This week, the American Federation of Teachers announced public school classrooms will soon have access to computer software provided by NewsGuard. The corporation, founded in 2018, describes itself as a journalism watchdog that flags “misinformation” in the news in an effort to better inform the public about what is reliable information.
MRC to GOP: Big Tech wants you D-O-ASteve Jordahl (AFN) Media watchdog Media Research Center is sending a letter to every lawmaker’s office on Capitol Hill with a message: Tell us how Big Tech censors you so we can shake you awake. MRC spokesman Dan Gainor says the plan is to collect those examples because censorship affects political campaigns, poll numbers, and ultimately Election Day. “We did a study last year,” he says, “and found 54 to 1, Big Tech censoring Republicans or Democrats.” In that one example of a Democrat being censored, the Democrat lawmaker complained and received an apology hours later. So the purpose is to let Republicans see what they are up against. “This is our way of pushing back and trying to make sure the people who decide what happens to Big Tech,” Gainor explains, “understand that they are also on the firing line.” |
NewsGuard maintains it is non-partisan but Dan Gainor of the Media Research Center says that claim is laughable after this week’s announcement.
“NewsGuard is openly liberal,” he insists. “And if you had any doubt about that, look who they just made a partnership with: the American Federation of Teachers, the far-left teachers' group.”
That national teachers’ union is led by Randi Weingarten, a longtime and loyal Democrat. She has become a news story herself over the last year, and Enemy No. 1 of frustrated, angry parents, when she pushed for schools to remain closed during the virus pandemic while claiming otherwise in public, The New York Post pointed out in a scathing editorial.
Now that the classrooms are opening, Weingarten is buying NewsGuard licenses for 1.7 million dues-paying teachers.
According to Weingarten, students will be able to “separate fact from fiction” and develop “critical-thinking” skills thanks to NewsGuard.
“They cut a deal with them,” Gainor says. “They want to jam NewsGuard into schools around the country.”
'Best' includes liberal NYT, NPR
On its NewsGuard website, a ranking of the “Best and Worst” news websites of 2021 also reveals the nakedly biased views of the NewsGuard staff. The pro-Trump website “Gateway Pundit” and the pro-life website “Live Action” are listed among the 10 “least credible” news websites, even though neither claims to be an unbiased news services.
No left-wing website of any kind is listed on the “Worst” list but an obscure website about natural medicine and gardening, Return to Now, made the list of 10 sites.
Among the top “Trustworthy” websites according to NewsGuard are NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR --- all reliably liberal in their news coverage.
None of the "Best" websites listed by NewsGuard are opinion-based sites but the website by radio show host Wayne Dupree made the "Worst" list.
In its own story about the AFT-NewsGuard partnership, The Washington Free Beacon points out NPR publicly refused to report on the blockbuster allegations about Hunter Biden and his laptop emails. Steve Brill, a NewsGuard co-founder, also dismissed the allegations in the laptop Russian disinformation.
According to Gainor, the AFT-NewsGuard partnership means left-wing teachers and biased fact-checkers will work together to tell school children what is true.
“And your kids,” he warns, “are going to come out of school even more indoctrinated.”
