A media-rating company says a Trump agency is threatening its livelihood

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 11:09 AM EDT, March 15, 2026


As media organizations go, NewsGuard cuts a low public profile as it follows its mission of issuing credibility ratings about news outlets. The Trump administration knows about it, though, and the company has joined a lengthening list of journalism organizations to face the White House’s wrath.

A dispute between President Donald Trump’s regulators and the news monitoring service has spilled into court, with NewsGuard Technologies suing the Federal Trade Commission and its chairman, Andrew Ferguson, to shut down an investigation. The FTC accuses the company of trying to suppress conservative speech. NewsGuard says it is being forced to kneel before vindictive power.

Since Trump returned to office in January 2025, the Republican administration has fought The Associated Press in court over the outlet’s claim it is being punished for not adopting his preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico; settled with CBS News’ corporate parent in a dispute over “60 Minutes” editing; sued The Wall Street Journal for its reporting on Trump and Jeffrey Epstein; and is in a legal fight with The New York Times over Pentagon reporting restrictions.

NewsGuard’s lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, accuses Trump’s FTC of “brazenly using its power not for any issue concerning trade or commerce but rather to censor speech simply because it disagreed with NewsGuard’s judgments about the reliability of news sources.” The FTC calls NewsGuard’s accusations “untethered from both law and fact.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-administration-newsguard-media-monitoring-ftc-investigation-291c71ebc2d00020326a56807ffccf5f

---

REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143612626

[FakeNoose]

1. "brazenly using its power ... to censor speech simply because it disagreed with NewsGuard's judgments..."

Isn't that Chump's regular m.o.?

[jfz9580m]

3. Where is that from FakeNoose?

Is that Jim Carrey?

[jfz9580m]

2. Not Good

Musk used the same strategy against Media Matters (the definition of frivolous lawsuits):

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-media-matters-trump-b2756743.html

Amid “first buddy” Elon Musk’s ongoing public war against Media Matters for America, the Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into the liberal media watchdog over what it says could be illegal collusion with advertisers.

Essentially piggybacking on Musk’s lawsuits against Media Matters over the group’s research into hateful and antisemitic content on the mega-billionaire’s social media platform X, the FTC sent a letter to the organization requiring it to share communications and documents related to its research, as well as copies of its budgets.

“This demand is issued pursuant to Section 20 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 57b-1, in the course of an investigation to determine whether there is, has been, or may be a violation of any laws administered by the Federal Trade Commission by conduct, activities, or proposed action as described in Item 3,” the letter states.