{"id":525144,"date":"2026-03-15T14:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/525144\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T14:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T14:49:09","slug":"a-media-rating-company-says-a-trump-agency-is-threatening-its-livelihood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/525144\/","title":{"rendered":"A media-rating company says a Trump agency is threatening its livelihood"},"content":{"rendered":"

As media organizations go, NewsGuard<\/a> cuts a low public profile as it follows its mission of issuing credibility ratings about news outlets. The Trump administration knows about it, though, and the company has joined a lengthening list of journalism organizations to face the White House\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n

A dispute between President Donald Trump\u2019s regulators and the news monitoring service has spilled into court, with NewsGuard Technologies suing the Federal Trade Commission and its chairman, Andrew Ferguson, to shut down an investigation. The FTC accuses the company of trying to suppress conservative speech. NewsGuard says it is being forced to kneel before vindictive power.<\/p>\n

Since Trump returned to office in January 2025, the Republican administration has fought The Associated Press<\/a> in court over the outlet\u2019s claim it is being punished for not adopting his preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico; settled with CBS News\u2019 corporate parent in a dispute<\/a> over \u201c60 Minutes\u201d editing; sued The Wall Street Journal<\/a> for its reporting on Trump and Jeffrey Epstein; and is in a legal fight<\/a> with The New York Times over Pentagon reporting restrictions.<\/p>\n

NewsGuard\u2019s lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, accuses Trump\u2019s FTC of \u201cbrazenly using its power not for any issue concerning trade or commerce but rather to censor speech simply because it disagreed with NewsGuard\u2019s judgments about the reliability of news sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FTC calls NewsGuard\u2019s accusations \u201cuntethered from both law and fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FTC, normally low-key, is busier under Trump<\/p>\n

Like the Federal Communications Commission under Brendan Carr, Ferguson\u2019s FTC is a normally sleepy federal agency that has sprung to life to address issues of importance to Trump and his supporters, particularly involving the media. The FCC has launched investigations<\/a> of media companies and recently suggested it would enforce \u201cequal time\u201d rules<\/a> for political guests on television talk shows.<\/p>\n

Ferguson has made no secret about where he takes his cues. He said in an interview in July that \u201cI am a law enforcer, and I will follow the law. But the policy priorities are set by the man the people chose to run this government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The liberal lobbying group Media Matters for America<\/a> was one of his targets. A federal judge last summer halted an FTC investigation over efforts to promote advertising boycotts of companies the group opposes, saying the inquiry violated MMA\u2019s free speech rights.<\/p>\n

While NewsGuard may not be a big name, money is at stake for news outlets friendly to the president. The company began in 2018, started by Court TV founder Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, a former Journal publisher. NewsGuard uses journalists to examine thousands of news outlets and websites, giving them ratings based on the credibility and reliability of their journalism.<\/p>\n

A monthly subscription costs $4.95. Much of its business comes from companies that advise advertisers where to hawk their products, showing them which news sites may be toxic to their brands, and artificial intelligence companies looking to see where they would be more likely to find information they could trust.<\/p>\n

Making a powerful enemy in Newsmax<\/p>\n

NewsGuard made an enemy of the Trump-friendly television network Newsmax, giving its website a 20 on a scale where 100 is the best score. NewsGuard says \u201cthis website is unreliable because it severely violates basic journalism standards.\u201d Newsmax has since repeatedly urged Republican lawmakers or regulators to do what they can to silence NewsGuard, the company said in its lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cNewsGuard was started by Steve Brill to target conservative media and get ad agencies to deny them advertising revenue as a means of censorship,\u201d Newsmax spokesman Bill Daddi said. \u201cBrill is a Democratic Party activist and donor over many decades with a long history of advocating for liberal causes. He is not a respected journalist and in no way should be running a ratings service used by major ad agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brill said his only political activity was working for Republican John Lindsay, New York City\u2019s mayor in the late 1960s and early 1970s, while a college and law school student. \u201cI have been a journalist ever since,\u201d Brill said, adding that he has not donated money to any politicians.<\/p>\n

NewsGuard says its ratings are based on clearly defined criteria, such as whether or not an outlet publishes false or misleading material, whether it distorts arguments and uses multiple sources, whether it distinguishes between news and opinion and regularly corrects errors. To counter charges that it unfairly boosted liberals, the company noted times where Fox News scored higher in its ratings than the former MSNBC.<\/p>\n

Yet the conservative Media Research Center has published studies contending that NewsGuard is more likely to give higher ratings to outlets with a liberal bent. In court papers, the FTC said it began investigating NewsGuard because congressional investigators connected the company\u2019s services to \u201ccoordinated actions to demonize disfavored media entities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency has asked the company to produce reams of internal documents, emails, financial reports and subscriber lists dated to its founding. Not only does NewsGuard consider that task unduly expensive and burdensome, it worries that regulators will use that information to target its subscribers.<\/p>\n

The FTC, as a condition to approving a merger<\/a> of two of the world\u2019s biggest media buying firms, Omnicom and IPG, prohibited the new company from using a service that reviews and rates news sites. That is designed to eliminate the company\u2019s ability to deny advertising based on politics, the agency said. <\/p>\n

It has already cost NewsGuard business, the company asserts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole idea that any speaker has to justify to the government that it\u2019s not biased is a really troubling thought,\u201d Brill said in an interview. \u201cWe have a constitutional right to be biased. It just so happens that we started the company on the core principle that we were going to be totally apolitical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing until NewsGuard \u2018knuckles under\u2019<\/p>\n

The FTC\u2019s press department did not return a message seeking comment. But in court papers, the agency said it was conducting a broad investigation into whether advertiser boycotts violated antitrust laws and that it has issued more than a dozen orders for information similar to the one given to NewsGuard. The company\u2019s charges are \u201ccompletely meritless,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n

If its order was so demanding, the FTC wondered why it took NewsGuard eight months after it was issued to sue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to cooperate in the belief that the more that we told them what we do, the more likely it would be that they would decide that they didn\u2019t have any case,\u201d Brill said. \u201cWe soon realized that they weren\u2019t worried about the merits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company argues that the FTC actions \u201cwill continue until NewsGuard knuckles under.\u201d Asked if he thought the government agency\u2019s goal was to put his company out of business, Brill declined to comment. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http:\/\/x.com\/dbauder<\/a> and https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/dbauder.bsky.social<\/a>.<\/p>\n