Gazette, kept its perfect score of 100 but “was last reviewed in May 2023.”

(The Post is probably more guilty than the Times of not distinguishing news and opinion. — JB)

In 2022, two major outlets on opposite ends of the political spectrum were graded low “for failing to adhere to basic journalistic standards,” right-leaning Fox News, 69.5, and left-leaning MSNBC, 49.5.

UK sites also receiving low grades in 2022 were GB News, 64.5; Daily Star, 69.5; Mail Online, 64.5; and The Sun, 69.5.

Why should we trust NewsGuard?

The co-CEOs and Editors-in-chief are Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz. They have a track record of producing trustworthy journalism that holds the powerful to account. Brill founded The American Lawyer, Court TV, and the Yale Journalism Initiative. Crovitz was publisher of The Wall Street Journal and a columnist for the paper.

I’ve read and followed both of them for years. Brill revealed corruption in the powerful Teamsters union early in his career. His latest book’s title describes his current investigative work: The Death of Truth: How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed to Destroy Trust and Polarize the World--And What We Can Do.

I learned much about the economics of the media industry from Crovitz’s columns that reflected his experience as a media executive and consultant.

Who pays for NewsGuard. Their website lists 27 investors. It goes on to say:

NewsGuard’s revenue comes from Internet Service Providers, browsers, search engines, social platforms, education providers, hospital systems, advertising agencies, brand safety providers, researchers, and others paying to use NewsGuard’s ratings and Nutrition Labels and associated data.

Final thoughts

NewsGuard doesn’t claim to be the unique possessor of “The Truth”. It attempts to give a fair and honest evaluation of how credible, reliable, and trustworthy various news sources are.

My ratings experience. I’ve been involved in several projects myself (here’s one) where we have tried to judge whether various news sources — thousands of them — deserved to be included in lists of those labeled as independent, fair, and trustworthy. It’s not easy. You’re making judgment calls. What’s important is how clearly you lay out your criteria, how closely you follow them, and how frequently you update them.

And, by the way, the job is never done. Media change. Their leaders change. Audiences change. The leaders of the countries where they operate change.

What doesn’t change is that the price of free speech is constant vigilance. Let’s keep doing good work.