NeoCons Test Drive Newest Weapon to Crush Indie Media, Put MintPress in Their Crosshairs

The website [MintPress] does not disclose its liberal bent. For example, a January 2019 story was titled, “New Senate anti-BDS Bill Unconstitutional and Ineffective at Curbing Boycotts.” … Would you like to comment about making any political leanings transparent to online readers? — Question submitted by Newsguard to MintPress News

MPN- A recently founded venture claiming to be “a news rating agency” is making its big breakout in 2019 by claiming to be an authority at the forefront in the fight against “fake news.” Newsguard — which describes itself as an organization dedicated to “restoring trust and accountability” and using “journalism to fight false news, misinformation, and disinformation” — has begun targeting independent and alternative media organizations, including MintPress News, with a questionnaire developed to frame its victims as being on the political fringe and lacking professionalism and journalistic integrity in order to rank them as “unreliable” news sites.

Jennie Kamin, a reporter for Newsguard as well as an associate producer at CBS News, contacted me on Monday with a list of eight loaded questions that were crafted to put me on the defensive and undermine MintPress’ credibility from the get-go. Not only that, but the questions also frame MintPress as having a secret agenda aimed at hiding its ownership and funding.

Since Ms. Kamin had begun her work by failing to go to our website to find the obvious answers to her questions, it seemed clear that she was less interested in finding facts than in casting aspersions. As a consequence, it seemed that my answers wouldn’t really matter — except perhaps as they might play into her prejudgments. For example, one of her questions asked about MintPress’ funding, which is actually explained on each page and article on our website. Ironically, the questions regarding our funding came just as MintPress is concluding its semi-annual fundraising campaign to raise $25,000. Another question from Kamin referred to photos on our website not being properly attributed, even though each and every photo on our site is clearly captioned and attributed to its source.

A recently founded venture claiming to be “a news rating agency” is making its big breakout in 2019 by claiming to be an authority at the forefront in the fight against “fake news.” Newsguard — which describes itself as an organization dedicated to “restoring trust and accountability” and using “journalism to fight false news, misinformation, and disinformation” — has begun targeting independent and alternative media organizations, including MintPress News, with a questionnaire developed to frame its victims as being on the political fringe and lacking professionalism and journalistic integrity in order to rank them as “unreliable” news sites.

Jennie Kamin, a reporter for Newsguard as well as an associate producer at CBS News, contacted me on Monday with a list of eight loaded questions that were crafted to put me on the defensive and undermine MintPress’ credibility from the get-go. Not only that, but the questions also frame MintPress as having a secret agenda aimed at hiding its ownership and funding.

Since Ms. Kamin had begun her work by failing to go to our website to find the obvious answers to her questions, it seemed clear that she was less interested in finding facts than in casting aspersions. As a consequence, it seemed that my answers wouldn’t really matter — except perhaps as they might play into her prejudgments. For example, one of her questions asked about MintPress’ funding, which is actually explained on each page and article on our website. Ironically, the questions regarding our funding came just as MintPress is concluding its semi-annual fundraising campaign to raise $25,000. Another question from Kamin referred to photos on our website not being properly attributed, even though each and every photo on our site is clearly captioned and attributed to its source.

NeoCons Test Drive Newest Weapon to Crush Indie Media, Put MintPress in Their Crosshairs