Comer investigates news-rating group NewsGuard over allegations of left-wing bias

House Oversight Chairman James Comer on Thursday opened an investigation into the news-rating group NewsGuard, amid allegations that the company favored left-leaning publications over right-leaning ones. 

A study by the right-leaning watchdog the Media Research Center last year claimed that the organization tended to give an average credibility rating of 91 for “left” and “lean left” media outlets, and just 65 rating for “right” and “lean right” outlets, according to the Washington Times. But NewsGuard said the study cherry-picked its examples in the comparisons.

Comer said the probe is seeking documents on NewsGuard’s business relationships with government entities, its adherence to its policies that are intended to protect it against appearances of bias, and the way it tries to avoid and manage potential conflicts of interest. 

“The Committee seeks to make an independent determination about whether NewsGuard’s intervention on protected speech has been in any way sponsored by a federal, state, local, or foreign government,” Comer wrote in a letter to the company's CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz. “The Committee does not take issue with a business entity providing other businesses and customers with data-based analysis to protect their brands. Rather, we are concerned with the potential involvement of government entities in interfering with free expression.

"Truthfulness and transparency about the purpose and origin of inquiries and managing conflicts of interest that may impact the public good are also relevant," he added.

NewsGuard has been contracted to work with government entities before, including the Department of Defense. But the group said its work with the Pentagon was only related to Russian, Chinese, and Iranian disinformation that targets Americans. Crovitz said Comer misunderstands the company's work.

“We look forward to explaining that NewsGuard is the only apolitical service rating news sources — the others are either digital platforms with their secret ratings or left-wing partisan advocacy groups,” Crovitz said in a statement. “Under NewsGuard’s apolitical rating system, many conservative outlets outscore similar left-leaning brands: The Daily Caller outscores The Daily Beast, the Daily Wire outscores the Daily Kos, Fox News outscores MSNBC and The Wall Street Journal outscores the New York Times.”

The group rates outlets on a scale of 1-100 in various categories, including their uses of deceptive headlines, whether the site repeatedly publishes “false or egregiously misleading content,” whether it presents the information “responsibly,” and whether it treats and labels opinion pieces and news stories differently, according to The Hill.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.