Pharma-Funded Fact Checkers Control the Internet

Via Mercola

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Story at-a-glance

  • NewsGuard is a for-profit fact checking organization backed by Big Pharma, Big Tech, the teachers union and the U.S. government
  • NewsGuard has set itself up as the self-appointed global arbiter of what information is “trustworthy” based on nine “credibility and transparency” factors, for information viewed on private electronic devices, in schools and in public libraries. Its true reason for being, however, is to bankrupt alternative media sites by driving away advertisers
  • In late October 2023, Consortium News sued NewsGuard and the U.S. government for defamation and First Amendment violations, arguing the fact checker colluded with U.S. intelligence to suppress foreign policy dissent
  • NewsGuard labeled Consortium News as an “anti-U.S.” media organization, even though NewsGuard only took issue with six of its more than 20,000 articles and none of its videos
  • One of NewsGuard’s CEOs, Louis Gordon Crovitz, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a key player behind The Great Reset. Since its inception, the CFR’s goal has been to undermine U.S. sovereignty and national independence in order to usher in an all-powerful one-world government

In the video above, PragerU CEO Marissa Streit takes a look at NewsGuard, a for-profit fact checking organization backed by Big Pharma, Big Tech, the teachers union and the U.S. government.

NewsGuard has set itself up as the self-appointed global arbiter of what information is “trustworthy” based on nine “credibility and transparency” factors, for information viewed on private electronic devices, in schools and in public libraries.1,2

NewsGuard’s $6 million startup was funded in part by the Publicis Groupe,3 one of the largest PR firms in the world.4 Many of the largest drug companies use their services, and the Publicis Health board also consists of a power pack of high-profile individuals with Big Pharma position backgrounds or affiliations.5,6,7,8 I detailed these connections in my October 5, 2021, article, “The Web of Players Trying to Silence Truth.”

NewsGuard Censors Truth, Not Fake News

In the spring of 2020, NewsGuard classified mercola.com as “fake news” because we reported the SARS-CoV-2 virus as potentially having been leaked from the biosafety level 4 laboratory in Wuhan City, China, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Fast-forward a year, and the U.S. Congress launched an investigation to explore the lab accident theory after it became apparent that the National Institutes of Health had funded gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Interestingly, an April 16, 2020, report9 by CNN revealed the censorship of articles mentioning the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 may have leaked from the Wuhan BSL4 facility appears to be directed by China, which means NewsGuard has been functionally protecting Chinese interests.

As noted by Streit, if you’re a for-profit company getting paid by Big Pharma, just how neutral and unbiased can you be when fact checking articles that are critical of the industry? It’s a well-known fact that the one with the purse strings has a lot of pull.

The NewsGuard Racket

According to Streit, most of the NewsGuard staff are also “left-leaning activists” who can’t stand non-liberal news outlets like PragerU, The Daily Wire, the Federalist and Breitbart.

She correctly explains how their little game of “unbiased investigation” works. First, they send you an email with a list of accusatory questions on a hot-button issue you’ve addressed on your site. If you respond, they ignore your answers and send you a new list of questions. If you do not respond, you have in their eyes confirmed that you are not a reliable source.

“Heads they win, tails you lose,” Streit says.

No matter which approach you use, NewsGuard will put a fake news label on your site to drive readers away and tell ad agencies and major corporations to steer clear and put their advertising dollars elsewhere.

As noted by Streit, for news outlets that require advertisers to stay afloat, “that can get very expensive, very fast.” Companies can easily be driven out of business this way, and “of course, that’s the plan,” she says.

NewsGuard also serves as a firewall that protects Big Tech companies from accusations of censorship.

When conservative sources say Big Tech is censoring their views, the tech companies simply say, “We didn’t make any judgments. We hired this third-party fact checker and they told us this story, or that website, can’t be trusted.” “In short, NewsGuard enables them to censor speech without leaving any fingerprints,” Streit says.

NewsGuard Sued for Suppressing Foreign Policy Dissent

Also, let’s not forget the U.S. government is sponsoring NewsGuard as well. The U.S. Defense Department has paid NewsGuard $750,00010 “to monitor ‘misinformation’ trends online,” “which is an Orwellian way of saying ‘information that the defense department doesn’t like,” Streit says.

Case in point: In late October 2023, Consortium News sued11,12,13 NewsGuard and the U.S. government for defamation and First Amendment violations, arguing the fact checker colluded with U.S. intelligence to suppress foreign policy dissent. As reported by Consortium News, October 23, 2023:14

“The United States government and internet ‘watchdog’ NewsGuard Technologies, Inc. were sued today in federal court in Manhattan for First Amendment violations and defamation by news organization Consortium for Independent Journalism, a nonprofit that publishes Consortium News.

Consortium News’s court filing charges the Pentagon’s Cyber Command, an element of the Intelligence Community, with contracting with NewsGuard to identify, report and abridge the speech of American media organizations that dissent from U.S. official positions on foreign policy.

In the course of its contract with the Pentagon, NewsGuard is ‘acting jointly or in concert with the United States to coerce news organizations to alter viewpoints’ as to Ukraine, Russia, and Syria, imposing a form of ‘censorship and repression of views’ that differ or dissent from policies of the United States and its allies …

‘When media groups are condemned by the government as ‘anti-U.S.’ and are accused of publishing ‘false content’ because they disagree with U.S. policies, the result is self-censorship and a destruction of the public debate intended by the First Amendment,’ [Consortium News attorney Bruce] Afran said.”

According to the complaint, NewsGuard uses software to tag targeted sites with warning labels that describe the content as “disinformation” or “false content.” In the case of Consortium News, its site was labeled as an “anti-U.S.” media organization, even though NewsGuard only took issue with six of its more than 20,000 articles and none of its videos. According to Consortium News:

“The complaint seeks a permanent injunction declaring the joint program unconstitutional; barring the government and NewsGuard from continuing such practices and more than $13 million in damages for defamation and civil rights violations.”

The U.S. government has also been caught bankrolling the now discredited Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which selectively targeted conservative and non-liberal media.15,16 According to the Washington Examiner,17 the GDI sent blacklists to advertising companies “with the intent of defunding and shutting down websites peddling alleged ‘disinformation.’”

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By Published On: November 8, 2023Categories: UncategorizedComments Off on Pharma-Funded Fact Checkers Control the Internet

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About the Author: Patriotman

Patriotman currently ekes out a survivalist lifestyle in a suburban northeastern state as best as he can. He has varied experience in political science, public policy, biological sciences, and higher education. Proudly Catholic and an Eagle Scout, he has no military experience and thus offers a relatable perspective for the average suburban prepper who is preparing for troubled times on the horizon with less than ideal teams and in less than ideal locations. Brushbeater Store Page: http://bit.ly/BrushbeaterStore

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