The US military should only be worried about defending this nation. Instead, they’re aiming their sights inwards.
And now Biden’s Pentagon is in hot water after this incriminating evidence dropped.
A House committee disclosed on Friday that the Pentagon, State Department, other U.S. agencies, and even the European Union have been involved in funding a for-profit “fact-checking” firm, NewsGuard, which has notably blacklisted The Post.
In a letter to NewsGuard, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) demanded further details about the collaborations between public and private sectors, which last year led to conservative outlets suing the State Department after being labeled as “risky” compared to their liberal counterparts.
NewsGuard had briefed committee staff on its 2021 contracts with the Defense Department, including the Cyber National Mission Force within U.S. Cyber Command, the State Department and its Global Engagement Center, and the EU’s Joint Research Centre.
“The Committee writes today to seek additional documents and communications from NewsGuard related to all past and present contracts with or grants administered by federal government agencies or any other government entity, including foreign governments,” Comer wrote to NewsGuard CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz.
He stressed the importance of safeguarding First Amendment rights against government infringements, calling such attempts “dangerous and misguided.”
The Oversight panel launched its investigation into NewsGuard in June over alleged involvement in a government-backed “censorship campaign” that attempted to discredit and even demonetize certain news outlets by sharing their “reliability ratings” with advertisers.
Comer also raised concerns about social media posts from NewsGuard employees showing left-leaning bias, which violated the company’s own policies, and noted that the firm flagged disfavored outlets’ so-called “misinformation” — including a study critical of COVID-19 lockdowns.
“These wide-ranging connections with various government agencies are taking place as the government is rapidly expanding into the censorship sphere,” Comer emphasized. He pointed to a search of government grants and contracts from 2016 to 2023 that revealed 538 grants and 36 contracts focused on combating “misinformation” and “disinformation.”
In December 2023, conservative sites The Daily Wire and The Federalist filed a civil complaint against the State Department, alleging misuse of taxpayer dollars to fund firms like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which labeled conservative outlets as “purveyors of ‘disinformation.’”
Both firms collaborate with social media giants like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, as well as advertisers such as Dell Technologies, ExxonMobil, and Nike, raising concerns about potential business repercussions.
In 2022, GDI’s “Disinformation Risk Assessment” labeled right-leaning sites like The Federalist, The Daily Wire, Newsmax, The American Conservative, Reason Magazine, and The New York Post as the “riskiest” for factual reporting, while The New York Times and The Washington Post were rated as “least risky.”
In response, Crovitz defended NewsGuard, saying, “When the Trump administration first asked us for our data and insights about disinformation campaigns from hostile foreign governments in 2020, we contracted with them on the condition that such work be strictly limited to disinformation from hostile governments, not U.S. publishers. We’re proud that NewsGuard’s data and analysis has helped defend Western democracies against Russian, Chinese and Iranian disinformation.”
He added, “NewsGuard was created as a transparent alternative to censorship by governments or big tech companies, and we do not censor any content.”
The run-up to the 2024 election has put so-called “anti-misinformation” efforts in the spotlight, particularly after The Post’s bombshell report on Hunter Biden’s laptop was wrongly labeled as Russian disinformation by then-candidate Joe Biden.
Some Democrats now suggest that cracking down on “disinformation” means bypassing the First Amendment. Former climate envoy John Kerry even called free speech a “major block” in preventing people from believing “wrong” information. Speaking at the World Economic Forum, he said, “There’s a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities…but our First Amendment stands as a major block.”
Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, also dismissed free speech protections in a 2022 appearance on MSNBC’s The Reid Out, saying, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.”
Chairman Comer has given NewsGuard until Nov. 8 to hand over all records of its contracts, grants, or collaborations with the Pentagon, State Department, and any other federal agencies or departments.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
