Turley Chilled by 'I'm From NewsGuard and I Am Here to Rate You'

Criticism of NewsGuard might have brought its power to bear on legal expert Jonathan Turley, he warned Sunday in The Hill.

"For any site criticizing the media or the Biden administration, the most chilling words today are 'I'm from NewsGuard and I am here to rate you,'" Turley wrote.

The Turley line is homage to the famed warning from former President Ronald Reagan.

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help,'" Reagan once said.

Turley's column Sunday suggested his criticism of NewsGuard brought it to his "door" for a proverbial federal investigation, and only proves "legislation cannot come soon enough" to regulate the media/advertising attack dog co-founded by "diehard liberal" Steven Brill.

"Recently, I wrote a Hill column criticizing NewsGuard, a rating operation being used to warn users, advertisers, educators and funders away from media outlets based on how it views the outlets' 'credibility and transparency,'" Turley wrote.

"Roughly a week later, NewsGuard came knocking at my door. My blog, Res Ipsa (JonathanTurley.org), is now being reviewed and the questions sent by NewsGuard were alarming, but not surprising."

Turley has recently released his book "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage," delving into the issues of censorship and chilling.

Turley took particular note of a chilling NewsGuard question posed to him.

"I cannot find any information on the site that would signal to readers that the site's content reflects a conservative or libertarian perspective, as is evident in your articles," Turley wrote as having been asked. "Why is this perspective not disclosed to give readers a sense of the site's point of view?"

But Turley rejected the partisan nature of the questioning, saying he is a registered Democrat and an equal opportunity critic of myriad political positions.

"I have historically been criticized as a liberal, conservative or a libertarian depending on the particular op-eds," he wrote. "I certainly admit to libertarian viewpoints, though I hold many traditional liberal views.

"For example, I have been outspoken for decades in favor same-sex marriage, environmental protection, free speech and other individual rights. I am a registered Democrat who has defended reporters, activists and academics on the left for years in both courts and columns.

"The blog has thousands of postings that cut across the ideological spectrum. What I have not done is suspend my legal judgment when cases touch on the interests of conservatives or Donald Trump. While I have criticized Trump in the past, I have also objected to some of the efforts to impeach or convict him on dubious legal theories.

"Yet, NewsGuard appears to believe that I should label myself as conservative or libertarian as a warning or notice to any innocent strays who may wander on to my blog."

Such a slanted line of reason is not placed on "HuffPost or the New Republic or MSNBC, which run overwhelmingly liberal posts," he noted.

"Yet, alleged conservative or libertarian sites are expected to post a warning as if they were porn sites," he wrote.

NewsGuard's line of questioning prejudged the self-described Democrat legal scholar as a conservative, Turley said.

"Apparently from where NewsGuard reviewers sit, I am a de facto conservative or libertarian who needs to wear a digital bell to warn others," Turley wrote.

"It is a system that includes what Elon Musk correctly called 'the advertising boycott racket.'"

Newsmax reached out to Brill and NewsGuard for comment Sunday before publishing.