Microsoft Disavows Left-Wing NewsGuard

Microsoft has disavowed its affiliation with NewsGuard after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, slammed the Big Tech company for funding a censorship tool created by the left-wing media monitor.

In December, Cruz fired off a strongly-worded letter to CEO Satya Nadella demanding to know answers about Microsoft's promotion and apparent funding of the online "media literacy" tool.

NewsGuard claims to have created it to guide "learners of all ages through the overwhelming landscape of online news and information."

Conservatives say NewsGuard's tool and its blacklisting efforts are simply about suppressing viewpoints and news using highly subjective ratings.

In response to Cruz's letter, Microsoft said its support of NewsGuard was limited to a one-time donation in 2018.

Microsoft also said it asked NewsGuard to remove the claim on its website.

The website had a notice that read "NewsGuard's Media Literacy Programs are made possible thanks to generous support from Microsoft," according to a Senate Commerce Committee spokesperson.

NewsGuard has since removed any mention of Microsoft on its website.

"Big Tech is finally beginning to recognize the censorship of conservative viewpoints will no longer be tolerated by the American people," Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement to Newsmax on Thursday.

"I am happy to see that the leadership at Microsoft has renounced their support of NewsGuard's so-called media literacy tool in response to my letter.

"NewsGuard's biased rating system stifles intellectual diversity, hinders critical thinking among young students, and undermines our nation's core values of free expression."

In his letter to Nadella, Cruz pointed out that NewsGuard claims such outlets as The Federalist, The Daily Wire, and Newsmax are "unreliable," while left-wing outlets such as Jacobin, The Atlantic, and The New Republic are deemed reliable.

Cruz also noted that NewsGuard "has found a willing partner in the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)" to spread the "media literacy" tool browser extension which the company says is used by educators and more than 800 public libraries worldwide.

In November, Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr, now chairman, wrote to the CEOs of Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet demanding that they fess up about their censorship activities targeting conservatives.

Carr specifically identified NewsGuard, which exists to "censor free speech and conservative news outlets."

Federal Trade Commission Commissioners Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak in December demanded a probe of efforts by online platforms to limit free speech and engage in censorship. Ferguson now is chairman.

Ferguson specifically noted that NewsGuard has been used by major advertising agencies to block the flow of advertising and revenues to conservative media.

So called "misinformation" and "fact-checking" groups have been a recent target of the new Trump administration, which views these organization as highly-political with the intent of censoring conservatives.

NewsGuard is the most notorious of the misinformation activists.

Steven Brill, a businessman and Democratic Party activist, founded NewsGuard in the wake of the 2016 election and President Donald Trump's win.

For decades, Brill and his wife have been prolific Democrat donors, including backing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Brill made himself a national media name in the 1990s defending President Bill Clinton in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

During the Barack Obama presidency, he became an advocate of Obamacare, and later a strong critic of Trump.

Brill has used his soapbox and claims of being a "neutral" journalist to prevent stories like the one involving Hunter Biden's laptop to be investigated. Brill called the laptop story a "hoax" when federal authorities later said it was authentic.

NewsGuard's co-founder Gordon Crovitz is a former Wall Street Journal publisher who describes himself as a Republican, but critics say he acts more like a frontman for the left-wing organization.

Crovitz's wife, Amy Worden, heads global initiatives for the left-wing Human Rights Watch. Recently, the group has been leading international efforts to support the ICC's arrest warrant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Other Republicans who advise strong Trump critics include former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, both are staunch critics of President Trump.

Major advertising agencies have been using NewsGuard to censor conservative media include Omnicom, Interpublic, Publicis, Magnite, PubMatic, TripleLift, Comscore, Zefr, and Giphy.