Fri Aug 25, 2023 – 4:59 pm EDT
(LifeSiteNews) — Of the revolutionary hallmarks of the past decade in the West, one of the most shocking is this: The idea that a free press is indispensable to a healthy society is now up for debate.
While outright imprisonment of journalists remains taboo in places like the U.S., Canada and the U.K., censorship in these countries has been achieved with more subtle methods: Shadow banning, “fact-checking,” even ridicule during “comedy” shows. The aim is the same in every case: Suppress an idea after — or even before — it has caught fire.
Now, a new method of censorship is quietly gaining traction in the form of a “misinformation”-fighting company called NewsGuard, founded in 2018. Its methods are similar to fact-checking but with added muscle. The group rates media outlets for “reliability” and “transparency” with a score that translates into a label of (basically) “credible” or “unreliable.” A plug-in that can be purchased by an individual or institution then warns internet users about the so-called “unreliable” media sources.
A description of NewsGuard’s rating method explains that all of their nine allegedly “apolitical” criteria are pass-fail and
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