The New York Young Republican Club is calling on Congress to once and for all ensure that the Biden administration is prohibited from unconstitutionally funding Ministry of Truth operations like leftist internet traffic cop NewsGuard.
The New York Young Republican Club and other like-minded organizations signed A four-page letter addressed to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), urging congressional leaders to keep Rep. Richard McCormick (R-GA)’s free speech amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The amendment effectively bars the Department of Defense from contracting and funding infamous leftist tech entities like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which are intent on crushing right-leaning media entities.
Signed by 36 pro-free speech advocates, the letter drew attention to disturbing revelations miring both NewsGuard (which received a $750,000 payout from the Department of Defense in 2021) and GDI, which is also funded by government entities, including the Department of State.
As shown by two MRC Free Speech America studies, NewsGuard’s ratings are heavily skewed in favor of leftist media and consistently target right-leaning outlets with scathingly low ratings. For example, NewsGuard has openly celebrated its collusion with the federal government and has even legitimized communist Chinese state propaganda outlets like The China Daily and the Global Times as being more credible than right-leaning, American-based publications like The Federalist, Newsmax, and One America News. Similarly, NewsGuard has rated articles questioning COVID-19 policies while it received funding from Big Pharma, creating what The Washington Times described as a glaring conflict of interest.
GDI has also faced its share of disturbing allegations. Reportedly, GDI has been accused of issuing blacklists of outlets such as the New York Post, The Daily Wire, Real Clear Politics and The Federalist.
Read the full letter below:
November 22, 2023,
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Senate Republican Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Mike Johnson
Speaker of the House U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Leader McConnell and Speaker Johnson,
Our federal government never should have spent time and taxpayer money on censoring conservatives. Fortunately, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by the U.S. House of Representatives contains a provision to right this wrong. We write to strongly urge you to keep Section 1532 of the House bill, which prohibits funding for the blacklisting of news sources based on their political views.
As Rep. Richard McCormick uncovered during hearings for the NDAA, organizations like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) work to silence conservative media outlets that disagree with the liberal agenda.
For example, the Media Research Center found that NewsGuard repeatedly scored liberal sites in the 90+ range while giving an absurd average rating of 66 to conservative sites. GDI is no better, with a history of blacklisting conservative outlets like the New York Post, The Daily Wire, Real Clear Politics, and The Federalist.
Despite NewsGuard’s obvious bias, the government continues to fund its efforts, bankrolling a payout of $750,000 from the Department of Defense. Similarly, GDI received significant State Department funding, at least until its unconstitutional actions were exposed by the Washington Examiner.
That which government is constitutionally prohibited from doing, it cannot contract with others to do. Please ensure that Section 1532 is preserved in the final version of the NDAA.
Gavin M. Wax
President
New York Young Republican Club