WATCH: MRC’s Schneider and Graham SLAM NewsGuard’s Leftist Bias on Newsmax

December 14th, 2023 4:27 PM

MRC’s Dan Schneider joined Newsmax to highlight explosive MRC research on how ratings firm NewsGuard has become more biased than ever.

For the third year in a row, MRC Free Speech America exposed NewsGuard’s worsening bias against right-leaning media. MRC researchers used the AllSides Media Bias Chart to analyze that NewsGuard provided a stellar average “credibility” rating of 91/100 for “left” and “lean left” outlets while slapping a low average of 65/100 on “right” and “lean right” outlets. MRC Free Speech America Vice President Schneider and NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham went on Newsmax’s The Chris Salcedo Show to discuss NewsGuard’s real goals: choking off right-leaning media’s ad revenue and promoting leftist narratives. 

Schneider began, “NewsGuard, for years, has been silencing conservatives, directing ad revenue to liberals instead, choking off the life blood of conservative media outlets.” Schneider analyzed how NewsGuard’s gambit to silence the right was based on its overarching “zeal to defeat Donald Trump and any other conservative who wants to stand for basic American principles.” 

Salcedo asked Graham about the dangers of having entities like NewsGuard pushing “the narrative that the State is the gatekeeper of what is true and what is not.” Graham called it an Orwellian situation where outlets that falsely labeled the Hunter Biden laptop a “Russian hoax” or falsely blamed Israel for the al-Ahli hospital bombing in Gaza still receive perfect scores from NewsGuard. “This is not about guarding the truth. It’s all about guarding the legacy media.”

Salcedo pointed out the radical difference between media coverage of former Trump White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s deferring congressional testimony while in legal negotiations over a subpoena, in contrast with Hunter Biden’s defiance this week of a congressional subpoena. Schneider explained, “NewsGuard has one standard, and that is: Defeat conservatives, promote liberals.” He continued, “President Biden — just recently — was saying if you defy a congressional subpoena, you should be indicted by his own DOJ.” But now that Biden’s son has done so, “everything will be covered, [be]cause he’s part of the Biden bribery scandal,” Schneider added.

Indeed, as Schneider emphasized, “This is how Joe Biden and his family have been making money for a long time, and NewsGuard’s covering for it.” He stated how that works. “NewsGuard’s not going to go back and re-rate all those media outlets that said that the Hunter Biden laptop was a hoax.” In fact, NewsGuard co-founder Steven Brill was among those who expressed his “personal [opinion]” that the Hunter laptop was a Russian “hoax” just prior to the 2020 election. Brill did this “based on his hatred of Donald Trump,” Schneider said, and not based on evidence.

“Their bias is so extreme that the left is willing to give our taxpayer dollars, millions of our taxpayer dollars, to NewsGuard and other outlets just like it,” Schneider added, referring to previous federal grant money to NewsGuard. Graham stated in return that Republicans in Congress seem to be roused by this government-private censorship partnership, as they were by the now defunct Disinformation Governance Board. 

NewsGuard targets free speech — it is not an objective arbiter of truth. 

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