Another ministry of truth operation tried to go after MRC Free Speech America’s credibility with a big swing and a miss.
Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) bills itself as an “independent website that has promoted awareness of media bias and misinformation by rating the bias, factual accuracy, and credibility of media sources, large and small.” The website traffic cop went after MRC Free Speech America’s new website on May 17. It rated MRC Free Speech America’s “Factual Reporting” as “MIXED,” citing without any specific evidence that MRC Free Speech America promotes “propaganda,” “some conspiracy theories,” and uses “sources that fail fact checks.” The ratings website did link out to two reports: one on leftist billionaire George Soros and the other on Facebook’s sordid election interference since 2008. However, the so-called ratings website provided no evidence where MRC got the facts wrong in either report. Furthermore, none of the MRC Free Speech America staff are aware of any attempt to be reached for comment by MBFC.
The so-called ratings website also targeted MRC Free Speech America, not for work we have done, but for the comments and works of one of our advisory board members, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Pointing to Kirk's association with the Media Research Center, MBFC alleged that Kirk promoted “various conspiracy theories” about Soros and the “Great Reset.”
MBFC made a strawman argument, claiming that Kirk depicted Soros “as a puppet master behind global events, such as funding migrant caravans to influence U.S. elections.” But the example from Kirk’s webpage that MBFC links out to had nothing to do with Soros funding the migrant caravans. Rather, the CharlieKirkShow.com website article correctly referenced how an “open border” advocacy group financed by Soros, United We Dream, created an app to help illegal immigrants “with the click of a button, to alert family, friends and attorneys of encounters with federal authorities.” The article referenced by MBFC only made mention that a Soros group was doing this amidst the “migrant caravan,” not that Soros was specifically funding the caravan itself. Soros doled out no fewer than $5,800,000 between United We Dream and its sister organization United We Dream Action, according to Open Society Foundations records.
MBFC also classified Kirk’s promotion of the “Great Reset” theory as a conspiracy theory, despite the globalist World Economic Forum having been on record making the concept a focal point of its organization and exploiting the COVID–19 pandemic to do it. WEF Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab even wrote a column in July 2020 headlined: “Now is the time for a 'great reset.’” He wrote in the piece: “Clearly, the will to build a better society does exist. We must use it to secure the Great Reset that we so badly need.” In fact, the video MBFC links to of Kirk discussing the Great Reset pulls content from Schwab’s book COVID-19: The Great Reset (2020)” to back up his arguments. Whether MBFC disagrees with the characterization of the concept is its own affair, but the Orwellian idea is most definitely not a conspiracy theory.
Ostensibly treating it as a standalone website, MBFC even attempted to undermine MRC Free Speech America’s CensorTrack.org database the same day (May17) it targeted MRC Free Speech America’s webpage. It did so, apparently not realizing that the database is now a part of the same website with multiple URLs: mrcfreespeechamerica.org and censortrack.org. That mistake led MBFC to cherry pick an old highlight from Censortrack.org, “CensorTrack Database Surpasses 6,000 Documented Cases of Big Tech Censorship,” to claim that an issue regarding a single broken link — now fixed — “could impact the report’s credibility and the overall reliability of the database.” Absurd.
Nevertheless, had MBFC done its due diligence and realized that the two URLs were merged, leading to the same web domain, it could have easily found the report in question.
While criticizing MRC Free Speech America and one of its advisory board members for statements concerning Soros, it should come as little surprise that MBFC claims to “primarily” rely on fact-checkers affiliated with the Soros-funded International Fact Checking Network at the liberal Poynter Institute for Media Studies for its “methodology.” In fact, the ratings website even admits that it “rarely conducts original fact checks as many other sources are faster and do a better job.” But here’s the kicker: The alleged ratings website notes that MRC Free Speech America hasn’t failed any IFCN fact checks to date, but it still managed to label the MRC Free Speech America website as being “MIXED” on factual reporting and “MEDIUM” on credibility.
Meanwhile, for comparison, MBFC rated leftist CNN as being “MOSTLY FACTUAL” and having “HIGH CREDIBILITY.” Yes, you read that right. MBFC listed two failed fact-checks by CNN in its analysis of the leftist outlet’s so-called “HIGH CREDIBILITY,” but apparently didn’t see the double standard in demoting MRC Free Speech America’s website, which has no documented failed fact checks. This is the same CNN that spent months trying to shove Bidenomics down the American people’s throats, despite the continued growth of inflation nationwide.
MBFC’s write-up took particular issue with MRC’s recent study illustrating how Soros groups joined an open letter to jawbone Big Tech into upping the ante on their censorship operations prior to the 2024 elections in the U.S. and abroad. At least 45 of the 200 signatories to the letter were financed by Soros to the tune of over $80 million between 2016 and 2022 alone. “The headline itself is loaded with negative connotations toward Soros and suggests a deliberate and sinister agenda against conservatives,” MBFC claimed. But none of the facts or arguments asserted in the report were disputed by MBFC.
But that’s not all. MBFC apparently also had a problem with MRC’s most recent Big Tech study, “39 Times Facebook Interfered in US Elections Since 2008.” Specifically, MBFC complained that the “language used in these articles often includes charged terms such as ‘censorship,’ ‘interference,’ and ‘anti-Americanism,’ which are intended to evoke strong reactions from a conservative audience.” Again, MBFC complained, but none of the facts within MRC’s research into Facebook were disputed.
Finally, as though suggesting the fox should guard the hen house, MBFC ridiculously claimed that MRC Free Speech America has “limited engagement with the least biased or liberal sources, which could affect the overall credibility.” And it even dinged MRC Free Speech America for daring to cite from “conservative sources or other divisions of the MRC, such as NewsBusters,” because it “could lead to an echo chamber effect where information is repeatedly reinforced without external verification.” MBFC is seemingly oblivious to the fact that MRC Free Speech America also publishes its stories on NewsBusters where most of its past research appeared for years prior to the launch of its new website. It’s also worth noting that news outlets routinely do this as a matter of course as a common tactic to boost search engine optimization (SEO). MBFC made much ado about nothing.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
