In a new partnership with Microsoft, NewsGuard will be installed automatically with Microsoft's web browser, Edge. And according to reports, NewsGuard wants to see its "technology" applied to every device sold in the United States. Mass censorship is on our doorsteps, and virtually every major news outlet in the U.S. is promoting it.
NewsGuard is promoted as using "old school" journalism to fight fake news. The trained "analysts" who are also "experienced journalists" use a red light-green light rating system to flag news sites as "bad" or"good," depending on the content. The "analysts" don't just peruse web sites; NewsGuard, has reportedly contacted many sites for deeper conversation.
Steven Brill, NewsGuard co-founder, recently stated the U.K.'s Daily Mail, a well-known publication, received a "red" rating because an associate didn't want to answer questions. This has prompted substantial concerns about NewsGuard's integrity as a company.
NewsGuard can use all kinds of strong-arm tactics to attempt to silence their opposition. If a company tries to take a stand against censorship and refuses to cooperate with NewsGuard, they'll simply be blacklisted themselves.
While NewsGuard has removed Daily Mail from the blacklist after much controversy, the company has made their position clear: Play ball, or kick rocks.
The NewsGuard system is patently flawed, being susceptible to both bias and corruption. For example, it was recently reported that a tee shirt sold by the Breitbart News Store was flagged as "fake news."
Rating merchandise should be outside the scope of an organization that purportedly only targets news. But, perhaps that's not really what NewsGuard is after.
Writing for Breitbart, senior correspondent Allum Bokhari reports that NewsGuard has given all the major news agencies a "green rating," -- even in light of the reprehensible Covington Catholic incident, which saw dozens of innocent high school students victimized by the corrupt and deeply biased mainstream media.
In contrast, most of the independent media has received "red" ratings.
The "criteria" that NewsGuard reportedly uses to issue its rating are inherently weighed at the analyst's discretion. For example, any one of the mainstream media's headlines on the Covington Catholic case could be seen as "misleading," -- but if that headline conforms to your bias as an individual, you are probably less likely to perceive it as such.
This theory can be applied to the rating system across the board. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but perception is in the mind of the reader. And under NewsGuard, the perceptions of the few will rule the many.
As Mint Press News reports, NewsGuard is already campaigning to " have its rankings of news sites installed by default on computers in U.S. public libraries, schools, and universities as well as on all smartphones and computers sold in the United States."
NewsGuard is not designed to protect the public from fake news, but rather, to instill obedience to the mainstream media propaganda machine and begin the normalization of censorship. This isn't just a war on free speech, it is a war on your right to think for yourself.
See more coverage of the latest acts of censorship at Censored.news.
Sources for this article include: