Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and so-called media ratings firm NewsGuard halted its usual anti-free speech activity to “fact check” leftist fake news.
NewsGuard’s Reality Check published a fact check of leftist hysteria about the much-maligned Project 2025 on July 29. The firm identified and called out four false narratives surrounding The Heritage Foundation-led project, pushed by high-profile leftists, including Vice President Kamala Harris and actor Mark Hamill.
NewsGuard specifically called out Harris for claiming that Project 2025 proves President Donald Trump “intends to cut Social Security and Medicare” if elected. NewsGuard countered, “The Project 2025 policy playbook, titled ‘Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,’ does not mention any proposed changes to Social Security.”
NewsGuard continued its debunking, stating the project does not aim to ban Muslims from entering America. It “includes no mention of a Muslim ban or any religion- or ethnicity-specific entry ban.” NewsGuard added that the conspiracy theory that women, under Project 2025, would be forced to track their periods apparently originated on a satire site.
Finally, NewsGuard addressed the rumor that Project 2025 affirms a working father and stay-at-home mother is the only valid familial structure:
“Project 2025 does state, ‘Families comprised of a married mother, father, and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered nation and healthy society.’ However, it does not say that women should stay at home and not work. The sentence shared by social media users promoting the claim does not appear anywhere in the document or on Project 2025’s website.”
Media and political leaders furthered the myths, NewsGuard explained. It is startling to note that NewsGuard, which usually skews heavily pro-leftist, is doing objective and honest fact checking.
Project 2025 is a proposed “policy agenda” from a Heritage-led coalition aimed at fighting leftist ideology. Leftists, however, have gone crazy over it, falsely portraying it as a sinister plot.
Despite the honest fact checking described above, NewsGuard usually displays strong bias in favor of leftist outlets. In December 2023, MRC researchers found for the third year running that NewsGuard gave an average “credibility” rating of 91/100 for “left” and “lean left” outlets, versus 65/100 on average for “right” and “lean right” outlets.
Conservatives are under attack. While NewsGuard actually displayed some objective reporting on Project 2025 in this particular instance, it has a history of censoring conservatives and right-leaning media outlets. Contact your representatives and demand that so-called media ratings firms like NewsGuard be held to account to mirror the First Amendment and be prohibited from receiving government funding for censorship activity. If you have been censored, contact ususing MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
