Taibbi also tweeted out another round of the Twitter files on Thursday, detailing what he dubbed a “Censorship-Industrial Complex” moving within Twitter, government agencies, establishment media, and mostly non-profit organizations all of whom ideologically align in censorship efforts and named NewsGuard as funded by the Department of Defense.
“Some NGOs, like the GEC-funded Global Disinformation Index or the DOD-funded Newsguard, not only seek content moderation but apply subjective ‘risk’ or ‘reliability’ scores to media outlets, which can result in reduction in revenue. Do we want government in this role?” Taibbi tweeted in the Twitter files installment.
On Friday, NewsGuard CEO Crovitz emailed Taibbi and said, “During the hearing, NewsGuard was inaccurately described as ‘US government funded.’ Unlike other entities mention during the hearing, we are not a non-profit funded by government grants.”
Taibbi reported in the Twitter files that NewsGuard was awarded $749,387 in 2021. Reporting for the Washington Examiner, Gabe Kaminsky reported the same amount and provided a screenshot of the award.
According to the site USASpending.gov, the Department of Defense gave NewsGuard that amount in 2021.
NewsGuard, via a paid service, gives ratings to news outlets and organizations. In January of last year, CNN had a score of 80/100, Rolling Stone 77.5/100, Fox News 69.5/100, and Breitbart 49.5/100.
