The Democratic-led Senate has passed the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision that bans the Pentagon from funneling taxpayers’ dollars to media ratings firms that target news outlets that do not align with leftist or government-approved narratives.
The Senate greenlit the bill with a vote of 85 to 14, following its passage in the Republican-led House with a vote of 281-140. The bill now heads to lame-duck President Joe Biden for his signature.
While the bill addresses a wide range of federal laws related to the Department of Defense, it also blocks the military agency from entering taxpayer-funded contracts with media ratings firms, such as NewsGuard, Ad Fontes and the Global Disinformation Index.
In 2021, the Pentagon paid NewsGuard a staggering $750,000 for potential access to its media ratings data. Several members of Congress suspect the Pentagon has used NewsGuard to determine the placement of recruitment ads.
The Media Research Center (MRC) has repeatedly demonstrated that NewsGuard overwhelmingly favors leftist outlets while punishing right-leaning outlets with detrimentally lower ratings. MRC relied on AllSides’s ideological classification of these outlets rather than its own to ensure objectivity.
In December 2023, MRC released its latest study into NewsGuard, and the findings surprised no one. MRC found that the biased organization rated leftist outlets an average favorable rating of 91 percent, while rating right-leaning outlets an average of 65 percent—a significant 26-point disparity.
Flashback: EVEN WORSE! MRC Exposes NewsGuard for Leftist Bias Third Year in a Row
This shocking disparity means that right-leaning outlets face severe disadvantages when corporations or ad companies rely upon NewsGuard’s ratings to determine ad placement. Nearly all news outlets rely on advertising revenue to survive.
In 2024, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) fought tooth and nail to block the Pentagon from issuing more grants or contracts to media ratings firms that discriminate against news outlets based on their biased assessments of so-called reliability or credibility.
The 2024 NDAA reached Biden’s desk, where he signed the bill but not without complaining about the NewsGuard ban. “While I am pleased to support the critical objectives of the NDAA, I note that certain provisions of the Act raise concerns,” Biden whined, highlighting Section 1555(a), the same provision that specifically addressed misinformation-purveying organizations like NewsGuard.
See Biden’s Reaction to 2024 NDAA: POTUS Signs NDAA Calling Out NewsGuard … Then Issues Disclaimer
In contrast to Biden’s grievances, Johnson and McCormick underscored the urgency of ordering the Pentagon to focus on protecting America instead of using tax dollars to undermine right-leaning outlets.
“Including my amendment in the NDAA is something we can do right now, this year, to address the censorship of conservatives,” McCormick told MRC in 2023 before the bill’s passage.
He added, “MRC’s own research shows these organizations are heavily biased against conservatives and are the leading edge of the censorship industrial complex. My colleagues Jim Jordan and James Comer have done a wonderful job exposing the incestuous relationship between government and censorship organizations; but it is time to legislate on this issue. My amendment is a real opportunity to tackle this problem this year.”
MRC also exposed Ad Fontes’s ratings against right-leaning outlets, describing 64 percent of leftist outlets as “reliable,” while only 32 percent of right-leaning outlets received the same distinction.
The Senate's passage of the 2025 NDAA comes after months-long negotiations in the Republican-led House, which passed a version of the act in June 2024. Despite the compromises and several changes to the bill, the NewsGuard provisions remained intact.
Notably, Johnson and McCormick received the first MRC 2024 Free Speech Award because they have led the fight against government funding for entities undermining the First Amendment.
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